In 1993, NASA wanted to conduct plant growth experiments in outer space. They wanted to use the deep-red wavelength of light, but the only light source available was from lasers which they didn’t want to use. So NASA had a special type of Light Emitting Diode, (LED) developed which would produce the desired wavelengths.
The experiments in space demonstrated that these special red LED wavelengths could boost plant growth. (By the way, those same LEDs are what all of the pot growers use today). But more important than the plant growth results was that the astronauts found that, skin lesions accumulated by the astronauts from their daily activities, upon application of this special red light, began to heal faster.
NASA subsequently commissioned studies on the use of these red-light LEDs to increase the metabolism of human cells and stem the loss of bone and muscle for, it’s astronauts.
Today the National Institute of Health, after reviewing 533 separate studies involving over 1,000 athletes, is asking the question of the possibility of adding red-light therapy to the “banned substance” list for competitive athletes because of its extraordinary performance-enhancing effects.
Quoted from this NIH report “ It must be noted if the use of PBM becomes widespread in high level sports competitions, especially before major National or International competitions, or during athletic training, it is possible that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) or the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will need to discuss the position they will take on whether PBM will be allowed or not. If they decide it should not be allowed, they will be faced with the tricky problem of how to forensically detect if muscles have been exposed to light? We cannot envisage a biochemical test that could be conducted on blood or urine that would conclusively detect whether muscles had been exposed to the “banned light” used in PBM. However, we believe that discussions about this issue will happen soon. ” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5167494/