Our patient podcast, "Healing at the Speed of Light," began in December of 2019. After a year of recording, we noticed two recurring topics that patients were especially interested in. These two conditions are difficult to treat, but laser therapy offers a unique and effective way in helping patients with these common conditions.
The most downloaded episodes from our patient podcast during 2020 were episodes about neuropathy. We've talked about neuropathy a lot on the podcast; as a matter of fact, we produced eight episodes on neuropathy and nerve regeneration during that year alone. We have added to that number since then, and we'd encourage you to check out all our neuropathy-related content because they all address neuropathy from different angles: different types of neuropathy, how it happens, and how laser has been shown to be helpful.
Neuropathy is a condition that is can be extremely bothersome. It can keep you awake at night. It can make you unsure of your footing. It can really take away the joy from a day when you're dealing with this continuous burning, tingling, and stinging in either the feet or the hands. Additionally, there are poor outcomes for neuropathy, meaning that many patients with neuropathy develop ulcers (non-healing wounds on the feet that can lead to amputation) or increase their risk of falling. Falling, of course, subjects patients to risks of traumatic brain injury or broken bones. Many times, neuropathy can set in fairly rapidly—seemingly out of the blue for a lot of folks. Another problematic factor is that there are very few treatment options. Patients may start to notice the burning and stinging, or maybe the loss of balance, or maybe difficulty in knowing where their feet are landing while walking. Once they go see their physician and get a diagnosis, there is often almost nothing offered for treatment beyond sometimes some medications. And some of the medications can be addictive; they can be damaging as far as side effects go. Really, the medications are only designed to quiet the symptoms. Reducing the symptoms is a good thing: It can help neuropathic patients sleep better and relieve discomfort. However, merely reducing the symptoms is not preventing the condition from getting worse or, at the very least, having the patient become dependent on medications for years.
Because neuropathy usually leads to difficulty in day-to-day activities and can result in bad outcomes indirectly associated with the condition, coupled with the fact that there are very few treatment options for it, patients are eager to learn more about how to deal with this prevalent condition. Fortunately, laser therapy is becoming more popular because not only can it deliver care that reduces the symptoms of neuropathy naturally without medications, but also because it can do so without side effects and risky treatments.
We think it's worth mentioning here: We're not talking about laser surgery. That is a different process. We're talking about stimulating the body's repair mechanisms using a lower-dose laser that can deliver a stimulating effect by producing better blood flow to the nerves, along with stimulating more production of cellular energy within those nerve cells so that they can function and repair better. After all, the nerve pain we're addressing here comes from the nerves being starved of circulation and then being damaged. There is a lot of evidence that laser therapy can be very helpful for nerve damage and neuropathy conditions. If you want to find out if this could be an option for you, we recommend receiving an evaluation by a health professional who does laser therapy in your area.
The second most in-demand topic that we covered throughout 2020 (and continue to talk about) was rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis (or "RA") is an inflammatory arthritis. Many times it is seen in the hands and the fingers, where the fingers become malformed and twisted. It can be very painful. It can happen in other areas of the body, too, including in other joints such as in the neck or the shoulders. Rheumatoid arthritis is not osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is that wear-and-tear degenerative change. It can take place within any joint. Rheumatoid arthritis is the body's own immune system, getting out of control and then attacking certain joints and "eating" them from the inside out. It leads to a lot of joint damage and is very, very painful. It is also very difficult to control.
Patients with RA may be placed on a type of chemotherapy drug to try to reduce the amount of aggressive immune system reaction that's happening there. As in many other conditions, medications can be very helpful, and these medications do attack the cause of this disorder because you're reducing the body's aggressive immune response. So, the chemotherapy regimen can be something that does reduce the joint damage and the bone erosion that can happen with this chronic inflammatory response. That said, as most of us know, there are side effects to chemotherapy, including neuropathy.
To reiterate: laser therapy, after having been studied for multiple decades now, has no known side effects and no medication interactions. By 2021 there were over 20 studies that had been done specifically on how laser therapy can be used for rheumatoid arthritis. There are some mixed results on those studies because we're still learning a lot about how laser can best be applied to this inflammatory disease, but even as far back as the 90s, we've been seeing evidence that laser therapy can work well for this condition. In many cases, laser can be an excellent choice, and our custom-designed, clinically trialed protocols have provided RA patients with great results. To find a Laser Therapy Institute provider near you, search our clinic map or email us!