From Nobel Prize to Modern Red Light Therapy

If you are exploring red light therapy in Derby, the science behind it stretches back further than you might expect, to a Nobel Prize-winning physician who first proved that light could heal.

What Is Red Light Therapy?

Red light therapy, also known as photobiomodulation, uses specific wavelengths of red and near-infrared light to support cellular function, tissue repair, and recovery. At Kubo Wellness in Derby, red light therapy sits alongside PEMF and hyperbaric oxygen as part of an integrated, science-led recovery approach.

But to understand why it works, it helps to go back to where it all began.

Who Was Niels Ryberg Finsen?

Finsen was born in 1860 in the Faroe Islands, a remote landscape shaped by long, dark winters and limited sunlight. It is often suggested that this early exposure to extreme light conditions influenced his later thinking, but his interest in light was also deeply personal.

He lived with chronic illness for much of his life. His energy was limited, his health unpredictable. While others trained in traditional clinical practice, Finsen was drawn to a quieter, more observational path, and it was there that his thinking began to shift.

Rather than focusing purely on drugs or surgery, he became interested in how external factors, particularly light, interacted with the body. At the time, this was not a mainstream idea. Finsen saw it differently.

The Experiment That Changed Everything

In the 1890s, Finsen turned his attention to lupus vulgaris, a severe form of skin tuberculosis that caused chronic, often disfiguring lesions. Treatment options were limited and largely ineffective.

Rather than approaching the disease chemically, Finsen approached it physically. He designed systems of lamps, lenses, and filters to isolate specific wavelengths, particularly in the ultraviolet range, and direct them onto diseased tissue.

The results were remarkable. Patients began to show improvement. Lesions reduced. In some cases, healing occurred where other treatments had failed.

What Finsen had demonstrated, without fully knowing the cellular mechanisms we understand today, was that light could exert measurable biological effects. He was not just treating a condition, he was introducing an entirely new way of thinking about medicine.

A Nobel Prize and a New Field of Science

In 1903, Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work using concentrated light radiation to treat disease. The Nobel Committee recognised his research as opening a new avenue for medical science.

That phrase matters. Because Finsen did not just create a treatment, he established a principle: that light, as a form of energy, can be measured, controlled, and used to influence living systems.

For a period, light therapy became widely adopted in medical practice. Although antibiotics later replaced it for conditions like tuberculosis, the underlying idea never disappeared. Instead, it evolved, directly into what we now call red light therapy.

From Observation to Mechanism

What Finsen observed clinically, modern science has begun to explain at a cellular level. Different wavelengths of light interact with the body in different ways:

• Ultraviolet light can have antimicrobial effects and influence immune responses
• Blue light is used in controlled settings for certain skin conditions
• Red and near-infrared light, the wavelengths used in modern red light therapy are studied in photobiomodulation for their effects on mitochondria, ATP production, and cellular signalling

In simple terms, red light therapy can influence how cells produce energy, respond to stress, and repair themselves. Finsen did not have the language of mitochondria or oxidative stress, but he was observing their outcomes.

For further reading on the science of photobiomodulation, the National Centre for Biotechnology Information has published peer-reviewed research on red and near-infrared light effects on cellular function.

Light in a Modern Wellness Context

Today, red light therapy is far more precise than Finsen’s early devices. Advances in technology allow for targeted wavelengths, controlled dosages, and repeatable protocols, expanding its use across both clinical and performance-focused settings.

In wellness and recovery, red light therapy is increasingly used as part of a broader strategy supporting:

• Tissue repair and recovery
• Inflammatory balance
• Circadian rhythm regulation
• Overall cellular function

Context matters, however. Not all light therapies are equal, and outcomes depend heavily on wavelength, intensity, timing, and individual response.

Red Light Therapy at Kubo Wellness

At Kubo Wellness in Derby, red light therapy is not viewed as a standalone solution. It sits within a wider system, alongside hyperbaric oxygen therapy and PEMF, designed to support the body’s natural recovery processes.

More than 120 years after his Nobel Prize, Finsen’s legacy is not just about an old lamp or a historical treatment. It is about a shift in perspective, from seeing the body as something treated only with drugs or surgery, to understanding it as something that constantly interacts with light, oxygen, fields, and environment.

Every red light therapy session at Kubo Wellness is a continuation of the question Finsen first asked: not just what light is, but what the right kind of light, in the right dose, can do for the human body today.