#2: LED Light Therapy: Why do it?

You are listening to the Barrett plastic surgery podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Barrett, Board-Certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon located in Beverly Hills. I specialize in cosmetic surgery of the face, nose, breast, and body.  I'm passionate about natural-looking results and this podcast is dedicated to those deciding if plastic surgery is right for them and revealing the latest beauty secrets. Thanks for tuning in.

00:41  What is a LightStim ProPanel?

On to our next exhibit. We are here with Chris Healey, VP Business Development LightStim with LightStim and this is a product that I already have in my office and it is called LightStim ProPanel and if you guys have been following my Instagram @drdanielbarrett, you could see that I actually have 40 minute treatment here at the beginning of the conference and that is probably why I am so energetic right now. I run 14 miles this morning and I feel fantastic. I got to meet the CEO of the company?

Chris Healey: Yes, the president actually. And vice-president of business development.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: Yes, I am here with Chris. Chris, tell me about you and why are you with Lightstim?

Chris Healey. I’ve been with the company for 6 years already next month. Time flies when you are having fun. But I have been in the device industry for over 15 years, I have been with Clearsonic. So, Johnny … is a family-run business and in the last 20 years, we are going to be the largest, most used, most trusted, most effective LED on the planet.

Dr. Barrett:  I got the chance to talk to the president, remind me of his name…Steve, and he told me the story about his son and how LightStim changed the health of his son so that he dropped his blood pressure. This is kind of a new thing, I had no idea about it. He told me the whole story and it is great to connect with companies that have this passion for their product and that really care about the effect they can have on patients. But go ahead, tell us more Chris?

02:00 What inspired the creator to develope it LightStim ProPanel

Chris Healey. The story behind the… is the family. Studies out there show that exposure to red light increases the release of nitrogen oxide from cells that vasodilates. And there are studies out there that show that with consistency, red light can lower blood pressure by releasing more NO and vasodilating. So, knowing that Johnny and Steve, husband and wife owners of the company…Their youngest son at the time about 20 years old, Chase use our RP manufacturing, had through the roof high blood pressure, 165 or so and meds take it down only a few points.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: Right, for you guys out there, normal blood pressure should be around 120/80. So, this is like 40 points higher

Chris Healey: Absolutely. It didn’t run in the family. They were all kind of both family and physicians were … to why this is happening to 20-year old. They actually bought retrofitted retaining bed online and they took out the back and they put in our reward winning effective LED. So this is just for their son. He was using it 3 times a week over two months and he brought his blood pressure down to normal. I went off the meds completely. With kind of convincing from physicians which said Jonny, Steve this is impressive, we have never seen results like this. You have got to make this available to the masses. I mean, now 1 in 2 people have high blood pressure. So, that would embark over the next 5 years the custom build bed which to this day is the only FDA cleared on the market. So the last two and a half years we got a few hundred out there now. Physicians are using it…

Dr. B. Ethic cleared to do what? Just be safe?

Chris Healey: Right. It was approved to be safe and it is for temporary relief of minor pain associated with arthritic issues as we age…

04.00 How can light therapy be a healthy solution to pain management

Dr. Daniel Barrett: That alone is huge.

Chris Healey:  It is. A lot of people are suffering from pain every day, they are just popping opioids and that is a big problem today because over a hundred people per day now, unfortunately, are passing because of overdosing. We are helping those folks out. It is not FDA cleared for blood pressure yet so we are just mentioning it as off-label, but a nice side-effect if you will.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: FDA is a big monster, a bureaucratic monster. To actually get through the FDA and get approved for something and show that it works, that is a big deal. You go to show the studies, you got to…

Chris Healey:  Absolutely. That was out 12^th FDA cleared device. You can see in front of us here at our booth, we have hand-held formats, belts, …. panels. So we got 12 now, more than almost all of the other competitors combined. We spend a lot of time and money to prove again that it is safe but effective. That is all we do and that is one of the reasons why are we going the be the largest LED company out there.

05:05: What differentiates LEDs are from UVs?

Dr. Daniel Barrett: Let’s dive into the science because there are people are out there like OK, it is just a light. What specifically is going on here?

