INFRARED LIGHT THERAPY RELIEVES PAINFUL NEUROPATHY

Len Saputo, MD, Health Medicine Institute

http://www.healthmedicineinstitute.com/body.cfm?id=117

“The pain is gone…I can’t believe it!” After two decades of unrelenting pain from diabetic neuropathy and a treatment program that not only profoundly interfered with his quality of life but also resulted in an addiction to a myriad of pharmaceutical drugs, Jack’s pain was suddenly gone. It was just that fast—two half-hour treatments with an invisible light and his pain disappeared. Incredible! No more medicines. He began feeling like his old self—he could think clearly and his zest for life returned. Jack’s family thinks it was a miracle.

Jack’s story is not unusual. Yet, diabetic neuropathy is only one of many health conditions that we have found can be eliminated using a near infrared light therapy. Since using this technology at the Health Medicine Institute our patients have been so delighted with its effects that we’ve had to expand our staff to accommodate their avalanche of referrals.

It is not unusual to reverse symptoms that have persisted for decades in a matter of a few minutes. Patients such as Jack often require narcotics, antidepressants, anti-neuroleptics and many other powerful drugs to control their pain. We have found that infrared light therapy routinely restores the nerve dysfunction that leads to the pain, numbness, loss of position sense, ulcerations, and amputations that all too often accompany patients with diabetic neuropathy. While infrared light therapy is particularly effective for diabetic neuropathy, we’ve also had good results in neuropathy caused by AIDS, alcohol, heavy metals, and those of unknown cause.

Healing with light sounds like “Star Trek” medicine—something out of the future that seems too far-fetched to exist in today’s world. However, quantum healing with near infrared light photons is here today, and it is here to stay. This powerful, effective, safe, and affordable technology is revolutionizing medical treatment for pain, many neurological disorders, as well as a wide variety of musculoskeletal and soft tissue maladies. A wide range of notoriously difficult or even impossible to treat conditions such as a wide range of neuropathies, carpal tunnel syndrome, severe cervical and lumbar disc disease, and reflex sympathetic dystrophy can now benefit from this treatment.

Because of our initial success in relieving the pain, numbness, and position sensation in more than 50 patients with painful neuropathy, the Health Medicine Institute is presently conducting a study in conjunction with the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Martinez and the John Muir/Mt. Diablo Medical Center on treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy with infrared light therapy. We expect this data will be published within the next year.

Our research team, led by the original pioneer in infrared light therapy, Maurice Bales, developed a device that was specifically designed to treat diabetic neuropathy, but it works well on other kinds of neuropathies and painful foot conditions too. It consists of 32 light emitting diode (LED) units that emit infrared light to both feet and lower legs. Each individual unit has been strategically placed to stimulate specific acupuncture sites in the lower extremities, the popliteal artery behind the knees, the tops of the toes, and the bottom surface of the feet.

There is a rapidly growing body of solid scientific research documenting the effectiveness of near infrared light therapy. NASA published a study on our navy seals in the Journal of Clinical Laser Medicine and Surgery in November of 2001 showing that this frequency of light penetrates 23 centimeters into the body’s tissues, and that it not only relieves pain but also accelerates the healing process by 50% or more.

Scientists believe that the mechanism of action of photonic stimulation results from its ability to excite electrons within the mitochondria of injured cells. This process is thought to restore production of ATP, which provides energy for cellular function. Accompanying this is a more normal regulation of the sympathetic nervous system that results in an increase of blood flow to injured tissues through the release of nitric oxide in the endothelial lining of blood vessels.

This increase in blood flow restores nourishment to the blood-starved cells of injured tissues and supports the return of normal tissue function. This can be documented by thermography—the study of heat patterns at the body surface that are regulated by the sympathetic nervous system. There is an association of specific heat patterns with different clinical disorders. These thermographic patterns correlate with patients’ subjective improvement and can be measured in real time with the use of infrared scanning cameras.

Because of the effectiveness, safety, simplicity, and affordability of infrared light therapy, we believe it is inevitable that infrared light therapy will soon become the first choice in the management of painful neuropathies.

Len Saputo, MD is the medical director of the Health Medicine Institute in Lafayette, CA. For further information please visit www.healthmedicineinstitute.com or call 925-962-3799.