Ayush admin | Nov 10, 2020 | 400
Low Level Laser Therapy for Chronic Conditions
History of healing
Since the beginning of mankind humans have endeavored to understand the human body and mind with the available resources of knowledge, technology and tools. In the beginning, understanding biorhythms and its interaction with basic physiological functions with physical expressions were the first ones to be explored.
Basic physiological functions with physical expressions meant activities such as eating, drinking, sleeping, emptying bladder, bowels etc. So bodily disturbances such as fever, fatigue and pain were understood and managed on the basis of how intake impacted the output signs as above.In simplified terms, it meant if a person experienced pain and a certain type of food or local application sourced from whatever within reach, with different combinations of inputs like air, water, posture and activities which could reduce pain, began to become popular as a pain and symptom relieving medication or technique.
Since then man and mankind has come a long way in understanding human health issues and methods to resolve them. Most innovations in health also keep pace with certain innovations and developments in the areas of atomic and molecular chemistry, new materials development, space and communication technologies.
It is well known that the human body right from the molecular and biological chemistry at cellular component levels and the tissues to organs and the systems have embedded self-healing capabilities to repair minor issues The Best Convergence of Nature’s Self-Healing Design and regenerate tissues that undergo wear and tear. These activities keep happening at a sub-conscious level and these seem to work best in younger age groups with a systematic slow down or erosion of these capabilities with time.
What does it mean when the body is unable to heal itself as expected?
If the body was healing itself of minor issues growing up and did not have any major bio-chemical imbalance, then erosion of healing capability simply means a slow down or shut-down of certain cellular functions. Loss of structure or function at cellular level can occur due to molecular, bio-chemical, electro-physiological imbalance and impairment of functions at a cellular component level all the way down to the DNA and RNA. While metabolic disturbance, structural defects, dysfunction due to inflammation, trauma or neoplasms can occur from the inside and be influenced by impairment physiological inputs of oxygen, nutrition and exercise physiology.
What exactly is the root cause of erosion of tissue repair and regeneration capability?
Every cell has a life-span.Certain super differentiated and specialized cells may not be as capable in terms of repair and regeneration as compared to, say, a skin cell. In the event of any damage during its lifespan, repair processes take over. Very minor defects will restore themselves back to the original design. In the event of greater damage, the original design will be restored back to whatever possible extent and the rest with repair tissue which may or may not impact the overall function and deliverable of the cell, tissue and organ it is part of.
Typically, trauma, inflammation, infections and neoplasms can impact structure and function of tissues. In the event of cells experiencing wear and tear issues, the cells have the basic DNA capability to instruct the cell for mitosis (cell division) to be initiated so that it could be replaced with a new generation of the cell with identical structure and function. This is technically the basic regenerative capability of cells. Skin cells, connective tissue, cells from musculo-skeletal systems such as ligaments, tendons, cartilages etc. qualify under this category.
Loss of regenerative capability because of the cell’s inability to regenerate itself leads to loss of structure and functions of cells, tissues, organs and systems which are generally called “degenerative conditions”. Commonly degenerative conditions are slowly progressive and hence chronic too. The intelligence needed for cellular function that initiates and controls cell regeneration resides in the DNA of each cell. There is a strong co-relation between the balance and bio-availability of oxygen, glucose, ATP and several enzymes determine the smoothness of cellular function across the clock.
It is well known that cells that do not regenerate have very low levels of ATP besides other imbalances. That’s the puzzle and within it lies the key to the solution. Restoring the biochemical balance at an intercellular component level restores cellular function to a significant extent. The later part of this write up revisits this topic in connection with the therapeutic possibilities.
What problems does one experience due to erosion of repair and regenerative capability?
Primarily, pain and reduced mobility are two of the most commonly experienced symptoms. Problems occurring in the musculo-skeletal system such as muscles, tendons, joints, bones etc.could be a combined effect of pain and loss of mobility with one complicating the other. Pain alone is typical of neuralgias and problems of the nervous system.
