devalias.net https://www.devalias.net Follow me into the rabbit hole that is my mind and learn about topics including.. security, technology, efficiency, biohacking, health, personal growth and probably a whole lot more. en_GB DIY Light Therapy (Red/Near Infrared, Cold/Low Level Laser, Blue/UV, etc) /devalias/2018/04/07/diy-light-therapy-red-infrared-cold-laser-lllt-blue-uv/ devalias 2018-04-07T00:00:00+10:00 /devalias/2018/04/07/diy-light-therapy-red-infrared-cold-laser-lllt-blue-uv/ I tend to dive down rabbit holes a lot, and given the cost of context switching and memory deteriorating over time, sometimes the state I build up in my mind gets lost between the chances I get to dive in. These 'linkdump' posts are an attempt to collate at least some of that state in a way that I can hopefully restore to my brain at a later point.

This time around I was inspired to look into Red/Infrared light therapy, originally motivated by some Bulletproof blog posts/talk (1, 2, etc), and the cost of the Joovv light panels. Let's dig in!

Joovv

Joovv is one of those hip health/wellness brands making red/infrared light therapy devices. They tout all of the good buzzwords like low/free of EMF, etc, and they're working in an emerging space (light therapy) that at least at a cursory level of skimming the research sounds like it could have some really cool benefits. The downside? Popular brands and fancy marketing costs money, businesses need money to survive, and so for the Joovv Mini we're looking at about ~US$600. Too expensive for my tastes, particularly for what appears to just be an array of LEDs.

Now, being a builder/breaker type, with a growing interest in the hardware/maker side.. I decided to look into it a little and figure if I could build my own. For reasons, for science!

So looking at the Joovv Mini, we can infer the following:

  • There are 2 grids of LEDs, each consisting of a 6x5 array of LEDs, for a total of 30 LEDs per grid, or 60 in the entire Joov Mini
  • If you get the mixed Red/Infra Red panels, you end up with: 14 red (660nm), 16 near infrared (850nm) per grid (28 red, 32 near infrared total)
  • Power consumption is 120w, so divided by the total LEDs (60), they seem to be 2w LEDs
  • There are 2 cooling fans, so that is probably 1 per grid
  • Total dimensions are: 15" x 8.25" x 3"
  • Irradiance/treatment area are listed as: >100+mw/cm^2, 25" x 18" (these will vary based on wavelength, distance used, etc)

The other models just appear to use different counts of the 'LED grid', and include:

  • Joovv Mini: 2 grids, 60 LEDs, 2 fans, 120w, ~US$595 (or ~US$9.91/LED)
  • Joovv Original: 5 grids, 150 LEDs, 5 fans, 300w, ~US$995 (or ~US$6.6/LED)
  • Joovv Max: 16 grids, 480 LEDs, 16 fans, 960w, ~US$2695 (or ~US$5.6/LED)

So this gives us some pretty good starting parameters from a 'best of breed' product, to use as a basis when we go digging around elsewhere. It also goes to show that there is probably a decent bit of margin between hardware costs and final product (as there always is), so DIY savings abound! We want:

  • A bunch of 2w (or higher) red (660nm)/NIR (850nm) LEDs
  • Some fans
  • Power
  • Casing, etc

Other Commercial Products

So there are a number of other products in this space too.. just a couple off the top of my head:

  • REDjuvenator
    • 15 x 15 array of LEDs (225 total), 1 foot square panel
    • Formula #1: Looks like all red LEDs
    • Formula #2: Looks like red/near infrared
    • Formula #3: Claims the benefits of #1 + #2
    • Formula #4: 'Bacteria buster', looks like red + UV LEDs
  • Bulletproof Labs REDcharger (which is a rebranding of another device.. but I forget the name at the moment..): 630nm/880nm. I think there were like 40,000 LEDs in this.. I feel like there was some small amount of blue/UV in there as well from memory..

Sourcing LEDs

Now I haven't done a whole lot in this hardware building space before.. but I do know that AliExpress tends to have AllTheThings(tm).. I won't directly link as you may find better deals, but a few searches included:

  • 660nm led
  • 850nm led

Now.. I could go for the 2w spec like Joovv uses.. but maybe there are more interesting/cheaper combinations. Looking through the search results the following seemed common: 1w, 3w, 5w. Maybe we could change up the parameters for our build? For example, one supplier listed the following (may not be the best price, or the best supplier, just one example):

  • 1w, deep red (660nm): ~US$3.10/10pc == US$0.31/ea
  • 3w, deep red (660nm): ~US$3.50/10pc == US$0.35/ea
  • 1w, infrared (850nm): ~US$6.90/10pc == US$0.69/ea
  • 3w, infrared (850nm): ~US$7.90/10pc == US$0.79/ea

So from a completely naive back of napkin cost calculation using the 3w LEDs:

  • Mini: 28 red (~US$9.80), 32 NIR (~US$25.28), Total: ~US$35.08
  • Original: 70 red (~US$24.50), 80 NIR (~US$63.20), Total: ~US$87.70
  • Max: 224 red (~US$78.40), 256 NIR (~US$202.24), Total: ~US$280.64

Obviously there will be additional costs for the power supply, fans, casing, construction, etc.. but those costs seem far nicer to me.