Chris Healey:  I will tell you what is it not. In fact, I think that I mentioned it to you when you saw the bed yesterday. It looks like a tanning bed. But all our LEDs are UV free. So this utilizes, and I show it to the doctor here a visual of…, a safe zone or therapeutic wavelengths of light. So ever here would be the UV and the bad stuff. Colors are associated with different depth of penetration. Blue has been synonymous with helping kill the bacteria, red and infrared go deeper to pump up blood flow and circulation. The first studies, fun little story that we learned when we started with LightStim is at NASA. Space administration who has been since the sixties using red light therapy to grow plants in space. If we are going to be self-sufficient in space, LED is used to simulate photosynthesis to grow plants. They decided to use the same LEDs back in the early nineties on astronauts cuts, scrapes, scratches, bruises, burns and they found out quickly that there was higher epithelial turnover. There was a healing benefit to LED. That then opened the flood gates for large medical continued use of red light therapy after surgeries, wound healing. Chiropractors would get their hands on to actually place on those sore hips, ankles, arthritis issues. And then long comes LightStim back in the 2000s and started making lights available for home use.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: Why not?

Chris Healey:  Yeah. We are here at this show to talk to physicians like yourself on how to easily incorporate it for wound healing and then we have take home. That is a win-win, so it is a great story behind how it started.

Dr. Daniel Barrett:  You guys, the bed that I was on two days ago, it was so popular they sold it and then somebody came in wheeled out down here, and there was no longer here at the booth. That is how hot this stuff is right now. The celebrities, all kind of people are using it and I have the pen, I have the portable pen at the office and actually trying to figure out how to get a bed myself for my surgical patients and for people that are looking for this treatment.

Chris Healey: Absolutely. Just find the room.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: I know, Beverly Hills is tough.

Chris Healey: It is, it is.

07:27 How does LightStim compare to its competitors?

Dr. Daniel Barrett:  We are working on it for you guys. But I want to know what makes you guys stand out versus your competitors?

Chris Healey: Sure. So, we already mentioned how we have more FDA clearances. Primarily we have three indications: mild to moderate acne, anti-aging and pain management.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: OK. We talked about pain management, we talked a little bit about blood pressure. Let’s talk about anti-aging because that is what a lot of people come in for.

Chris Healey:  Sure, and that is actually our best home seller… I’m just showing the doctor here one of the brochures, but it is … multi-wave technology. The early LEDs out there were just doing one light at the time, so monochromatic. Red was always synonymous with inflammation and antiaging, blue was there for acne and they were completely separate panels. You would actually have to take off the red to put on blue and go vice versa. Back in the early 2000s our engineer and inventor were out to spell the myth that if you combine lights they cancel out. After doing our own in-house studies we found out not only they don’t cancel out but we see some pretty quick results, especially anti-aging. So again folks at home, I am showing doctor clinical trial of about 40 people. We took an anti-aging light home that is red, Infra-red and amber and they were told to use it just three minutes on the treatment area at least five days a week.

09:41 What are the improvement results like and how should you use it?

Dr. Daniel Barrett: I am looking at some pretty wicked curves here and they are like 50% improved.

Chris Healey: At 8 weeks. You see how we lead this with 100%. Of 40 or so people, saw improvements at 8-week mark. Like diet and exercise, you have to be consistent. That is the same with skincare you are selling in the office but what is fun about this once you are done in the bathroom, you brushed your teeth, you wash your face, everybody goes to bed. That is where LightStim comes in. By your bedside, just pick it up, one button, lightly touch that affected area that is causing beeps every three minutes to tell you time to move.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: that is what that beeping is? I actually have one in the hotel room and it was beeping. I was like, why is it beeping?

Chris Healey: It just tells you. You can use it a little bit longer if you want. Essentially it is 12 minutes treatment. So, it is three minutes here, 6 crows feet, lips, and lines, 3, 6, 9, 12. It is not a huge time… Jena has a hand for acne.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: People that don’t have that, like they don’t…. is that when the propanol comes in or you get all the areas at the same time?

