Top 5 Best Red Light Therapy Wraps for Back Pain

My spondylolisthesis merged with arthritis to create a back pain flare-up. The first treatment the physical therapist gave me was low level light therapy (red light therapy, or photobiomodulation). You can do the same therapy using a red light therapy wrap.

The best red light therapy wraps for back pain are:

• Best for Budget: Novaa Lab Deep Healing Pad, DNA Vibe Power Bundle, Mito Therapy Belt
• Largest Treatment Area: Mito Red Light Therapy Belt
• Most Powerful: Nushape Therapy Wrap
• Best Pulsation: CelLED iLED
• Coolest Extra Features: DNA Vibe Power Bundle

Types of Back Pain that Red Light Therapy Can Help

I know I’m not he only one with a sore back. On any given day, about 65 million Americans experience some form of back pain, according to the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University (source).

Mine comes from spondylolisthesis, a spinal fusion, arthritis, and stenosis. There are many other back pain causes, including those below.

• Overuse, poor posture, lifting heavy objects and sudden twisting movements can cause ligament strains
• A spinal disc is herniated when the soft center of protrudes through a tear in the outer layer. The “gel” puts pressure on nearby nerves.
• A narrowing of the spinal canal that puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves in the spinal stenosis, which causes pain, numbness, and weakness.
• Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that can affect the back. I wrote a comprehensive guide to using red light therapy for knee osteoarthritis that you can view at this link: Manage Knee Arthritis with Drug-Free Red Light Therapy
• Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and brittle, increasing the risk of compression fractures in the spine.
• Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine that can cause back pain.
• Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain condition that can cause widespread muscle pain and fatigue, including in the back.

Types of Back Pain that Do Not Call for Red Light Therapy

Red light therapy is excellent for helping with muscle, bone, and ligament pain. But medical conditions such as kidney stones, infections, and cancer can cause back pain too. These are not soft tissue or bone problems.

If I had one of these diseases, I would ask a medical professional before starting photobiomodulation (red light therapy).

For kidney stones and infections, there’s no issue using red light therapy. The issue is that these problems call for a medical consultation.

With cancer, there is a reason not to use red light therapy. The data is mixed on whether red light therapy can make cancer worse. Certainly never use it over an active cancer. There is no evidence that red light therapy can cause cancer, but there is some evidence that it can exacerbate an existing cancer. There’s a lot of debate about red light therapy and cancer that you can read in my article: What’s the Worst Thing About Red Light Therapy?

What is Red Light Therapy (Low Level Light Therapy/Photobiomodulation)?

Red light therapy is the low-energy delivery of visible and infrared light to promote healing. Red light therapy is a non-invasive, drug free, and is available for at home use without a prescription.

Certain wavelengths of light absorb in the cells to kick off several healing processes. These include:

• increased adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to carry energy to cellular processes
• increased blood flow to help tissues heal
• reduced chronic inflammation that has become pathological
• reduced pain sensation, it stops the nerves from sending pain signals to the brain

How Does Red Light Therapy Help with Back Pain?

Red light therapy reduces sensitivity to pain by blocking the COX-2 enzyme in a similar way as Ibuprofen, except without the stomach bleeding.

Collagen production adds structure to back tissues, and elastin adds stretch into tired ligaments.

The increased blood flow and ATP production provide oxygen, nutrition and energy for the tissues to heal themselves.

To learn more about the specific ways that red light therapy can help with chronic pain, see my article Does Red Light Therapy Really Help With Chronic Pain?

Red Light Therapy Pads (Wraps) for Back Pain

A red light therapy wrap is typically made of a soft, flexible material such as neoprene. Wraps fit around arms and legs as they are pliable, unlike handhelds and panels.

A typical wrap will fit on part of the back. Larger wraps can cover the whole back at once.

Wraps have adjustable closures, usually using Velcro to secure the wrap in place.

The LED lights on the wrap are usually arranged in a grid pattern. The wrap may contain anywhere from 100 to 300 individual LEDs, depending on the size and model.

Wrap LEDs are typically red and infrared, with green and blue LEDs coming on the market. Blue and green light might be helpful for chronic back pain, but there is little science to show that as of yet.

