PAIN MANAGEMENT WITH LLLT

Men and women involved in sports and fitness training are more prone to muscle and joint injury.

Overuse, strain, lack of exercise, poor posture and sleeping positions, emotional stress and trauma can cause muscles to contract and twist, the effect area becomes hard and tender to touch, this is called trigger point. Pressing on this area causes pain in that region or some other part of the body.

Tender trigger points can be treated before therapeutic and sport massage to rapidly release painful muscle spasm and facilitate less resistance to soft tissue manipulations.

With regular treatment the hardened (fibrotic) tissue, will become softer and allow more freedom of movement. Laser therapy is being used more and more in conjunction with sports
and manipulative therapies including chiropractic.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Thermograph showing reduced inflammation and pain.
Yellow & Orange (Hot areas) = inflammation
Blue & Green (Cold areas) = reduction of inflammation.

Multilase ® therapy offers safe and natural relief from muscular and arthritic pain.

• Inflammation swelling and the concentration of pain-producing chemicals in our body are reduced naturally. (Navrati, Dylevsky, 1997)
• Improves blood flow to joints and influences cartilage regeneration. (Leivens, P. Lippens, E. 1998)

Photon Therapy (LEPT) for musculoskeletal and neuromuscular disorders.
Extract from Medical Journal as presented at the Society of Photo-Optical Engineers (SPIE) in Los Angeles, CA, January 21-23, 1992. And published in the SPIE 1992; Vol. 1643 Laser Surgery: pp. 240-250.

A review of the published scientific literature and a priori clinical evidence indicated that LEPT could potentially be effective in relieving pain associated with chronic musculoskeletal conditions and neuromuscular disorders. Of particular interest were situations where chronic conditions (e.g. degenerative joint disease) did not respond to conventional forms of therapy (e.g. physiotherapy modalities such as TENS, ultrasound, etc. as well as pharmaceuticals such as NSAIDs). Chronic was defined as a condition that has persisted for more than 6 months since its onset. The objectives of the study were to verify efficacy of LEPT in relieving such chronic pain and to develop recommendations related for conducting a follow-up double blind study.

The study was an open clinical trial that included 215 patients (86 males and 129 females, average age 60.3 years of age) suffering from chronic musculoskeletal and neuromuscular disorders. All patients had either failed to respond to conventional treatment modalities such as medications, conventional physiotherapy (TENS, ultrasound), or achieved only minor improvements. All patients were treated with 3-5 times per week with low energy photon therapy. A full course of treatment consisted of 8-12 sessions.

The outcome of the treatment was measured by relative degree of morning stiffness, range of motion, swelling, drug consumption and pain level, using a self-report visual analogue scale (“VAS”). These measures were classified by degree of improvement as:

• Significant improvement (SI) was defined as an improvement in all evaluation criteria ≥ 75%.
• Improvement (I) was an improvement in all evaluation criteria ≥ 50%, but, < 75%.
• Marginal improvement (MI) was an improvement in 2 – 5 of the evaluation criteria by ≥ 25 %, but < 50%.

Sixteen (16) patients dropped out of the study, leaving 199 who completed the full course of treatment. Eleven (11) patients opted out for personal reasons and five (5) patients experienced aggravation of their pre-existing conditions, which did not appear to be related to the treatment.

Overall results for the residual sample indicate that 129 patients (65%) with chronic musculoskeletal and neuromuscular conditions experienced improvement or significant improvement after LEPT.

This is remarkable considering these patients previously had been unresponsive to any other forms of therapy. IN addition, 30% of patients reported they had discontinued the use of analgesics and decreased their use of NSAIDS during the course of the study.