Should you get Low Level Laser Therapy?

Yes. Low level laser therapy benefits almost all pain/inflammatory/neurological conditions. It works primarily at a cellular level by stimulating mitochondria (energy production parts of our cells) to work harder and produce more energy. Cellular energy is the same as money in our world. Its needed to get anything built or fixed on a large scale. Giving the cells the energy to start to repair naturally and also consolidate dysfunctional mitochondria (which are like lazy workers, they make all the other mitochondria have to work harder to achieve the same thing) can make massive changes, particularly to chronic pain.

In my clinic I use an Erchonia laser as they are the main brand to be producing research for lasers. They have already been cleared by the FDA for the treatment of chronic neck and low back pain, plantar fasciitis and musculoskeletal pain (which just means anything that hurts that wasn’t covered by the first few studies). One of the most amazing studies compared the red laser to red LED for chronic low back pain. They ran a trial of treatment, with no other intervention (no chiro/physio etc) and both groups experienced some pain relief; but the laser groups pain relief was far superior averaging a decrease of 3/10 on a pain scale. The most interesting thing though was they called these patients back after a year, those treated with the LED had their pain come back to base line levels. The low level laser group actually had a further 18% improvement in their pain levels without treatment. I’m not sure of the exact cause of this, but I highly suspect its the consolidation of mitochondria, improving the overall energy availability at the painful site which then continued to get healthier over the course of the year.

I primarily use the low level laser as an adjunct in my treatment to aid in improving pain, managing swelling (which is usually greatly diminished after a 6 min session), and accelerating healing. It can also be used for neurological rehabilitation with many studies demonstrating significant improvement in neural function after red light therapy. I use it on all my injuries and I am constantly amazed how much quicker I recover with its use. My most recent use was when I had cholecystitis (inflamed gall bladder) and I used it with diet change/exercise to improve my gall bladder function and decrease pain. This is not something I treat in clinic, I just thought it was interesting. The other area I treated with laser recently on myself was my meniscus in my knee. I injured it in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) when I twisted on it and it got caught. With 3 daily sessions my pain went from a 4/10 - 1/10 and shortly after that all pain was gone. It allowed my to jump straight into rehab and get back to BJJ in less than a week.

So, if you have a musculoskeletal problem, pain that wont go away or an acute sports injury you should consider getting treatment that includes low level laser therapy! You will bounce back faster, with less pain and you will be able to take less anti inflammatory tablets. Win-Win!