GembaRed

dosage, dose, infrared, irradiance,

light therapy, photobiomodulation,
power, red light therapy, solar
power meter, sunlight, time, watts,
wavelength - January 20, 2020

Universal
Dosage
Calculator for
Red Light
Therapy! Find
your optimal
time per
session!
How do you calculate the dose
with your red light therapy device?

When you consume a pill, you are

usually taking a certain amount of
milliGrams (mG) over the course of
a certain time frame. Usually you
don't need to calculate anything
like weighing out powders or
breaking the pill in half - the dose is
normally given to you in the proper
weight and all you need to know is
how many pills to pop at a time
and how often.

The science of Red Light Therapy

typically relies on the "dose" as the
Energy delivered needing to be
su@cient enough to deliver a
particular biological response.
Higher doses may mean the cells
need more energy or to reach
deeper tissues.

Energy is often measured in units

of Joules (J). For large Red Light
Therapy devices we prefer to dose
in terms of Energy Density which is
the Joules delivered per unit area.
In the metric system, this becomes
the Joules Per Centimeter Squared
(J/cm^2).

However, the Power is the rate at

which energy is delivered. The
Power is in units of Watts. One
Watt equals 1 Joule Per Second.
Similarly we like to know the Power
Density, often called the intensity
or irradiance, which is Watts Per
Centimeter Squared (W/cm^2).

Since we are typically using low

intensities for proper
Photobiomodulation, we shift the
units from Watts to milliWatts. In
the metric system the preQx tells
you the order of magnitude. Where
One Watt equals One Thousand
MilliWatts. So we Qnally get the
famous intensity units of
mW/cm^2 (milliWatts Per
Centimeter Squared).

Thereby we have the relationship

between Time (seconds), Intensity
(mW/cm^2), and Energy Dose
(J/cm^2).

Dose (J/cm^2) = (Irradiance

(mW/cm^2) * Time [seconds]) /
1000 [mW/W]

Often, we need to rearrange this

algebra. Since we should know the
intensity (irradiance) of our device,
and know our desired dose from
relevant clinical studies.

What we usually need to calculate

is the Exposure Time to reach the
desired dose.

Time [seconds] = (Dose [J/cm^2] x

1000 [mW/W]) / Irradiance
(mW/cm^2)

Now, you can just "plug-in" the dose

and intensity for your light into our
handy calculator, and it will tell you
how long to use it for!

The best part is that it works for

ANY light-therapy light, as long as
you have the accurate 3rd party
irradiance measurements.

Dosage
Calculator
Input Irradiance

7.0 mW/cm^2

Input Desired Dosage

6 J/cm^2

Time to Reach desired

Dosage

14.3
minutes
The "default" numbers above are
actually for a GembaRed Rex at 0
inches with irradiance of
7mW/cm^2, and a desired dose of
6 J/cm^2. We see the time it takes
to achieve that dose is 14.3
minutes.

Now the risk is that many

companies may be false-
advertising their intensity by over
2x with cheap solar power meters.
When that happens, the outcome
of using the calculator will be to
use half has much exposure time.
Thus, in reality you could be
underdosing by 2x when you
calculate the dose this way. So it is
pertinent to insist on asking
manufacturers for the most
accurate intensity numbers they
can provide ideally from
professional 3rd party labs.

If a manufacturer can only provide

Solar Power Meter measurements,
you can use one of our 3rd party
tested compensation factor
calculators to get a more realistic
intensity number for proper dosing.
We have calculators for the
Tenmars-TM206 and TES-1333
solar power meters.

3/14/2024 - Quick Dosing

Guide:
Studies on Full-Body Red Light
Therapy are essentially non-
contact systemic treatments. The
typical range of effective doses is
20 to 33 J/cm^2 typically applied 3
times per week. Note the
cumulative dose response, so daily
doses would be reduced to 8 to 14
J/cm^2 if you want to do full-body
red light therapy daily and avoid
biphasic dose response of too
frequent doses.

There is a biphasic response to

having too much intensity and
delivering doses in too short of
time. Proper intensity for
Photobiomodulation is typically
between 5 to 50 mW/cm^2. Higher
intensities may cause tissue
heating, and PBM and LLLT are by-
deQnition non-thermal light
therapies.

Using high intensities (typically

>50mW/cm^2) that cause heating
are no longer a PBM Therapy but
more of a Heat Therapy and will be
dosed based on Skin Temperature
and not Energy Density.

Direct Super`cial doses (skincare,

superQcial wounds) typically range
from 2 to 10 J/cm^2.

Direct deeper tissue doses range

from 10 to 50 J/cm^2.

Read the dosing blog to learn

about effective ranges of doses
and the biphasic dose response.
And how it is important to start
with a reasonable dose and then
titrate the dose up or down to `nd
your personal optimal dose.

Reaection Compensation:
Estimate about 60% of the light
intensity will be rejected from the
skin. So multiply your intensity by
0.4 or multiply the exposure time
by 2.5 as a rough compensation.

Many studies use skin-contact

method to eliminate rejection
losses, optimize absorption, and
enhance penetration by tissue
compression and blanching the
superQcial blood from the skin.

