A client’s story: “My Success with Cold Laser Therapy”

MY SUCCESS WITH COLD LASER THERAPY

            

A few months ago I developed a “trigger thumb”, a painful inflammation and restriction of the thumb’s main tendon. As a rolfer my profession depends upon the skill and strength or my hands and fingers, so consequently I was faced with a serious problem.

Standard medical protocol for this condition involves injecting the tendon with cortisone. I made an appointment with a hand specialist to receive this treatment, but because of the possibility of undesirable side effects I was wary about my choice.

 

So, I went to see Sam Gross, a cold laser therapist in my office building, to see what he had to offer. I had read about this therapy and sensed that it was going to be a viable alternative to the cortisone. Sam assured me that it would take care of the problem, but that it might take several treatments and therefore would require patience to go the distance. I had no problem with this requirement, and in keeping with Sam’s speculation it took nine sessions before I began to notice a sustained improvement. Then the healing process began to gallop forward. Within four more treatments I was easily 80% improved and fully able to use my thumb. My condition is now basically healed. Sam has also succeeded in treating a less serious tendon problem in one of my other fingers, and that required far fewer sessions.

 

I am so pleased with these results that I will continue to receive intermitant ongoing treatments solely for the purpose of preventive maintenance. Sam Gross is a kind and committed healer who skillfully wields a powerful healing modality. Without reservation, I recommend him and cold laser therapy.

 

Daniel Frank, M.A., Certified Rolfer

 

(2/11/12)

 

 

Low Level Laser Therapy Improves Shoulder Pain from Injury

Low-level Laser Therapy with Exercise Improves Shoulder Pain

 

Abrisham SM, Kermani-Alghoraishi M, Ghahramani R, Jabbari L, Jomeh H, Zare M.  Clin Rheumatol. 2011 May 4. [Epub ahead of print]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21538218

 

Recently, low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has gained a lot of attention particularly because it has been hypothesized to accelerate tissue repair, improve microcirculation, and generate anti-inflammatory effects. To explore the clinical utility of LLLT, Abrisham SM et al conducted a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial to evaluate the effect of LLLT with exercise among patients with subacromial syndrome (diagnosed based on clinical presentation and physical examination).

 

• Eighty participants were treated by exercise therapy programs (e.g., strengthening, stretching, mobilizations) in clinic and at home (10 clinic sessions during 2 weeks). 
• Patients were randomized so that 40 patients received infrared laser radiation (wavelength 890 nm in pulse mode; 2 to 4 J/cm²) at three points on the shoulder (coracoid process, posterior glenohumeral joint, and lateral rotator cuff tendon)  for 2 minutes at each site (6 minutes total). Among patients with biceps tendonitis a fourth point was treated.
• The remaining 40 patients received a sham laser treatment from a unit that appeared to be working. Patients were not allowed to take analgesics or NSAIDs during the study period. A blinded physician measured active and passive shoulder range of motion (flexion, abduction, external rotation) with a goniometer. Pain was also recorded. Following treatments both groups had less shoulder pain and improved shoulder range of motion (all measures). Based on change over time, the LLLT with exercise group had more improvement in pain and shoulder range of motion (all measures) compared to the exercise-only group.

 The authors suggest that results support the use of LLLT with exercise therapy in relieving shoulder pain and improving range of motion among patients with subacromial syndrome.

 

The authors suggest that results support the use of LLLT with exercise therapy in relieving shoulder pain and improving range of motion among patients with subacromial syndrome.

Based on change over time…

Based on change over time, the LLLT with exercise group had more improvement in pain and shoulder range of motion (all measures) compared to the exercise-only group.

Disappearing Pain Mental Exercise – Use After a Cold Laser Therapy Session or Physical Therapy

This process can be used to clear pain, cravings, fatigue, hunger, and negative emotions:

1. Close your eyes and  locate where in your body you have the most discomfort. Pin it down to the exact location. Rate intensity of pain ( 1-10)

2. With your inner eye, look at the pain. Ask yourself “if this energy had a color what would it be?” Let the sense of color come to you.

