The Joovv is the gold standard when it comes to red light therapy devices. It's a medical grade, modular system that allows you to build the ideal red light therapy setup for your needs over time. It supports both red and near infrared wavelengths and allows you to control them independently. The EMF levels emitted by the device are also third party verified to be within an acceptable range.  So I jumped at the opportunity to participate in a study that provided a Joovv to use in my own home.  Read on for my Joovv review.

The study that I participated in was designed to investigate the impact of using the Joovv device to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I followed the protocol exactly as specified during the study... 10 minutes of red light and near infrared exposure to the face every morning. The light emitted is a bit strong for me to keep my eyes open while staring into the device.  I took this as an opportunity to get in an extra 10 minutes of meditation each day. 

After a few days, I noticed a definite improvement in my mood. The extra morning mediation alone could have been the cause. After reading about the benefits of getting red light into the eyes, I decided to do the PBM therapy with eyes open.  In both cases I noticed a difference in mood although it's difficult to say if both are additive.

By the end of the first week, my sleep quality was obviously improved, even though my overall length of sleep remained unchanged. Not only did I feel more refreshed, but this was also quantitatively verified by the data from my Oura ring. I continue to follow this protocol even though the study has ended since it is obvious that this 10 minute morning ritual has a very pronounced positive impact on my sleep and overall mood.

After the study ended, I started experimenting with some other uses for the Joovv.  During the course of this study, I was spending way more time than I wanted to working out.  Despite this, I seemed to plateau in terms of increasing/maintaining my lean muscle mass while decreasing my overall body fat percentage. Working out more or harder wasn't really an option for me as I was getting into a situation where timely recovery was becoming problematic.  To be honest, I didn't really want to dedicate a larger portion of my day to working out.

Initially I started using the Joovv to try to enhance muscle and joint recovery.  This was before I purchased an infrared sauna (which honestly is better for this).  Since I didn't have a 'full body' red light therapy setup, I was spending a ton of time spot targeting pain areas. This wasn't sustainable with everything else that I had going on so I started investigating other ways to achieve my goals.  How could I increase lean muscle mass and decrease body fat while working out less and/or at a lower intensity?

This led down a crazy rabbit hole of many things to try.  Ultimately it had me circle back around to the libido boosting PBM advocates. At this time, I'm still experimenting but I added a second daily Joovv session aimed at boosting testosterone levels.  This with some additional diet/supplement tweaks has allowed me to decrease both the frequency and intensity of my workouts and resulted in a 2% increase in overall lean muscle mass and a ~3% decrease in body fat. I have plans in the pipeline to test out all the variables and see how much of this change can be attributed to the Joovv session.

I have and use several different red light therapy devices.  The Joovv mini isn't the best for everything, but it's very effective in many cases.  I use the Joovv panel almost every day for something.  Have you been using a Joovv or other device for PBM? Do you have questions specifically about the Joovv? Let me know in the comments or each out via email.