Hot LASER Therapy

I take you through my recent experience with Hot LASER Therapy.  Everyone's experience will be different, as well as the number of treatments needed, length and location of each treatment, and end results.  Discuss with your health care provider to see if Hot LASER Therapy might be an option for you.

Music composed and performed by V. Karaitis

Transcript

Hey!  Thanks for listening!  I’m Chris Wagenti, and this is Who Gets It, Naturally.  Music was composed and performed by V. Karaitis.  I’m not selling anything, diagnosing anything; offering any cures or replacing your doctor.  I’m just sharing my passion for natural products.  If you’re pregnant, please consult your doctor before trying anything new.  Everyone is different so you may need to tweak the recipes a bit to work for you.  Always start with the least amount of essential oils…you can always add, you can’t take away.  Remember, these remedies don’t last forever, you need to reapply as needed.  If you are allergic to any of the ingredients I use, please substitute for something you’re not allergic to.  Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean you can’t be allergic to it.

 First, I have to make a correction.  When my sister listened to the Shingles episode, she immediately texted me, “I was 20, not 17”.  Oopps…I was the one who was 17 at the time! LOL  Sorry for the confusion!

Shout out to new listeners in Fremont and Ontario, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Union, Missouri; Billings, Montana; and Waxhaw, North Carolina.  Welcome and thanks for listening!

Life loves throwing curveballs.  I was going to have a special edition of episodes starting this month, but things didn’t work out the way we planned.  I’m still trying to make it work, so fingers crossed.  So instead, today let’s talk about a new treatment I’ve been getting…Hot Laser Therapy.  Hot Laser Therapy is also called Class IV Laser Therapy and Hi-Intensity Laser Therapy (or HILT).  This just means that the laser has a power output of above 500 milliwatts and can leave your skin feeling warm, as opposed to Cold Laser Therapy or Low-Level Laser Therapy (or LLLT), which uses Class II or Class III lasers and has a power output of under 500 milliwatts and won’t heat the skin.  

It's a hand-held device that emits a laser beam into your body, aimed at the problem area, which travels deep into your mitochondria to promote energy creation, which in turn promotes healing.  Physiopedia, article found at www.physio-pedia.com/High_Power_Laser_Therapy, explains it like this:  

QUOTE:  “When the light source is placed against the skin, the photons penetrate several centimetres and get absorbed by the mitochondria. The energy fuels many positive physiological responses, resulting in the restoration of normal cell morphology and function, but at an enhanced rate. Targeted in haemoglobin and cytochrome oxidase, the high-power diode laser could help in respiration and then, as a result, have a good performance therapy. 

Description of the video: 

A high-intensity laser is a device that produces a light that carries energy and spreads it to the tissue to promote healing and improve the pain of the inflamed tissue. It penterates and spreads through subcutaneous fats, muscles, tendons, and bones. There are four different effects that lasers produce on the inflamed tissue: reflection, scattering, absorption, and transmission through a process called photobiostimulation. Its therapeutic effects include photoacoustic, biostimualtion, and thermic. High-intensity laser has a penetration of up to 10 cm, which could stimulate the free nerve endings, hence the immediate pain reliving.”  END QUOTE

So, basically, it’s a non-invasive way to reduce inflammation and stimulate tissue healing without burning or cutting the skin.  This should help relieve pain due to soft tissue damage, like, muscles, nerves, cartilage.  If the problem is skeletal, like bone on bone pain, Hot Laser Therapy probably won’t do much.  

So, this started in December.  My doctor’s office called and asked if I wanted to be a guinea pig.  I’m always up for trying something new!  Bottom line, this sales rep was trying to sell them this machine.  They were going to be in Tulsa to sample it for another office and offered to demonstrate on 4 or 5 of their patients with the most pain and least amount of mobility.  I was the first person they thought of!  Woohoo!  I go in…get this laser beam moved around on my right hip for about 14 – 20 minutes while we wore protective eye gear (ya know, the plastic glasses with the dorky, thick frames and green lenses).  Once we were done, I get up off the chair and I was standing straight up, no pain.  I was floored!  I walked out of the room and down towards the reception desk…my doctor’s assistant was there, he looked at me while I was walking towards him and I mouthed, “Oh my God!”.  He just started laughing and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you stand up straight!”.  This lasted about 18-20 hours.  I was sold!  I said, if you buy this machine, I’m in.  Now, the machine was really expensive, and he wasn’t sure if it was an investment he wanted to make at the time, so he said if he didn’t buy it, he’d find someone in Tulsa that had it and get me set up.  

