Light Therapy Is Used For Many Areas

Where is Light Therapy Used

Light therapy has found many uses in different areas. For example, it is used to treat a variety of skin diseases and it is used to treat mood and sleep related disorders as well. Let us have a look at the various places where light therapy is being used.

Acne:

It has been known since a long time that sunlight helps cure the bacteria which cause acne. The visible violet light which is present in the sunlight activates a porphyrin that damages and kills the bacteria which cause acne. And this process does not cause any tanning or sunburn. However, during the course of this treatment, it is important to protect the eyes from the light as this may be harmful to the chemicals in the retina. This treatment has proved to be more effective than Benzoyl Peroxide which is often used to cure acne.

Psoriasis:

One of the common problems of people suffering with psoriasis is skin inflammation. Narrow band ultra violet B rays are given as a light therapy on the skin surface which is inflamed. The ultra violet rays help suppress the inflammation on the skin.

Wound Healing:

It has been found that infrared light releases nitrous oxide in the blood stream which increases the circulation of blood in the area where the light is directed. This is very helpful for people, who due to various diseases such as Diabetes find it very difficult to heal wounds on the surface of the skin. This is also helpful for patients suffering with Neuropathy, Ulcers and for patients whose blood circulation is improper.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD):

People with seasonal affective disorder go into depression like states during the winter months. This is seen in places where the amount of daylight is very less in these seasons (countries near the North Pole, for instance). The cure for these people is full sunlight. So, light boxes which replicate sunlight conditions are used for these patients. These use artificial illumination to re-create the fully lighted atmospheric conditions that are normally present in sunlight.

Depression:

This is a non-seasonal kind of depression. But light therapy has shown interesting results in the treatment of such patients as well. A similar kind of treatment method is followed for treating these patients as with the people affected with SAD. The results are faster compared to the use of anti-depressants.

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS):

People suffering with Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS) have problems sleeping and often end up falling asleep way past midnight and thus have difficulty waking up in the morning. In these cases the light must be provided as soon as the patient wakes up. Light therapy is useful for the people suffering from DSPS because it causes dawn simulation.

Jet Lag:

It has been seen that exposing the person suffering from jet lag to light at appropriate times before, during and after the air travel can actually reduce the effects of jet lag and help the body to adjust easily to the time differences. This process has even been used by NASA to train its astronauts for late night launches.

Heliotherapy:

This is a very popular term which is used to describe light therapy, and is used in spas and such places. These places use various forms of light therapy to provide tanning beds and booths and even tanning lamps which use both ultraviolet and infrared rays of light for providing treatment to their customers.

When not to use Light Therapy

However advantageous light therapy may be, there are certain times when light therapy is not advisable.

It has been observed that exposure to too much light can cause skin damage as well as destroying the amounts of vitamins A and C in the skin, and it can damage the generation of free radicals in the body. It is for this reason that it is said that light therapy should always be taken in the presence of a licensed practitioner, qualified doctor or dermatologist.

Light therapy used for patients suffering from depression can also cause maniac states (which are the absolute opposite of depressed states) because of the mood alteration effect produced by it. As such, it can also be considered similar to taking mood-altering drugs. Hence, it is always advised to take such therapies under the consultation of a qualified medical practitioner only.

In some cases, where the patient suffers from phototoxicity (light can kill the cells), or has a photosensitive skin or is taking certain medicines which can create such conditions, light therapy is not advised. Also, with patients that have a tendency towards manic behavior, light therapy is not advised.

 

By Madhavi Ghare
Published: 2/20/2008

Wound Healing In A Microgravity Environment

We have all heard how space technology can benefit us all here on Earth; well, this is no exception when we look at LED therapy. While the researchers in the field were fine-tuning their devices for pain relief, NASA needed a means to the use of light therapy with LEDs can help prevent bone and muscle atrophy as well as increase the rate of wound healing in a microgravity environment, thus reducing the risk of treatable injuries becoming mission catastrophes. They worked, and NASA took the next step.

Could LED’s help in healing injuries to astronauts while in space flight? One of the major dilemmas for NASA regarding long-term space flight is the well-documented effect of muscle and bone atrophy that occurs to astronauts while in space. In addition, it has been shown that injuries that occur while in space tend not to heal until the astronaut is back within the earth’s gravity. The LED’s that produced near-infrared light used in NASA’s research were shown to stimulate the basic energy processes by activating color sensitive chemicals within the cells. DNA synthesis in fibroblasts and muscle cells had been quintupled. The light absorbed by the cells stimulated the metabolism in muscle and bone as well as skin and subcutaneous tissue.

What people and animals had felt through utilizing this technology in real life, NASA was proving to be true in the laboratory. An excellent review of recent human experience with near-infrared light therapy for wound healing was published by Conlan, et al (Conlan, 1996). Lasers provide low energy stimulation of tissues which results in increased cellular activity during wound healing (Beauvoit, 1994, 1995; Eggert, 1993; Karu, 1989; Lubart, 1992, 1997; Salansky, 1998; Whelan, 1999; Yu, 1997) including increased fibroblast proliferation, growth factor synthesis, collagen production and angiogenesis.

Lasers, however, have some inherent characteristics that make their use in a clinical setting problematic, such as limitations in wavelength capabilities and beam width. The combined wavelengths of light optimal for wound healing cannot be efficiently produced, and the size of wounds that may be treated by lasers is limited. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) offer an effective alternative to lasers. These diodes can be made to produce multiple wavelengths, and can be arranged in large, flat arrays allowing treatment of large wounds.