A wrap can offer more than red light therapy. For example, the DNA Vibe Jazz Band Live includes subtle vibration and magnetic therapy as well as red light (red and infrared) therapy. The Jazz Band Live is in the Top 5 of my favorite wraps for back pain. You can look at my guide to the DNA Vibe here. As well as DNA Vibe Jazz Band Live vs. Mito Therapy Belt: Which is Better?

Power controls for the wrap vary. Some wraps have a simple on/off switch, while others may have multiple power settings to adjust the intensity of the light therapy. The power source for the wrap may be battery-operated or may require a power outlet.

Some wraps hold their shape, allowing you to contour them to arms and legs. The DNA Vibe Jazz Band Live and the CelLED iLED contour to arms and legs.

Wraps that do not have a contour scaffolding will unroll to a flat position when you let go. The Nushape Therapy Wrap, the Mito Red Light Therapy Belt and the Novaa Lab Healing Pad are suppler, and rely on the Velcro closures to hold them in place.

Whether you get a contoured or “flat” wrap, you would use it in the flat position on your back.

Pros of Using Wrap Therapy for Back Pain

• Wraps are easy to use. Put the device on your back and turn it on.
• Wraps come in small, medium and large sizes. To treat the whole back at once, get a large wrap.
• As long as the wrap is battery-operated, a wrap is portable and hands-free.
• A wrap does not blind you with red light during therapy. Compare this to using a powerful handheld, tabletop or panel. Because the wrap is against your skin, the photons do not reach your eyes. Some devices are very bright, but you do not need goggles when wearing a wrap.
• Wraps prevent losing photons to reflection and distance. Non-wearable devices lose light in the distance between the lamp and your back. Then, some of the photons that reach your skin reflect off rather than absorb into the body. A wrap has no distance and no room for reflection, so you get more photons with a wrap on your back.

Cons of Using Wrap Therapy for Back Pain

• Wraps are almost always less powerful than panel devices (handhelds, tabletops, and panels). But because wraps don’t lose energy to distance or reflection, they need less power. The actual difference between a wrap and a panel is much less than it appears at first. Panels lose photons to distance and to reflection. Less powerful wraps do not lose photons. At the final analysis, all that matters is time per treatment. The amount of time you spend with a red light therapy device is going to even out differences in the power of the devices.
• For portability, ensure your wrap comes with a rechargeable battery. Novaa Lab works on outlet power or you can use a cell phone battery that you supply. Nushape Therapy Wrap, Mito Red Light Therapy Wrap, and DNA Vibe Jazz Band Live include the battery. CelLED iLED is powered by the wall outlet.

Top 5 Red Light Therapy Wraps for Back Pain

Here are the top 5 red light therapy wraps for back pain:

• Best for Budget: Novaa Lab Deep Healing Pad, DNA Vibe Power Bundle, Mito Therapy Belt
• Largest Treatment Area: Mito Red Light Therapy Belt
• Most Powerful: Nushape Therapy Wrap
• Best Pulsation: CelLED iLED
• Coolest Extra Features: DNA Vibe Power Bundle

The Novaa Lab Deal Healing Pad (Best Budget Wrap)

The Novaa Lab Deep Healing Pad is very popular, because, I think, Novaa sells a high quality wrap at a cheaper price. Novaa Lab accepts returns for 60 days after purchase, taking the risk out of your purchase.

At $299.90, the Novaa Lab’s pad is the cheapest of the Top 5 Wraps. Its 15.7 x 9-inch treatment area covers 141.3 sq. inches of your back per each 20-minute treatment.

The Healing Pad has 360 LEDs to deliver a healthy amount of light to your back pain. The only drawback is that you need to supply your own cell phone battery to make the Novaa Pad a portable device.

The Mito Red Light Therapy Belt (Biggest Treatment Area Wrap)

The Mito Red Light Therapy Belt is the #1 choice for the size of its treatment area.  The Mito has a 48 x 7-inch treatment area that gives you 336 sq. inches packed with 1,215 LEDs (405 with 3 lights each). This is important if you want to do therapy on your entire back in one session. A large device reaches the most of your back in a single session.

As the Mito Red Light come with the battery included, its price is competitive with the Novaa Lab Healing Pad (you buy the cell phone battery for the Novaa wrap).

