Below, watch Dr. Norm Rantanen review recent cases from the RLT program.
Before and During Tx
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
BEFORE
|
DURING
|
BELOW: This horse did have a Superior check lig desmotomy in June of 2014 for a lesion at 24 cm DACB near the PAL. That was doing well when he came to FL and had this acute Inj lateral portion of SDF from 8 cm DACB to 20 dm DACB, MIZ at 16 cm DACB. Significant healing progress in 30 days. No injections. -Tim Ober
Case History Files
The following cases are for RLT users only.
Studies
Research & Development
|
Science Brief
Cellular metabolism is defined as converting molecular oxygen (O-2) into ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate). So how can we use laser to enhance the body's use of oxygen to create chemical energy.
Four things that absorb infrared radiation in this range: melanin in the hair and skin of the animal, water (which makes up 80% of our cells), hemoglobin (the complex that carries the oxygen in red blood cells), and an enzyme in the mitochondria called cytochrome oxidase.
We need to bring more oxygen to the cells. The only way that oxygen can get to the cells is through the blood, and the only way for the cells to get rid of their toxins (lactic acid e.g.) is also through the blood. So micro-circulation is the primary mechanism. Obviously it would help if the animal got up and ran around the office to increase its heart-rate and bloodflow, but if you had a lame dog, that’s not an option. Also, when you have conditions in the extremities, bloodlfow is poor so we need a way to make better use of the local flow.
Well it turns out that water in our cells absorbs very well in this wavelength range. Water is a very simple molecule chemically, and when it absorbs a photon (a packet of light) of infrared radiation, all of the energy gets converted to heat. The bonds that connect the hydrogen’s to the oxygen start to vibrate and all of that energy becomes heat. (This is not the effect when IONIZING radiation like UV and X-rays are used; these photons can break bonds and so other stuff happens. Non-ionizing radiation does NOT have enough energy per photon to break bonds and so you ONLY have this thermal effect)
The water molecule is very SMALL compared to the cell at large and so when you have an absorption event, you have a local hot-spot in the cell relative to the rest of the cell around it. This causes a local temperature gradient,
Which also creates a pressure gradient. Hot to cold means high pressure to low pressure, and blood LOVES to flow along these gradients. This is the way of the world, everything moves from hot to cold, from high to low pressure. This is why wind blows, how planes fly, etc. With more absorption events you get more of these temperature gradients, and local micro-circulation increases dramatically. We have some very good studies to back up this claim, as well as all of the scientific claims you'll hear tonight.
So local micro-circulation is the first step; not just input of blood, but Throughput. This is one reason why we have success treating both ends of the spectrum: things like neuropathy (with neuropathy, the blood vessels are constricted and so not enough blood gets to the nerve endings, and pain results) where we can bring more blood TO the site, but also contusions and edema where there is already enough "dirty" blood there, but where we need to get those toxins away from the site.
But if this device simply increased circulation, it would not be worth its weight. We have several ways to do this already: ultrasound, electric-stim, massage, etc. But what happens when the fresh blood gets to the site?
Hemoglobin is a little "claw" molecule and at the center of that claw lives the oxygen. It turns out that when hemoglobin absorbs a photon of radiation, the morphology of that molecule changes and the "claw" opens slightly. So the affinity for the oxygen to pass FROM the blood TO the cells in increased. So not only are we bringing more blood TO the site, but we are forcing the blood to dump off its oxygen and nutrients AT the site.
Once de-oxygenated, the only place for hemoglobin to get more oxygen is in the lungs, and so this reduction is just a one-way street.
Once the oxygen leaves the blood it goes through the Krebb's cycle, passing through the cell membrane, is transported to the mitochondria, and goes through the respiratory chain. The terminal enzyme in the respiratory chain is called cytochrome c oxidase.
This complex determines how efficiently the cell converts molecular oxygen (on one hand) into ATP (on the other). This is a kind of "hand-shaking" molecule that goes back and forth between two states: reduced (when it is receiving a molecule of oxygen) and oxidized (where it produces a molecule of water and a molecule of ATP).
This enzyme cycles back and forth between these two states at its own pace, each cycle producing another molecule of ATP.
Tiina Karu, a Russian physicist (basically the Godmother of all laser therapy) has devoted her life to the study of radiation's interaction with this molecule. And her life's work has culminated to the conclusion that regardless of what state this molecule is in (whether reduced OR oxidized) if it absorbs a photon, it will tend to FLIP states. So as this enzyme is going back and forth at its own pace all day, with more absorption events, you can make this cycle progress faster. Think of it as having a piston of an engine with spark plugs on both sides of the cylinder. The more sparks, the more cycles per second.
