Bone Spur and LLLT

I just had great feedback from Kathleen Pouls, an acupuncturist and cranio-sacral therapist who uses the Q1000, from Santa Cruz in California. She had a client with a bone spur on one of his heels, due for immediate surgery. As a last resort he consulted her. After one session, using the 808 infrared probe, he reported that he was walking better than he had for the last six months, and was able to cancel the surgery. I'll get Kathy to put up more follow-up to see how this ended after another session, so watch this space!

A great way to start the day! Pear smoothie extraordinaire.

Just to show you that this blog is about 'health' in all its manifestations, I'd like to share with you my morning smoothie. It evolved over time, and is my way of supporting my cells from the inside, so that when I add light from outside, the internal environment is as luminous as it can be! (Well, OK, there are times when this is undermined by other things, but life is not about perfection, is it?)

For me, smoothies started when I was handed a weight loss system/product from Australia, based on whey protein. Over three months I lost 2 stone (46lbs), safely and easily, with carbohydrate restriction, nutrition and exercise. The important thing was I was never hungry, and I did not have to restrict fats, except the harmful ones. Olive oil, butter and coconut oil were 'good'. The weight stayed off for the next three years, and when it started to creep up during a busy period one winter, I turned to 'The Fat Flush Plan'. Here the art of smoothie making could really take off, with a bit of help from 'The Coconut Diet'.

So this is what evolved for me over time, and I make it now nearly every morning. Sometimes I put out the hand held liquidiser the night before, and some of the other ingredients, if I have to hang around the kitchen last thing whilst the cat is drinking from the running tap! I put one scoop of whey protein in the mixing container, with some maca powder (for endurance and mental clarity), and, very important for chocoholics, one teaspoon of organic and fair trade cocoa powder. This is the base. To this I add a small handfull of ground up hemp seeds, coco nibs (antioxidant) and coconut flakes. If I have time I add cardamon seed from crushed pods to the grinder. Then if its winter I add a scoop BioCare's microcelled Cod Liver Oil for vitamin D, not tasting of fish, by the way, and some warming ginger grated. Then I gently melt a nob of virgin coconut oil and add that together with a tablespoon of cold pressed hemp oil. Finally I add one cut up fresh pear, and liquidise the whole lot with a bit of water or almond milk. Yum. It seems to have cured me of a craving for chocolate in its more sugary form.

If you loathe cocoa powder and chocolate, or you want to ring the changes, use some frozen organic raspberries or blueberries from the health food shop, with or without the pear. Pears gives smoothies a lovely consistency, and are great for the lungs, so my Chinese acupuncturist tells me.

This smoothie often keeps me from hunger all morning, but if I do get hungry before lunch I sometimes have a midmorning snack of a boiled egg.

WHEY PROTEIN: Its expensive here, and not always of good quality. Avoid cheap ones from the body building industry. When I can I get friends to carry it over from the US. There you can get it from cows not treated wtih growth hormone, which are grass fed. Whey supports muscle development, and repair whilst absorbing and retaining nitrogen, and provides antioxidant protection. Find a brand with low temperature processing. Email me if you want further guidance on what to buy. THE MAIN THING IS AVOID SOY PROTEIN AT ALL COSTS. SEE A LATER BLOG ON THIS HUGE 'HEALTH' CON THAT WE SEEM TO HAVE SWALLOWED HOOK, LINE AND SINKER. AT LEAST HERE IN THE UK. THE US HAS ALREADY MOVED ON. Do not believe them when they say those against soya are only the mouthpieces of the dairy industry. See Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Foundation: she espouses raw milk and fermented foods, coconut oil, and NO Soya which is unfermented. At least with whey protein those needing to avoid lactose can usually tolerate it.

Happy breakfasts, and any smoothie variations to share do feel free to do so. Oh, and I forgot to say, the labour of love in making the smoothie is no chore for me when listening to the radio at the same time!

