From Maggie Vreeland D.C.
Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is a breakthrough tool in the management of painful musculoskeletal conditions. Also called cold laser, LLLT is a light therapy based treatment for conditions such as neck pain, back pain, tendinopathies, sprains and strains.
Every cell in the body has a light sensor in the mitochondria (the power house of the cell). These light sensors can be stimulated by the correct wavelength and frequency of light emitted by the laser. The laser stimulates deep and saturates the tissues. Specifically, it stimulates the light receptors deep in the mitochondria. This phenomenon draws out inflammation and stimulates anti-inflammatory effects. Inflammation in the body brings pain. Therefore, decreasing inflammation can help in reducing pain levels and accelerating the healing process.
The cold laser used in our clinic, as well as many others, is different from a cauterizing, or hot laser. There are hot lasers used for surgical purposes that will actually burn through tissue. However, the cold laser used in physical medicine settings is absolutely painless. If you couldn’t see the laser emitting bursts of light, you wouldn’t even know that it was on. You cannot feel the effects of the light penetrating deep into the tissues.
These lasers have been deemed efficacious for conditions such as acute neck pain, back pain, tendinopathies such as “tennis elbow”, “golf elbow”, plantar fasciopathy (or plantar fasciitis), ankle sprains, arthritis and arthrosis, disc degeneration and disc bulge. Most professional sports teams employ the use of LLLT on the sidelines. They are oftentimes used as the first line of defence against inflammation due to injured tissues on the field. It is a great conservative tool, without side effects, to utilize before contemplating orthopaedic surgery for things such as frozen shoulder, disc herniation, sciatica and nerve impingements.
Different wavelengths, frequencies and times stimulate different tissues at different depths of the body. It is necessary to choose the correct parameters for the laser to adequately encourage healing of the correct tissue. Even though most practitioners use low level laser therapy as a tool to quicken healing in musculoskeletal pathologies, that is only the beginning of what it can do. In fact, the skin is actually the most light sensitive part of the body. Therefore, many skin lesions can be treated with laser, such as wounds, fungal and bacterial skin infections and rashes.
New research is even emerging that some brain inflammation may be quelled by low-level laser therapy. Meaning that brain based inflammatory conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, and many more may be mitigated by drawing out the inflammation in the brain through laser therapy. Research is just on the cusp of truly understanding the full potential of LLLT and light therapy.
If you are interested in alleviating pain through LLLT, please contact Global Health NV at 581-7570.