There were also some other providers that had some interesting looking LED arrays, with powers such as: 1w, 3w, 5w, 10w, 20w, 30w, 50w, 100w. So we could go super powerful if we wanted (though maybe wouldn't get as good coverage..). Also.. is there a sweet spot for the power/brightness? Need to dig into the research more for that.. It sounds like there is.

In doing some reading, it seems that a lot of the 'grow lights' actually operate in the same spectrums (good for plants, good for us!), so that may be another path worth looking into.

But what about EMFs?

So one of the claims among a number of these products is that they're 'low/free from EMFs', and a cursory skim of some of the research sounds plausible that EMFs could be a thing worth caring about (search terms: EMF voltage regulated calcium channels, etc). Now this isn't an area I've really looked much into, but if we assume they are bad.. what can we do about it? Off the top of my head, and completely unsubstantiated, I would imagine some form of faraday cage type device would do the trick, given it's an "enclosure used to block electromagnetic fields". So maybe that's an area to read more into..

But what about blue light?

So.. seems we can use blue/UV light for things too.. more related to inhibiting bad stuff it seems. Could definitely be an interesting rabbit hole to dive deeper down:

There also seems to be some stuff in the space of using blue (technically violet, 360-400nm) light for myopia/similar:

Lasers!

So, moving a bit away from the LED side of things.. a lot of the 'Low Level Laser Therapy' or 'Cold Laser' treatments out there are using laser diodes instead. They can penetrate deeper, tend to be higher power, more focussed, etc. I've heard about these sorts of things being used to aid in healing of injured joints and more, enough to catch my interest. But once again, these things are expensive (a treatment might cost you $50/session).. and hard to come buy for the biohacker type who isn't a medical professional. For example:

  • THOR Laser
    • ~US$14,000-24,000
    • Various LED/laser probe options (810nm IR laser, 660nm laser, etc)
    • These ones sound quite low powered too: 30mW, 75mW, 200mW, etc
  • MR4 Super Pulsed Laser:
    • ~AU$10,000
    • Infrared (860-960nm)
    • Red (600-740nm)
    • Laser (25w, pulsed)

So looking deeper into the wavelengths, power levels, and options, we find:

Skimming through some of this stuff.. it sounds like we want to look into pulsed/super pulsed laser diodes.. but what are they?

tl;dr: high power, low heat, deeper penetration, 904-905nm Gallium Arsenide (GaAS) diode

And if we turn to our trusty component dealer AliExpress, we turn up a few interesting search results:

  • pulsed laser diode 25w

Now remember.. lasers are dangerous, you can and will destroy your eyes if you do bad things with them. Always wear proper laser eye safety when doing anything like this. Also, if you're in a country like Australia, they may just actually not let you import these full stop.. yay for draconian laws! There might be a way around it for 'legit reasons' (rather than annoying cats with red dots), but it's not an area I've deeply looked into yet.

Now that that's out of the way.. maybe like ~US$25 for a laser diode.. and then need to power it, probably cool it, etc. Better than $25k!

Link Dump

Now that we've got all of that out of the way, how about that link dump:

And if we want to try sensing/reading different wavelengths (maybe for testing, or reverse engineering things, or just for fun!):

Full spectrum bulbs:

Power supplies that are probably actually safe enough to plug into 240v:

Conclusion

So now we have a wide variety of interesting starting points, and some key words/aspects to dig deeper into this area of research/DIY building. We learned that a lot of these products, while very cool and useful, also tend to be WAY overpriced. Maybe we can build our own, open source the designs/components/learnings from it, and move everyone forward together (rather than only those who have the big $$ to benefit).

Was this useful? Have you built your own DIY light hacking devices? Got a cool story to share? Some new research? I'd love to hear what you're doing in this space in the comments below!

