Cold Laser Information
Lasers are more than just fabulous movie special effects. Regular (or hot) lasers have been known since the late 1950s and early 1960s, and they have been refined since then. One of the offshoot technologies is that of the low-level--or "cold"--laser, so called because it does not put out any heat. Cold lasers are used exclusively as a medical treatment whose proponents claim that they have all sorts of miraculous uses.
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What is a Cold Laser?
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A cold laser is simply a laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) that emits very low levels of electromagnetic radiation. Basically, it is a small, intense and coherent beam of monochromatic light.
History
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Mice are often used in experiments.
Several years after the invention of the first working laser in 1967, a medical researcher named Endre Mester, at Semmelweis University in Hungary, experimented with how lasers would affect skin cancer.
He was experimenting on mice whose backs had been shaved, and he noticed that the fur grew back faster on the mice treated with the lasers than on the mice which were not treated.
How it Works
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The closest process to compare to the action of the cold laser is photosynthesis. The theory is that the laser light penetrates your skin layers and the fat beneath your skin, to the target area, where it causes the light-sensitive elements of your cells to react.
This supposedly speeds the healing process, though there is not enough clinical evidence to support this claim unconditionally.
Cold lasers do not really have any other applications; even the little laser pointers we use are regular lasers.
Medical Uses
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According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as of September 2006, LLLT (low-level laser therapy) has been used in attempts to help heal wounds, resolve tinnitus (ringing in the ears), ease chronic pain, regenerate nerves and treat soft tissue wounds.
Many medical professionals dealing with back pain use LLLT to help alleviate swelling and discomfort, though a review of seven clinical studies published on Cochrane.org in April 18, 2007, concluded that there is simply not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that this therapy actually works.
The FDA considers the use of LLLT to be in the experimental stages, but does allow it be used because they have received the results of enough clinical studies to suggest that LLLT does relieve pain.
Further Medical Uses
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A May 2005 article in Acupuncture today, written by David Rindge, DOM, LAc, RN, states that some acupuncturists are using cold lasers for patients who are afraid of needles. The article further states that since the FDA classifies cold lasers as "investigational," their use must be overseen by an independent investigational review board.
FastQuitSmoking.com states that some providers of cold lasers claim that using them therapeutically can help you stop smoking by inducing relaxation and releasing naturally-occurring pain-relieving chemicals (called endorphins), to fool your brain into thinking it is receiving nicotine. The American Cancer Society has expressed concern over this, because there is no clinical evidence to prove that cold lasers can help you quit smoking.
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- Photo Credit Images courtesy of shardsofme and bittyskitty90210 on Photobucket
