Does light therapy assist with neuropathy?
More than a year ago, both men said they were at wit’s end with neuropathy — nerve damage causing numbness and persistent pain, along with burning, pins-and-needles and itching sensations in the feet, lower legs, hands and arms.
Historically, there have been only passing claims of success from supplements, foot vibration, massage and drugs, among others. But in September 2016, Harold Frazier, 64, of Irwin and Bill Wilshire, 71, of North Huntingdon, said they’d had no success in relieving the daily discomforts.
“Every time I move when I’m asleep I wake up, and I’m lucky to get four hours of sleep a night — and that’s a great night,” Mr. Frazier said at the time. “If I am arrested, and they say, ‘Stick ‘em up,’ they’ll have to shoot me because I can’t. I have lost all the power in my arms.”
Recently, though, both have stepped forward to proclaim benefits they’ve experienced from “low level light therapy” or LLLT, which treats large areas of skin. It’s often confused or compared with low level “laser” therapy, which more narrowly targets areas of injury.
“My feet feel 95 percent better, and the only reason they aren’t 100 percent is because incoming weather fronts cause some discomfort,” Mr. Wilshire said in a recent interview.
Mr. Frazier, with diabetes, also said he was nearly disabled with his left leg essentially “dead” and only limited use of his arms and right leg. He was using two canes to walk and expected soon to be in a wheelchair. Constant pain in the small of his back, he said, felt like a blowtorch. “Nothing worked for me so I was really surprised by this,” he said.
After about 12 treatments with LLLT, he said, he now walks with one cane, with renewed feeling and 90 percent function in his right leg and improved use of arms and hands. Before, he had to “stab at lettuce like a savage” but now eats normally. The former maintenance
manrecently painted a room.
“I don’t know if it’s a cure or not, but it sure does help,” he said. “I’m 60 to 70 percent better and I’ve been sleeping all night for the first time in five years. I hope it lasts.”
LLLT has received praise, with published research studies extolling its benefits in pain reduction. But doubts persist in mainstream medicine with no clinical trials available to confirm its impacts.
Mr. Frazier and Mr. Wilshire received LLLT treatment through Shawn Richey, a chiropractor who uses HealthLight LLC technology in his offices in Sewickley and Latrobe. Initially skeptical of the claims, Mr. Richey said he reviewed the literature that described biological impacts that it generates to reduce the impacts of neuropathy — a condition affecting 20 million Americans, and potentially many more, including up to 70 percent of those with diabetes and 40 percent of those who’ve undergonechemotherapy.
LLLT is not covered by health insurance, so a full treatment can cost $2,000 to $4,000, Mr. Richey said, noting the first visit is free with testing and a trial run to determine if it likely will be effective. Mr. Frazier said his first treatment produced no benefits, but the second had him walking out of the office without any canes. Mr. Wilshire experienced benefits from the very start of treatment.
Mr. Richey said he’s treated about 2,000 patients, with 70 percent experiencing pain relief and improved function, and 50 percent of that group claiming a cure. Up to 90 percent of his patients, he said, have experienced some relief.
Neuropathy involves nerve damage most often caused by poor circulation, chemotherapy or the impacts of autoimmunedisease.
LLLT uses different wavelengths of light to stimulate production of nitric oxide, a gas that relaxes endothelial cells that form the lining of blood vessels. That improves blood flow with other processes serving to repair damaged nerve endings. Research says it helps generate adenoisine triphosphate or ATP, a coenzyme involved in generatingcellular energy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared various low-level light and laser therapies for pain reduction, relief of muscle spasms and muscular relief, and increased blood circulation. It says the HealthLight Footbed LED Light Therapy System is “safe and effective for its intended use.”
Patrick Doyle, who said he helped develop HealthLight technology but sold the company, said it produces random pulses of different wavelengths of light, which stimulates cellular activity and improves circulation, with apparent repair ofsmall nerve fibers.
Lindsay Colbert, executive director of the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy, said she’s heard “from several patients who tell me how thankful they are for this therapy, whereas others have not had the success.”
“I can tell you that we’ve heard that chemo-induced neuropathy patients are surprisingly more likely to have better results from low level light therapy than those who have neuropathy caused by diabetes, HIV or an autoimmune disease, for example,” she said. LLLT is listed as an option on the foundation website along with other treatment options. Uncontrolled diabetes, experts say, causes continuing damage to nerves, potentially offsetting benefits of treatment.
Previously, Erin Kershaw, chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC, said prevention is key because once neuropathy takes hold, it is a difficult conditionto reverse.
“Small-fiber burning is extremely uncomfortable,” she said. “It can feel like your feet are on fire all the time,” requiring pain therapies that may have limited impact. “Numbness resulting from neuropathy can result in foot injuries the person may be unaware of, resulting in ulceration and sometimes leadingto amputation.”