LASER AND LED PHOTOBIOLOGY

Abstract

Low Level Light Therapy, or LLLT, is a very important new area of photomedicine. However, there are a number of reasons why LLLT has not been accepted into the main stream of science and medicine, and I will discuss a few of them below. Let me add, however, that I know from personal experience that LLLT works on wound healing, and carpal tunnel syndrome, when done properly. I have been trying for over 40 years to teach photobiology to laser people, and more recently, to LED people as well. At a laser meeting in the 1970s, at the height of the feeling that lasers were magical, I made a slide to demonstrate the biological effect of a laser. It showed a man dropping a big laser on his foot, and yelling OUCH. I said that this is the ONLY type of biological effect that a laser can have on a person. A laser is an expensive flashlight, and it is the light produced BY the laser that has a chance of producing a biological effect, assuming that it is of the correct wavelength and output, etc. Because so many bad papers have been published on LLLT, it has not achieved the universal acceptance that that it deserves. There are two main reasons for bad papers on LLLT; one is the lack of proper scientific training by the authors, and the other is their lack of knowledge of photobiology. I will give you some examples of very bad science. © 2010, International Phototherapy Association. All rights reserved.