What if shining a light on your dog could take away their pain?

It sounds like something from a sci-fi film. But the science of healing with light is very real — and a practitioner in West Yorkshire is using it to help dogs that nobody else can reach.

Here is a question that deserves an honest answer: if
your dog was in pain, would you know?

Not obvious, yelping pain. The quiet kind. The kind where
a dog slowly stops jumping on the sofa, starts walking a little oddly, sleeps
more than usual, and nobody notices until months have gone by. That kind of
pain.

Yaz Porritt notices. It is, she will tell you, basically
her superpower.

Yaz runs Yorkshire Pooches Therapies in West Yorkshire,
and she has spent years working with dogs in pain — including dogs so
frightened and uncomfortable that they will not let anyone touch them. Her
secret weapon, alongside her own skilled hands, is a handheld device that
shines red and near-infrared light onto the body.

It is called photobiomodulation, or PBM for short. And it
is quietly changing what is possible in animal care.

What even is photobiomodulation?

Big word. Simple idea. Photobiomodulation means using
specific wavelengths of light — red light and near-infrared light — to trigger
healing inside the body's cells.

Here is the basic version of how it works. Your cells
contain tiny power stations called mitochondria. Their job is to make energy.
When cells are damaged or inflamed or in pain, those power stations slow down,
like a phone battery running low. Certain wavelengths of light — around 630 to
850 nanometres — are absorbed by the mitochondria and give them a boost. More
energy means better repair, less inflammation, and less pain.

A 2022 study suggested that PBM may work partly by making
cell membranes more permeable — which could help rebalance the pump that drives
pain signals in the first place. If that holds up, it would mean PBM is not
just soothing pain, but potentially interrupting the mechanism that generates
it.

WHAT THE SCIENCE SUGGESTS PBM MAYHELP WITH

    • May help reduce inflammation at a cellular level
    • May help speed up wound healing
    • May help interrupt pain signals at their source
    • May help improve circulation and
      lymphatic drainage
    • May help support recovery after surgery or injury

“The sun is the source of all life. The
fact that we are photoreactive — that light does things to our cells — really
shouldn’t surprise anyone.”

And then there is this finding, which genuinely surprised
researchers. A 2024 study by Powner et al. published in the Journal of
Biophotonics — led by Glen Jeffrey of University College London — found that
670 nm red light shone on healthy volunteers' backs for just 15 minutes reduced
the post-meal rise in blood glucose by 27.7%. Light affecting blood sugar,
through the skin, with no drugs involved. That is the kind of result that makes
you stop and stare.

The dogs nobody else can reach

Yaz works with all kinds of dogs — those with arthritis,
elbow problems, neurological conditions, recovery from surgery. But her
particular interest is dogs with both physical pain and emotional trauma
layered on top of each other.

Think about what chronic pain does to a nervous system.
The dog is always braced. Always on guard. And if that dog has also had a
frightening experience — a rough vet visit, difficult early training, a hard
start to life — then the world feels threatening from every direction. Some of
these dogs will not let anyone touch them at all.

This is where PBM changes everything.

Because Yaz can use the Photizo device at a distance. She
does not need to touch the dog. She can hold it a few inches away, or even
across the room, and the light still reaches the tissue. She calls it “bathing”
— flooding the dog’s body with photons before any hands-on contact begins.

What happens next is the part that stays with you. The
dog starts to relax. The jaw unclenches. The breathing slows. Over two or three
sessions, Yaz moves closer. Contact follows when the dog invites it — never
before. And once a dog is no longer braced against the world, the deeper
therapeutic work becomes possible.

“Dogs don’t understand the concept of
coming for a massage. They just experience things.” — Yaz Porritt

What this looks like in practice

Yaz has documented cases including a dog that had lost a
limb and developed pressure sores that were not healing. Using PBM alongside
protective dressings, she photographed the wound's progress over approximately
twelve days. The results were striking enough that she shared them publicly — a
visible, documented timeline of tissue repair that you can follow image by
image.

The Photizo devices she uses are pre-programmed with a
roughly thirty-second dose per treatment point. There is no dialling in
wavelengths or power levels — the device handles all of that. This matters,
because it means the treatment can safely continue at home between clinic
sessions. Around 90% of Yaz's clients end up buying their own device after
seeing the results.

THE MAIN CAUTIONS TO KNOW

— Never use over an unidentified lump or known tumour

— Avoid inflamed or reactive lesions where
increased blood flow could make things worse

— Keep the environment calm — use
silent-mode devices for noise-sensitive animals

— Always follow practitioner guidance on
where and how to apply it

Why this matters

PBM is not a miracle cure. Yaz is careful to say that. It is one tool among several — alongside massage, movement advice, diet, and lifestyle changes. The science is still young and there is plenty more to
learn.

But the science is accelerating. And the clinical observations — the wounds that heal, the dogs that calm down, the animals that stop bracing and start moving again — are consistent enough to pay serious attention to.

We have known for a long time that sunlight is the source
of all life. We are only just beginning to understand, in useful detail, how to
harness that for healing.

Yaz Porritt, shining a red light on a frightened dog in a
quiet room in West Yorkshire, is part of that story.

Yorkshire
Pooches Therapies

yorkshirepooches.co.uk  | 
Instagram: @yorkshirepooches

Nick Thompson interviewed Yaz
Porritt as part of a monthly series on light science and animal care. The full
interview is available through Photizo at youtube.com/watch?v=HvHW9InZWEI

For more on animal health,
nutrition and integrative veterinary care, follow Nick Thompson's Substack at @holisticvetuk

Source

Powner et al. (2024). Light
stimulation of mitochondria reduces blood glucose levels. Journal of
Biophotonics. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.202300521

About the Author

Dr. Nick Thompson BSc (Hons) Path Sci., BVM&S, VetMFHom, MRCVS, is a fully trained vet with over 39 years of experience in raw food nutrition, herbal and homoeopathic as well as conventional medicine.

He uses both holistic and conventional practices, along with a hefty dose of old-fashioned common sense, to try to establish what is really wrong with his patients and what is required to help repair them. Minimising pharmaceutical intervention is at the heart of all treatments. 

Nick has a special interest in immunology, internal medicine, holistic health, and microbiome dynamics.

Working closely with friends and colleagues in the veterinary world, he, together with patients and owners, forms a hardworking team focused and committed to improving dog welfare, health and behaviour.

Holisticvet is based near Bath, Somerset (UK).