]]> Biohacked Box #6 (Spring, March 2018) /devalias/2018/03/05/biohacked-box-6-spring/ devalias 2018-03-05T00:00:00+11:00 /devalias/2018/03/05/biohacked-box-6-spring/ Time for another Bulletproof Biohacked.com quarterly box.

Contents

If you want to follow along with the official unboxing video, head on over and watch with me (YouTube).

  • 0:00 Intro
    • ~US$174 value
  • 1:15 Box overview booklet, discount codes, etc
  • 1:34 KnockKnock Affirmators Cards (~US$12)
    • 20% off any purchase: BIOHACKING20 (till 01/06/2018)
  • 3:43 DefenderShield EMF Free Air Tube Headphones (~US$65)
    • Not noise cancelling
    • Block EMF from getting into ear canal, speaker positioned distance away from earbuds
    • EMF's affect voltage gated calcium channels in mitochondria, cause inflammation over time
    • 15% off: BIOHACK18 (till 30/09/2018)
  • 5:40 Performance Nut Butter Samples
    • Macadamia, coconut, cashews, sea salt
    • 20% off: BULLETPROOF
  • 6:25 Branch Basics Travel Kit (~US$20)
    • Safe/clean household/etc cleansers, concentrated, travel kit
    • 15% off: BIOHACKED
  • 8:08 Fidget Cube (~US$20)
  • 9:22 Pure Mineral SunShield (~US$65)
    • SPF 50
    • Active ingredients: titanium dioxide (22%), zinc oxide (22%)
    • 30% off: BHSS
  • 11:53 Golden Ticket: VitaClay Slow Cooker (~US$120-140)
    • Zisha clay, traditionally used in china
    • Can go down to low temperatures (eg. yoghurt making)
    • $10 off: GIFT10
  • 14:59 Wrap up

Previous Boxes

Want to see what the previous boxes have been like? Check out my other posts:

]]> Biohacked Box #5 (Winter, December 2017) /devalias/2017/12/10/biohacked-box-5-winter/ devalias 2017-12-10T00:00:00+11:00 /devalias/2017/12/10/biohacked-box-5-winter/ Time for another Bulletproof Biohacked.com quarterly box.

Contents

If you want to follow along with the official unboxing video, head on over and watch with me (YouTube).

  • 0:00 Intro
  • 0:31 Box overview booklet, discount codes, etc
  • 0:53 Mark Bell SlingShot Hip Circle (~US$25)
    • Activates hip/butt muscles, warm up for exercise
    • Fixes posture, offsets quad dominance, undoes sitting damage
    • 10% off entire order: BIOHACKED
  • 3:07 Yoga Body Awesome Toes (~US$25)
    • Silicone, spreads toes out
    • Reduces foot pain, realigning toe bones
    • Relieve stress/tension, can walk or sleep in them
  • 5:15 Pro Hands GripMaster (~US$15)
    • Grip/hand/finger strengthening
    • 20% off: BIOHACKED
  • 7:05 Biohacked TENS Unit (~US$85)
    • Runs small pulsed current across nerves
    • Reduces perception of pain, releases endorphins
  • 9:20 Earth Based Body Grounding Gelee (~US$49)
    • Puts layer of ionic silver on feet, increase conductivity with earth
    • 25% off: BHGG25 (till 31/01/2018)
  • 11:00 ManFlow Yoga - Guyoga (~US$35)
  • 13:20 Golden Ticket: Hyperice Sphere / Roller (~US$149)
    • Vibrates, rechargable
    • Releases trigger points/knots quickly
    • 30% off any product: BULLETPROOF30
  • 15:26 Golden Ticket: Joov Combo Mini (~$600)
    • Photobiomodulation, red light therapy
    • Red light contributes electrons to the electron transport chain
    • IR changes the structure of water in your body
    • 660nm and 850nm, good for 50,000 hours of use
    • Can use on head for brain/hair loss
    • $25 off: BIOHACKED
    • (Sidenote: You could probably build your own equivalent to the mini for ~US$100 in parts from aliexpress, save yourself ~US$500)

Previous Boxes

Want to see what the previous boxes have been like? Check out my other posts:

]]> Biohacked Box #4 (Autumn, September 2017) /devalias/2017/09/05/biohacked-box-4-autumn/ devalias 2017-09-05T00:00:00+10:00 /devalias/2017/09/05/biohacked-box-4-autumn/ Time for another Bulletproof Biohacked.com quarterly box.

Contents

If you want to follow along with the official unboxing video, head on over and watch with me (YouTube).