10:10: Where you can  find LightStim

Chris Healey: Sure, those are found in offices like yourself, ….has not been used for post-op because we do have lights for…..it is a 20-minute upgrade, charging anywhere from 50 to 100 dollars. But the essential primary goals of these lights are to calm the skin. So, she has done some waxing, extraction, micro-needling, and calms the skin but in ….. ….. so there is a nice glow, pop and the shine to the skin. So really what you are selling there in the office is the piece of mind, hey you can do needling today and you go back to the office or on set,…. a lot of actors, actresses, because we recently invested in technology like LightStim to primary calm the skin, bring the redness down, but also add a nice shine.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: It is interesting. We combine. We have our three facial treatments at Barrett’s signature, I’m sorry: Barrett standard, Barrett signature, and Barrett premiere facial treatments. And each of those treatments involves multimodality application of various things. Each one of those has LightStim. While patients should get micro-needling or they are getting radiofrequency skin tightening, so we combine It as multimodality. I know you guys……. I will tell you this, think that it is adding a boost to collagen production and our skin quality afterward. In addition to calming everything down, because Barrett standard is, Barrett signature is micro-needling. So what I noticed is that the overall effect is way more enhanced with the propanol, LightStim that we do at the same time.

Chris Healey:  Sure. Absolutely. A lot of people have found that even just one 20 minute treatment with the antiaging had so much fibroblast activity and again fuels the cells, fuel sources of ATP and people have actually reported softening and plumping of lines. One treatment is not wrinkle erase but it is nice to show people when they look at the mirror and say wow not only my redness come down but I am seeing softness here that could last a few minutes maybe a few hours. But that gets the discussion going. Hey if you want that more full time we dispense exclusive LightStim for wrinkles plus using around your lips, eyes while you are watching TV.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: Is it that something you can do daily?

Chris Healey:  Absolutely. Due to technology, you can’t really overdo it. 7 days a week, twice a day if you had that kind of time. But we are all about setting expectations. You saw clinical trials we told them you got to use at least 5 times a week.

12:37 Other LED devices available on the market

Dr. Daniel Barrett: It is so funny. I get people that come into my office and they are like, I bought this roller on Amazon and they are at home rolling their faces. I am like, what you are doing.

Chris Healey: The device… Coming from Clearsonic, my background is a big thing. People want the devices, the tools, tricks of the trade that often spas and offices have. But that is where our lights fall in. We talked about wrinkles, acne, pain management. So those three categories again what also leads us to be the largest, most used, most effective and affordable LED out there.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: My eyes have been opened to this. I had no clue, my aesthetician she actually is the one that explained this to me and caught my attention and then Jana came in and talked to us. And then I started doing it myself even like between patients I grab the LightStim if no one is using it, because it is a hot commodity and I get a nice quick boost myself in between patients. I am a firm believer in this and that is why I have you guys on podcast. What is the next step, Chris? What is coming out in the forefront that people should know about with LightStim?

13:43 What are the next steps that someone should take if interested in having a LightStim ProPanel?

Chris Healey:  Well, we are pretty busy. We got a lot of different lights for all shapes and sizes. Since the bed came on board a couple of years ago it is just far surpassing anything that we could imagine. The feedback that we are getting, it is just amazing. So, we are really busy with what we have we are just super excited to be part of this conference as we have been for a few years. To run and talk to physicians like yourself about how it is finally affordable. I think that separates us too is, our lights are made down the street from your office where again family run company based in California with all these FDA cleared lights are designed, manufactured. And I think that goes a long way too because of the control and the quality behind these lights that are 20 years, millions of lights sold, less than 1% ever come back with any issues.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: I get all these emails from, I don’t know how they get my email address, these companies in China, they are like you have to try our new laser. And this is scary because you don’t know what you are getting. I don’t say that stuff made outside of the USA is inferior but it is like when the thing is manufactured in the USA, especially locally you kind of have a better sense of quality that goes in things like that.

Chris Healey:  Absolutely. Totally agree.

Dr. Daniel Barrett: Great. Chris, thank you so much for sharing about the product. I just can’t wait to hear about the next thing LightStim can do. I am a firm believer and appreciate your time.

Chris Healey: All right. Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to this podcast. If you want more information about plastic surgery and our secrets, please visit my website at drdanielbarrett.com

Follow my Instagram at @drbarrett or subscribe to my educational videos on YouTube at Dr. Daniel Barrett where I put it all out there. Thanks for tuning in.

Dr. Barrett: Thank you for listening to this podcast. If you want more information about plastic surgery and our secrets, please visit my website at drdanielbarrett.com.

Learn more about the Barrett Signature Facial here.

Follow me on Instagram: @drdanielbarrett

Book your virtual consultation with Dr. Daniel Barrett, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon here.

‍