The Power of Light
Light at certain wavelengths is scientifically proven to benefit the body.
Coming home every day, Cory needed an assistant to get her out of her car. She moved using crutches. For over two decades, she was unable to walk up her home’s second floor.
Then a miracle came. After two decades of chronic pain, it suddenly went away. She started walking on her own using her new favorite shoes.
Cory was given a red light therapy device called FlexBeam weeks earlier to treat her feet. It uses infrared light at a wavelength of 815 nm and also red light in the 625-635nm range that slowly heals the body. While she tried other treatments in the past, FlexBeam is the first product that successfully helped her.
The Science Behind FlexBeam
Every sunrise and sunset we watch exposes us to the red light that FlexBeam incorporates. Natural light on our skin allows us to create Vitamin D, which is used by cells to repair the body. Since the sun is at a distance, we don’t absorb all of it. However, FlexBeam allows for maximum light absorption because you can put it right on your body.
FlexBeam can heal you on a molecular, cellular, and tissue level. At the core of your body’s ability to recover are organelles called mitochondria. They are the energy powerhouses of each cell and contain chemicals that act as light receptors. When red light energy reaches these receptors, more elections start moving around the body. This flow of energy results in your body being “charged,” which makes you feel more energized.
Two gymnasts using FlexBeam after a tough workout
The mitochondria increases its production of several chemicals that boost the immune, circulatory, and nervous systems. For example, Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is used to fight infections. Nitric oxide (NO) helps transport oxygen and immune cells through blood tissue. Red light therapy applied to one part of the body can also improve another unexposed body part. Effects created by the light transfer through the bloodstream can, over time, lead to widespread improvement.
The Team Behind FlexBeam
FlexBeam estimates that they spent over 3,000 hours in an engineering lab before finally marketing this product. The CEO told Raine Magazine, “At the very beginning when we were setting up the company, I had no work-life balance. At that moment, I was an entrepreneur putting all the pieces together and organizing a start-up. That’s a non-stop job. There are no weekends or after hours. All hours were working hours.”
Communicating with the entire team could also be difficult. Their headquarters is in Norway, but their product development team is in Thailand. It became impossible to develop a “traditional” red-light therapy device in these conditions, so they redefined the industry instead. Had they followed pre-existing therapy device templates, FlexBeam admits their device would cost $6,000. They reduced that cost down to $600, making it affordable to anyone for the first time.
Some of the circuitry that went into making FlexBeam.
Now that the products are available, the marketing team’s goal is to “bring FlexBeam to the masses. That is our main challenge now. To make it mainstream. It can help so many people recharge their health in a very convenient way. We just need to spread the word and take the product to them.”
You can read more about FlexBeam here: www.recharge.health
Interviewing the CEO and Lead Inventor
Raine Magazine had the chance to hear from Arjen Christian Helder (the lead inventor) and Christian Barmen (the CEO). Here are their responses to our questions.
1. Putting certain wavelengths near the body can be dangerous, but studies have shown that FlexBeam is perfectly safe. How did your team finetune them to maximize their healing effects?
Arjen: Red light therapy has been around for decades. The optimal, safe dose of red light was not something we had to look for. Essentially, we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel here. There are a large number of scientific studies, research, and proof of successful practical application out there.
We took all this scientifically proven data and we developed a product that can provide the human body the correct dose of light in the most efficient way.
This also meant there was no room for compromise when it came to the quality of FlexBeam’s parts.
For example, the science says that the most beneficial wavelength for the human body is between 810 - 815 nanometers. On the other hand, the cheapest and the most available LEDs work on 850 nanometers. Many manufacturers simply go for the 850 LED, but not us.
FlexBeam will always go for the most biocompatible solution. We are true to science and we don’t cut corners. Regardless of any extra cost. We use the best LEDs that money can buy.
2. What makes traditional wall panel red light therapy different from your red light therapy solution?
Arjen: FlexBeam is unique in that it is designed for the human body. So it bends, moves and fits to deliver targeted therapy. When you use FlexBeam directly on your skin, the light enters the body at three different angles and therefore can overlap within. That’s something almost no other product does.
When you are using a wall panel, the light comes to your body from only one direction and it covers only the side of the body that’s exposed to it. Much of that powerful light a wall panel emits is wasted since you are not using it.
The other downside is that the distance from you to the panel determines the dose of the light you get to a very large degree. So, if you stand 10 cm further away, you could get a very different dose compared to if you stand 5 cm close. You could be getting a dose that’s 4 times smaller only by moving 5 cm away from the panel. FlexBeam does away with these challenges. You always get a steady, precisely calculated dose of light.
Christian: We’ve spent over 3,000 hours of engineering work to come up with a targeted device that delivers the best possible dosage of red and near-infrared directly to your body. On top of that, it’s convenient and comfortable.