  • 0:00 Intro
    • ~US$220 of value
  • 0:56 Samina Travel Cushion (~US$75)
    • No petrochemical/flame retardents.
    • Green company
    • Climate regulating, conforms to body, self cleaning
    • Discount on sleep system: bulletproofbed (Expires 31/10/2017)
  • 3:11 Siabotanics Energy Elixir (~US$59)
    • Essential oils
    • Topical, stimulate circulation/blood flow to brain
    • 1 drop to each temple, 2 drops behind each ear, 900 drops in a bottle
    • 35% off: ENEX35 (till 10/15/2017)
  • 4:32 XpressGo Portable Espresso Maker (~US$60)
    • Pump creates enough pressure to make real espresso
  • 6:05 Bulletproof FATwater - Mango Flavor
  • 6:43 BeeKeepers Naturals Propolis Spray (~US$14)
    • Bees make propolis to keep fungus/bacteria/etc from growing in the hive
    • Immune booster, antiinflammatory
    • Sustainable bee company
    • 20% off: BIOHACKED ()
  • 8:15 Golden Ticket: Nima Sensor (~US$279)
    • Portable gluten sensor
    • Gluten == lectin
    • Nima app allows you to find truly gluten free restaurants
    • 20% off starter kit: BIOHACKED (till 30/09/2017)
  • 10:10 Golden Ticket: TeloYears (~US$89)
    • DNA health test, telomere length
    • Protective caps on the end of DNA, protect genetic information during cellular division
    • Telomere length reduces each time cell divides, when they're gone, cell dies
    • Dave does this test every 6-12 months
    • $10 off: DAVE17
  • 11:17 Random discount cards/etc
    • Nima Sensor
    • TeloYears
    • Box overview booklet
  • 12:20 Bulletproof Eye Armor: $15 off subscription: VISIONHACK (till 29/12/2017)
    • Designed to help eyes deal with blue light
    • Dave takes 4/day
  • 13:13 Wrap up

Previous Boxes

Want to see what the previous boxes have been like? Check out my other posts:

]]> Biohacked Box #3 (June 2017) /devalias/2017/06/04/biohacked-box-3/ devalias 2017-06-04T00:00:00+10:00 /devalias/2017/06/04/biohacked-box-3/ Time for another Bulletproof Biohacked.com quarterly box. A few interesting sounding items this time around, not sure how useful they will be though.

Contents

If you want to follow along with the official unboxing video, head on over and watch with me (YouTube). It looks like they've started including some information and links about the items on their site now too, win!

  • 0:00 Intro
    • ~$225 of value, not quite a new record
    • Stuff discovered while writing headstrong
    • A lot of items not available to public yet
    • Help with resilience, balance in times of stress
  • 1:38 Pocket knives are good
  • 2:15 Pluggz Earthing Sandles (~US$49)
    • Custom carbon/rubber plug
    • Allows electrons to flow between you and the earth
    • 35% off: BHVIP25 (till August 15)
  • 4:18 HoneyColony Hydra Molecular Hydrogen (US$59.95)
    • Put in water, combats oxidative stress, destroys freeradicals, provides free electrons
    • Some freeradicals required for mitochondria
    • Hydrogen hits the bad freeradicals
    • 20% off: ENERGY
  • 6:20 Stellarcleenz Silver Spritz (US$32)
    • Antibacterial/antifungal colloidal silver + essential oils
    • 30% off: BH30
  • 7:34 TrueDark Dots (US$40)
    • Coloured dots for filtering/blocking LED's/etc
    • Black, dark red, light red
  • 10:21 Neuromaster (US$56)
    • Supports BDNF through polyphenols, helps brain be more neuroplastic
  • 10:55 Golden Tickets

Previous Boxes

Want to see what the previous boxes have been like? Check out my other posts:

]]> Biohacked Box #2 (March 2017) /devalias/2017/03/01/biohacked-box-2/ devalias 2017-03-01T00:00:00+11:00 /devalias/2017/03/01/biohacked-box-2/ Time for another Bulletproof Biohacked.com quarterly box. My overall impression of this one was pretty low in comparison to the others. A bunch of things that I don't really feel like I'd make much use of. But anyway, we'll see how it goes!

Contents

If you want to follow along with the official unboxing video, head on over and watch with me. (alt, YouTube)

Previous Boxes

Want to see what the previous boxes have been like? Check out my other posts:

]]> Biohacked Box #1 (aka Bulletproof Biohacking Box #9) /devalias/2016/12/20/biohacked-box-1-bulletproof-biohacking-box-9/ devalias 2016-12-20T00:00:00+11:00 /devalias/2016/12/20/biohacked-box-1-bulletproof-biohacking-box-9/ Even though you pay for these boxes (US$99/quarter), it becomes another one of those background things you forget about, and then suddenly in the mail arrives this package of biohacking goodies! This one rocked up perfectly in time for actual christmas, so was a nice little addition to the festivities.

