Near infrared light – Red lights on the brain

Stroke

I’ve had some queries in recent weeks about the use of red and near infrared lights in people who have had a stroke, especially if speech has been affected.

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.

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.

Near-infrared LED strips

I’ve had a query about 12V near-infrared LED strip, especially 850nm LED strip.

You can see 850nm, but only just! 850nm is at the very edge of the eye’s ability to see. If you turn on the 850nm LED strip in a dark room, you will see a nice pale red glow. It’s red, but to our eyes it seems pretty dim. That’s good, that means it is working.

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.

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.