Red Light Therapy Explained: How It Impacts Your Brain, Gut & Recovery

What if your brain health isn’t just about your brain?

In this episode of The True Form Podcast, I sit down with John Graham Harper, founder of Lumaflex, to explore how red and near-infrared light therapy can support recovery, reduce pain, and improve overall health, starting at the cellular level.

We break down the science in a simple, practical way and explore a powerful idea: that many of the issues we try to solve in isolation, like brain fog, low energy, or poor recovery, may actually be connected.

From the gut–brain relationship to the role of sunlight, sleep, and modern lifestyle, this conversation zooms out to look at health as a whole.

If you’ve been curious about red light therapy or just want to better understand how your body actually heals, this episode will give you a new perspective.

Learn more about Lumaflex: https://www.lumaflex.com
Use code TRUEFORM for 10% off

In this episode, we cover:

🔷 How red light therapy works (in simple terms).

🔷 The connection between your gut and brain.

🔷 Why recovery is often the missing piece.

🔷 How to use light therapy in your daily routine.

🔷 The impact of sunlight, sleep, and circadian rhythm.

🔷 Practical ways to support your overall health.

John Graham Harper is the CEO and founder of Lumaflex, a global wellness technology company focused on red and near-infrared light therapy. With a background in competitive sport and recovery, his work is centred around helping people improve their health through practical, science-backed tools.

If you enjoy the episode, feel free to share it with someone who might get value from it.

Transcript

John Graham 0:00

Amazing. A lot of the problems with your brain are in your gut. So it's not really the light that does the healing. It's the light that gives energy to your cells to heal themselves. Now we're, you know, 85 to 90% deficient in sunlight. It's creating problems. And not only that, we're under artificial light. Artificial light creates inflammation in our body. If we were to eliminate lower back pain in the world, like the whole world would change overnight.

Jack Graham 0:27

What's up, everybody? I want to thank Lumaflex for being the official sponsor of the True From Podcast. Today I have John, the CEO, creator, founder of Lumiflex, on the episode to talk all about this amazing red light therapy device. And later on in the episode, I'm going to share my experiences with this device and why I'm so excited to have them as a sponsor. But first, let's jump into the episode and learn all about these little red lights. Well, John, thanks for coming on the podcast. I am very excited to dive into red light therapy and learn all about it. Uh, because it's just something that I've had on my radar, but just in the back of my mind, obviously being in health and wellness, it's all over the place. And you always get advertised, but there's a lot of, I guess you could say, BS or like just snake oil would be the the language you use there. And I've always just sort of had it on the peripheries, and I I'm I'm excited, like I said, I'm excited to dive into it and learn all about it. But I want to know more about you. Uh how did you get into health and wellness and then how did red light therapy work its way into there?

John Graham 1:35

Yeah, I was a um I was an athlete, I played rugby, and um I moved into amateur boxing, and I had a lot of injuries myself, and I was very um very driven competitively in sports. And I thought um, yeah, I had like for boxing, I had this dream of being a heavyweight champion. And to this day, like my first love is always boxing. Um, like I've I've met some very some of the top pros in the world. I just love the sport, this idea of like, you know, coming out of the ghetto, getting in the ring, achieving your dreams, and being able to feed your family kind of thing. You know, that story of the hero's journey, um, and you know, holding a heavyweight belt over your head. It's kind of something I always I would, you know, as a young kid, I'd, you know, dream and dream of being a heavyweight champion. Um, but throughout all those sports, I got very severely injured. And my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife, was the one actually pushing me to do red light therapy. And she she got me this like uh it's a lamp, and this this lamp, you can buy it on Amazon. Um, and you'll see it in some clinics, you know, here and there. You'll see it. It's an ugly-looking thing, but um, it's very effective. And usually it has a red bulb that gets very hot. And back when I started using it, when my wife was pushing me to use it, she would say 20 minutes um every night before bed and aim it on the area that has the inflammation. And the bulb would get very hot. So I thought it was heat, like that was healing me. It was the it was heat therapy, but later found out that it was was um what was was light. How long ago was that? That that's uh that's gotta be it's gotta be over seven years ago when I first started tampering with this lamp from my wife. And um yeah, long time ago. And I remember I remember the aha moment came when because my left knee was was the worst injury that I had in my life. That was something that where it once it would get inflamed, it was difficult to walk, I wouldn't wouldn't be able to go to the gym. I was I would I would have like the this knee brace. I had so many knee braces, like the strap versions, the pull, the you know, the sheath versions, and I would have these um creams, like you buy at Walgreens, it's like a deep heat rub. And I I had I had it down to a science, this kind of massage that I would do to help, you know, get circulation to the to the joint so I could could walk around and and do some kind of activity. But um I remember aiming the lamp on my knee 20 minutes every night, and after a week, I didn't have this pain that I was very much used to. And then after another week, I didn't need it for my knee anymore. And I and to this day, my knee has never had any of any issues whatsoever. And it's and I do squats, I run high rocks, I do hyaking, you know, I'm I'm kicking things here and there. And um, and it it was it was in it was it, if I'm honest, I was interested in light therapy as kind of a hack to be a competitive athlete. This can be my edge, so to speak, you know, like I can have this, this, you know, this snake oil, like you said, that um that nobody else knows about. Um, but then I later, you know, go getting into the research a little bit and and communicating with a lot of these scientists and doctors that were so passionate about light therapy kind of got me inspired and excited about it. And then wanting to build a product that was more tailored to me, that was more versatile, that was more portable, something that was uh easy, you know, for light light therapy to go mainstream, as a sort of a more sexy, trendy product. And the um Lumiflex kind of came out of that, but the the tough part with Lumiflex was our development phase that took about three years. Um, and this was because of COVID as well. COVID had a out of, you know, was an obstacle that we had to things slowed down a lot. But we really pushed into um into the development phase and made sure that we created something that was very durable and most importantly, created consistency of using light therapy. Because when you read the clinical research, it shows that consistency of use in light therapy is kind of the metric that you know brings about immediate rapid recovery and change and and relief. Because what you got to remember about light therapy is that it's addressing a condition on a cellular level. Anytime you hear light therapy, whether it be for beauty, whether it be for longevity or testosterone production or or any of these, you know, brain diseases or whatever, it's it's attacking the problem on a cellular level. It's addressing, let's fix the cells, let the cells have energy so the cells can heal you. So it's not really the light that does the healing, it's the light that gives energy to your cells to heal themselves. So it's kind of a much, it's an approach now in longevity that everybody is kind of that every modality is is is sort of it's a way to know, like you said, the snake oil, right? If you're addressing a problem on a surface level, it may provide temporary relief, but it won't be long lasting. If healthy cells is a healthy body, right? And a body that can live for a long time. So longevity, you'll always hear about mitochondrial health, right? And things that support mitochondrial health. And that's what light therapy is. It's a it's um it's a cellular energy modality.