So to summarize, we brought more fresh blood TO the cells, forced that blood to dump off its oxygen AT the cells, then forced the cells to process that oxygen into energy more efficiently. Notice there is nothing foreign here. This is EXACTLY how all aerobic processes function normally. We can just make each step in the this process happen faster and more efficiently.
So what happens when the cells produce more ATP….?
All the secondary and tertiary effects that lead to increased healing and pain relief happen. DNA replicates faster, cells proliferate, and all the anti-pathological cell compartments begin to do their thing.
Two things to note:
1. All the different cell types do VERY different things once they metabolize (osteoblasts regulate collagen and BMPs, mast cells degranulate, endothelial cells become more porous, etc). It would be VERY ineffective to target each of these cell-types individually. Also, every condition you treat probably has many different tissue-types involved. So to target ALL of those cells to metabolize quicker will allow healing to happen fastest on all fronts.
2. Also, people throw around words like nitric oxide release, DNA replication, and others when talking about laser therapy. True all of these are part of the healing process but it is important to note these are NOT primary effects of Near InfraRed laser therapy. DNA has a strong absorption peak, but in the UV spectrum (which is why if you’ve ever done spectrophotometry, you use UV radiation at 240/260 nm). Nitric Oxide absorbs best in the green range of the spectrum. And so although these are part of the process, these are NOT the targets of laser therapy simply because they don’t absorb well at these wavelengths.
EFFECTS OF LASER THERAPY: LT is photochemical, photomechanical, and photothermal. There are two primary forms of effects generated by laser irradiation of biological tissues: photon-absorption (the basis of photobiological action, and generated by all forms of light), and speckle formation, which is unique to laser therapy.
Photon-absorption effects occur when photons enter the tissue and are absorbed by photoreceptive molecules, called chromophores, in the mitochondria and at the cell membrane. Photonic energy is then converted to chemical energy within the cell, and is utilised in the form of ATP.
A number of the effects of laser irradiation, however, are unique, and are due to the speckle field that is created when coherent laser radiation is reflected, refracted and scattered. The speckle field is not simply a phenomenon created at and limited to the tissue surface, but is generated within a volume of tissue, persisting to the total extent of the depth of penetration of the laser beam.
Laser speckles formed deep in the tissue create temperature and pressure gradients across cell membranes, increasing the rate of diffusion across those membranes. Further, photons within each speckle are highly polarized, leading to an increased probability of photon absorption (one possible reason for why laser therapy has been shown to consistently out-perform other non-coherent light sources, especially for deeper tissue treatments).
Does Vasodilation Increase Inflammation? Click Here
Tuner and Hode's position on "high power" lasers was reported as:
For the moment, we must rely on our own clinical experience. That experience, however, is so encouraging that it cannot be ignored, even with lack of scientific support. It would appear that "high-powered" therapeutic lasers will be able to further expand the scope of laser therapy.
Four things that absorb infrared radiation in this range: melanin in the hair and skin of the animal, water (which makes up 80% of our cells), hemoglobin (the complex that carries the oxygen in red blood cells), and an enzyme in the mitochondria called cytochrome oxidase.
We need to bring more oxygen to the cells. The only way that oxygen can get to the cells is through the blood, and the only way for the cells to get rid of their toxins (lactic acid e.g.) is also through the blood. So micro-circulation is the primary mechanism. Obviously it would help if the animal got up and ran around the office to increase its heart-rate and bloodflow, but if you had a lame dog, that’s not an option. Also, when you have conditions in the extremities, bloodlfow is poor so we need a way to make better use of the local flow.
Well it turns out that water in our cells absorbs very well in this wavelength range. Water is a very simple molecule chemically, and when it absorbs a photon (a packet of light) of infrared radiation, all of the energy gets converted to heat. The bonds that connect the hydrogen’s to the oxygen start to vibrate and all of that energy becomes heat. (This is not the effect when IONIZING radiation like UV and X-rays are used; these photons can break bonds and so other stuff happens. Non-ionizing radiation does NOT have enough energy per photon to break bonds and so you ONLY have this thermal effect)
The water molecule is very SMALL compared to the cell at large and so when you have an absorption event, you have a local hot-spot in the cell relative to the rest of the cell around it. This causes a local temperature gradient,
Which also creates a pressure gradient. Hot to cold means high pressure to low pressure, and blood LOVES to flow along these gradients. This is the way of the world, everything moves from hot to cold, from high to low pressure. This is why wind blows, how planes fly, etc. With more absorption events you get more of these temperature gradients, and local micro-circulation increases dramatically. We have some very good studies to back up this claim, as well as all of the scientific claims you'll hear tonight.
So local micro-circulation is the first step; not just input of blood, but Throughput. This is one reason why we have success treating both ends of the spectrum: things like neuropathy (with neuropathy, the blood vessels are constricted and so not enough blood gets to the nerve endings, and pain results) where we can bring more blood TO the site, but also contusions and edema where there is already enough "dirty" blood there, but where we need to get those toxins away from the site.
