Mitochondria – Page 2 – Red lights on the brain

Water and light…

In the last blog post, I told you about an excellent article called How and why does photobiomodulation change brain activity.

An ardent reader would know that I tend to wax lyrical about the way that red and near infrared light works directly and indirectly on the cell batteries, the mitochondria. The mitochondria contain special proteins that are able to respond to the light pulse. Some of these proteins are quite famous, like cytochrome c oxidase, which has been well studied and probably has its own fan club.

But guess what. Even if there is no cytochrome c oxidase present, mitochondria still respond to light.

The Brain Orchestra

I’ve been reading a journal article by Professors John Mitrofanis and Luke Henderson of the University of Sydney.

The title says it all: How and why does photobiomodulation change brain activity?

Knee arthritis

For arthritis, photobiomodulation needs to be used daily.

If you’ve ever read how this blog came about, you’ll know that osteoarthritis is a subject dear to my heart and right knee.

I described in agonising detail life before and after months of 850nm near-infrared light on my knee every day. Every day. Not just once a week, or twice a week, but every day.

Even then I knew enough about the effect of red and near infrared light on mitochondria to have worked out that mitochondria are like batteries and need a very regular recharge.

Mitochondria work best if they get daily boosts of energy courtesy of the response of their clever proteins that are able to absorb near infrared light and transform it into metabolic energy.

Mitochondria in your blood

Mitochondria get a lot of airplay in this blog. (Here’s an early post.)

The mitochondrial experts of the world have been blown away by new research. It seems that our blood not only contains the various sorts of red and white cells, but it also contains nomadic mitochondria.

This is amazing! Here’s why.

Red lights connect cells

Near-infrared light can restore the function of damaged dopamine-producing cells.

Thanks to Jane from South Australia for alerting me to this research article.*

Anything that is published in a medical journal called Molecular Degeneration and which starts with “reduced axonal transport in Parkinson’s disease cybrid neurites…” sounds a bit daunting, but it is a very interesting read, and you can download the full article.