Jack Graham 7:39

I wish I had found it eight years ago. I've seen in your in your bio that you were in the CrossFit, and I was in the CrossFit about five to eight years ago, and my knees were just screwed. I had tendinopathy in both knees, couldn't walk, and yeah, and like I had all the braces and all the all the rubs and all that sort of stuff doled in. But yeah, I just seen this light therapy on the side, and you said it took two weeks for your knee to get better. That's amazing. So I guess my question to start with, I obviously not all red light. Can you just go and buy a red light bulb? And does that work? Like tell us about the actual light, and then we'll go into how it actually affects the body.

John Graham 8:21

Well, now like the clinical research is really overwhelming about light therapy and the human condition. I can send you an Excel link, and I got this um, I got this link, I believe it was in Finland, at a medical conference from a from a gentleman, I believe his name is Vladimir, Vladimir or something. And um, he he has a big passion for collecting all the research done all over the world, putting it all into one link. And I think where we're at right now, we're close to about 10,000 studies to support light therapy and the human condition. So this is everything from pain to brain disease, you know, to eye health, you know, to oral hygiene, you know, and and and beyond. And what the clinical research is showing now is that specific wavelengths bring about specific outcomes. So light in a spectrum, you have red light, which is like the 600 nanometers, then you go into near infrared, which is the 800s, the 900s, and then going into the thousands. And then on the other side, you've got far infrared. And if you you'll see these saunas now that are infrared sauna, and that's far infrared. Very, very good for detoxification for overall well-being. It it's a different, uh, it reacts to your body's different, it reacts to your body's water, it helps you sweat, but it doesn't really um support mitochondria. It's not really doing the same mechanisms as red and near infrared. So when you are looking at a device and you're looking to get into light therapy, you're looking to get a device with red light as well as near infrared. Usually FDA cleared products are in those, those uh light spectrums, those nanometers. So you'll have, so for Lumiflex, we've got um 630, which is the the red infrared light wavelength we use, the red light wavelength, sorry, and then we have 850, which is the near infrared light. And those two specific wavelengths, there's a you know, countless amount of um clinical research that supports those two devices and the combination of them for not only surface level pain, which is the red light, but also the deeper level chronic pain, which is the red and infrared light. And so basically, all we care about as users, the different nanometers, we just care about what you know what it is they can do for us, and all we need to remember is the depths that goes in our body. Red light goes about an inch, uh, near infrared goes a little goes deeper, about four inches. So are you using them both at the same time? Yes, and using yes, and combining them. You'll have you'll see like LED masks for beauty, and they will play more in the red light spectrum. They won't go so deep, some of them. There are some device uh masks now that do have very deep near-infrared light nanometers, but most are they're they're they're interested, they're they're interested in supporting collagen production. So it's more of a surface level, so addressing cells more on the surface level. But um, when you look at pain, you want to go deeper into the body and address pain at very different at deeper depths in the body. And I have a new device that I launched uh in Las Vegas. It was in October, we launched it last year. And this this device, I've added more wavelengths of light into the portable unit. And we now have six different wavelengths, and we go up to the 1064 nanometer, and then we also have the 904 nanometer. These two nanometers support brain health. And when you look at the clinical research, you're talking Alzheimer's, dementia, autism, Parkinson's disease. These conditions can be addressed by providing, again, cellular energy to the brain to help the brain heal itself, to help the bro the cells in the brain to help heal you, right? To re to reformat your your cognitive energy. Um so the that that's that's basically how you want to approach light therapy, is more critiquing the nanometers that are used.

Jack Graham 12:40

When you see a div It's crazy how these little red lights on your skin can have such a positive impact on your overall health and wellness. I'm actually disappointed in myself for taking so long to get into red light therapy, but the industry is just full of shitty products. Like you've super expensive lights that you stick on your skin and you hope they work, but you don't actually know if they do. And I've been using the Body Pro from Lumiflex for quite a few weeks now, and it's blown my mind how you can actually feel the effects of the light. I've been struggling with plantar fasciitis for the last eight months. It's driving me insane. And I was almost at the point where I was gonna go down surgery, PRP, cortisone shots, just to get rid of the pain so I could do the exercises I needed to to fix the ankle. That's the worst part about some sort of niggle or injury. Like you're always in pain and you don't want to do those exercises to fix it. And that's when you end up doing surgery, stuff like that, very invasive things to try and get rid of that pain. After I was using this, did about four rounds each day for about three days, and after the third day, on the fourth day, the pain was gone. It was crazy. And now I can do the exercises on my ankle to improve the plantar fasciitis, and it's getting better. I actually went for a run the other day. Crazy. First run, it wasn't very far, don't stress. First run in about eight months without pain as well. As John goes over in this episode, there's so many use cases for your body and red light therapy. It's been amazing to see the results, and I'm keen to share them all with you. But if you want to get your own LumaFlex, you can use the code TRUEFOM at checkout to get a massive 10% off your first order.

