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THOR on YouTubeLow-level laser therapy improves vision in patients with Age-related Macular Degeneration.
Researchers at University of Heidelberg, Germany have conducted a clinical trial on 203 patients with AMD (age-related macular degeneration) and improved visual acuity for between 3 and 36 months. Continue reading
I just had chat with Mike Hamblin (Harvard Medical School). He described to me how he had this insight about Nitric Oxide being unbound from Cytochrome C Oxidase by light after reading an article in Nature about fire flies.
Hypoxic or stressed cells tend to be low in oxygen and high in NO
This NO is bound to to Cytochrome C oxidase and inhibits cell function
Light (at certain wavelengths, intensities and duration) knocks NO off Cytochrome C oxidase so the cell performs optimally again plus the NO causes a temporary increase in blood flow :-)
This week Lars Hode and Jan Tunér put out a call for some concensus on the name for this cold laser, low level laser, Photobiomodulation thing that we do.They concluded by proposing Laser Phototherapy. I had some counter arguments:
The BMJ “Editors Choice” headline this week was “Key opinion leaders, your time is up”. The editor Fiona Godlee asked “Why is it considered normal for medical leaders to accept personal payment for promoting a company’s drug or device?” She was referring to the BMJ article “Drug Marketing” which interviews former pharma sales representative Kimberly Elliott about Key Opinion Leaders. “These people are paid a lot of money to say what they say,” she said. “I’m not saying the key opinion leaders are bad, but they are salespeople just like the sales representatives are.” “Influential doctors can earn up to $400 an hour”.
Here is another systematic review of from the Norwegian, Brazilian, British and Greek stable.
As usual it finds that less power density is more effective (less power density, but more time) for reducing inflammation and improving tissue repair. It is a recurring theme on this blog and I hope you are making a note of it.
The Annals of Internal Medicine published a review of the evidence of medications for acute and chronic low back pain. These are the clinical practice guidelines for the American Pain Society and American College of Physicians (available here via Pubmed). Laser did not get a recommendation because “no suitable reviews of LLLT were identified”. It’s worth reading a letter to the editor that strongly criticizes the overview methodology and makes a case for LLLT. click here for the letter to the editor
For decades the Cold Laser / LLLT pioneers have preached to each-other about their work and published in LLLT dedicated journals. It is nice to see more LLLT being reported in other medical journals and in the main stream press. In my bi-monthly Literature Review for PMLS 30 papers were published outside the Laser press
Today Reuters Health Interviewed Jan Bjordal about a paper he co-authored and published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine Continue reading
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