3. How have you defined work-life balance as you began working more extensively with your project team?
Christian: At the very beginning when we were setting up the company, I had no work-life balance. At that moment, I was an entrepreneur putting all the pieces together and organizing a start-up. That’s a non-stop job. There are no weekends or after hours. All hours were working hours.
In time, as Recharge Health grew, we hired the right experts to take their respective work streams to the next level and I was finally able to get out of the day-to-day organization of the work processes to focus on our long-term vision.
Now, my work-life balance is better. I have more time to be with the kids. I get a chance to get out of it all for a bit and get a fresh perspective on the entire operation.
4. What life experience(s) impacted you the most, and how did it impact the creation of FlexBeam?
Arjen: My wife has a chronic liver disease. The only solution that is offered right now is life-long antiviral therapy. I dug deep trying to find a way to help my wife. I wanted to discover an alternative way to support her health and the only way I could do this was through science and research.
And that’s what I did. I’m not a chemist, so I couldn't develop another medicine. But I am an engineer, so I did what I do best - I explored the ways medicinal science uses electrostimulation, magnetic fields, and ultimately - red light therapy.
I discovered that, for example, in Russia, red light therapy has been used for over 40 years with excellent results. Red light therapy is backed by so much science and so much research that it was an obvious direction for me - I wanted to know more because it seemed to me that this was something that could help my wife.
One of the turning points was definitely the NASA study that confirmed the amazing effects of red light therapy. However, all those devices used old technology and old LEDs.
On the other hand, I knew that LED technology has made such a massive jump in the last 5 years, especially when it comes to infrared LEDs. Those LEDs used to be very inefficient with only 5% efficiency or 10%. Now, we use LEDs that are 36% efficient and exactly at the right wavelength that’s the most biocompatible.
So, I thought - if they were able to make an effective device with that old tech from the 90s, I can definitely make something even better now. That resulted in the birth of FlexBeam.
My wife is still on medication and she uses FlexBeam as an additional support to keep her body in optimal health.
5. According to the information we received in advance from Recharge Health, your customers are what motivate you. What customer testimonial inspires you the most?
Christian: The one that inspired me the most was about a lady that said goodbye to her house because it had a second floor. She thought it was the last time she would be able to get to the upper floor.
Her name is Cory and she is a natural healer. Cory used to be in a lot of pain. She used crutches to move, and she even had an assistant to help her in and out of her car, and everything.
Cory was quite skeptical about all of it. She refused our help at first, but then she gave FlexBeam a try. She experienced relief after just a couple of days of use. After three months, she went from walking with crutches to wearing her favorite shoes and walking on her own. That’s after 20 years of chronic pain.
Another one, of course, is the story about the healing of my cousin. He was in a terrible car accident which left him in chronic pain in his joints and neck. After just a short use of FlexBeam he called me in tears. He said that his pain simply melted away.
6a. What technical drawbacks did you have to consider when making FlexBeam?
Arjen: It is so powerful that the biggest challenge we had was to get rid of the excessive heat. Our product was designed with the human body in mind. It goes directly onto the body. So, we had to find a way to get rid of the heat and make the FlexBeam experience more comfortable.
Another big hurdle was to make something that is both powerful and portable. On top of that, it had to work on batteries for convenience, but couldn’t be too heavy or too bulky. We did it.
That’s the balance you get with FlexBeam - you have a portable device that you can bring easily wherever you like, but also, at the same time, it is a very powerful device.
6b. How did you overcome them?
Arjen: With hard work, a lot of scientific experimentation, trial-and-error, and most importantly - we overcame that by choosing the best components that we can get. The best efficiency, the best batteries that we can get our hands on. We never compromised on the quality of the components that go into making FlexBeam as effective as it is today.
That’s how you overcome something, you build something, you test it, you break it, and you build it again. You test it again. You break it again. You measure. You verify. It’s a constant process of building the product, finding its flaws, fixing them, and then finding new flaws and fixing those. That’s why it took us three years to get here, with a product that really works. It has been through an enormous amount of both real-life testing and testing in a laboratory.
7a. Are there any governmental regulations that FlexBeam must adhere to?
Arjen: As a medical device company, we have to follow the international standard for the development of medical devices, which is ISO13485. ISO13485 is very well laid out. Each step of the process from design, through verification and the validation processes - it’s all clearly defined and beautifully structured.
7b. How did they influence the development of this product?
Arjen: It has been a very interesting learning experience to adhere to these standards, and I think it’s made me a better designer.
For me, the strongest part of this standard is that every change that you make goes through a process of validation and verification.
The standard is very high, and we have the skills and the resources to meet it.
Raising the bar to that level means that we are ahead of the competition because we take this very seriously.
I want to make sure my verification and validation of each function and each parameter of the device is thorough, logical, clear, and transparent. Adhering to an international standard for making medical devices has truly honed the production process for FlexBeam and made it better.