Mito Therapy Belt ties for the #1 Budget choice, and in fact is maybe a little better depending on your needs. You can buy the Mito Red Light for $312.55 with the COUPON CODE RED at checkout. Mito Red Light backs the belt with a 60-day trial period.

The Nushape Therapy Wrap (Most Powerful Wrap)

Something Nushape offers that is impossible to see from pictures is how nice their neoprene wrap feels in your hands. You can just tell it’s made with care. The stiches are perfect, and the substantial feel of the material conveys a strength that feels soft to the touch. It’s a luxury brand that justifies its higher price.

The Nushape is $474.05 if you use the COUPON CODE RED at checkout (Nushape Therapy Wrap).  The treatment size is 20 x 5 inches, giving you 100 sq. inches packed with 600 LEDs of light therapy diodes.

One thing to beware of when buying the Nushape is its 14-day return policy. This is shorter than most and is an unfortunately holdover from when Nushape sold the Lipo Wrap as its main product. People were buying the Lipo, losing some width around the waste, and then returning it for a refund. This was unfair, I think you’d agree, but it created a short return window as their policy. The bottom line is that you should feel back pain relief in 2 weeks, but keep your eye on the calendar to be safe.

The DNA Jazz Band Live (Tie for Best Budget)

The DNA Jazz Band Live is technically a tie with the Novaa Lab Deep Healing Pad for the Best Budget top spot. This is because you need to supply your own battery for the Novaa Lab pad. For the DNA Vibe pad, if you use my link to a special discount page (DNA Vibe Power Bundle), you can get the DNA Vibe with the battery for $328.95. Apples to apples, the Novaa and DNA pads are now about the same cost.

However, the DNA Vibe has features the Novaa Lab doesn’t have.

DNA adds magnetic fields and vibration therapy to the Jazz Band Live.

Magnetic fields in the 8-10 Hz range are believed to synchronize the body to the Schumann Resonance natural frequency. I am not an expert on magnetic fields, but I did research PEMF, which is essentially the same therapy, and there is good evidence that this type of therapy is healing.

The Schumann Resonance is the frequency between the ionosphere and the earth, and is created by the natural lightning energy that is always occurring there. The vibration feature is similar to a massage on a micro level that you don’t really feel, but your muscles respond to it nonetheless.

The other advantage of the jazz Band Live is its ability to contour to the ankles, shoulders, wrists and knees. This is a nice feature that holds the healing LEDs close to the skin for maximum coverage.

The CelLED iLED Red Light Therapy Wrap (Pulsation Feature)

The CelLED iLED wrap is not the cheapest, and does not have the largest treatment area (42.7 sq. inches). What sets the iLED apart? The quality of the materials, and the pulsation feature.

iLED is sold to clinics as a medical therapy device. It has a strong canvas feel and a leather back that will hold together for many years. The LED diodes are made in Korea by a medical device company.

The pulsation is a special feature that has a dramatic effect on back pain relief. Pulsation is the flickering of the LEDs on and off. The prevailing theory is that pulsing the light changes how far the photons go, meaning they penetrate deeper than non-pulsed (continuous wave) light.

The science has some examples confirming this claim, but I hear this from clinicians all the time. The pulsation feature just gets better results, according to light therapy clinicians I know.

Links to Best Wraps for Back Pain

• Best for Budget: Novaa Lab Deep Healing Pad, DNA Vibe Power Bundle, Mito Therapy Belt
• Largest Treatment Area: Mito Red Light Therapy Belt
• Most Powerful: Nushape Therapy Wrap
• Best Pulsation: CelLED iLED
• Coolest Extra Features: DNA Vibe Power Bundle

References

Avci P, Gupta A, Sadasivam M, et al. Low-level laser (light) therapy (LLLT) in skin: stimulating, healing, restoring. Semin Cutan Med Surg. 2013 Mar;32(1):41-52. (link)

Leal Junior EC, Lopes-Martins RA, Dalan F, et al. Effect of 830 nm low-level laser therapy in exercise-induced skeletal muscle fatigue in humans. Lasers Med Sci. 2009 Jul;24(4):425-431. (link)