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The Jordan Harbinger Show

1298: Bjorn Ekeberg | The Evidence-Backed Benefits of Red Light Therapy

58 min episode · 2 min read
·
Bjorn Ekeberg

Episode

58 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Health & Wellness, Leadership, Product & Tech Trends

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Dosing Window: Red light therapy operates within a precise therapeutic range — too little produces no effect, but too much causes the body to over-adapt, also yielding zero results. Athletes using devices for two-plus hours report feeling nothing. Effective sessions typically run 10–20 minutes, with dosing individualized by age, body mass, and health condition.
  • Near-Infrared vs. Red Light: Standard red light only penetrates skin-deep, making it useful solely for collagen and cosmetic applications. Near-infrared wavelengths — invisible to the eye — penetrate tissue at measurable depth, with detectable energy registering two inches below the skin surface, enabling effects on muscles, organs, and inflammation rather than surface-level results only.
  • Sun Equivalency: On a summer day, 10 minutes of direct Flexbeam exposure delivers roughly twice the near-infrared energy of 10 minutes of sunlight on bare skin. In winter at northern latitudes, replicating that same dose through natural sunlight would require three to eight hours of outdoor exposure, making targeted devices practically relevant for year-round cellular energy maintenance.
  • Sleep Protocol: Placing a near-infrared device on the gut or spine for 10–20 minutes, combined with morning use to reset circadian rhythm, has produced measurable deep sleep improvements in Oura Ring data across multiple users. Results require three or more consecutive days of consistent use and are not universal, but a meaningful subset of users shows clear data-tracked improvement.
  • Device Quality Indicators: Low-cost devices ($10–$50) typically produce insufficient power output to penetrate beyond the skin surface regardless of wavelength claims. Effective near-infrared therapy requires high power density delivered directly against bare skin — not through clothing, at distance, or via low-wattage LEDs — making physical contact, wattage output, and build quality the primary purchase criteria.

What It Covers

Jordan Harbinger interviews Bjorn Ekeberg, CEO of Recharge Health and creator of Flexbeam, a wearable near-infrared therapy device. They examine the evidence-backed mechanisms behind red light therapy, proper dosing protocols, legitimate versus fraudulent applications, and how concentrated near-infrared light affects cellular energy production and recovery.

Key Questions Answered

  • Dosing Window: Red light therapy operates within a precise therapeutic range — too little produces no effect, but too much causes the body to over-adapt, also yielding zero results. Athletes using devices for two-plus hours report feeling nothing. Effective sessions typically run 10–20 minutes, with dosing individualized by age, body mass, and health condition.
  • Near-Infrared vs. Red Light: Standard red light only penetrates skin-deep, making it useful solely for collagen and cosmetic applications. Near-infrared wavelengths — invisible to the eye — penetrate tissue at measurable depth, with detectable energy registering two inches below the skin surface, enabling effects on muscles, organs, and inflammation rather than surface-level results only.
  • Sun Equivalency: On a summer day, 10 minutes of direct Flexbeam exposure delivers roughly twice the near-infrared energy of 10 minutes of sunlight on bare skin. In winter at northern latitudes, replicating that same dose through natural sunlight would require three to eight hours of outdoor exposure, making targeted devices practically relevant for year-round cellular energy maintenance.
  • Sleep Protocol: Placing a near-infrared device on the gut or spine for 10–20 minutes, combined with morning use to reset circadian rhythm, has produced measurable deep sleep improvements in Oura Ring data across multiple users. Results require three or more consecutive days of consistent use and are not universal, but a meaningful subset of users shows clear data-tracked improvement.
  • Device Quality Indicators: Low-cost devices ($10–$50) typically produce insufficient power output to penetrate beyond the skin surface regardless of wavelength claims. Effective near-infrared therapy requires high power density delivered directly against bare skin — not through clothing, at distance, or via low-wattage LEDs — making physical contact, wattage output, and build quality the primary purchase criteria.

Notable Moment

Ekeberg explains that NASA's early 2000s research into red light therapy began because injured astronauts in space healed progressively slower without sunlight exposure — eventually revealing that the absence of near-infrared wavelengths, not just nutrition or gravity, fundamentally impairs the body's cellular repair mechanisms.

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Episode Transcript

Episode is sponsored in part by LinkedIn. Hiring for a small business is one of those things that sounds simple until you actually do it because you're not just filling a seat, you're choosing somebody who's gonna affect your team, your customers, your culture, and your stress level. And when you get it wrong, you feel it immediately. Cost you time, momentum, and way more money than people want to admit. That's why LinkedIn Hiring Pro is so useful. It's basically like having a hiring partner built for small teams, something that helps you hire with confidence without turning hiring into a second job. You can describe what you need in plain language and it helps streamline the whole process. Drafting the job, surfacing the right candidates, shortlisting them, even handling AI powered interviews for the initial screening step. So instead of spending hours buried in applications, you spend more time talking to the people who actually have a real shot at being a great hire. And it's fast. Nearly 60% of hirers find a candidate to interview within a week. So if you wanna save time without sacrificing quality and you wanna hire right the first time, check out LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hire right the first time. Post your first job and get a $100 off toward your job post at linkedin.com/harbinger. That's linkedin.com/harbinger. Terms and conditions apply. Why have we asked our contractor we found on angie.com to be our kids' legal guardian? Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids. We only met a month ago. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at angie.com. Quick heads up before we start. This episode is sponsored by the company behind the technology that we're discussing today. They paid for this episode. That means this conversation is a bit different from my normal interviews. I'm still asking questions I think you'd want answered, but this episode should be understood as sponsored content rather than an independent investigation like most of the show. As always, do your own research, make up your own mind, and consult a qualified expert before doing anything that affects your health and well-being. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger Show, we decode the stories, secrets, and skills of the world's most fascinating people and turn their wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you. Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker through long form conversations with a variety of amazing folks from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, and performers, even the occasional arms dealer, drug trafficker, former jihadi, or real life hacker. If you're new to the show or you're looking for a handy way to tell your friends about it, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are …

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Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode

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Gear

  • FlexbeamRecommendedBy guest

    by Recharge Health

    Bjorn Ekeberg, CEO of Recharge Health and creator of Flexbeam, a wearable near-infrared therapy device.
  • Placing a near-infrared device on the gut or spine for 10–20 minutes, combined with morning use to reset circadian rhythm, has produced measurable deep sleep improvements in Oura Ring data across multiple users.

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