THOR Low Level Laser Therapy LLLT Products and Training

TRPV1 is a nonselective cation channel involved in nociception. At a pain conference in London I attended last week a speaker reported that about $ billion has been spent by the pharmaceutical industry on developing a new class of analgesics to block this protein. However there is a sided effect on body temperature (hyperthermia) making it unusable which is a shame as the potential benefits are huge read here on Wikipedia.

TRPV1 is new to me and I wondered if perhaps anyone had looked at the effect of LLLT on it and they have. A group in Korea have shown that Er,Cr:YSGG laser has an analgesic effect via TRPV1 inhibition. Well hooray for the Koreans, if they really have discovered Inhibition of TRPV1 with laser (and without hyperthermia), it could become another medical holy grail assailed by LLLT.

I have written a short web page on how LLLT reduces chemotherapy and radiotherapy induced Oral Mucositis and provided a white paper you can download so click here to download LLLT reduces chemotherapy and radiotherapy induced Oral Mucositis

I have been reading The rise and fall of modern medicine by James Le Fanu, I’m just 30% in and am encouraged by how hard it is to introduce a radically new drug / medical procedure. Why encouraged? because LLLT has been a long time coming and occasionally I wonder if perhaps it will never gain universal clinical acceptance. Le Fanus book reminds us that penicillin, cortisone, open-heart surgery, kidney transplants and hip joint replacements (to name just a few) all took decades of refinement, practice and persuasion to achieve mainstream use just like LLLT

15 new research papers for you this month including LLLT treatments for: osteonecrosis of the jaw in cancer patients, laser vs ultrasound for shoulder myofascial pain syndrome, radiation-induced mucositis in head and neck cancer patients, persistent idiopathic facial pain and a negative study for subacromial impingement syndrome. This negative result is hardly a surprise as the laser was only 6mW. It is a shame the authors did not come on our training course before embarking on this study. There are ten more papers to review including Alzheimer’s disease, TMJ, respiratory diseases in children and a a MUST READ editorial on the effect of LLLT on suppression of activity of peripheral nerve endings by Dr Roberta Chow MD PhD.

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An video interview with Oncologist Rene Jean Bensadoun explaining why LLLT is not contraindicated when treating oral mucositis.

Former editor of Grays Anatomy Dr Mary Dyson PhD,  a popular speaker at LLLT conferences, describes how she got involved with low level laser / light therapy research when she was head of tissue repair research at Guys Hospital London UK.