Do the Light Thing!
LLLT has made great strides since its FDA approval in 2002. It has now become one of the most effective treatments for myofascial pain. It has no side effects, causes no discomfort, and can be used when many other non-invasive treatments can’t. LLLT is now available at select Excelsia Injury Care Centers.
For nearly one in four American adults, chronic pain is a fact of life.1 It disrupts our sleep, permeates our thoughts, prohibits activities, and even wreaks havoc on our mental health, the loss of independence contributing to depression, anger, and loneliness.
While the personal costs are immeasurable, the economic cost is over $723 billion in lost productivity and medical care.2
Pain has many sources: It can come from disease, injury, too much or not enough exercise, poor posture, nerve damage, and medical conditions like arthritis.
The most common kind of pain, affecting 1.7 million people worldwide3, is musculoskeletal—comprising muscles, bones, joints, and connective tissues. Low-back pain is the leading cause of disability in the world.4 Myofascial pain, a subset of musculoskeletal pain, affects the network of muscles and tissues, causing pain trigger points that can be sore to the touch. These can feel like bumps or knots and can even refer pain to other areas of the body.
Traditional treatments for pain relief have many drawbacks, even if they’re sometimes necessary. Surgery, which has varied recovery times, is sometimes necessary for the most serious of injuries. Painful corticosteroid injections can provide temporary relief, but potential side effects limit the number of injections you can have in a year. Opioids can provide pain relief but do nothing to address the source of the pain. They are also known to cause constipation and, worse, chronic dependence.
Let there be light!
Where do we turn for relief? A relatively new—and FDA-approved since 2002—treatment for myofascial pain is Low-Level Laser Therapy, or LLLT. But it’s made significant strides since then to be the state-of-the-art, cutting-edge therapy it is today.
How it works:
This non-invasive treatment supplies a single wavelength of cold light to trigger points on the body, which can penetrate up to two inches into the tissue.
This light treatment stimulates cells and tissues to speed up the natural healing process. The laser penetrates, but is not absorbed by the skin, nor by melanin or hemoglobin. When the laser hits small blood vessels, they release nitric oxide, a vasodilator, to increase blood flow to those tight, painful muscles. This flushes out lactic acid and other compounds that impede healing. It also desensitizes the C fibers that carry pain impulses. LLLT treatment results in reduced inflammation, which stimulates cell production and accelerates tissue regeneration.
While other non-invasive modalities for pain relief (e-stim and ultrasound, for example) are not available to people with screws, plates, hardware, staples, spinal cord stimulators, pacemakers, and prosthetics, LLLT is compatible.
LLLT will not eliminate the need for surgery, injections, medications, and visits to specialized pain treatment centers in every case. However, it is an important, effective, and virtually risk-free addition to the arsenal of pain treatments.
We are pleased to be able to offer this treatment, combined with physical therapy, in several Excelsia Injury Care treatment facilities across the country.
1 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db518.htm
2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40730349/
3 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/musculoskeletal-conditions
4 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/low-back-pain