Malchar Chiropratic

 Cold Laser Therapy
         Photobiomodulation, also known as low level laser therapy (LLLT), cold laser therapy, and laser biostimulation, is a medical technique in which exposure to low-level laser light enhances tissue growth

 and healing. The technique is also known as phototherapy and laser therapy.

Cold Laser Therapy Is Joining the Injury Treatment Team
By Lois Lindstrom

The Washington Post, Tuesday Feb. 17, 2004

The New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVIII with some help from a little-known form of laser technology that could change the way athletic injuries and chronic pain are treated.

The treatment, known as "cold" laser therapy or low-level laser therapy (LLLT), has been used internationally for 18 years to treat soft tissue injuries, cervical neck pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress injuries, tendonitis, hamstring injuries, arthritis and wound healing, among others.

The lasers — hand-held, flashlight-like devices that direct a beam of narrow-spectrum (but not hot) light at injured tissue beneath the skin — have been integrated into medical practice in Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, cold laser therapy has become a preferred treatment for "whiplash" injuries, neuralgia and shingles. In Japan, the lasers were approved in 1987 and are in widespread use today.

In the United States, the technology received marketing clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 for treating carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful inflammation of the wrists and hands that results from repetitive motion. But the mainstream medical establishment still considers the cold laser's benefits un-proven. Most U.S. users are athletic trainers, chiropractors and practitioners of alternative medicine.

"The medical community needs more scientific studies done in the United States," said Wayne Good, a general surgeon in Waterford, Mich., who participated in the clinical trials that led to FDA clearance of the laser device. Good worked with General Motors Corp., which hosted the double-blind, placebo-controlled trials on serious carpal tunnel sufferers as a way to seek more cost-effective treatment for the condition, which affects many auto workers.

Good said the treatment proved about 70 percent effective in getting injured workers, most of whom had failed to respond to other treatments, back on the job. GM offers the treatment to injured workers in its in-plant medical clinics.

But insurance payment for the procedure is also an issue holding doctors back, Good said. Many U.S. insurers will not pay for cold laser treatment, citing the need for further research proving its benefits.

"If the major insurance companies... do not pay for the technology," Good said, "the doctor cannot be reimbursed for treating his patients."

Sport and Health

While mainstream medicine remains on the sidelines, practitioners of sports medicine, who are highly motivated to find new ways to heal soft-tissue injuries and bruises, are getting right into the cold laser game.

In the week preceding the Super Bowl, Boston based registered nurse Ellen Spicuzza treated more than 10 Patriot players with cold laser therapy for tendon and muscle injuries.

"A couple of days prior to the Super Bowl weekend, I treated [Patriot wide receiver] David Givens, who had a locked-up hamstring," she said. She rotated the $4,000, pen-like laser over the "belly" of his hamstring muscle for about five minutes, she said. "The laser released it."

Spicuzza, an independent nurse/physical therapist in Boston, usually treats Patriot players' injuries with medical massage. For the big game, she for the first time used low level laser therapy on the athletes' most troublesome pain spots. Before using the cold laser, Spicuzza was skeptical.

 

"I am not into gimmicks," she said. "I didn't think it would help."

But she changed her mind after seeing how the laser expedited healing of some players' soreness and pain.

"I don't think [the improved recoveries were] a coincidence," Spicuzza said. "It did help. I used it on a flared-up sciatic nerve, and the player had relief soon after treatment."

 

Low-Level Laser Therapy is a safe, non-medical procedure, as it is completely pain free and non-invasive. Photo or light-therapy has been used in Europe and Canada for over two decades, as a form of modern acupuncture for various conditions. The word laser has a connotation with cutting, removing and zapping. However, Low-level or bio-stimulation lasers are also known as cold lasers, which have entirely different capabilities than the surgical hot laser. Rather than slicing or destroying tissue, the cold laser actually stimulates tissue repair, and can be used for pain, stress and addiction relief.

Using the FDA approved laser, many clinics are springing up around the country, in order to assist people with their smoking and addiction habits. USA has protocols for addictions of all kinds, starting with nicotine, alcohol, and more serious drugs. They are even treating for food addiction.
There are now over 200 clinics nation wide participating in clinical research trials with the FDA. The smoking cessation protocol requires that certified laser technicians are trained to locate the specific areas of the body that correspond with nicotine addiction. Working in a fashion similar to acupuncture, the laser treats areas on the ears, face hands and wrists, resulting in a focused endorphin release.

A beam of intensified light is applied to the areas of the body that might normally be pierced with a needle. We’ve found that we can create a similar high from the body’s natural opiates when they are stimulated, but where the endorphin release would begin to wane from the removal of the needles, the technology of the laser allows this endorphin release to be constant for a period of up to 30-45 days.

Endorphins, which are the bodies natural high, trigger the pleasure centers in the brain, creating a release of the “feel-good” hormones, such a dopamine and serotonin, The two main outcomes of the procedure are reduced cravings and suppressed withdrawal symptoms.

The release reaches its peak at about 12-24 hours, and then begins to level off for the duration of the 30-45 days. Each clinic is different as far as its re-treatment protocol. Some like to get their clients in for a re-treatment 72 hours later, as an added incentive for remaining smoke-free, others wait a week, and still others only see them again for maintenance purposes, 1 month, 3 months and again at 6 months after their initial session.

According to the Matrix Institute of Laser Therapy, clinical studies have shown an up to 94% success rate in suppression of physical withdrawal and cravings with only one procedure.

Because we are still participating in clinical research trials it is vital that every patient know that our high success rates are not claiming success on the basis of smoker-non-smoker, but rather, has each person experienced a reduction and suppression of cravings and withdrawal? This in combination with a behavior modification and counseling program most often results in finally kicking the habit.

The main difference is that the individual will now be in control of their cravings rather than it being the other way around. And where the physical strength ends, that’s when the mental kicks in.

What sets Laser therapy apart? Laser Therapy clinics around the world pride themselves on the fact that we are using the body’s natural healing fibers to help overcome their addiction. And they are using a completely drug-free, stimulant free method.

Many people have tried everything, from the patches to the gums, lozenges, and even other medications that are meant to be prescribed for more serious conditions that do not pertain to them, resulting in an endless array of side effects and costs.

Nicotine replacement therapy or any other kind of pharmacotherapy has never reached a success rate beyond 30-40%. And many times the side effects are worse, in the patients’ opinion, than smoking itself. Reasons why a percentage of people are still unsuccessful is unclear, but the growing number of people who have finally found relief encourages the continuation of this research.

 

Decreased Pain and Nociception:
Ion channel normalization (results in pain reduction)
Increase in Beta Endorphins (decreased pain response)
Increased nitric oxide production (helps oxygenation and synapse normalization)
Decreased Bradykinin levels
Blocked depolarization of C-fiber afferent nerves
Normalization of resting action potentials (back to 70 mv range)
Increase release of acetylcholine (normalization of nerve function)
*Axonal sprouting and nerve cell regeneration* (assists in improving nerve function and reducing pain)

Tissue healing:
Increased leukocyte activity (acceleration of tissue repair and decrease of pain)
Increased macrophage activity (increased phagocytosis)
Increased neovascularization (new vessel growth and increase oxygenation)
Increased fibroblast production (speeds tissue repair)
Keratinocyte proliferation (Decreased skin healing time and early ephitheliazation)
Increased tensile strength (helps prevent re-injury)