A compensation factor for

rejection losses may be required if
you use a non-contact panel (>6
inches away) but referencing a
study that is dosing with skin
contact. This may be a crude
compensation since it can only
account for the loss of absorption
and not the massive loss of
penetration by tissue compression.

Bioindividuality: Additional dosing

adjustments and considerations
could be utilized based on Skin
phototype (skin color) and gender.

Total Joules: Some researchers

prefer dosing based on the Total
Joules, and not just J/cm^2. Read
this blog to learn about Total
Joules dosing.

Update 11/21/2023 - New

Calculator! What Dose Are
You Actually Getting?
The reverse of this math is to use
Intensity and Exposure Time to
quickly calculate what dose you
are getting.

For example if a brand claims to

emit >100mW/cm^2 at treatment
distance, and they happen to
recommend 10 minutes of
exposure time.

You can now put those numbers

into our calculator below to
determine what is the dose that a
manufacturer is recommending, or
quickly Qnd out the dose you have
been actually getting.

Actual Dosage
Calculator
INPUT IRRADIANCE
(MW/CM^2)

13.0 mW/cm^2

INPUT EXPOSURE TIME

(MINUTES)

4.0 min

ENERGY DENSITY (DOSE)

DELIVERED

3.1 J/cm^2
We can easily see with this
calculator that intensities
>100mW/cm^2 would quickly lead
to overdosing. Which might be
appropriate for some cases
targeting deeper tissue, but
typically we recommend starting
with lower doses to see if you get
better results.

Update 1/13/2022! Joules

Per Centimeter Squared
Per Minute?
In the never-ending efforts for
companies to cover-up their false
intensity claims, they may tell you
to ignore intensity entirely and base
your dosing calculations on the
"J/cm^2 per minute."

The J/cm^2 per minute is a metric

sometimes called "juence" in the
studies because it describes both
energy and time together.

This is actually a nice convenience,

because if you know you want a 10
J/cm^2 dose and a company tells
you their juence is 2.5 J/cm^2 per
minute, then the math is a simple
division and you know you need
only 4 minutes to achieve that
dose (minus rejection losses if
you are standing 6 inches away).

But we know that the "J/cm^2 per

minute" actually is easily converted
to intensity of mW/cm^2 through
the magic of simple math.

1 Joule/Second = 1 Watt

1000 mW = 1 W

1 minute = 60 seconds

So we know that when someone

tells us the Joules/cm^2 per
minute, that is a quick conversion
equation.

mW/cm^2 = J/cm^2 per min *

1000 ÷ 60

For example:

2.5 * 1000 ÷ 60 = 41.66 mW/cm^2

That's it! Easy conversion from

J/cm^2 per min back to mW/cm^2,
the industry standard
measurement.

Conclusions:
Remember that it is a common
fallacy that "more power" means
faster treatments. It has been
shown that due to the biphasic
dose response that the Law of
Reciprocity does not always apply
to light therapy. That a "faster
dose" does not always mean the
same effectiveness, although it
might appear to save a busy
person some time. Read more
about intensity and effective doses
on our earlier blog.

Ultimately there is still a lot left to

learn about proper dosing with red
light panels. But I feel we must be
Qrmly grounded in the science and
accurate measurements, otherwise
we may never be able to replicate
results or discuss
photobiomodulation scientiQcally.

The science of Red Light Therapy

still has a lot of grey areas in terms
of how to properly dose the light! It
is even more confusing by
companies using inaccurate solar
power meters, promoting high
irradiances, and not always
reporting the same units of
intensity. And even the clinical
studies report a wide range of
dosages and intensities.

So we always encourage users to

be empowered by knowing the real
science and parameters, then
adjusting their own protocol as
needed to get the best results.

More Tips on Dosing?

Check out these blogs and our
Learning Center:

ScientiQc Dosing Methodology

For Red Light Therapy

How Often Should You Do Red

Light Therapy?

What is the Best Intensity for

Red Light Therapy?

What is the Best Time of Day for

Red Light Therapy?

Why is Exposure Time just as

important as Dosing?

What is the best distance to be

from LED Panels?

What is the best distance to be

from high-intensity LED Panels?

Why is Skin Contact so

Important for Dosing?

What is the Actual Clinical

Dosing for Full-body Red Light
Therapy?

-Andrew

Cover Photo by Mike from Pexels

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5 Comments 
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Akira − ⚑
A 5 months ago

How do you calculate the skin rejection loses?

Is that included in the formula? Thanks so
much!

0 0 Reply ⥅

GembaRed >
… Akira − ⚑
5 months ago

Ideally you Qnd non-contact studies and just

use the same dosages that they used. If you
are trying to use a skin-contact study but you
have a non-contact device you could assume
around a 60% rejection loss depending on
your skin type. So basically multiply your
intensity by 0.4, then use that new intensity
number in the calculator.

1 0 Reply ⥅

Akira − ⚑
A
>
… GembaRed
5 months ago

Amazing thank you

0 0 Reply ⥅

Joel Ponder − ⚑
7 months ago

What would your opinion on using something

like this to ensure even whole body coverage?
https://www.aliexpress.us/i...

0 0 Reply ⥅

GembaRed >
… Joel Ponder − ⚑
6 months ago

That might be a bit over the top, just manually

rotating every couple of minutes should be
supcient.

0 0 Reply ⥅

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