Cold Laser Therapy, also called Low Level Light Therapy, is a treatment that uses specific wavelengths of light to help speed the body’s healing process. It can help patients who suffer from acute and chronic conditions to reduce swelling, help eliminate pain, decrease spasms and increase functionality.  This is an FDA-approved, non-invasive, non-prescription therapy.

How Cold Lasers Work

Cold lasers are flashlight-size devices that clinicians focus on the injured area for 30 seconds to several minutes, depending on the treatment area and the dose provided by the cold laser unit.

Since the body responds to all illness or injuries with inflammation, cold lasers can help mitigate that inflammation.  While the laser is focused on the body, photons of light are emitted and pass through the skin’s layers. The light does not heat up the targeted area, rather, it penetrates 1 to 2 inches below the skin. When the light energy reaches the target area, it is absorbed and interacts with the light-sensitive elements in the cell. Think of photosynthesis in plants–sunlight is absorbed by plants, which is then converted into usable energy, causing the plant to grow. Human cells absorb this light energy, and it causes the cell to normalize damaged tissue, or it causes a reduction in pain, inflammation or swelling. This process is also thought to decrease healing time by increasing intracellular metabolism, increase circulation and aid in lymphatic drainage.

Cold laser therapy is often used to help:

• Arthritis pain
• Back pain
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Fibromyalgia pain
• Knee pain
• Neck pain
• Neurodegenerative Disorders
• Stroke
• Tendonitis

Effectiveness of Cold Laser Therapy

Physicians have been using cold laser therapy for pain relief since 1967. While thousands of studies have been published world-wide, many of these studies were done using small test groups. Further studies with a larger number of participants are necessary for this treatment to become widely accepted.  Particularly, a uniform standard regarding dosing and number of treatments has not yet been conclusively proven.

In 2014, dentists at Harvard proved that low-level lasers could be used to regenerate stem cells to re-grow dentin, the hard, bone-like tissue that makes up teeth. This study, according to the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences “lays the foundation for a host of clinical applications in restorative dentistry and regenerative medicine more broadly, such as wound healing, bone regeneration, and more.”

Cold Laser Therapy is very effective at:

• providing pain relief to help reduce medication
• improving blood circulation
• reducing swelling and promoting anti-inflammatory response
• stimulating cell growth, cell metabolism and cell regeneration
• stimulating collagen to reduce scar tissue
• providing an anti-oxidant effect
• stimulating the immune system
• increasing tissue regeneration to promote healing

Cold laser therapy is now more widely studied and this will continue to broaden the applications for this treatment. As one of the services offered by Wellness Balance, we successfully manage the symptoms of Lyme disease, and ease the side effects of chemotherapy with cold laser. Please feel free to let us know if you have questions or would like to try this treatment.

About the author

Kimberly Distilli

Kimberly Distilli, R.N. and founder of Wellness Balance, has spent almost three decades in the medical field. Kimberly devoted her life to taking care of others but it wasn’t until she became seriously ill with breast cancer that she discovered the impact of alternative, non-invasive therapies such as cold laser therapy, alkaline water, cellular cleansing and neurotoxin release.