Tag: Neurons

The cells in the brain, neurons are finicky little devils, but they do seem to like red and near infrared light. Not only do they like it, their activity is stimulated by it, and their function and behaviour improve.

Epilepsy and light

It is looking like transcranial photobiomodulation could improve epilepsy that results from having a stroke.

Having a stroke is a scary thing. So many parts of the body can be affected and the likelihood of full recovery is incredibly variable. To add to the misery, you can be left with epilepsy.

If you are even more unlucky, you will be one of the one third of people whose epilepsy doesn’t respond to standard medications. Treatment-resistant epilepsy is a dreadful burden to the individual and the family.

Dr Vogel’s research team looked at the effect of light on the heads of rats who had stroke-induced epilepsy. They compared recordings of brain activity from before starting transcranial light and sixty days after treatment.

They found that the rats who had been treated with transcranial light had fewer seizures and the duration of seizures had shortened.

While this is a very early report, it strongly suggests that transcranial photobiomodulation could reduce the impact of epilepsy in people who have had a stroke. This is exciting work.

Reference:

Vogel, DDS, Ortiz‐Villatoro, NN, de Freitas, L, et al. Repetitive transcranial photobiomodulation but not long‐term omega‐3 intake reduces epileptiform discharges in rats with stroke‐induced epilepsy. J. Biophotonics. 2021; 14:e202000287. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.202000287

The beautiful photo is by Josh Riemer on Unsplash

Exercise and Light

Exercise and photobiomodulation are both neuroprotective.

Yesterday I had a really long conversation with a physiotherapist who specialises in treating people with Parkinson’s disease. It was one of those enormously cheering conversations. Listening to someone who is extremely experienced, supremely competent and concerned for and about each patient is a delight. On top of that, to have the drive and energy to keep up with the medical literature and identify other ways to help patients is awe-inspiring.

One of the topics we discussed is the role of exercise in Parkinson’s disease. It seems that there are some who think that exercise has a minimal role in management of Parkinson’s. This is astonishing, given all the research that consistently shows that structured exercise makes a big difference.

Continue reading “Exercise and Light”

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.

Continue reading “Mitochondria in your blood”

It really does work…

I can understand the skepticism about the biological effect of red lights, because that’s where I started from. It seemed too good to be true. However, there is a wealth of excellent quality research out there, and the evidence is compelling that red and near infrared lights protect existing neurones, and can stimulate new neurones to be created, stimulate blood vessels to increase connections- neuroprotection, neurogenesis and angiogenesis.

Continue reading “It really does work…”