Tag: Cossack

A DIY light hat with a frame of plastic-covered wire mesh, designed by Michael, one of the founders of Light Ahead Inc.

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.

Meet Michael, the Cossack designer.

Here is Michael Richards, wearing his wonderful Cossack light hat.

Michael has been putting together an instruction for a LED-Leg. A few months ago he managed to upset one of his legs by straining his Achilles’ tendon.

He decided to put his red-light making skills into action to fast-track the recovery of his tendon.

And it worked.

Pulsed vs continuous light

I’ve had a number of queries about pulsed light.

There is good evidence now that pulsed light is more effective than continuous light. Maybe the cell batteries, the mitochondria like to have a little pause in between receiving a pulse of light energy and directing it into the cell as metabolic energy. It makes sense.

The other reason is that by pulsing the light, the light dose is then the average of the pulse-ON and pulse-OFF. This means you can push the power in the pulse-ON, knowing that it will be offset by the no-pulse time.

I know of several people who have gone on to pulse their LED-based Elizas and Cossacks, and I have nothing but total admiration and envy for them, but there is no way I could do that.

The reasons that I have not previously mentioned the value of pulsed light is because;

1. I couldn’t give instructions to achieve it

2. I didn’t want anyone to devalue the effectiveness of continuous red/near infrared light.

Daily unpulsed red light better than no red light.

If you are using your Eliza or Cossack with continuous red/infrared light, do not be tempted to chuck it in the corner and refuse to use it because it won’t pulse. It is still doing its very best for you, and that is a lot better than nothing.

Eliza vs Cossack

I had a really good question from a blog reader today about why I recommend the Cossack design.

Look at the instructions for DIY light hat devices, and the photos of both devices, and you’ll see that Eliza is all enclosed, with a few holes at the top, and is lined with reflective foil, whereas Cossack is very open, lots of ventilation, no reflective foil. Continue reading “Eliza vs Cossack”