3. Next ask “What shape does this energy take?” Let the image come to you.

4. Next ask “How much liquid could this shape hold?” ( a teaspoon.. a river…a cup)

5. Take a healing breath right into the discomfort area. As you exhale, see the ‘negative energy’ streaming out on the exhaled breath.

6. Look now, as if you are observing the discomforting energy for the very first time. The energy may have changed location. And it may look different. Observe the changes.

7. Repeat steps 1-6 until the energy has cleared or reduced to an acceptable level. Check number again. Has the intensity of pain level lowered?

8. Once this has happened, you may check your body for other areas of discomfort you to clear.

6 Ways to Reduce You Daily Intake of Toxins

6 Easy Ways To Reduce Your Daily Intake of Toxins                     

By Caroline Nettle
1. Open the Windows – scientists have discovered that the air pollution indoors can be up to 100 times more toxic than outdoors. Carpets, furniture, cleaning products, air freshners, and more contribute to a highly toxic environment. We spend the majority of our time indoors, eating, working, sleeping and spending time with our families. Opening the window can allow the air to circulate and remove some of the toxins and gases.
2. Eat Organic Food – where possible. Some food is sprayed with pesticides & herbicides up to 10 times before it reaches our tables. Residue from pesticides that were banned over 40 years ago (DDT) routinely turn up in over 50% of foods tested. Pesticides are designed to kill pests, and so imagine what they do inside our highly sensitive body? They have been linked to cancer, dementia, infertility and more.
3. Read the Ingredients In Your Bathroom Products. Many products that we wash and beautify ourselves with contain ingredients that are harmful to us and have been linked to many diseases. When you take a hot bath or shower, your pores are wide open, and so the toxins are absorbed into our system very easily. If you cannot say it, it is likely that it is not good for you.
4. Run the Taps For a Few Minutes in the Morning. All houses have lead in their pipes, and it is the most common toxin in our environment and one of the most toxic to humans. Old houses have lead piping and newer houses have plastic pipes with lead soldering. Water sits in these pipes overnight and lead leaches into the water. Run the taps before you cook, wash or drink water for a couple of minutes to allow new water to come through.
5. Avoid Eating Too Much Tuna or Salmon. Larger fish species such as tuna and salmon carry high levels of mercury. As the smaller fish eat microscopic food particles containing mercury it collects in their tissues and fat. As the larger fish eat the smaller fish, the concentration of mercury increases. This is called bioaccumulation. The fish at the top of the food chain (the ones we like to eat) have an extremely high concentration of toxins in their bodies.
6. Keep Your Liver Healthy. Avoid excesses of alcohol or fatty processed foods. Your liver plays an extremely important part in your natural detoxification, and so if it is compromised by an unhealthy diet, or excesses of alcohol or drugs, it may struggle to naturally cleanse your body of the toxins.

Professional Sports Teams Using Cold Laser Therapy

Professional Athletes Using Cold Laser Therapy: Professional athletes such as Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, New York Jets, Miami Heat and team members of the New England Patriots rely upon the therapy to treat their sports-related injuries. In fact, it was widely reported that 10 members of the Patriots sought cold laser therapy treatments to treat minor injuries the week before they won the Super Bowl in 2004.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Happy-Holidays-and-Special-Gift–from-Pacific-Laser-Therapy-Centers–LLC-.html?soid=1103352564945&aid=GsTDWxz4wt0

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Happy-Holidays-and-Special-Gift–from-Pacific-Laser-Therapy-Centers–LLC-.html?soid=1103352564945&aid=GsTDWxz4wt0.

Cold Laser Therapy: Helpful in the Treatment of Alcoholism

Use of low-energy laser as adjunct treatment of alcohol addiction.

Zalewska-Kaszubska J, Obzejta D. Department of Pharmacodynamics, Medical University, Muszynskiego 1, 90-151 Lodz, Poland. jzalewska@pharm.am.lodz.pl

Lasers Med Sci. 2004;19(2):100-4.

