laser for acupuncture?

Doc,

I heard you speak the other night and you said something like "this laser is like high test acupuncture". I was trying to explain it to my husband and I couldn't get that part right. Do I have that right and what did you mean by that?

Billie W.

Dear Billie,
I'm delighted you were listening to my presentation. Photobiology, specifically the use of lasers for assisting the healing process is a relatively new and sometimes confusing thing to try to explain. So, first let me say that YES, you got that right.

The use of a class 4 laser of the right energy and wavelength is well documented from a Western perspective. The mechanisms by which coherent, laser light accelerates cellular respiration and healing are well researched and understood. Most of the patients we treat with the our class 4 Litecure laser are interested in reducing their pain and improving their function. We enjoy watching those people do exactly that as they progress through their treatment plans.

From the Eastern perspective, In my opinion,laser therapy can be much more than that. I was speaking about how humanity has finally elucidated the mechanism of acupuncture. We finally know how it works!!! (for a detailed explaination check out Oschmann's Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance) It is the desire of the acupuncturist to create or restore a coherent field in the living matrix (Oschmann's words) the system of subtle energy the Chinese call Chi.

We have been using laser therapy as a healing tool since 2002 at Midtown Chiropractic. As an acupuncture tool it makes great sense conceptually. Rather than trying to subtly induce your existing Chi, your living matrix, towards coherence why not just create a perfect coherent field and pump it directly into the system? Again, it fits the current, technologically verified models of how energy moves in the body that laser light would work well to do that.

I personally found reality lagging behind this theory in terms of clinical outcome, however. Some patients responded well to laser-based acupuncture but not as many as I would have like or hoped.

That has changed with the addition of the Litecure class 4 laser to our practice. It turns out people far smarter than myself have been studying how much and what wavelengths of light are most effective in initiating cellular response. My earlier class 3a laser is far too weak for creating the types of healing that we see routinely with the Litecure.

So I'm tickled pink that reality has caught up to prediction. It is very gratifying for both the clinician and the patient to be able to say, "Now that your pain is so much better, let's use the laser to work on your insomnia, or your tinnitus or your indigestion. It's great fun to say because it so often works.

In summary, many people are interested in finding drugless ways to first relieve their pain and then to improve their health. We are glad to be able to work with our patients to help them in that way. So yes, I said Class 4 laser therapy is like high test acupuncture.

I look forward to showing you why next time we see each other, Billie. Thanks for listening and tanks for asking.
Doc Hightower
Raleigh