John Graham 14:32

When you see a devo if if if uh if a product is selling light therapy to you, but they're not really telling you what nanometers they're using, I don't I don't agree with that. You need to tell them what the nanometers are because that's that's what you're buying. You're buying, that's the the treatment, right? That and the depth that goes into your body. And then the other thing, when in in manufacturing, in medical manufacturing, it's very easy to make a device and sell it. But in and when you're at a certain price point, you're it's not that the device isn't effective, it just probably doesn't have a that long a life. It may last just a few weeks or a few months. Because when you're you're getting an LED, like here, I'll get I'll get the device here. So this is this is the essential pro, the one with the six nanometers, right? So you turn it on, that's that's the the treatment you're getting. So these LEDs, you there's a certain price that you buy these LEDs, and then the nanometers are programmed into that LED. The specific wavelengths are programmed into it. So when you reach a price point like you know, in the hundreds, you know, less than 200, you're buying cheap LEDs, which means that the LED tool will like lose lose its output, lose its power output. It just may fade and die. Um but that's kind of the the thing with LED technology, is it's it, there's a sort of we're we're no matter what LEDs you buy in the in the world, we're all at a sort of a same level. The same with like battery with lithium battery technology, you know, we're all sort of at the same level. And then as the technology rises, every the whole industry rises up. So that's something to be aware of. Is you it's not really you're not just buying a light that's red, you're buying a light with a specific nanometer, and a certain price point is is where you know that the LED is quality and it's doing its job, right? Does that make sense?

Jack Graham 16:30

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. This is again so interesting. Like over the last couple of months, I've had guests on, and red light therapy is just coming up more and more with cancer research, pain, all that sort of stuff, yeah, helping recovery. And it's just been blowing my mind how many people have started using it. But I'd like to go back like your journey with uh Luminex, A Flex, and like where did it start and where is it now? Like just the pad you just showed me and like the stuff you got going on is just amazing. So where did it start?

John Graham 17:02

So the the the those three years of development, like going pushing a product that was highly durable and something that I wanted. I I had a friend, I had this mate of mine, Levi Webb, who was a sniper in the military. And um, he's someone who's very, very close to me. He's like a brother from another mother, and he was cleaning a gun, um, and the gun fell on his back and he got very severe sciatica. So I had this vision of introducing light therapy, which again is natural, it's non-evasive, and bringing this into the military and creating a real durable product. So we all the development was done with the black one, the body pro unit. And this one is actually fully waterproof. It's IP67. So that's the that's a rating you get to show how how durable it is underwater. And um the this is this is we launched with the body pro, and then later I brought in a retail version with the exact same treatment. It just isn't waterproof and it's not um Bluetooth connected. And the Bluetooth that we have on the app is where you introduce pulse frequencies. So you're you're able to not just have fixed light, but you're pulsing the light, allowing your mitochondria to breathe, and so in a way, optimizing your intake of light therapy, allowing you to intake more. Um and that's another whole rabbit hole of studies, where you look at all the clinical research, you'll see what nanometers did they use for that outcome, what Hertz was they were they flashing the light to achieve that outcome? And that's where it's kind of becoming a new standard in light therapy manufacturing is introducing Hertz for specific outcomes. It's still very medical. Like we have this feature, and we do try to talk about and educate people about pulse frequency, but usually a doctor who understands photobiomodulation will know, oh, that he'll he'll know how to give a a prescription, you know, which Hertz to use for with a device. It's still very kind of very medical. It's a bit, it's a it's a bit complex. You need to know the clinical research. Um, but yeah, after that that three-year development phase, we launched in Miami. And um now we are about two and a half years launch. Actually, I think May. May is our is May coming is our anniversary. So we're gonna have our three-year anniversary in May.

Jack Graham 19:33

Amazing. Yeah.

John Graham 19:34

Yeah, we we um so we I launched uh uh the retail version and we've been pushing that out. And I wanted to not, I didn't want to just sort of confine to the key markets like the US. I wanted to branch out and get distributors, and I had a lot of great resources in Europe. So Europe, we we actually do probably better in Europe than we do any other region. So Poland, um, Czech Republic, Baltics, UK, France, like all of these countries, they there's a strong interest in light therapy. So I really went into distribution as a brand early on, and it's kind of still we're we're predominantly a distribution brand over, you know, um, you know, just a simple e-commerce brand. And then launching now the uh Essential Pro, where we're pushing not just into pain management, but to brain health. The Essential Pro is actually used in Italy by a doctor who's my my distributor. He has a franchise of clinics, and um, he uses it for autism patients. And he has like famous celebrities in Italy who that are suffering from dementia, Parkinson's and all these. And he's directly saying you need to use this device, you know, to help to get well. So it's Italy's very exciting for me. That's a that's a real lot of amazing feedback coming back from you know from Italy. But the goal now for this year is you know to to push into Asia and the GCC. Right now, you know, it's a bit of a trying time in the GCC. So we're gonna see how what happens there. The see, you know, if if the tension dies down a bit. But Dubai is a great market for us. Um, Saudi Arabia is wonderful as well. Um all of these these areas. I've got a lot of distributors that are that that have been pushing. It's just we're all a bit on hold now. We're seeing what happens.

Jack Graham 21:34

Well, that's epic. And it just goes to show you have got a good product. If people are like especially a doctor, is recommending it to patients and making sure they get it and use it, that just goes to show that it is quality and it is worth using. Did did it help with your mate's sciatica?