Auricular acupuncture is a medical method that has been used in the treatment of alcohol addiction. In our study we decided to intensify this method by additional biostimulation of the whole organism. The aim of this study was the therapy of patients with alcohol dependence syndrome. Fifty-three alcoholics were treated with two types of laser stimulation in four sessions. Each session consisted of 20 consecutive daily helium-neon laser neck biostimulations and 10 auricular acupuncture treatments with argon laser (every 2nd day). The Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen (BDI-FS) was used to assess their frame of mind before the session and after 2 months of treatment. Moreover, beta-endorphin plasma concentration was estimated five times using the radioimmunoassay (RIA) method. Improvement in BDI-FS and increase in, betaendorphin level were observed. These results suggest that laser therapy can be useful as an adjunct treatment for alcoholism.

Using Cold Laser Therapy to Treat Depression- Significant Improvement After 4 weeks!

Laser acupuncture for mild to moderate depression in a primary care setting–a randomised controlled trial.

Quah-Smith JI, Tang WM, Russell J. Monash University, Victoria, Australia. jiqs@tpq.com.au

Acupunct Med. 2005 Sep;23(3):103-11.

OBJECTIVE: Depression is a major public health problem. There is some evidence supporting the effectiveness of needle acupuncture in its treatment. Laser stimulation, regarded here as a modality of acupuncture, is non-invasive and therefore free of infection risk; and it is acceptable to patients with needle phobia. The technique is relatively easily learned by community-based general practitioners. It is also amenable to sham control and therefore double-blinding in clinical trials. A double-blind randomised controlled trial was conducted to test the efficacy of low level laser acupuncture in mild to moderate depression.

METHODS: Thirty patients with depression were randomised to receive either active or inactive laser treatment. The laser unit could be switched to one of two settings. One switch position delivered active laser acupuncture and the other was inactive (sham). In the active mode, 0.5J was delivered to each of six to eight individually tailored acupuncture sites per visit. All patients were treated twice weekly for four weeks then weekly for a further four weeks. The patients and the acupuncturist were both blinded to conditions. Outcome was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory at baseline, weeks four and eight during treatment, and at 4 and 12 weeks following the treatment.

• RESULTS: At the end of the treatment period, Beck Depression Inventory scores fell from baseline by 16.1 points in the intervention group and by 6.8 points in the sham control group (P < 0.001). The difference showed only a trend four weeks later, but was again significant after 12 weeks (P=0.007). Laser acupuncture was well tolerated with transient fatigue as the most common adverse effect. CONCLUSION: Laser acupuncture may be worth further investigation as a treatment for mild to moderate depression in primary care.

