Can Infrared Light Therapy Relieve (and Heal) Knee Pain?

Is there a safe, non-invasive, drug-free, low-cost, and highly effective way to relieve your knee pain and heal your knee?

The answer is yes.

Infrared heat (cold laser) therapy.

Does infrared therapy help with knee pain?

You’ll find out – right here.

Or, Jump to the BEST infrared devices for knee pain

This post contains affiliate links.

Does Infrared Therapy Help Knee Pain?

LED infrared light therapy for pain
Image © 2011 Japan Medical Laser Laboratory

Cold laser therapy (LLLT) is non-invasive, pain-free, safe, easy to use, and a highly effective pain management tool for knee connective tissue. Most people respond to it, and it’s amazing how fast a laser can relieve pain. For most people, the effects are almost immediate.

What is Infrared Therapy for knee pain?

Low-Level Laser is simply a light frequency and is also known as infrared light, and this specific wavelength is scientifically proven to speed up healing and relieve pain anywhere in your body.

LLLT works at a cellular level to accelerate your body’s natural healing and pain-relieving mechanisms.

Here’s how:

All our cells respond to light, through light-sensitive chemicals in the mitochondria.

Once infrared light passes through your skin (it can penetrate up to 5 cm deep!), it is absorbed in the damaged cells and transforms them back to a healthy state.

Simply put, infrared therapy boosts microcirculation in the injured area, which brings pain-relieving and healing nutrients and breaks up inflammation – faster and better.

To conclude, here’s what infrared therapy does to your body:

  • Increases microcirculation in the tissues
  • Increases tissue oxygenation (meaning, more oxygen is being released from the bloodstream)
  • Improves energy production in damaged cells by stimulating enzymes in the mitochondria to utilize oxygen more efficiently

The result?

Don’t take our word for it. Here’s what scientific studies have found:

Through our research, all clinical studies involving infrared light therapy (cold laser) for knee pain have proven that it works.

Here are a few examples:

1. A Significant Improvement in Knee Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis of the knee is the most common form of arthritis and is the most common cause of disability affecting millions of people around the world.

In this human study, patients with moderate knee OA were given LLLT treatments twice a week for 4 weeks, with a placebo group.

The results:

“In the group treated with active LLLT, a significant improvement was found in pain, circumference, pressure sensitivity and flexion. In the placebo group, changes in joint flexion and pain were not significant.

2. A Significant Reduction in Nocturnal Pain and Pain When Walking

Another study with knee OA patients found:

“A significant reduction was observed regarding the nocturnal pain, pain on walking and ascending the steps, knee circumference, distance between the hip and heel, and knee to horizontal hip to heel distance at the end of the treatment course.”

These are only 2 examples out of many more studies, proving that cold laser for knee pain simply works.

8 Benefits of Infrared Light Therapy for Knee Pain 

Here’s why you may want to try using LLLT at home to heal your knee pain:

  1. Easy to apply and use at home
  2. Available to you 24/7
  3. Safe and side-effect free (more on that below)
  4. Nontoxic, non-invasive, drug-free
  5. Cost-effective
  6. Superior to medication, shots, and can prevent surgery
  7. Works synergistically with chiro treatments, acupuncture, and PT treatments.

But Wait! There’s More:

There are endless uses for a cold laser home device, other than knee pain:

  • Neck and back pain
  • Joint pain
  • Bursitis
  • Tendonitis
  • Plantar Fasciitis
  • And any other Inflammation Related Ailments

The Best Infrared Therapy Devices for Knee Pain

cold laser therapy for knee pain

There are many home devices to choose from, click the links to see the full details:

  1. Infrared Knee Heating Pads
  2. Red Light Therapy Panels
  3. Infrared Lamp

Most people report noticeable pain relief after the first treatment, but results are accumulative so the more you use it the better you’ll get.

Here’s one testimonial (out of thousands) we’ve found on Amazon:

“Wow, the pain is gone. I can’t believe how fast laser works!”

Other people need a few more treatments to get results, and it’s recommended to keep treatment going at least once a day for a month.

Home lasers save you time and a lot of money, and you can use them whenever you or your family (and friends) need them.

How Long Do You Have to Continue Treatments? (Science-Based Answer)

Most clinical studies have reported positive results after at least 4 weeks of treatments (at least twice a week), and many have continued to 8 weeks of LLLT treatment.

Is Infrared Therapy Safe for Knee Pain? 

According to studies in the last 30 years, cold laser is proven to be safe to use and has no side effects when used for arthritic knee or any kind of pain and inflammation. However, I would advise you to avoid pointing the laser to suspicious or cancerous lesions and to avoid if you are pregnant.

Also, do not look directly at the light source, to keep your eyes safe. If you can’t help yourself, use these eye protection goggles.

Conclusion 

Cold laser for knee pain at home is one of the best drug-free ways to relieve and heal your knee pain – without medication, side effects, and risks.

Cold laser home devices, though seemingly expensive, are proven effective and will save you a lot of time and money in the long run.

As always, I’d love to read your comments and questions. Tell me your experience and your concerns and I promise to answer.

To your health and happiness,

Meital

Meital James
Founder and CEO of 4 healthy living blogs, has a background in Naturopathic medicine, research, journalism, and nutrition. Her blogs are the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and experience and all the posts are verified by scientific findings.

10 thoughts on “Can Infrared Light Therapy Relieve (and Heal) Knee Pain?”

  1. Hello,
    My mom is having knee replacement surgery. What type of infra-red ligjt therapy device would help speed recovery if any?

    Reply
  2. Have been taking the dog weekly for lazer therapy for a torn ACL . Not much improvement. I was doing infrared until it fell and broke so now I need a better one. I noticed his leg wasn’t much warmer than when I did the infrared at home. Do you think it is the same . It was 18 dollars a treatment at the vet.

    Reply
    • Infrared and low level laser is the same. But, I don’t know about the strength of the unit at your vet. You can always try getting him a small jade infrared heating pad and put it where he sleeps and turn it on when he is sitting there or sleeping. The good ones come with a timer and shut off automatically.

      Reply
  3. Will the simple 250 Infared bulb help with knee pain. If so how will it compare to cold laser that this article is talking about?

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Mary,

      Infrared is the same as cold laser. You can try the infrared bulb first and if it doesn’t work you can try the other products mentioned in the post. Good luck!

      Reply
  4. Hi, my wife has rheumatoid arthritis I have just got her a infrared lamp, you say use it for 5 to 10 minutes a day, what distance should it be kept at, please.
    Cheers
    Derrick

    Reply
    • The distance you should keep from the infrared lamp depends on its strength. For a 150-watt bulb you should keep at least 12 inches distance, and for a 250-watt bulb – stay at least 24 inches away from it. Also, listen to your body and when it feels too hot – get even further away from it. The infrared lamp treatment should feel comfortable.

      Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.