John Graham 21:51

Yes, that's right. He's now he's recovered, and not just him, but my my my mother also is a very um my you know, my mother and father, my mu my Father was always had a bad neck. My mother was her knees. And ever growing up, my mom would always complain about her knees. And my stories of relief that are very close to me is obviously my mother. She's like, you know, she's the most important person to me in the world, you know. And um, you know, where when she's now able to walk, get out, run, you know, from from treatment that isn't something you're putting into your body that, you know, that is, you know, messing you up and creating side effects or different symptoms that, you know, we don't, we, we can't possibly, you know, uh understand or or um or um like the thing with with pharmaceuticals is it's it's pharmaceuticals create problems that you don't, you may not see as a problem, but you're creating an addiction and a dependency. And this may lead to something else that you'll need a pill for. And I've seen this happen in real time so many times that it really helps to, you know, to encourage natural, non-evasive healing. And it's great that the whole world is talking about this now. There's a wellness trend on that is exploding, and people are becoming aware of it. And a lot of the hacks, the tools, you know, the pieces of equipment, they're just taking something that was available to us back in our in our natural environment as early human beings and just putting it in a device, right? And that can be something as simple as uh as grounding, a grounding mat. I have a grounding mat for my this is a grounding mat. See, it's attached, see there, that's it's attached. So it's on it's my mouse pad. Grounding, eat. I would highly recommend everyone to do it. How often do we ground? Do we get our feet, put them on the ground? Very, very little. Again, light therapy, it's natural, it's non-evasive, but don't forget, it's from the sun. It is a it's available to us in our natural environment. So if you were to turn back the clock, go back into our ancient time, we had a lot more sun exposure. We were we were under the sun, getting the healing nanometers of the sun on a more regular basis. Now we're you know 85 to 90 percent deficient in sunlight, it's creating problems. And not only that, we're under artificial light. Artificial light creates inflammation in our body. We're we're we're like on our phones, you know, late at night, telling our brains it's it's time to wake up, right? When we're supposed to be sleepy. So that sunrise was our more that was our alarm clock, you know, before, and that's red and infrared light. Later, UV light would come into play, which is very important. It's still extremely important to have UV lights, very good for testosterone and for multiple, multiple reasons. And then sunset was our you know, time to switch off. Our our biology would start to wind down. And then we would build campfires. And again, red and infrared light, we would have these campfires and we'd be, we'd be calming down for the night. Like if you've noticed, um, whenever you see a campfire, you know, at night by the beach, it gives you a feeling of fellowship, security. You know, you want to sit by the campfire, have like a hot drink and play some songs. And that's in like that's in our DNA. I don't know, you know, that's where it's coming from, because from our ancient time. That was a time of rest, recuperation, right? So if you're if if you if you want to, you know, be not just surviving through life, but thriving, you'd want to try to match this circadian rhythm, the sunrise and sunset. So I always encourage people if you have a lumiflex, when the sun goes down, limit your time in front of screens and use the the lumiflex as your nightlight. If you need to wake up to go to the bathroom, don't turn on the light. Or don't, you know, and and for your phone, change the settings to where it's it's now the it becomes out as red light. But try to match that sarcadian rhythm and then you'll see improved sleep. You'll see a you know, a decrease in your anxiety or depression and your mood. Well, you know, if you're if you're a moody person, sometimes it can just be that easy to fix, right? Just watching, you know, how you rest. When we rest, our body regenerates. It's like we're getting plugged back in, you know, or our battery goes back up. And we so a lot of a lot of hacks really at the end of the day just optimize your sleep, and then everything works out great, you know? It's so amazing.

Jack Graham 26:27

100% agree. Yeah, it's it's simple, but a lot of people still struggle with it. Yes. And I wanted to dive into that. So let's say somebody's bought a Lumiflex, like where how should they think about it? Like you've said, you know, it can help with testosterone, brain health, pain. How can we use it to help all those things?

John Graham 26:47

We have so something about us is we're um we're we're becoming more of an education company rather than a product company. And this happened about eight months into launch. A lot of distributors, they were like, great, wonderful, such a great product, but how do we use it? How do we treat people? How do we advise it? How do we sell it? Right. And um, so I got I teamed up with a scientist, Peter Forehand, who's he's like one of the smartest people I know now on this planet. And, you know, he could be just because he's so passionate about light therapy, about nature, and us us going back to our roots, going back to our natural environment. And we built this big education program that we put up on the site. And anybody listening, if you want to be zero to hero in light therapy, nanometers, irradiance, dosage, you know, how to treat what, you know, how to how to assess clinical research, just hit me up on Instagram, John GraemeFitness, and say, watch the show, love it. I want to learn about light therapy, I'll enroll you for free. We sell it on the site, it's like 200 bucks, I think, but we we want that education to support using the product. So you buy a product, you get the education. And that's kind of the you know, that that's and I do this for our retail partners, our distribution partners, like gyms like Equinox that we've we work with. We've actually run seminars in Equinox and Virgin Active. Actually, Virgin Active, I think, yeah, because I have a distributor in Australia, and I remember doing a seminar with Virgin Active in Australia, teaching the trainers about how to use the product. But it's very simple. It's an aim at the pain protocol. Touch skin. That's the that's that, you know, talking about the product, why is why it is this size. The reason it's this size is from our product development uh uh phase, we wanted to create a product that was um wasn't too big because then you lose portability and you use consistency of use. We wanted a product that you throw in your gym bag, you throw in your you know, your bag to go to the office, you have it in your car, you have it at your desk. It's it's it's always with you. And that was a certain size, but we needed to create um uh a product that had large enough surface area to deal with the number one pain that everyone has, which is the lower back. So that that that's the size we came with to address lower back pain, which is like if we were to eliminate lower back pain in the world, like the whole world would change overnight. It's like it's like you we all have a friend or a family member that is like, oh my back, oh my back. We're always hearing this. We're always like back pain, back pain, back pain. So that was that was the the reason for for for the actual size. But then the the we we went with a 10-minute time frame, which is when the timer that's automatic on the battery, and we worked backwards to deliver the optimal dose into the body for a pain management outcome in 10 minutes. So the our process of of light therapy is very protocol driven. There, there are um devices you can buy like panels and larger devices, that their way of providing treatment, it's very different to how we do it. We they're just like we'll blast red light therapy, we'll make the device super powerful, and then you know, hope for the best kind of thing. That's that's fine. That's I'm not saying that that approach is wrong or it won't it won't work and you're not you're not doing good. It's just I I wanted to to basically optimize the output and develop sessions to where I can basically self-treat myself. You know, so we recommend two treatments per site of pain per day. And if you need more, you add sessions. And then if if a doctor is using it in a practice, like this is this is even in ambulances in um Poland. In Poland, this is a tool in ambulances. So if they you know, if you if they someone says, I have a bad shoulder, we say, okay, do 10 minutes, you know, let's give six hours of let your body regenerate, use that use that energy, and then we'll give another treatment and then say, you know, how are you feeling? What's your pain rating now? And you can add more sessions, you can build a protocol. A doctor or you yourself can build a protocol on these 10-minute sessions. So it's a little bit more protocol driven of the design. And the reason for touching skin is we have a manual that you get when you have the product, and there's a certain power output. And we want to guarantee that output into your body. Because light, when you like if it is at a distance, light will reflect. And you'll notice this that if I'm in a completely dark room and I put the device on my chest, the room is still dark. The moment I I shine it out, you can see the light. The light will reflect. I mean, that's what light does. It reflects, it ricochets, right? So you you lose a lot of the the treatment, you know, if the device is at a distance. So if I have a manual, I have an output, and it I want to guarantee that into your body. So let's have the have it uh uh the the protocol is touching skin, then that is then it's all a calculation of the of the the dose, the irradiance, and the wavelengths per 10 for 10 minute sessions. So that's kind of our approach to to light therapy. So we do say 10 minutes at morning, 10 minutes at night is something that um I always recommend. You mentioned testosterone production. You can actually buy like ball cups online now to you know to put your balls in to help with testosterone production. And this this device is um is actually used in male fertility clinics in Miami because it's liquid silicone and you can clean it. And the men will use it and they'll put it on their balls at night. And again, at night and at morning, those are the optimal times, you know, that to get our red and if red light. And where you'll see relief is the next morning. So if someone has pain, they do those two sessions on the day. The next morning, they can assess their pain. And again, some people like like with my knee, the the um relief is immediate. Others it will take like two weeks, and then usually when you have a doctor who prescribes photobimodulation, he will he will look at a month protocol just to be safe. And then if if there's like no significant change, he'll introduce a modality, he'll introduce another another hack, and you we call hack stacking. It's when you like stack red light with this or with that or with that, or with you know, you do IV, you know, you do stretching, you do sauna treatments, you know, you do um oxygen therapy. Like I've seen people take this into those hyperbaric chambers and like do breath work in a hyperbaric chamber. So the hack stack is hack stacking is definitely fun, you know, with light therapy. But that's sort of generally the protocol is two 10-minute sessions, assess your pain rating in the morning if you need more, or you just keep keep going until you know your your energy, your cellular energy is enough to where it can fight that inflammation. For Lumaflex in my orbit, it's everyone has been writing the review.

