Like most other popular weight loss procedures, laser body contouring has its share of misconceptions. In an effort to clear up some of those myths, we’ll look at five of the most common and give you the truth of the matter.
When compared to traditional surgical liposuction, which runs anywhere from $1,500 to $7,500, the cost of laser body contouring isn’t so bad after all at $1,000 to $2,500.
With most patients having laser body contouring treatments in their plastic surgeon’s office and then going on about their day, this myth is easily discounted. Laser contouring doesn’t require any kind of anesthesia—in fact, most patients say it feels like nothing or like a flashlight shining on them. When compared to traditional inpatient liposuction with all its incisions, bruising, and swelling, laser body contouring’s noninvasive techniques are much more easily tolerated.
Each session typically lasts 30 to 40 minutes. Each treatment typically involves 3 sessions per week over two weeks. That’s 6 sessions at 30 to 40 minutes each. The average American spends about the same amount of time watching television each weekend. You decide.
Unlike traditional liposuction, laser body contouring carries few risks. There are no incisions, no need for anesthesia, and no cause for antibiotics. There is no scarring involved. Laser body contouring is as safe as it gets in medical procedures—with the right tools, the right training, and the right hands on the tools, you have nothing to worry about.
From the number of scientific studies to the number of happy, satisfied customers, it’s easy to see that this one is just plain wrong. Laser body contouring has been around for many years, and the positive results from patients can’t be denied. How well the treatment lasts depends on the patient’s willingness to watch diet and exercise and not allow themselves to pack the pounds back on. But the treatments in and of themselves are highly effective at helping patients lose unwanted fat deposits.
While laser body contouring may not be for everyone, there’s no need to believe all the false myths and misconceptions about it. Knowing the facts can help you make a better informed and educated decision. If you would like to learn more about laser body contouring, check out our My Zerona laser scanner.
Humans domesticated horses millennia ago, changing the way our ancestors traveled, fought, and survived. They are majestic, beautiful creatures built for speed and power.
Sadly, one of the most serious and devastating diseases affecting horses, ponies, and other equine animals is laminitis. Let’s take a closer look at laminitis and how low-level laser therapy can give our equine companions a leg up.
What is Laminitis?
Laminitis describes a condition wherein the laminae—the tissues bonding the hoof wall to the pedal bone in a horse’s hoof—become weakened and inflamed from disruptions in blood flow, leading to tears in the structure supporting the pedal bone within the hoof. Laminitis typically occurs in a horse’s front feet. The condition is caused by various physical and metabolic issues, including:
This can result in tremendous pain, lameness, and deterioration in the hoof. Left untreated, laminitis can cause the pedal bone to rotate and point downwards. In worst cases, the pedal bone will penetrate through the hoof wall.
Laminitis greatly reduces a horse’s usefulness, and many horse owners are forced to put down the horse to prevent further suffering.
Treating Laminitis
Many traditional treatments are expensive and time-consuming and don’t guarantee full recovery. These include changing your horse’s diet, providing greater hoof care, and moving your horse to a different enclosure featuring deep shavings or sand. Severe cases wherein the pedal bone has sunken through the hoof require surgical procedures involving tendon release, but this can put the horse at risk of infection or cause damage to surrounding structures.
Low-level laser therapy has been used in humans to treat joint pain, edema, soreness, and wounds, but veterinarians have extended these laser treatments to horses suffering from laminitis. Studies show that the photon energy in a low-level laser stimulates blood vessels in a horse’s foot, promoting greater circulation, better tissue nutrition, and ultimately faster healing. Laser therapy also greatly reduces the chance of infection or damage to surrounding areas as the procedure is entirely non-invasive.
Animal Health Options, a purveyor of innovative and effective supplements for animal wellness since 1990, has found success in incorporating low-level laser therapy into its treatment for laminitis. Horses undergo low-level laser sessions two to three times a week. This is coupled with:
Preventing Laminitis
One of the best ways to treat laminitis is to prevent it from happening altogether. While you can’t always predict your horse’s health, you can control parts of his environment, primarily his diet. Too much grain or lush green grass leads to excessive sugars stored in the hind gut. When these sugars are absorbed, the horse develops hyperinsulinemia (an overload of insulin), which can trigger laminitis. A bad diet can also lead to obesity, putting more pressure on your horse’s hooves. To keep your horse’s diet in check:
Maintain a regular hoof trimming schedule for good hoof health. Your horse may also need specialist shoeing for proper support.
Topical Fat-Buster: Lose 7 Inches of Fat in 20 Minutes — No Bull!
By Dan Gwartney, MD
Topical Fat-Buster: Lose 7 Inches of Fat in 20 Minutes-NO BULL
By Dan Gwartney, MD
Topical Fat-Buster: Lose 7 Inches of Fat in 20 Minutes-Really!?!
By Dan Gwartney, MD
R. Sroka, C. Fuchs, M. Schaffer, U. Schrader-Reichardt, M. Busch, T. Pongratz, R. Baumgartner.
LFL Laser – Research Laboratory – Clinic of Urology and Clinic of Radiotherapy, University Munic, FRG
The biostimulative effects on cell mitosis induced by laser light at different wavelengths in cell cultures had been investigated, Murine skeletal fibroblasts (C2), normal urothelial cells (HCV29), human squamous carcinoma cell line of the mouth (ZMK) and urothelial carcinoma cells (J82) were irradiated with laser light at ^=488, 630, 640 and 805+25pm using a computer controlled irradiation chamber. The irradiance was set to 10mW/cm(2) and 100mW/cm(2), while the irradiation varied between 2 and 201/cm(2). The mitotic was determined by single cell counting after Orecein staining 24h post irradiation.