But if this device simply increased circulation, it would not be worth its weight. We have several ways to do this already: ultrasound, electric-stim, massage, etc. But what happens when the fresh blood gets to the site?
Hemoglobin is a little "claw" molecule and at the center of that claw lives the oxygen. It turns out that when hemoglobin absorbs a photon of radiation, the morphology of that molecule changes and the "claw" opens slightly. So the affinity for the oxygen to pass FROM the blood TO the cells in increased. So not only are we bringing more blood TO the site, but we are forcing the blood to dump off its oxygen and nutrients AT the site.
Once de-oxygenated, the only place for hemoglobin to get more oxygen is in the lungs, and so this reduction is just a one-way street.
Once the oxygen leaves the blood it goes through the Krebb's cycle, passing through the cell membrane, is transported to the mitochondria, and goes through the respiratory chain. The terminal enzyme in the respiratory chain is called cytochrome c oxidase.
This complex determines how efficiently the cell converts molecular oxygen (on one hand) into ATP (on the other). This is a kind of "hand-shaking" molecule that goes back and forth between two states: reduced (when it is receiving a molecule of oxygen) and oxidized (where it produces a molecule of water and a molecule of ATP).
This enzyme cycles back and forth between these two states at its own pace, each cycle producing another molecule of ATP.
Tiina Karu, a Russian physicist (basically the Godmother of all laser therapy) has devoted her life to the study of radiation's interaction with this molecule. And her life's work has culminated to the conclusion that regardless of what state this molecule is in (whether reduced OR oxidized) if it absorbs a photon, it will tend to FLIP states. So as this enzyme is going back and forth at its own pace all day, with more absorption events, you can make this cycle progress faster. Think of it as having a piston of an engine with spark plugs on both sides of the cylinder. The more sparks, the more cycles per second.
So to summarize, we brought more fresh blood TO the cells, forced that blood to dump off its oxygen AT the cells, then forced the cells to process that oxygen into energy more efficiently. Notice there is nothing foreign here. This is EXACTLY how all aerobic processes function normally. We can just make each step in the this process happen faster and more efficiently.
So what happens when the cells produce more ATP….?
All the secondary and tertiary effects that lead to increased healing and pain relief happen. DNA replicates faster, cells proliferate, and all the anti-pathological cell compartments begin to do their thing.
Two things to note:
1. All the different cell types do VERY different things once they metabolize (osteoblasts regulate collagen and BMPs, mast cells degranulate, endothelial cells become more porous, etc). It would be VERY ineffective to target each of these cell-types individually. Also, every condition you treat probably has many different tissue-types involved. So to target ALL of those cells to metabolize quicker will allow healing to happen fastest on all fronts.
2. Also, people throw around words like nitric oxide release, DNA replication, and others when talking about laser therapy. True all of these are part of the healing process but it is important to note these are NOT primary effects of Near InfraRed laser therapy. DNA has a strong absorption peak, but in the UV spectrum (which is why if you’ve ever done spectrophotometry, you use UV radiation at 240/260 nm). Nitric Oxide absorbs best in the green range of the spectrum. And so although these are part of the process, these are NOT the targets of laser therapy simply because they don’t absorb well at these wavelengths.
EFFECTS OF LASER THERAPY: LT is photochemical, photomechanical, and photothermal. There are two primary forms of effects generated by laser irradiation of biological tissues: photon-absorption (the basis of photobiological action, and generated by all forms of light), and speckle formation, which is unique to laser therapy.
Photon-absorption effects occur when photons enter the tissue and are absorbed by photoreceptive molecules, called chromophores, in the mitochondria and at the cell membrane. Photonic energy is then converted to chemical energy within the cell, and is utilised in the form of ATP.
A number of the effects of laser irradiation, however, are unique, and are due to the speckle field that is created when coherent laser radiation is reflected, refracted and scattered. The speckle field is not simply a phenomenon created at and limited to the tissue surface, but is generated within a volume of tissue, persisting to the total extent of the depth of penetration of the laser beam.
Laser speckles formed deep in the tissue create temperature and pressure gradients across cell membranes, increasing the rate of diffusion across those membranes. Further, photons within each speckle are highly polarized, leading to an increased probability of photon absorption (one possible reason for why laser therapy has been shown to consistently out-perform other non-coherent light sources, especially for deeper tissue treatments).
Does Vasodilation Increase Inflammation? Click Here
Tuner and Hode's position on "high power" lasers was reported as:
For the moment, we must rely on our own clinical experience. That experience, however, is so encouraging that it cannot be ignored, even with lack of scientific support. It would appear that "high-powered" therapeutic lasers will be able to further expand the scope of laser therapy.