The Incas and The Mayans Used Light Therapy

The benefits of light therapy were recognized several thousand years ago.  Along with color and crystals, light and sun energy was used in almost every major culture throughout the world.  Healers in Egypt, Greece, China, India and Persia used them as did the Mayans, Incas, Tibetans, Dowest Chinese, East Indian Ayurvedics and North American Indians. The practice of light therapy dates back to the Greeks when it was known exposure to light, heliotherapy, was beneficial to health.  Today it’s been proven light is beneficial in the production of Vitamin D.

In the 19th century doctors began to explore the therapeutic benefits of previously unknown rays of light and color, such as ultraviolet, to heal diseases.  All forms of light therapy in use today began during the 20th century.  The first reports of ultraviolet blood irradiation date back to the 1930s and in the early nineteen hundreds,  Edgar Cayce gave several readings advocating the use of the Violet Ray machine invented by Nicola Tesla for a heating effect in the body called diathermy. In Europe during the 60s it was noted that certain wavelengths had therapeutic effects on tissues through a process known as photo-stimulation, a common technique used today to treat jaundice in newborns. More recently cancer researchers noted that a single red frequency combined with a topical cream kills certain cancer cells.

There are various forms of light therapy promoted today for alternative healing including light boxes, UV therapy, chromatotherapy , UV blood irradiation and LED therapy.  Red and near infrared light wavelengths are able to pass through tissue up to one inch deep and have beneficial effects on the cells.  LED light arrays are a means to provide these wavelengths.  Conditions known to be helped by LED light therapy include osteoarthritis, burns, fibromyalgia pains, diabetic neuropathy and wound healing to name a few. Today, LED light therapy is an FDA approved cosmetic procedure that is gentle, painless, safe and effective

What? No Insurance for LED Light Therapy?

What’s this about infrared light therapy and dramatic recovery from chronic wounds and healing severely damaged tissues—has the medical community found something better than surgery?

Three highly-qualified RN’s have published their findings about the benefits of treatment that overcome the complications of severe tissue damage caused by underlying auto-immune disease, arthritis, unstable diabetes, or resistance to antibiotic therapies. (Wow!—it’s better than antibiotics?! I do NOT like taking medications if possible—and this is more beneficial, medically proven and validated, and…more affordable than repeated hospital or skilled facility placement?)
Now comes the hard part: who to believe—the insurance companies and which part of the government?

Well, it works for our fighting men in the military: this has already validated in a NASA News, Marshall Space Flight Center News Release 00-336 (12-18-00). Dr. Harry Whelan, commander and diving medical officer in the U.S. Navy reserve then assigned to Naval Special Warfare Command and a professor of pediatric neurology and director of hyperbaric medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has been working alongside doctors at Navy Special Warfare Command centers in Norfolk, VA, and San Diego, CA. They reported a 40 percent improvement in patients who had musculoskeletal training injuries treated with the light-emitting diodes. In the laboratory, Whelan and his team have shown that skin and muscle cells grown in cultures and exposed to the LED infrared light grow 150 to 200 percent faster than ground control cultures not stimulated by the light. Furthermore, a wound-healing device was placed on the USS Salt Lake City submarine, and doctors reported 50 percent faster healing of crewmember’s lacerations when exposed to the LED light. Injuries treated with the LEDs healed in seven days, while untreated injuries took 14 days.

And it helps children too: Dr. Whelan’s NASA-funded research has already seen remarkable results using the light-emitting diodes to promote healing of painful mouth ulcers caused by cancer therapies such as radiation and chemotherapy. The treatment is quick and painless. Doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin recently completed the first-ever surgery with the improved probe and medicine. The drug also has fewer side effects after surgery. The ongoing brain surgery study is described in a 1999 peer-reviewed journal article in Pediatric Neurosurgery. “Some children who probably would have had to be fed intravenously because of the severe sores in their mouths have been able to eat solid food,” said Dr. David Margolis, an oncologist at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

So what’s the fuss? Aetna states on the Clinical Policy Bulletin Number 0604 that
{ treatment with low-level infrared light (infrared therapy, Anodyne Therapy System) experimental and investigational for the treatment of chronic non-healing wounds, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, lymphedema, neck pain, acne, osteoarthritis, ischemic stroke and all other indications (except for grade I and II internal hemorrhoids) because of a lack of adequate evidence in the peer-reviewed published medical literature regarding the effectiveness of infrared therapy for these indications.)
In other words, they can’t believe it’s possible and all results achieved are not to be believed, regardless of recovery and evidence.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services also has a blind eye:

• CMS has determined that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the use of Infrared devices is not reasonable and necessary for treatment of Medicare beneficiaries for diabetic and non-diabetic peripheral sensory neuropathy, wounds and ulcers, and similar related conditions, including symptoms such as pain arising from these conditions. Therefore, we are issuing the following National Coverage Determination.
• The use of infrared and/or near-infrared light and/or heat, including monochromatic infrared energy (MIRE), is not covered for the treatment, including symptoms such as pain arising from these conditions, of diabetic and/or non-diabetic peripheral sensory neuropathy, wounds and/or ulcers of skin and/or subcutaneous tissues in Medicare beneficiaries.

Great! I’m convinced more than ever that when (one part) of the government says No” and another part heavily involved in physical human resources (the military) says “Yes,” I’m inclined to think that progress comes through effort and application—and being open to new ideas. Insurance companies are another issue; just ask AIG. Well, that settles it: if it heals me if I am in physical need, whom do I believe: the results my doctor gets or a bureaucrat? Ship it!