The mitotic rate showed a wavelength dependency with maxima at ^=635 and 805+nm for HCV29 and J82 cells. While the mitotic rate of C2 and J82 cells has the maximum value at about 41/cm(2), the maximum was at about 81/cm(2). ZMK cells showed no increase. At ^=805+25pm C2 and ZMK cells showed slight decrease in the mitotic rate after irradiation with 201/cm(2). An irradiation of 10mW/cm(2) was more effective than with 100m/Wcm(2). The biostimulation of the mitotic rate of both normal and tumor cells depends on the wavelength, irradiation and irradiance and on the cell line. The wave length dependency in the ^=630 to 640nm range could indicate a participation of endogenous porphyrins. Because the results show stimulative as well as inhibiting effects it should be considered to change the term biostimulation “into biomodulation.”
Information Application:
Supports laser induced biomodulation
The progression of low-level laser therapy as a viable therapy has made tremendous strides since the early investigations conducted nearly a century ago to assess how light can affect atom bound electrons. The photoelectric effect, a theory postulated by Max Plank and later proven by Albert Einstein in the early 1900s, identified that light was quantized and carried the force for the electromagnetic field, acting both as a wave and particle.
It was described by Einstein that light of a particular energy or color, as described by the following equation (Energy = plank’s constant x speed of light/wavelength), is capable of inducing electron emission at higher frequencies (lower wavelength) and independent of the intensity of light, an occurrence known as ionization (Fig. 1).
Einstein revealed that no matter how high the intensity was increased, if the photon did not possess a specific energy (frequency), the electron could not be ionized. Adjusting to the wavelength capable of ionization and increasing the intensity did, however, promote a greater number of photonic collisions with the atoms thus escalating the number of electrons emitted from the atom. This simple concept of increasing the intensity to obtain enhanced photoreactivity however does not translate well when applied to the human model.
It has been more than 100 years since Einstein stimulated metal surfaces to demonstrate the photoelectric effect and since that time research has demonstrated that electrons when stimulated with the correct wavelength can become excited, leaving the ground state and entering an excited state, becoming more bio-reactive as electrons can temporarily reside on the outer orbital of an atom.
A key word in the previous sentence is “temporarily,” as I am reminded of the phrase “what goes up, must come down”; and in fact, the electron must return to a ground state, and in doing so, energy is released.
The release of energy can result in transient heating of the photoabsorbing molecules within nonphotosynthetic cells, and too much electron excitation induces large quantities of heat release. Identified photoabsorbing complexes are simple proteins that possess prosthetic metal groups forming chromophore structures, and like all other proteins, function under ideal parameters regarding temperature and pH is essential. Increasing the intensity may sound like a clever means to enhance photobiomodulation of cells, but recent clinical trials have demonstrated the opposite.
A recent paper “Biphasic Dose Response in Low Level Light Therapy” co-authored by Dr. Michael Hamblin, Professor at Harvard Medical School, was published in the journal Dosage in 2009.1 Dr. Hamblin and colleagues discussed the dogma of intensity and dosage as they apply to laser therapy.
The authors assessed numerous clinical investigations and concluded that the delivery of lower intensity across greater treatment times yielded higher utility.1 Dr. Hamblin et al. postulated that higher intensity devices generate a detrimental level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) limiting the benefit of laser therapy and perhaps transforming this modality into a harmful therapy.1
The concept proposed by Einstein a century ago precludes the complexity of the human cell and the fragile homeostasis that must be maintained in order to preserve cell function and viability.
Increasing the concentration of photons to a selection of tissue can actually be achieved without increasing the intensity, and this concept has been best demonstrated by the Erchonia handheld device. Employing a distinctive line-generated beam, the Erchonia handheld device is able to deliver an extraordinary concentration of photons across a vast surface area, upholding the basic principles proven by Einstein while understanding the complexity of the human cell. In addition to the unique means in which the photons are emitted, the Erchonia handheld device delivers 635 nm light at low-intensities, a therapeutic approach that is proven to be clinically ideal.
Speculation regarding the efficacy of the Erchonia handheld device is not necessary as it has been used in more than six placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, multicentered clinical investigations. Each clinical trial was able to accurately illustrate the efficacy of this modality and importance of delivering light at lower intensities with greater treatment durations.
Applying light therapy seems like a basic concept, aim and treat, but this technology is intertwined with complex subtleties that require understanding to ensure the best possible therapy is utilized. Wavelength, intensity, and dosage are all complex parameters of low-level laser therapy, and determining the best combination can be a tiresome and defeating process.
The market has become saturated with devices avoiding appropriate clinical testing. Laser therapy although innocent and harmless in principle can be dangerous when the intensity is increased, and that is why this therapy must adhere to evidence based medicine, proving a claim through a Level 1 clinical study.
The Erchonia handheld has embraced the philosophy that lower is better, and it is only recently that the medical community is demonstrating through thorough clinical data that both Einstein and Erchonia are right. To quote Dr. Hamblin, “Low levels of light are good for you while high levels are bad for you.”
References
1Ying-Ying H, et al. Biphasic dose response in low level light therapy. Dose-response 2009;7:358-383.
This research was provided by Erchonia Medical Inc.
888-242-0571 * www.Erchonia.com
The Applications of Low-Level Laser Therapy
By Dr. David Turok.