While this is the 9th box overall, it's the first shipped via the new service over at Biohacked.com. If you haven't checked it out yet, I definitely recommend it.

Contents

If you want to follow along with the official unboxing video, head on over and watch with me. (YouTube)

  • 0:48 SquattyPotty (AU)
    • 20% off: BIOHACKED20 (expires 15/2/17)
    • Changes the alignment of your bowels, better elimination, better endotoxin excretion.
    • Porta-Squatty (~US$29)
  • 4:35 Neurominer (US$99/yr + $99 voucher)
    • Brain trainer
    • Default mode network: creativity, intuition, etc. When you're not actively working on a problem
    • Like a dream, hard to remember things unless you write them down
    • Trains passive recall ability
    • Bill Harris, Centerpointe Research Institute
    • Combine holosync style sounds, with memory training
    • 8:16 Free personal account while you remain subscribed to the biohacked box, and a gift card for a free year for a friend
    • Want 20-30min/day for a month to get the benefit, is a meditation
  • 9:47 Breakaway Matcha
  • 13:50 ZeroPoint Compression Socks (~US$45)
    • 30% off: BULLETPROOF30
    • Medical grade compression
    • Graduated compression (tighter at the bottom, rather than the top)
    • Size for me, M2
  • 15:48 Chi-ocolate
    • Dark Chocolate infused with Chinese Herbal Formulas Anxiety, Stress, PMS, Workout Recovery.
    • 80% dark ecuadorian chocolate
    • Formulated by one of the 40 Years of Zen neuroscientists
  • 17:00 Bulletproof Collagen Protein Bites (~$30/box)
  • 18:30 Golden Ticket: Stand Desk
    • 3 golden ticket prizes
    • 15% off: BIOBOX20
  • 20:10 iH2O
    • 10 people get one for free
    • $100 off: BULLETPROOF (exp 28/2/17)
    • 'Intelligently Designed Water'
    • 4th state of water, exclusion zone, EZWater, structured water
  • 22:20 Golden Ticket: 40 Years of Zen Mastermind Program ($US15,000)
    • Only a couple hundred can do it per year
    • Dedicated $2.5mil facility in Seattle
    • 5 days of intensive neurofeedback
    • Custom made hardware/software
    • Includes a year of membership to an exclusive group, telecalls, etc
    • Access to a small meeting around the next Bulletproof conference
  • 25:18 Tell a friend
  • 26:00 Share a picture
  • 26:09 Cancel your old quarterly box
    • They transferred it to a generic box without asking permission first

So that's it for this box, can't wait to see what goodies we get next time!

Also, while I was on the Biohacked site, I saw a couple of upcoming products. They look to be some new blue light blockers, and the style seems to have a pretty awesome Vampyre-chic look to it. If you're interested, head on over and take a look:

Previous Boxes

Want to see what the previous boxes have been like? Check out my other posts:

]]> Bulletproof Biohacking Box #8 /devalias/2016/10/13/bulletproof-biohacking-box-8/ devalias 2016-10-13T00:00:00+11:00 /devalias/2016/10/13/bulletproof-biohacking-box-8/ So it's that time again where biohacking christmas comes early (4 times a year!) Before I get into the content from this box, it seems Dave and the team have decided to move on from Quarterly and give the biohacking box a new home on biohacked.com. So if you want to find it, make sure you head over there and sign up!

Without further ado, the contents!

BIO08

]]> Bulletproof Quarterly Biohacking Box #7 /devalias/2016/07/21/bulletproof-quarterly-biohacking-box-7/ devalias 2016-07-21T00:00:00+10:00 /devalias/2016/07/21/bulletproof-quarterly-biohacking-box-7/ A bit of a change from the tech content today. I've been thinking about it for a while, and have decided to start consolidating all of my interests/thoughts/posts onto this site. The blog will still mostly be tech leaning, but some posts will start branching out toward my other interests such as biohacking, human performance, efficiency, etc.

With that out of the way, this is just a quick post to show off what came in the latest Bulletproof Quarterly Biohacking Box from Dave Asprey aka The Bulletproof Exec.

If you don't know what quarterly is, basically you subscribe to interesting people, and every three months you receive a curated box of interesting goodies and discount codes from them. I've been subscribed to this one since the beginning, and have got some pretty cool stuff out of it. While I won't go into as much detail with the previous boxes, I might note a few things of particular interest.

BIO07

Previous Boxes

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