Finally, something I forget to do (!) is to shine my low level laser over the water before drinking or adding to the smoothie. If you want to find out more about alkaline water see: http://www.water-for-health.co.uk or go to http://www.swiftnature.co.uk for information about Plocher water.

I'd love to get a response from those of you who do add photons to water by using their cold laser. Let us know how you notice the difference.

Gill Jacobs

STROKES; HOW LLLT CAN REVERSE THE DAMAGE

Its great having the blog - I hear something on the radio about how strokes are 'untreatable', except for a drug to open the blocked artery delivered soon after the event, and I'm able to put up on the blog research which suggests otherwise: strokes are not untreatable! Strokes happen when the mitochondria residing in neurons shut down, because of blocked arteries, leading to the death of brain cells. 

In LLLT light is delivered to the mitochondria and increases ATP (energy) . So lets look at the research which supports the use of LLLT for strokes. Here is one interesting study from the USA  and Israel:

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/37/10/2620

This research found that continuous wave LLLT delivered around 24 hours after a stroke promoted restoration of neurological function. Laser irradiation did not reduce lesion volume and the beneficial effects were not seen before two to four weeks after the stroke, suggesting that LLLT induces a cascade of processes which include a migration of neurons and neuron supporting cells. 

Have a look at this too: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_47/b4059062.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology

Dr Lytle recommends to Q1000 owners that they should apply any mode to the back of the head and to the left temple whilst the ambulance is being called for, having recognised the onset of the stroke. And keep the Q1000 applied whilst on the way to hospital.

Can you imagine the COST in quality of life and health care money the longer this research is ignored? If you had a stroke would you wait for 'further research', struggling to reverse the consequences for many many months, or living with them for the rest of your life? Or would you use LLLT, knowing that it could not harm? I know what I would do! Strokes are the third biggest killer in the UK. Isn't it time that LLLT, or cold laser, came out of the 'cold' and into the light? If I had waited for the MS Society to sponsor research on muscle spams in MS and how light could reduce them, my mother would have suffered lack of sleep and distress for the rest of her life. I satisfied myself I could do her no harm, and went ahead and applied the light. What's more the light healed her yellow encrusted weeping skin on her legs too.

Sometimes we have to take our health into our own hands, if those entrusted with our care habitually ignore new advances, when the evidence to demonstrate their effectiveness and safety had been around for the last thirty years.

Implant saved and bone calcification increased with LLLT

Email me for a photo of 3 x-rays of a 3 year old implant on a patient of Philip D. Horning, DDS. (Am still trying to upload them here!) The implant was done by another specialist, and the patient had been on Phosamax for some time because of the pain from the implant. At the time the first x-ray was taken (12-7-06) this dentist informed the patient she should consider removing the implant.  There was tenderness, swelling, and as the slides show radiographic evidence of bone-loss. The patient was told there was a possibility of saving it using low level laser if she could commit to 2 treatments per week for 2 months. 

The patient complied and the swelling rapidly went away. At about 1 month radiographic evidence showed that bone was filling in. At 2 months an x-ray dated 2-26-07 revealed even more bone calcification.  Treatment was done with a combination of the 808 and the 660 probes. Dr Horning uses the Q1000, 660, and 808 many times a day in his practice and told Dr Lytle that he is continually amazed by its ability to reduce pain and shorten healing time.  It has become an integral part of  his practice.

Why is there such a disparity between the US and the UK in the use of LLLT?

Did you know 30,000 practitioners use Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) in the United States, many of them chiropractors? By contrast there are around 140 Low Level Laser units in National Health Service departments, here in the UK, mostly Physiotherapy Departments. Most LLLT machines are gathering dust for lack of consistent servicing, and enthusiasm to deliver. Even if physiotherapists use LLLT, there is a limit to HOW it is used, because physiotherapists don't see wounds, burns or the myriad of other health issues that LLLT can help, outside their boundaries of expertise. LLLT training for physios is only delivered at Master level. Other practitioners outside the NHS, here in the UK, are few and far between: chiropodists and podiatrists, a scattering of osteopaths and chiropractors, and a handful of Scenar therapists.

