The Story That Red Light Therapy Begins

Forty years ago, shortly after the first commercial laser was invented the Red Light Therapy story begins.
There’s a professor in Hungary named Endre Mester researching the effects of red and ruby light on tumor reduction. During the course of his experiments he noticed the shaved backs of mice treated with red light healed lesions quicker, and grew back hair faster than a control group that hadn’t been treated. It wasn’t what he was looking for, or what he was expecting.
Doesn’t sound much, but when he published a research paper in 1967 on his findings, the scientific world sat up and took notice. So what have some lab mice growing back hair forty years ago got to do with anything?
Well NASA got involved, and the then Soviet Union got involved in researching. The cosmetic industry sat up and took notice. And light therapy had been born, and the whole world started researching.
Forty years on and we’ve come a long way from hair growing back on the unfortunate lab mice in Hungary. But all the treatments we use today all find their roots back in professor Endre Mesers laboratory.
From American Special Forces to acne treatment clinics, from hospitals and sport physiotherapists to beauty salons, They all use some form of light therapy treatment. Hair growth on mice was the first red light therapy discovery forty years ago.