Category: Red and Near-Infrared Light

Eliza triumphs again

Today I caught up with a lovely man who had started wearing an Eliza bucket light hat nearly a month ago. His Eliza has 670nm and 810nm and he uses each wavelength for 10-15 minutes, one straight after another.

Eliza isn’t pulsed. She just puts out continuous light.

He reported feeling a lot better in himself. He said he had more energy and more interest in doing things. He had been out in the garden much more than previously and was enjoying life a lot more.

Friends had been commenting on how well he was looking. As did his general practitioner who apparently doesn’t yet know that he is using an Eliza light hat on an daily basis!

Another significant thing is that he can now hold a cup of coffee without spilling it. He is convinced that his tremor has reduced.

For all those DIY light hatters out there, this story shows that continuous light works. Don’t fret about pulsing, just get that red glow on your head every day.

Brain cells

When I went to medical school, the belief was that you got your full quota of brain cells at birth. It was downhill from there, and you entered old age with not many brain cells left.

What a joy it is to know that this belief is a load of rubbish.

Here is a great article, summarising recent research on the birth of new brain cells during our lives.

It is a reminder that you use your brain or you lose it, so lifelong learning stimulates the birth of new brain cells.

I can recommend learning a musical instrument – you can do it at any age. Making music on your own instrument really makes your brain work, whether you are a beginner or an old hand at it.

And use your Eliza, Cossack or Coronet each day. Red and near infrared light stimulates the birth of new brain cells.

Tomatoes and coronets

I have been picking ripe tomatoes from the garden. Here are some of them on a white plate:

I wondered how close the 670nm coronet light was to tomato colour.

I put a coronet on a white plate and turned it on. This is the colour that come from the iPad camera:

In the kitchen, the red of the coronet looks pretty similar to the red of the tomatoes. The iPad camera makes the 670nm look pink. Most curious.

Here is the colour taken by Ron, who has real photographic skills and a real camera.

Much more tomato-like!

Red lights preserve brain cells…and make more of ‘em

Prof John Mitrofanis gave an excellent presentation today to clinicians at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

He took the audience through the ten plus years of research into red lights and Parkinson’s in animal models.

Continue reading “Red lights preserve brain cells…and make more of ‘em”

The Dys-words

Dystonia, dyskinesia, dys this, dys that…

Here is a link to an excellent summary of the meanings of these confusing words.

Thanks to the Australian Brain Foundation for putting this glossary together.

Smelling Parkinson’s

This article tells the story of Joy Milne, a Scottish nurse who realised that she could smell Parkinson’s disease. Tragically, she noticed the smell on her husband, a decade before he was officially diagnosed with Parkinson’s. The smell comes from the changes in the skin, the same changes that affect tolerance to temperature changes.

Read to the end, as Joy’s comments are very powerful. She shows how the non-movement symptoms of Parkinson’s can be far more damaging to quality of life and relationships than the tremors and other movement problems.

For more about the non-movement symptoms and their importance, read parts 4 and 5 of this post.