» Low Level Laser Therapy
The use of Laser and photo-diodes at low intensities has been promoted since to late 1960's for treatment of a variety of medical conditions, including arthritis, soft tissue injury and pain. The first systematic scientific study on the biological effects of low level laser was conducted by Professor Endre Mester of the Semmelweis Medical University in Budapest, Hungary. The definition of Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) is Laser treatment in which the energy output is low enough so that the temperature of the treated tissue does not rise above 98.6°F (36.5° C) or normal body temperature. Most of the devices currently in use employ diode Lasers that operate in the microwatt range, usually from 50 to 200 microwatts. By way of comparison, a 25 watt light bulb has 250 times the "power," or gives off 250 times more energy than a 100 microwatt LLLT device. With the possible exception of directly exposing the retinal nerve layer of the eye to LLLT, there have been no reports of serious side effects from microwatt Lasers in over 40 years of clinical use.
Since the original scientific studies in Budapest, countless clinical reports of positive results using LLLT have been published in Europe and Asia. LLLT is currently one of the mainstay treatments used in the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries for physiotherapy. It is now the main program taught at the undergraduate training programs for physiotherapy within the British health care system. The slow acceptance among conventional practitioners in the U.S. is the result of two factors. First, the application of clinical LLLT requires a basic understanding of physics, rather than biochemistry, which is the basis for the the usual "drug" model of disease care practiced in the U.S. Second, although there are now FDA approved LLLT devices available in the U.S., the "chemical-drug" mindset of FDA regulators and their employees made developing FDA approved testing of these devices difficult. For these reasons, devices that were seeking approval usually languished in the halls of federal bureaucracy for years while regulators tried to figure out a way to test the devices for safety and effectiveness. Fortunately, pressure from the Congressional branch of our federal government finally resulted in some acceptance of safety and effectiveness testing done in European and Asian countries and device approval finally became a reality.
Although slow to "catch on" at the clinical level in the United States, Homeopathic Integrative physicians are now turning to this simple, cost-effective, non-toxic form of Regulation therapy when clinically indicated. Currently employed primarily for nontoxic pain relief from various arthritic, inflammatory and soft tissue problems, and to help eliminate abnormal, physiologic dys-regulating Neural Therapy foci or interference fields, the use of LLLT at Bio Health Center has been ongoing for the past 5 years. Because the device we use operates within "Homeopathic" doses of coherent light, Nevada licensed Homeopathic Physicians have been among the first health care practitioners in the United States to use LLLT. Dr. Edwards and the certified staff of Bio Health Center were among the first Nevada licensed health care professionals to employ LLLT in clinical practice.
"No matter how skillful one becomes, the great mysteries of Life will always hover just out of reach. One can never know all the answers. In the reality of everyday medical practice, no one can guarantee any clinical result... but I and my certified staff can and do promise to try to help each individual patient to the best of our abilities, by using all our knowledge, skill and compassion. Having been trained as a 'medical scientist,' I can bear witness to the simple fact that statistical science and individual reality do not share the same experience. The Quantitative 'eye' of the scientist perceives a different Reality than the Qualitative 'I' of the patient. And yet modern statistical science dismisses individual patient experience as 'anecdotal' and 'biased.' Such dangerous nonsense has caused much suffering and harm. Individual patient experience is the only true measure of the Quality of care. Relief of suffering, not statistical significance, is the patients real quest, their only quest... and the true physician's ultimate goal. I believe it was in Plato's Phaedrus that Socrate's ask's, 'do we really need anyone to tell us what is right?' Homeopathic Integrative medical practice provides the patient and practitioner with simple, non-toxic methods of treatment for relief of suffering... a natural union of clinical Art and Science... the true essence of medical service."
- David A. Edwards, MD, HMD