The biggest challenge for patients experiencing chronic pain is the mental stress associated with the pain. Additionally, this stress can complicate appetite, sleep and trigger other unrelated problems. Most often chronic patients after taking pain killers for a few days, weeks, months or years usually give up taking pain killers due to the gastro-intestinal side-effects they create or move on to higher and more advanced pharmaceutical preparations which are more powerful than the previous ones.
While chronic pains start as small things to be attended to in life, in a few months and years the pain can drive decisions in life. It seriously impacts psychological/ mental health and also the patients’ adjustment to social issues at home and outside. Working professionals, one can imagine, experience undue pressures of physical and mental stress often leading to high absenteeism and even discontinuation of work. This can severely impact domestic economics and health of relationships at home and outside.
In certain conditions, a patient may be advised a surgical procedure. Surgery as an option brings its own set of fears, phobias and views. Usually elective surgeries in India are not simple linear decisions. It is a family affair with significant strain and stresses personally, for near & dear ones and often economically damaging.
What options does the world offer now?
We are already familiar with the conservative management of chronic pains with rest, medication, physiotherapy etc. on one side of the spectrum and on the other side is surgery involving structural alterations to provide a long term solution to the root cause of pain. The limitation or challenge in either of the options above is that they don’t directly resolve the key issue or root cause that caused the problem in the first place. The theoretical ideal solution is replacement of the defective tissue with whatever that restoresthat original design. That still sounds very theoretical. Is that even possible? The surprising answer is a loud “Yes” with some fine print. Modern day science and laser physics especially, has helped the medical world with such a possibility.
How do lasers offer therapeutic options for chronic conditions?
Lasers have been used in medicine for several functions in different parts of the body for different applications. A huge amount of resources are available for one to understand the medical use of lasers. There are a range of lasers found suitable for pain relief. In terms of wavelength of light spectrum,600-900 nM is most suitable for repair and relief.
In the context of treatment of chronic conditions, this is also popularly called “Low Level Laser Therapy”or “Cold Laser Therapy”. The amount of energy that is passed through or touching the body is less powerful than the FM radio waves that one might think is safe. The key scientific principle that drives repair and regeneration is quite simple. Any cell which is either damaged and needs repair or any tissue that is unable to regenerate following wear and tear behave like cells that are sleeping or more precisely forgotten to perform a critical function.
Earlier part of this note discussed the manner in which cells whose DNA is unable to initiate the “cell division”. Both in the case of cells that need repair and regeneration, what the “Cold or Low Level Lasers” do is to wake them up. When the cells are “awake” so to speak, they perform the normal functions that they were designated to perform especially regenerate at the end of life cycle. This happens through a series of cellular and molecular moves and events and finally ends up restoring the balance between glucose, oxygen, ATP, andcytokinase enzymes among others.
When cells or tissues with appetite to repair are exposed to ‘Cold Lasers’, their metabolism is restored.The most interesting thing about this is that neighboring cells that are functioning normally and are “awake” don’t respond to the laser energy. It means one cannot expose lasers to tissues that are functioning normally and expect those cells to become something bigger or beautiful. One can see how there is a clear possibility to attempt to restore God or nature’s original design using very modern scientific principle yet stick to promoting natural design without any biochemical corruption.
What conditions are best suitable for such therapy using Cold Lasers?
There are a host of conditions almost eighty odd clinical conditions that have responded well to cold lasers. Starting from head to toe some of the most common conditions that respond well to Cold Lasers are migraines, sinusitis, tinnitus, neuralgias, shoulder, cervical and lower spine problems, muscle strains, sprains and tendinitis, osteo arthritis, calcaneal spur, diabetic and non-diabetic neuropathies etc.
Cold laser treatment does not interfere with or be interfered by diet, exercise or sleep patterns. Obviously patients who get pain due to repetitive stress must also look into lifestyle changes to prevent recurrences. Cells that begin to regenerate do not forget to regenerate again and don’t need lasers again. Hence the repair is pretty much permanent after the first repair.
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