Jack Graham 34:30

I've had these little red lights, the Lumiflex Body Pro for a few weeks now, and it goes with me everywhere and it goes on me everywhere. I love putting this on my belly in the morning just to help my digestion get rolling. Any little niggles I've had from training the day before goes on there a few rounds and I'm ready to jump back in the gym. It's absolutely crazy how fast you can feel the effects of this red light therapy device. It comes with these amazing little straps that you can literally strap it to any part of your body, joints, limbs, anywhere. So anywhere you need a little bit extra recovery, it can do that. A couple of rounds of the red lights and you are good to go. And you can get access to Lumiflex Academy, where you can actually start learning about the benefits of red light therapy and how to use it properly so you can actually see the benefits in your body as well. So check out the link, lumiflex.com.au, use the code TrueForm and get 10% off your Lumiflex products.

John Graham 35:27

It's everyone has been writing the reviews, sending the emails at the two-week mark. You know, that's kind of like the the time frame that we have is two the two-week mark, where we get all the wonderful, thank you so much. It was a miracle I met you. You know, which is very fulfilling. It's it's really special, you know, when you get that. The whole team, you know, jumps up and says, Hurrah! It's it's really good. Yeah.

Jack Graham 35:53

Uh so talk to me about the brain health. So are we putting it on our head?

John Graham 35:58

So with brain health, amazing. A lot of the problems with your brain are in your gut. So, in for the autism patients in Italy, the doctor has them put it on their gut. And there was a study, I remember some study where they got they they they changed the microbiome in the gut of the autism patients to allow them to be able to speak. So when you think brain, you do think the head. And yes, you you should put on your face, you can put on your forehead. And I usually recommend the back of the neck, it slides right in there. But where you can really get a lot of um benefit to the brain is gut health. It's that second brain, right? Issues in your gut directly affect your brain. Um, and this is true for most, most, if not all brain conditions. So we we say, yeah, for 20, we say two, 20 minutes, 20 minutes if I if I'm just speaking my own, my own protocol, um, roughly from the research that I've seen, is 20 minutes uh on the gut, 10 minutes in the back of the head, and then 10 minutes on the face. And on the face, it can be like on the front or it can be directly on the head. And we have this like we have this special, it's like a swimming cap that you that comes with the product that allows you to fit the product in, and then you wear it like a swim cap and you press the button. It's quite cool, cool little accessory.

Jack Graham 37:30

Yeah, and that was sort of where I was gonna go. So say I've got knee pain, I want to do the gut, and I'm assuming for beauty, you just put it on your face. Like, do I do all them together? Like 10 minutes on the knee, 20 minutes on the gut, on the face?