8. According to the biography section, part of your team is based in east Asia. Some of you are based in western Europe. Your headquarters is in Norway. Despite living in all of these different places, how did your team manage to communicate?
Christian: We started the company and within a little over a year, COVID happened. So, we were in a situation where many of our team members were scattered all over the world, with or without the opportunity to travel.
Luckily, we already had a company culture of collaborating using different product management tools, like Podio, and other communication tools like Zoom, Google Meet and all that.
We simply made the most of it and adapted to the new circumstances quickly. We invested in meeting rooms, and all the necessary technology to make our communication easier.
Arjen: We are making the most of the situation that we are in, that is for sure. Some things are easy to do remotely. Some things are better when you are sitting next to each other.
The product development team works on site, here in Chiang Mai. The whole thing. When you are talking about physical objects that you make together, I think it’s advantageous to be together. We made that decision to single out the development and do it strictly in-house.
For things like marketing, it’s better to be scattered all over the globe and extend your reach. We have people in many corners of the world. Different languages, different mindsets, amazing perspectives that complement each other.
What I think we’ve done is - we played those cards to our advantage. We are international where it benefits the company, the organizational structure, and the collection of information. Where it’s not beneficial, we manage to take it all in-house, at one location.
9. What was the most challenging part of developing FlexBeam?
Arjen: The goal for me was to make something that I can give to my grandma without her having to call me every night, asking me how to use it.
We were aiming to make FlexBeam easy to use, biocompatible, comfortable, ergonomic, and effective. There was a lot of fine tuning involved until we made what we wanted.
That’s not something that you do in your first attempt. It takes a lot of time, money, and all other resources to get to that point where you are like - OK, now, this is awesome! And we did it. We made a targeted red light therapy device that we are proud of.
Christian: Making this technology portable was also a part of our mission. There is no point in making another device that costs $10,000. FlexBeam uses the type of technology that would 10 years ago cost that much money. The idea was to drop that price significantly and make something that is affordable for most people, and competitive with other solutions out there.
If we were to follow the paradigm of old red light devices, we would sell it for $6,000. That would only be available through therapists, and it would become very niche. We didn’t want that. We wanted to democratize it. We wanted to help people take charge of their own health. The only way to do that is to make an affordable, and powerful red light therapy device - FlexBeam.
10. What are you looking forward to?
Christian: FlexBeam has already reached the know-how groups: the biohackers, the bio-optimizers, the celebrities, the early adopters. There are already 5,000 units with that crowd. The “in” crowd.
So, what I'm looking forward to is bringing FlexBeam to the masses. That is our main challenge now. To make it mainstream. It can help so many people recharge their health in a very convenient way. We just need to spread the word and take the product to them.
So far, we’ve spent 3-4 years developing and testing, receiving user feedback. Now we are going from an engineering, concept-driven company, and switching our focus to spreading the word about FlexBeam. We want to fulfill the Recharge Health mission - we want to recharge people’s health.
11. Is there anything else you’d like the readers to know?
Arjen: I’d like the readers to know that light is an essential thing in life. Don’t underestimate what it can do for you. Don’t underestimate the power of the right kinds of light. It’s not something esoteric. It’s hard-core science. It works really well, so give it a try.
Christian: It’s never only one thing that will improve your quality of life. We have developed what we believe to be the best support for an active lifestyle. However, it’s never only just one thing. It’s the choices that you make, together with the technology that we provide that will take you towards a better life.
We don’t want you to think that we are saying that you can just continue with poor choices and then apply this technology, and everything will be fine. That’s not what we believe.
We believe that you have the ability to heal yourself by making the right choices and we provide the arsenal to help you. This is a holistic approach to your wellbeing and FlexBeam is a tool that helps you on that journey.
We are less symptom based. FlexBeam helps your body work on the cause, instead of treating symptoms. You can take a painkiller to heal the pain, or you can use FlexBeam to help your body deal with the root cause of your pain.
Arjen Helder (left) and Christian Barmen (right)
About Recharge Health
Recharge Health is a company built on science, inspired by love and powered by purpose. Our mission is our name: we want to recharge people’s health.
We are a Norwegian company with a worldwide market ambition and an international team with a shared sense of purpose: to create groundbreaking health technology that can empower people to heal themselves. Through the successful market launch of our first product in 2020, the company finds its homebase in Oslo, Norway, drawing on the best of Nordic innovation, design, technology and capital to develop a global business.
Our customers are our true heroes because they motivate us to keep going. For every new user story we receive, we are reminded daily that our team efforts as a company directly affect people’s lives in transformational ways.
With hundreds of personal stories and reviews, a thousand active users and growing fast, we have a goal to grow our community to over a hundred thousand by 2023, on our way to creating a movement for people taking charge of their own health.