Physiotherapists in the UK do use Ultrasound, delivering the same frequencies as light, but via sound. Ultrasound is only 35% successful, whereas LLLT has a much higher success rate, does not depend on the use of creams, and can be used over metal plates because it does not cause heat. I have been told that Ultrasound was accepted in the NHS before the need for double blind placebo controlled studies. Although there are thousands of double blind placebo controlled studies on LLLT, some 'prove' it is ineffective, by selecting the wrong treatment times, and power output, and frequencies. See http://www.laser.nu   for an excellent discussion of this by Tuner and Hode.

The good news is the availability of Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) on the NHS at centres such as the National Medical Laser Centre, part of the University College Hospital in London. 

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/surgery/nmlc/ 

PDT uses laser light combined with a drug which makes cells more sensitive to light to destroy cancer cells.

WHY IS THERE SUCH A DISPARITY BETWEEN THE US AND THE UK IN USE OF LLLT?

I had a Light for Health stand at a Chiropractic Seminar at the end of January, a practice building seminar for 100 chiropractors and 50 practice administrators. I also had a stand at the British Osteopathic Association's Annual Conference in November. What were the differences in terms of attitude to light as a healing modality? 

Well, both groups were wary, and understandably cautious, of yet another 'fad' if they had not heard of it before, especially if there was an investment to be made, and further training.  OK - it has been around for 30 years but new things take time to be assessed!

When the osteopaths tried it on themselves many of them felt it, energetically, and were a bit surprised. One osteopath already had a Low Level Laser and spoke enthusiastically about what it could do, though admitted that he did not use it to the full extent.  The chiropractors who had been trained in the US were enthusiastic to find out more, because of their direct experience of people they knew getting good results. Chiropractors from South America, Holland and Norway (basically from abroad) were curious and open to learn.

Well, I am in touch with one osteopath in this country who uses LLLT with great enthusiasm! (see previous blog) Change is an uphill struggle, but I will be meeting up in a few days with two women determined to get things moving in the UK. They have been learning from a pioneer of LLLT in the UK, Gordon Farmer. See future blog to report on that meeting. 

Its so uplifting to find other 'laser bores' out there. We cant wait to meet up and share experiences with the knowledge that our passion for this healing modality will be understood and shared!  All three of us have direct experience of what light did for us and our families. My mother had late onset MS, and the U2 LED light pad stopped her muscle spasms on her legs, allowing her to sleep. When I got lazy and stopped applying the light on my once weekly nursing home visits the spasms came back. So I started again and they stopped again! Christine Carroll was helped to relieve her migraines, and got her mother's arthritis to the point where she was painfree and mobile again, and Wendy Boast's lungs were greatly  improved after LLLT. Both these wonderful women now have set up as LLLT therapists, and have created an organisation with Gordon Farmer called the UK Institute for Therapeutic Laser. Watch this space for more information on this!

Gill Jacobs, Light for Health

The photo above was at the October 2008 CAM Expo show in Earls Court, London, with Yvonne Dobson, LLLT practitioner

Wounds and Low Level Laser Therapy

Use a plastic cover over the head of the Q1000, place on top of the wound as close as you can go without hurting, and use for one 3 minute cycle ON MODE 3 1 times a day for two to three days. If the bone is infected and the wound is small in diameter, more like a hole, use the 808 probe and insert in the hole. Use for only 20 seconds, because this is more powerful (300mW as opposed to 3mW of the Q1000). Otherwise don’t use a probe.