John Graham 37:45

Yep. Go to town, yeah, and even do it throughout the day. You wake up in the morning. Usually when I wake up in the morning, I want to get my it's like the wellness protocol for longevity. I'm not suffering any pain. So I want to do the back of my neck for the spine, I want to do my gut, I want to do my heart, and then I want to do my face. But I sometimes, you know, if I'm if I'm quick to get up in the day and I've got to, you know, go to a go to a meeting or I gotta, you know, beat traffic, I'll do that on the way, you know, like I'll be in the car and I'll do oh my gut, I'll be driving. Right. So it's kind of like that's the the thing is the consistency, you can be, it can, it can take the product is tailored for you. You don't have to tailor to the product. That's why I don't I'm I don't believe in location fixed products. Because if I've got a red light therapy room in my house and I've got a panel hanging on the wall, and I'm I'm just I just have to go out of my day. I have my routine, I have my thing. I'm like, oh I already left the house. I forgot to get my red light therapy in the morning. It I'm, you know, you almost have to like, it's you adapting to the product. And I it's in just the way we are. We don't, we don't want that. We it's it's like back in the day when we had the landlines, you know, at the house. And it would be like you have to make your phone calls in the house, then you'd go out. Now we have the cell phone where you, you know, you can wear it's it's that that's how we are as humans. We want products that adapt to us. And I see, like for red light therapy, the the evolution of product development will be like I'm telling you now, there'll be car seats with red light therapy. There'll be plain pillows with red light therapy, like there'll be that it'll all just integrate into our lives because we all know the cellular benefit. And the the thing that's so important is remember, we used to have much more solar exposure in our ancient times. We are deficient in solar exposure. We as human beings, our biology, we we are supposed to have a relationship with the sun. We are we're not supposed to be living in caves. Like that, that that movie where, you know, uh where there's like these cavers that go out, and it's like this extreme sport where they go and they, you know, they're exploring caves and they find a bunch of monsters. It's like, yeah, if if we lived in caves, we would turn into monsters. Like that's where we would turn into absolute gremlins. We are supposed to be outside in nature, grounded, getting our solar exposure. So products that allow us to get more solar exposure, it's just it's a supplement. Think of think of Lumiflex and and any light therapy device, it's a supplement. You know, we have protein supplements where you're like, oh, I can't cook chicken, you know, I can't, I'm, you know, I'm on the go, I'm on the run. I'll just scoop a protein powder in and bang, have that's it's the same thing. It's the same, same thing. It's not like we're we need to have more solar exposure every day. You know, in our early history, it wasn't like we would, you know, spend, you know, months at a time hiding from the sun. We were always out in the sun. We were always, and sometimes it was a cloudy day, and sometimes it was a rainy day, sometimes it'd be winter, but it would we'd still be out in the sun. Like the sun would still be coming through, you know. That and so we're that's all we're trying to do. We're trying to reverse that. We're trying to get more sun in in our lives. So that that's what I'm so obsessed with with product development is is this going to be, is this product gonna be in use this same time next year? Because if it isn't, it will throw it away, it won't work. It has to, it has to be be always being used.

Jack Graham 41:27

And like you said, are people gonna use it? That's the biggest thing. Like if it's a big panel, and I've seen those panels and I've thought about getting them, but they're like like they're just a pain to have around. Like where are you gonna put it and then you've got to move it around, or do you move it around and then you or you just got to stand in front of it. So I love how you've built the and built the product. It's that's great. And I think you touch on a good point. Like I'm always recommending people get out and get in. Still gotcha.

John Graham 41:57

Yep, yep.

Jack Graham 41:59

Yeah, I've always recommended people get out like like we're talking about grounding and all that sort of stuff, like getting out in the sun and just standing on the ground. But here in Melbourne, people freak out when it comes to the sun. And obviously, you've got to be sun smart in here in Australia because skin cancer is a big issue, but there's nothing wrong with just spending a little bit of time. Well, again, it's different for everybody, and depending on where you are, but spending some time out in the sun is just so beneficial for just overall health and wellness for sure. But is like I guess is there any risk of putting a light panel on your head for 20 minutes a couple of times a day?

John Graham 42:39

No, zero negative side effects have been recorded. Like in our manual, we say if you have a heart condition, consult a doctor. If you're pregnant, consult a doctor. We we have to say that. And I of course, when I put on the Lumiflex hat, I say that. But if I take the Lumiflex hat out and I'm and I'm a light therapy enthusiast with all my scientist buddies, we are like, we're like, if you're pregnant, use red light. If you have a heart condition, use red light. That's kind of like what every scientist will tell you. Um, so that there's no negative side effects, but about sun, like my mom lives in the Gold Coast, and she's like, John, you know, the UV rating is like 18 today. Oh my God. And the thing, the thing, the thing that I've learned about the these scientists is their relationship with the sun and a protocol called sunbathing. So if if ever anyone, anyone now listening, go to Google and type um sun decks in hospitals, old photos, and you will see how hospitals in our very recent history used to have sun decks where they would treat certain conditions. The patient would be, I'm sick, they would take them to the sun and they'd put them in the sun, right? And then antibiotics came along. And they were like, no, let's put an anti, anti-against biotics body into your body and let's have no more sun. So that's a whole conspiracy theory we don't, we don't need to get into about big pharma and how they want us to be here. But but the sun, basically the sun, when you have a hot, when you have your phone, so if you want to practice good sunbathing, this is something I learned from from my scientists. Like we this is really, this is really fun. This is a really good rabbit hole to go down. So so this is, and I also tell my mom this. So I don't believe in sunblock. I don't believe in sunblock. And I believe sunblock, if if it's if it's a natural sunblock, there's certain ingredients that if it's in the sunblock, throw it away. It's so bad for you. It'll it'll create cancer, it'll create you know uh brain diseases, you know, faster than you can imagine. But there are natural sunblocks that you can get. There are natural ones. And I'm not saying that if you're like, you know, stuck and you're like, oh my God, the sun is super strong, I've got sunblock. Uh uh, yeah, okay, put the sunblock on, but just try to manage your UV exposure when the UV rating is high, just manage it. So a lot like the way the world is now, you know, in terms of the equator and being 30 degrees away from the equator, people that were fair skinned, like myself, we we that we're not in, we weren't really in environments with very high sun. We so there's less melanin in our sun, and we need to we need to get it any sun that we can get our get our hands on, right? Because we're in these these different regions. So those areas in the equator were people with were darker skinned, they had higher concentrations of melanin in their skin, so they could, they're more optimized for being out in the sun. So if you are fair skinned and you're in an environment which is very tropical, it's very sunny, what you want to do is you want to check the UV rating. You want to go out and make sure, and you you sort of everyone knows this about their sun. They're like, oh, 20 minutes, I start to burn. Okay, now I'll cover up or I'll retreat, right? But don't not go out. Still go out, get those, get, get like it's like true sunbathing you'll get from like the the hardcore scientists, via hackers. They're fully naked. They're fully naked, and they're making sure the sun, you know, gets on their balls for testosterone production. They turn around, they they put their feet up when they turn around, you know, they put their they open their mouth to get you know teeth whitening and oral hygiene. Like sunbathing is is a thing. This is this is an actual thing. Now, if if you say, look, I want to I want to spend more time out in the sun, but the UV rating's really high, and I don't want to use uh sunblock, and I or I do have a natural sunblock, you can use red silk. There's a special kind of red silk that is a certain thickness that comes, and we sell this on our website as a as a as an accessory because I want to sell this silk from what I've learned about it, because it's teaching people about what this supplement is. It's from the sun, it's teaching a healthy relationship with the sun. And this silk blocks all UV light and only lets in um um red and infrared light. So you can get your red and infrared light with this silk lying and uh on a on a very sunny day. And this goes down into you know the silk road. And why was silk such a valuable material back in ancient? Why would royals wear silk? Because, and then again, like in our recent history with these sun decks, because the sun, if you understand it, if you understand the UE ray and you understand your skin, you understand your time, and you're thinking of the sun as a multivitamin, if you think of it as a multivitamin, you can use it. You some people like I never want to say, like, you know, lumaflex is the only way. This is a supplement for the sun. If you have a healthy relationship with the sun, the ultimate red and infrared light to get is still from the sun, especially in these tropical areas like Thailand, Australia, you know, Bali, right? These are great, these are great environments to get good sun. You just need to practice proper sunbathing, look at the UV rating, have your red silk, right? And actually, even any red cloth, I'm not 100% sure of every any red cloth, but most red fabrics that I've tested still do the same at different degrees. Block out UV light and let in red and infrared light. So I've got like a lot of red clothes. But that's sort of my my my my thing because I I've talked about this with my mom, you know, she's like, oh, the sun's really hot. And I said, Mom, buy a red hat. Like literally, buy a red hat. And even better, see if you can buy a red silk hat, you know. And I've sent her the red silk we have, and I'm like, I know you're gonna look silly walking down the street, but you're you're you're putting you're putting this red silk on and you're supporting you know your brain health and everything, because the ultimate red and infrared light is from the sun. It's the it's the I mean it's right there, right? Just like the ultimate, you know, protein is from chicken or fish or whatever, not not a protein powder, right? Because our bodies are designed to intake that protein, right? But yeah, that's kind of my my spiel. No.

