With the seasons changing and temperatures dropping, we bring our attention to ‘winterizing’ our houses and yards.  Leaves raked, garden furniture stored, firewood ordered, winter car maintenance performed, and snow tires installed.

Personally, think it’s equally important to put some effort into ‘winterizing’ our bodies so that’s going to be the focus of my next few posts – sharing some of my personal tips for staying ONFORM during the cold, dark months of winter.

No better way to deal with darkness, than to bring in some light!  My number one, can’t live without it, particularly in the winter, is my red light therapy device.

Red Light Therapy

Not to be confused with full spectrum lights, such as those used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, red light therapy, or photobiomodulation uses certain wave lengths of light to restore, repair and protect injured tissue.  The light penetrates 8-10 millimeters into the skin to boost mitochondrial function – this means your cellular energy is increased.  This means healing from the inside out.

Benefits

Red light has been proven to:

  • Decrease skin inflammation
  • Smooth skin tone
  • Repair sun damage
  • Fade scars and stretch marks
  • Build collagen under the skin to reduce wrinkles
  • Boost the lymphatic system to increase bloodflow
  • Boost production of progesterone in women
  • Increase production of testosterone in men and women
  • Heal age-related macular degeneration of the eyes
  • Treat osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia

I also found it to be extremely effective in treating jet-lag (remember those days…?) and really feel the benefits of the light when I use it before my workouts for a boost of energy and post workouts if I’m feeling muscle soreness.

And, as you can see from the photo, even my cat enjoys the light.

I have a JOOVV device (I am not associated with JOOVV in any way) so I can’t speak for the efficacy other red light devices, but can highly recommend the JOOVV products as my number one winter survival product.