In January, the rep offered to come back and spend the day at my Doctor’s office…so again, I got a call asking if I’d be a guinea pig.  Absolutely!  This time they had a full day of patients willing to give it a try.  This time it was a little different.  The rep kept telling me to walk different than what my body wanted to do…which, I’ve learned, is a give and take.  My body has been twisted and over adjusting to deal with it for decades.  You’re not going to completely fix it in one or two treatments.  Then, he also decided he wanted to try stretching my leg out…I think that did more harm than good.  (Another example of how nobody knows what’s best for your body than you).  I was pain free and standing/walking straight for several hours, but it was a little different than the first time.  

My doctor was still debating on the machine…the patients who did participate were split on the results.  A few weeks later he went to a conference in Orlando.  The flight was rough, he ended up with a crick in his neck.  At the hotel, there was a rep from a different company, but the machine was very similar.   Up until this point, my doctor hadn’t had any treatment himself.  He thought maybe it took a bit of time for relief, so when he saw the rep, he asked if he could get a demonstration on himself.  His neck pain was instantly relieved.  He was sold.  This machine was about ½ the cost of the other, so he decided it was worth the investment.  A few weeks later the machine was in his office and I was his first patient getting the treatment.  I signed up for 10 visits, one a week.  The first week, it was like I was a new person.  I was standing straighter and walking pretty well, until my left side decided it didn’t like the right side getting all of the attention.  I was mid-stride and my left leg decided it didn’t want to go the direction I wanted to, and walking became difficult again.  The next appointment, I mentioned this.  So, the treatments got split between both hips.  After 10 weeks, was I perfect?  No.  Far from it.  I wasn’t expecting to be.  Like I said before, I’m dealing with decades of the muscles being tight, twisted and tweaked … I didn’t expect any miracles.  But I did notice improvements.  I still have good days and bad days, but the pain is not as intense, and it’s also not constant anymore.  My good days are awesome!  I’m standing straighter and my range of motion has improved, slightly, but it’s still an improvement.  Before I started the treatments, getting in and out of the shower was not fun.  I literally had to rest my knee on the edge of the tub to swing my leg inside, then literally lean against the wall to get my other leg over into the tub.  And then I’d have to let the hot water hit my hips to ease the pain a bit.  Now I can get my leg over the side of the tub in one movement and I just have to hold myself up a little to get my other leg in the tub, not have my whole body leaning up against the wall.  I’m also able to do more stretches.  This will continue to improve my range of motion and help build the strength in my muscles.  I’ve also increased my magnesium intake.  This will help reduce any muscle cramps that might think about popping up, and help build muscle strength.  My chiropractor has also noticed a difference.  I’m adjusting easier and the adjustments are lasting longer.  Usually after 2 weeks I’m all jacked and really need to be adjusted again.  After about 7 weeks of the Hot Laser Therapy, my doctor was like, “this is strange, I’ve never seen this on you before”.  I was like, “Strange good or strange bad?”  He was like, “All Good!”  Everything is starting to slowly move back to where it belongs.  I know I still have a long way to go, but this is an improvement I’ve never had before.  I have signed up for another 10 weeks.  But this time we are trying every other week.  So far, so good.  I had a really good day last week…I was actually walking around work without my cane all the time.  I may have gotten a little cocky and went a little too far without it, but not so much that I felt like it set me back.  I’m starting to see more good days than bad days.  That alone is more than enough to celebrate!  This is an investment in myself, but for me, very worth it.  

A session lasts about 20 minutes… 4 minutes on the outer and inner hip on both sides and my lower back.  There’s no other down time.  It’s painless and non-evasive.  No pharmaceuticals need to be taken.  I do need to wear protective eye gear during the treatments, provided by my doctor, and I go in with my bathing suit under a dress.  

Not everyone is going to have good results.  It depends on your issues, and what your limitations are.  I believe Cold Laser Therapies do help some skeletal disorders.  A partial list of conditions that can be treated with laser therapy (cold or hot is not specified) includes Carpal Tunnel Syndrome; Arthritis; Osteoarthritis; Rheumatoid Arthritis; Tendonitis; Fibromyalgia; Muscle Spasms; TMJ or Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction; Sciatica; Plantar Fasciitis; Herniated Disc; Tennis Elbow; Headaches; Sprains; and Strains.  Do your research.  See if a practitioner will give you a complimentary treatment to see if this is something that resonates with you.  The sessions can be expensive, but look at is as an investment in yourself, because you’re worth it…aren’t you?

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email me at vobyjypsee@usa.com, or send a text from the podcast.  You can follow me on X and Instagram … @vobyjypsee; or LinkedIn…search either Chris Wagenti, Who Gets It, Naturally or Voice Overs by Jypsee.  Please download this episode, and make Who Gets It, Naturally a favorite on your preferred channel so you don’t miss an episode.

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