IMPORTANT NOTE:
THE STUDIES SHOWN IN THIS WEBSITE ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND ARE NOT MEDICAL ADVICE.
Overview
The Science
This information has been compiled as a handbook for the clinical use of LED therapy. Although it includes a short overview of physics, physiology, and the history of light, these subjects have been purposely limited to maintain the focus on the clinical aspects of laser therapy.
History
The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians used light therapy and applied heat to tender points in the human body to relieve symptoms of many syndromes.
In 1903, Nils Finsen, a Danish medical doctor, was given the Nobel Prize for successfully treating tuberculosis, rickets and lupus vulgaris with ultraviolet light. This was the first recognized application of artificial light to cure disease.
In 1923, the Russian researcher Alexander Gurwitsch first detected that cells emit infrared light as a means of intercellular communication. He observed that this light could be transmitted from a test tube to another adjacent one without any physical contact between them. He termed this infrared emission “mitogenetic radiation.”
In 1967, Dr. Endre Mester, a professor of surgery in Hungary, performed a revolutionary series of experiments that first documented the healing effect of lasers. In his earliest study, he discovered that tissue growth was accelerated with laser therapy. His later experiments documented not only improved healing with light therapy but also demonstrated that the healing was a systemic and not a local phenomenon. His work stimulated many other researchers in Europe and Eastern Europe to appreciate the value of laser therapy, long before it was appreciated in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
In 1923, the Russian researcher Alexander Gurwitsch first detected that cells emit infrared light as a means of intercellular communication. He observed that this light could be transmitted from a test tube to another adjacent one without any physical contact between them. He termed this infrared emission “mitogenetic radiation.”
In 1967, Dr. Endre Mester, a professor of surgery in Hungary, performed a revolutionary series of experiments that first documented the healing effect of lasers. In his earliest study, he discovered that tissue growth was accelerated with laser therapy. His later experiments documented not only improved healing with light therapy but also demonstrated that the healing was a systemic and not a local phenomenon. His work stimulated many other researchers in Europe and Eastern Europe to appreciate the value of laser therapy, long before it was appreciated in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.