Goal — longevity

For anyone who reads the parameters before the promise.

This goal does not gather the most powerful devices, but the ones whose parameters are driven one by one — wavelength, intensity, pulse — rather than from behind a single button. If you read the papers before buying, this is where the spec sheet answers.

590–940 nm the optical window, wavelength by wavelength

mW/cm² irradiance, which means nothing without a stated distance

0 published studies run on an Antared device. We say so before citing any.

See the 3 devices All six goals

The horizon

What gets measured, and when.

This is the goal where you buy a spec sheet as much as a device: exact wavelengths in nanometres, irradiance in mW/cm² stated at a distance, area actually covered. And one last figure few brands write down: how long it takes before you can judge anything at all.

For anyone who reads the papers before buying, and prefers a verifiable parameter to a superlative.

Reading horizon

Four deadlines, and what can be said at each

Session 1
The one short deadline in the field

On muscle recovery, trials see an effect from the first session. That is the exception, and it concerns neither skin nor hair.
Week 4
Nothing to measure, and that is normal

This is where a routine is most easily abandoned. On skin and hair, no result is expected yet: the protocol says so before you begin.
Week 16
The horizon of the reference trials

The studies documenting red light on skin and hair measure at sixteen weeks of regular sessions. A brand announcing a visible result in a week is not describing those studies.
The studies, and their limits →
After that
The one variable that is yours

A device used three times a week for six months beats a more powerful one used for a fortnight. It is the only parameter no spec sheet carries.

The routine

In order, with nothing left to guess

Read irradiance with its distance

A mW/cm² figure without a stated distance means nothing. It is the first filter, and it eliminates a lot of spec sheets.

Read wavelengths, not colours

Red covers 630 and 660 nm, which do not work at the same depth. Infrared covers 810, 830, and 850 nm.

Look at the area covered

A device covering twice the area halves the number of passes, and therefore the only constraint that matters: total duration.

Set the deadline before you start

Deciding in advance when you will judge is the only way not to judge on first impressions.

Protocol — Full-body session Protocol — Daily recovery

The mistakes that cost the most

Reading an LED count as a power measurement. Two devices with the same LED count can deliver very different irradiances.
Adding up wavelengths as an argument. Seven spectra are not better than three if the three are the ones you actually use.
Chasing maximum depth. Beyond 940 nm, water absorption rises: the optical window has an upper bound, it is not a slider you push.
Judging by the warmth you feel. The warmth comes from the LEDs themselves at close range, not from a measured effect.

Framing

What this goal does not say

A goal is not a medical indication. It names an area of the body and a moment in the week; it points to no condition and implies none. What follows is not stylistic caution: it is the exact boundary of what this page may state.

No study was run on an Antared device

The work cited on our Science page was run on other devices, at other parameters. We do not claim it as ours.

No device slows ageing

That word describes nothing measurable here. The goal names a way of buying and a reading horizon, not a biological promise.

These are wellness products

Without medical-device CE marking. They do not diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.

A group average is not a prognosis

A trial showing a mean effect says nothing about what you, individually, will observe over sixteen weeks.

Dose, safety and mechanism What the studies do — and do not — say

Another angle