Three years ago, I would have said that if you have had PD for a long time, then using a red light hat may help a bit. That comment was based on two things: Continue reading “If you’ve had Parkinson’s disease for many years, will red lights help?”
The Beginning
Constant knee pain makes it hard to be active, so in mid 2015, I did a lot of sitting and reading. One of the books was Norman Doidge’s The Brain’s Way of Healing.
Chapter 4 covered the effect of red and near infrared light on the brain and spinal cord, and there were some remarkable stories told. In passing, Doidge mentioned the positive effect of red and near infrared light on arthritic joints and damaged tendons.
I went hunting on Google Scholar and found some medical journal articles that Continue reading “The Beginning”
How long do I use the red lights?
I’ve been having a great discussion with a blog-reader, who was keen for his head to spend a lot more time under red and near infrared lights.
There’s an awful lot we still don’t know about works best for each type of neurodegenerative disease. Continue reading “How long do I use the red lights?”
Excellent presentation on PD history & genetics
Here is a link to the Royal Society’s 2018 Francis Crick lecture, delivered by Dr Miratul Muqit. Thanks to one of the blog readers who told me about this excellent lecture, entitled Parkinson’s disease: decoding the mysteries of neurodegeneration.
There is one statement about PD which is completely wrong, and it is relevant to red/near infrared lights. Read on.
Continue reading “Excellent presentation on PD history & genetics”
The causation rabbit hole
I had a really interesting discussion today.
The thing that drives international research into neurodegenerative disorders is the hunt for The Cause. Billions of dollars have been spent to find The Cause of Alzheimer’s disease, The Cause of Parkinson’s disease and so on.
How do Red and near infrared lights affect the eyes?
A very interesting email arrived today, querying the effect of red LED lights on eyes.
It is all about the wavelength, not the type of light.
Red and near infrared wavelengths are not harmful to the eyes.
In fact, red wavelengths (especially 670nm, a deep red colour) are showing promise as a treatment for Age-related Macular Degeneration, a devastating progressive eye condition.
The lead researcher is Prof Glen Jeffery, professor of neuroscience at University College London.
Here’s a list of Prof Jeffrey’s publications.
And here’s a link to one of his articles.
If you are planning to make your own light hat device, make sure that you purchase red LEDs. There are LED strips available with lots of colours – avoid these as a rainbow isn’t helpful.
You just want red or near infrared wavelengths.
Parkinson’s summary
I wrote the following for someone interested in the effects of red and near infrared lights in Parkinson’s Disease. It is a summary of PD-related redlightsonthebrain blog posts.
If you select the Parkinson’s tag on the blog, you get the posts that refer in some way to PD. https://redlightsonthebrain.blog/tag/parkinsons-disease/
Research findings blog posts are:
1. A summary of the findings of the people with PD using bucket light hats published in a peer reviewed journal.
2. A summary of a 2016 presentation given by Prof John Mitrofanis, an international leader in research on red lights and PD.
Interesting anecdotal blog posts are:
1. On sleep
2. On the subtlety of the effects of transcranial red and near infrared lights
Cossack photos
Some wonderful photos of a recent Cossack construction. The creator put the LED strips on the inside of the Cossack, and this required the use of lots and lots of cable ties.
Fortunately, the creator didn’t cut the ends of the cable ties, making for a very fine porcupine or echidna.
Sincere thanks for permission to post these photos.
Cutting to size:
Connecting:
The perfect Cossack frame:
The LED strip was installed inside (outside is probably easier) and held with cable ties:
It is fabulous!