Jack Graham 49:19

I love how you said that because again, here in Melbourne, it gets cold. So a lot of people will just not see the sun for four or five months, depending on the year, and then all of a sudden they go out for 20 minutes and just get burnt. But it's like just manage that sun exposure, have that relationship with the sun. Yeah, it makes a huge difference. It's sometimes it sucks to go outside and sit in the sun in the middle of winter, but it's still worth it. Like you said, it's a good supplement. Like it that's right. I think I I think looking, like I've never really had it like spoken about that like before, like having the sun as a supplement, and I'm really I'm gonna start talking about it like that a lot more. It's because it it is, and it and it's very effective.

John Graham 50:02

Yes, I love that. There's so many accounts in our recent history about people that have recovered from very terminal, most random, very scary diseases just by getting outside and being in the sun, you know. So I like when you're young, you think of the sun and you think of like beach, you know, getting the beers, let's go, you know, let's get a surfboard, you know, you you think of the sun as like, or you think of like, oh, let's get tan, right? You think of like, oh, look at all the the tan, like let's get tan, right? But now when I see the sun, if I look outside and I see a sunny day, I'm like, oh, I need to get my treatment. You know, I my brain triggers like, oh, I should get my uh have I gotten my it's been a while since I've been out in the sun. I need to get my treatment. And I kind of plan to be able to go out in the sun and get my get my dose of sun, get get get my I think of it as like a medical session.

Jack Graham 50:56

Yeah, 100%. I do the same. I grew up in the country on the coast, and it's it's just never been something you had to really think about, sun or grounding and all that sort of stuff, and then moving to the city. It's something you really need to be conscious of. And yeah, every day, like on my balcony at certain time, the sun's just there. So I really try and make sure I'm at at home at that time so I can get my dose every single day. Yeah.

John Graham 51:19

That's right. It's like seeing the doctor, you know. It's so cool, it's really cool. I wish people could see it like that, because actually, with that, that's when the world, the mentality, the awareness kind of clicks in, you know, whoa, we've been lied to. You know, we're now we're on, we're we're looking at a pill when actually, you know, we can get everything from our natural environment. And then also it validates using a sun supplement, like a red light therapy device, because they're like, okay, I get what you're saying, but probably once or twice a week I could do that sun thing, but I'm on the go, I'm moving, I got, you know, I got to fly to this meeting and I gotta take a trip over here, or it's cloudy days, so I'm not gonna get much. Then you see the value of a supplement. You know what I mean? Yep. 100%.

Jack Graham 52:03

So I guess we'll wrap up with just talk about different what like you said, habit stacking with the lights, like what can people sort of do to get more out of the light? I don't know. That's a general question because everybody's a little bit different in what people different people need, but are there any big movers that that they can add in with the light therapy that would have a bit more of an impact?