Mode 3 has some antibacterial frequencies and should help, but remember the Q1000 laser does not kill bacteria – it flushes them into the blood stream where the immune system takes care of them, but if there is not ample circulation, that won’t happen. Always start with Mode 1 of the Q1000 on the Proprioceptive points (jaw, near ear and under ear, lymphatics on chest, shoulder blade, trouser pocket on buttock and in the groin) before using over the wound, to increase circulation. Peeling of the skin is common around an infection. Increased circulation will reduce this.


WHEN THE WOUND GETS PINK AT THE EDGES BACK OFF AND ONLY LASER 1 OR 2 times a week. This is a good sign that healing is taking place, with granulation in the bone and tissue, and this is when you reduce treatment. This should take about 12 days to happen, but everyone is different.

Too much lasering on an open wound such as this could push the healing over the top and down the other side of the Bell Curve.

Once the wound is scabbed over reduce to once a week.

Try to be on a good balanced supplement program. High strength enzymes, such as Serrapeptase are excellent in combination with the laser. Go to http://www.goodhealth.nu/uk/1781/ to order and get further information. It will deal with the debris from the broken up scar tissue, and will help with pain. They need to be taken away from food.

Gill Jacobs, Light for Health Ltd

Roy Wallis D.O.

I first tried the Q1000 when my wife tripped and fell, breaking her radius. It was at a trade health show, and I was able to rent a Q1000 a few minutes after the accident. She had six hours in Accident and Emergency. The pain was intense, but the Q1000, with the infrared probe, seemed to stop it, so much so she didn’t use painkillers after two days. Whilst I was using it on her, I tried it out on my patients.

I find the Q1000 gets rid of pain quicker. It speeds the healing process. If I do a manipulation, the pain is often the same just afterwards, but if I use the Q1000 they feel less pain. The quicker something heals, the less likely it is to recur. If someone feels an 8/10 pain, it will come down to 3/10 with the laser.

Some patients use their own intuition about how long to use the laser on each position on the body. One woman sometimes tells me that 3 seconds is enough! For back pain I use the laser between the vertebrae on the lumber spine to work in the disk and the facet joint. Its excellent for inflammation.

I had one patient with really bad tooth pain after an extraction. I used the 660 probe on her empty socket and the surrounding gum, and the dentist could not believe how little bruising there was when he saw her afterwards.

I’ve also had success with shingles. Fortunately this patient had her own laser, a Q10, but she was put off using it on her daughter by her doctor. He said it wouldn’t help! So I saw the daughter, and showed her how to place it over the spots. At first each time the pain increased, but then it was quickly followed by a relief from pain, something which nothing else had done. With regular treatment with the laser at home, this woman was able to return to work after just two and a half weeks.

My wife is a chiropodist, and physical therapist. She had stopped working, but now she is considering coming back to work with me in the clinic, just to use the laser on patients after they have seen me. Her own experience has had quite an effect on her, so much so she is enthusiastic to share it with others. I certainly would not be without it now. It really makes a difference. I have many other ‘toys’ – ultrasound, a short wave machine and a scenar, for example, but it’s the Q1000 that I use the most.

Trapeze Accident

Hannah was 26, and learning to use a trapeze, when she sustained massive injuries from crashing into a platform from the trapeze, and then falling to the floor on top of those injuries.

Three months after the accident she had the following symptoms:
• Compression fracture of the tibia (at ankle joint, very sore to touch or walk)
• Large haematoma on shin (large amount of swelling and still painful)
• Nerve damage to the peroneal nerve on the outside of the leg (loss of sensation to
skin,tingling,pins and needles, loss of muscle movement particularly in feet, cold
sensation down lower leg, shooting pains through leg)
• Muscle damage and loss: weak and movement loss in the quads, calf, shin, foot, toes.
• Not fully weight-baring

Hannah used the Q1000 and the Infrared 808 nm probe for two weeks, having failed to get effective help from the National Health Service, and sports injury specialists. In that time she reduced her pain levels from 10 to 3, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest.
After stopping the Q1000 her pain returned to 10.