How Does High Intensity Laser or Hot Laser Therapy Work?
More than 1000 research studies show us that when the body’s cellular tissue is exposed to light of certain wavelengths, (red, infrared, far infrared) beneficial biological processes will occur at the cellular and DNA levels. Specifically, the mitochondria will convert the light into ATP or energy – much like a plant utilizes the full spectrum of sunlight or all of the sun’s many wavelengths. Then the body can do what it does best: heal. And it heals faster and better with all of the ‘free’ energy supplied from photons!
Our hot laser therapy is non-surgical and painless and it penetrates through the skin and very deeply into the cells of the nerves, muscles, tendons, ligaments, lymph, etc. This triggers biochemical reactions that not only increase cellular energy, but, increase oxygen levels and the re-growth of the particular new healthy cells in the damaged tissue.
Due to the strong anti-inflammatory effect on the body, hot laser/class IV laser therapy has the potential to assist the problem area locally and relieve pain almost immediately. Then it more easily repairs tendons, ligaments and muscles faster and more efficiently.
What’s the difference between our class 3b cold laser and the new class IV laser therapy?
Our ATP Max Laser is a class IV laser and known as a ‘High Intensity Laser Therapy’ unit (HILT), and it uses more power (watts) than a cold laser.
It feels warmer, even hot, soothing and deeply relaxing down in the muscle almost instantly. Class IV hot lasers are normally 100-400x more powerful than cold lasers. It can cover about 9-12x the therapeutic area with about 9-12x the energy per second!
Although the penetration depth for both hot and cold lasers is similar, the dosage of energy/of photons reduces significantly as the depth increases. At 4cm only 1-2% of the light reaches the tissues. For this reason most injuries require a much greater amount of light to penetrate deep enough to be therapeutic down to the lowest part of the muscle or injured tissue.
A class IV hot laser can deliver that kind of a high dose in minutes where the same dose might take hours and many more treatments. So, for your faster healing and relief of pain, we invested in the “UBER Laser”!
What to expect… expect to get out of pain FAST
Pain relief quickly! Especially when combined with an acupuncture treatment, “the sum of the parts is greater than the whole”! Many podiatrists, orthopedic clinics and the like are selling packages of 6-10 laser treatments as stand-alone therapies and patients are getting much relief. But, whether you suffer from low back pain, knee pain, osteoarthritis, frozen shoulder, tennis or golf elbow or many other musculoskeletal conditions, the combination of the two outperform anything we have yet encountered. About two thirds of patients experience a reduction in pain and/or increase in mobility after just one treatment.
The maximum biological effect from the hot laser occurs shortly after treatment and then diminishes over time. Patients may experience significant pain reduction and improved mobility for a few days then the pain gradually starts to return. With the help of specially designed therapeutic movements we can often spread the treatments out to each 4-7 days until the second treatment builds upon the last to quickly get to weekly or bi-monthly treatments. As your Holistic Doctor, my job is to get you to once per month maintenance of either acupuncture or laser treatments as quickly as possible. I’d rather keep my rent paid by helping more people — the people you refer to me, than have you come once or twice per week for months and months and in any pain at all between visits! People who feel great like their friends to feel great, too! 99% of our business comes via word of mouth and we like that.
Class IV hot laser therapy for pain
Any injury or degenerative condition that the body can heal, can potentially be enhanced with laser therapy. This is achieved by increasing energy production within the cells mitochondria. Energised cells work together more efficiently to increase the rate of healing.
Class IV hot laser therapy (high intensity laser therapy) can treat a variety of conditions, such as:
- Osteoarthritis of the knee, hip and ankle
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Shoulder impingement syndromes
- Hip or shoulder bursitis
- Low back disc degeneration
- Disc herniation
- Sciatica
- Tendonitis
- Tennis elbow
- Plantar fasciitis
The benefits of high intensity laser therapy for treating stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injury has been supported by research over the past 7 years; however, further research studies are required to confirm these benefits.
How many treatments will you need?
Many patients notice an improvement from the first visit. The amount and frequency of treatments depends on the condition you need treated. The effects of the laser therapy are cumulative, meaning that each treatment builds on the one before.
Some acute conditions such as a long-term arthritic knee may take 6-15 treatments, while as a shoulder rotator cuff tear normally takes between 6-8 treatments. Most patients suffering from plantar fasciitis have experienced pain relief within 5 treatments. Each person’s rate of healing is different; however, this gives you an estimated guideline.
What are the side effects?
Laser light can be damaging to your eyes, if you look directly at the beam. For this reason, both patient, practitioner and any other person in the treatment room must wear specific eye protection glasses or goggles whilst the laser is in operation.
Once the eyes are protected the side effects of a high intensity laser therapy treatment are minimal and temporary.
For the body’s healing mechanism to ‘kick in’, some patients experience a mild short-term inflammation. This is a necessary process and supports tissue healing. Most discomfort passes in 24 hours and usually only occurs during the first couple of treatments.