John Graham 52:27

I I think like uh the five the I call the five pillars of recovery, the five, I think I they're kind of considered the five pillars as like the the big the big things that you can do for your recovery and overall well-being. One is heat, heat therapy, um, cold therapy, uh obviously red light therapy, um, oxygen therapy, and then compression therapy. Compression being more for an athlete who and that those are those those boots, but specifically heat and cold. I would say I I practice very religiously. And being in a cold, like you know, when you do like an ice bath and you have this stress, this stress hit you, and the this stress releases hormones which are like longevity hormones, right? Like basically, how do we live longer? Is stress your body, but don't don't don't kill yourself. But get you you, if that's what strength training is, that's what exercise is. Exercise, like they've done studies to show that people that exercise live longer. Why is because basically they're stressing their body. It's how we were designed. We in what you know, back in those ancient times, we would have to run, catch food, we we'd have to fight off bears. There were there were high stress environments that we or are high stress situations that we would adapt to that helped us live longer. So definitely sauna is a is a big one. I believe the um what the the lady who I consider is like the authority on sauna is um is I think it's her name is Patrick. Is it Patrick? Rhonda Patrick Rhonda Patrick, yeah, Rhonda Patrick. I love her. Um and then Cold. I'm I'm a big Wim Hof fan. I believe like Wim Hof is the I think he's one of the coolest people on the planet now. Uh I've done I I'm I'm very close with a lot of Wim Hof, like high-level coaches, and I I love talking to them about cold exposure and everything. But if if you don't have an iced bath, it's fine. Do it do do cold showers first thing in the morning. And you basically like do it, like usually a shower is not that cold, but basically you want a quick transition from a certain your temperature to a different temperature. So you get the shower, you put your face right in front of the shower, and then you turn it on, and you have that shock first thing in the morning. That's kind of like if you don't have an ice bath or a cryo chamber, that's kind of a good, a really good uh good thing to do. I do that. I've I've done that every morning for as long as I can remember. I and I've done it like when I've traveled to to Europe, you know, I was in Cologne, I believe. Uh I was in Cologne, and I remember that was like the coldest. No, no, no. DC. DC is was the coldest I've ever been. Like DC, you know, around that. I was in DC during the Trump election. Ah, that was a that's a that's a story for another day. But I remember putting my, I was like, man, that is cold. That is so cold. Forget the ice bath. I'm done. But yeah, I I would do, I would definitely do that. And then um there are like plant-based formulas. There's a couple of like there's there's obviously when you get into supplements, it's all like each to their own, use your own, you know, depending on you know, your own uh who the guru is that you follow or whatever. And I'm kind of dipping into that. But and and and the these are great hacks for for light therapy because basically Lumiflex, I I see it as the ultimate hackstack because it of all this the cellular energy, the increased blood circulation, the increased ATP, coupled with all of those modalities, it's it's I'm like, wow, you you know, you can in Bali, you can stop at a clinic and you can get an IV drip, like an NAD plus IV drip. And I'm like putting, I'm using the Lumaflex to boost the circulation of the IV. Um, but outside of all of that, I always encourage um what I'm uh actively practicing in my life is decreasing microplastics in in your daily life, and then also decreasing Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi the two two two big things that I would say if like microplastics are is the new cigarette in the world. That's the thing to watch out for. That's the thing to be very cautious of, is is the and and it's not really, I don't like there. I know Brian Johnson said sauna with with like ice on your balls drops your microplastic. Um, you know, for men, there's a few different ways to do it. And I'm I'm I'm constant, we're always in a battle on inflammation. That's what people need to remember, is that we are constantly fighting inflammation. We aren't these primal human beings walking around in nature, eating fruit direct, you know, directly from the tree, and just you know, and oxygen is just is is optimal because as trees are we're just not there anymore. We're in an environment now where inflammation is constantly smashing us. And it's Wi-Fi, it's microplastics, it's it's um artificial light everywhere, you know, when you go into these cities. So we need tools to fight this inflammation. We all need to do like it's it's not like, oh, you know, I'll be fine or I've got good genetics. It's like unless you live in in nature, it's really something to be aware of because it's gonna hit you somewhere. In cities, it's just gonna hit you. You know, air quality is a big thing in cities now. That's like it's wearing masks is probably like 10 years from now in a city, everyone will wear a mask, not because of some, you know, pathogen or anything, but because of it's just like this is terrible. And I'm like, I I I take yeah, I you know, I take the mask off and I look at the mask and it's just covered in dust, you know, like it's it's just gonna be a normal thing for us, right? But yeah, anyway, we all do what we can, you know, then and uh and and long lives to any and all. But anyone listening about light therapy, um, you know, just go on to YouTube, type what is light therapy. First few videos, just just just start with those and then jump onto the education. I'm I'm very excited to get this education out to anybody because it's it's done in a video format where I'm videoing my scientist give a lecture to a bunch of doctors and nurses and everything. So it's super easy to digest. You can just have it playing on the computer or on the phone and just going about your day. You're like, wow, that's and you you'll you'll learn everything, right?

Jack Graham 58:51

Love that. Yeah. So where what's I know you sort of spoke a little bit about what you're expecting for the future in light therapy, but what about for you and Lumiflex?

John Graham 59:01

For Lumiflex, um, I guess our our goal eventually, the the the North Star is to have to run a clinical trial on pain management for this device. So all the clinical trials that you've seen, they're not there, there's no devices involved, no brands. The devices that are used in those clinical trials, usually the scientists, they make them. They get an LED strip and they'll put it on the brain. And I've noticed that pretty much all of them use touching skin. The device is always touching the skin in the clinical trial. That's another reason why we touch skin. Um, but I want to run my own clinical trial. And when you have that clinical trial, then it goes from an FDA cleared product to an FDA approved product. So that means a doctor has to prescribe light therapy for that condition. Now imagine that. If you go into a doctor, like I think in the US it's called the standard of care. So it's I I want to at least in some way contribute with all the people in photobimodulation to raising enough awareness in light therapy to where it becomes the standard of care. A doctor must make you aware of this treatment, must encourage you to use it. And if not, they're liable. Right? I believe the standard of care is like some pill in the US. I don't know. It's just like the thing, like take this, you know. And that needs to be changed for light therapy. So I guess that's like our eventual North Star. And probably it's not just me doing this, but it's a the fellowship of a bunch of brands, a bunch of scientists, we're all kind of trying to achieve this mission. But until then, it's um, but outside of that, it's running a clinical trial. Stay tuned.

Jack Graham 1:00:49

Yeah, I love that. And yeah, I'm excited to give it a go. And like you said, it's just so uninvasive. I I think it's just a good tool for everybody to have and start using because, like you said, and like we've been talking about, no one gets enough sun. That's for sure. So I appreciate you coming on and again sharing all this information and sharing your story.

John Graham 1:01:10

Thank you. I really appreciate it. We're both Grahams, Jack Graham, and John Graham. Let the grill at the Graham's Unite.

Jack Graham 1:01:19

A big thanks to Lumaflex for sponsoring today's episode. Make sure you check out the link in the description or go to lumiflex.com.au. Use the code TRUEFOM to get 10% off and start enjoying this amazing red light therapy device. You know, you'll not only be supporting your own overall health and wellness, you're supporting this show as well. So I appreciate you doing that. I appreciate your time listening to this episode, and I'll see you in the next one.