Feeling Yourself Into Wellness

Dear Friends and Colleagues, Once weekly I engage in an early morning ritual of driving  to my favorite beach (Miramar) in Santa Barbara. I discard my flip flops, dig out out my trusty music gizmo and que up something smart from one of my favorite jazz pianists, Billy Taylor (or if I really need to wake up, perhaps something from the Stones Let it Bleed). I walk down to the beautiful shoreline, close my eyes and allow the chilly Pacific ocean to nourish my feet with salt, seaweed, and minerals.   My morning  “beach constitutional”  allows me to reconnect with the tyrannical beauty of not only Miramar Beach but the world . I feel centered, alive, and awakened by the endless possibilities of the world. I am feeling myself into wellness, health, and abundance.   A beautiful coastline is not required to feel yourself into wellness. Whether you live in Newark or Santa Barbara, human beings are capable of stimulating wellness and healing with the power of the mind.   Healing and wellness is an artform just like a Monet painting. Modern therapies such as cold laser promote and speed up healing but sustained health and well”ness” is balanced by fine tuning that tricky central processing unit also known as the brain.   In this months issue:   Learn how to feel yourself into wellness  Another testimonial from a fitness trainer and athlete who regained range of motion as a result of cold laser therapy Have a happy and healthy holiday season. Wishing you only the best of health, Sam Gross President and CEO Pacific Laser Therapy Centers, LLC     Feeling Your Way Into Wellness, by Dr. Lifespeaks     There are different theories on how emotions can affect the physical well-being. For example, in Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory there are seven main emotions that affect the “Qi” or life force of the body and specific organs. Anger, for instance, causes the ‘qi’ to flow upwards (in the wrong directions) which can manifest as dizziness, headaches, and even syncope (passing out). The organs typically affected are the liver and spleen. While worry and anxiety can cause disturbances of the Spleen and can also affect digestion, causing constipation, low appetite, and sometimes chronic diarrhea. Fear can result in insomnia, palpitations and shortness of breath due to its weakening effect on the Heart “qi”.   In one study done by published in the American Academy of Neurology (December 14th 2004 issue), people who had experienced a stroke were interviewed about events that had occurred within 4 hours of the event and approximately 30% of the patients had been exposed to some negative emotion such as anger, irritability, fear/anxiety just 2 hour prior. The study showed that being exposed to these negative triggers increased their risk of stroke by 14 fold. With emotions being recognized as a major contributor to illness by both traditional and non-traditional sides of medicine, what are the things you can do on a daily basis to make sure your feelings do not weigh you down? Here are some things to keep in mind that will help you to maintain or move towards emotional balance:   1. Allow yourself to experience a full range of emotions and find constructive ways to express them: It’s okay to feel our feelings. We don’t always have to fulfill others expectations of who they think we are or should be. 2. Take time during the day to stop and ask yourself “What am I feeling?” Acknowledge yourself, and let yourself be okay with whatever feeling you are having at that moment. 3. Be open to experiencing and expressing joy: as stated earlier, joy relaxes “qi” allowing the life force to move freely. Making a gratitude list is a great way to get yourself into a joyful place during neutral or difficult times. 4. Recognize, acknowledge and accept your fears: Courage is not the absence of fear, but action in spite of fear. 5. Express your anger appropriately in ways that solves problems, instead of allowing it to create problems for yourself or others: Positive ways to express negative emotions include journaling, exercise, sports or some type of movement, or even just allowing yourself to scream into a pillow. 6. Remember, it’s okay to cry; allow yourself to do so when appropriate. Crying doesn’t make you weak. Sometimes crying can be cathartic and even cleansing! 7. Graciously accept positive acknowledgement from others, and as well give positive acknowledgement regularly to others: See how doing one random act of kindness a day affects your own sense of joy. 8. Respect other peoples’ differing sensitivity to and styles of expressing their feelings. Remembering that your emotions play a major role in your well-being is very important. You need not hold on to nor hold in the emotion, for that can be harmful and even deadly in the long run. Instead, find positive and healthy ways to experience and express your feelings, and you will find that you will begin to have a renewed sense of balance in your life. A Client Testimonial from Heather B. “I’ve personally experience amazing results from Sam Gross’s work with the Cold Laser Therapy. I had suffered a serious spine injury on the job with L.A. City Fire Dept when a 200lb. ladder was dropped on my head. I spent 2 years in rehab and sought after every type of alternative therapy I could without having a fusion done on my cervical spine. After 6 years I had resided to the fact that I had done as much as I could. I heard Sam do a presentation on Cold Laser and I thought, what the heck what do I have to lose. Seven sessions into the therapy my flexion and extension range that I was seeing was incredible. Thanks to Sams knowledge of human behavior and patterns in conjunction with the cold laser I can bend my head backwards with out having to just use my eyes to look. No more headaches, AMAZING. I was so impressed I brought him into work with clients at our Wellness Center. Thanks Sam.” – Heather Bond, Santa Barbara

DISCLAIMER: This is a complementary therapy and is not meant to replace medical care. I agree to consult my doctor prior to beginning any new therapy. Pacific Laser Therapy Centers does not diagnose or treat disease. No guarantee is made or implied as to the success of the procedure. PLTC complies with the California Health Freedom Act (SB-577).