Dr. Paul Chazot of Durham University and Dr. Gordon Dougal of Maculume Ltd conducted a pilot study that revealed gains in memory, motor function, and processing skills in healthy persons with normal intellectual function for their age.
As a result, the researchers believe that transcranial photobiomodulation therapy (PBM-T), which involves infrared light being supplied to the brain via a specially developed helmet worn by the patient, could benefit persons with dementia.
Infrared Light Therapy Might Aid Dementia Patients
According to studies, infrared light treatment has the potential to help persons with dementia. They emphasized that more research into the therapy’s use and effectiveness was needed but that the results of their pilot were encouraging.
Photobiomodulation, Photomedicine, and Laser Surgery is the publication where the study was published. They have focused on the disease dementia, which is increasing at a rapid level.
It is a health issue that has affected millions of patients all over the world. In this research, it is noted that infrared light therapy has been of much use to such patients.
Those who suffer from dementia at different levels also can have notable benefits with the help of infrared light therapy. This new therapy is still under development by experts and will be there for the use of common people by experts in the market.
Over the course of four weeks, 14 healthy participants aged 45 and up in the UK were given six minutes of PBM-T twice daily at a wavelength of 1068 nanometres. This was done with a control group of 13 people who wore a dummy PBM-T helmet.
“We’ve established what appears to be real gains in memory and other neurological processes for healthy people when their brains are exposed to a certain wavelength of infrared light for consistent, brief periods of time,” said Dr. Paul Chazot of Durham University’s Department of Biosciences.
While this is only a pilot trial and additional research is needed, there are intriguing signs that infrared light therapy may be useful for persons with dementia, and this is something worth investigating.
Indeed, we recently published a new independent clinical trial with our US research collaborators that provides the first evidence for substantial and profound. Dr. Dougal, who is also a practicing General Practitioner in County Durham, UK, designed the PBM-T helmet.
During each six-minute treatment cycle, infrared light from 14 fan-cooled LED light arrays is delivered deep into the brain, focussed by the skull, at a wavelength of between 1,060 and 1,080 nanometres, delivering 1,368J of energy to the cranium.
This causes a rise in the level of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an organic substance that supplies the energy to drive operations in living cells and aids nerve cell healing. ATP levels are significantly lower in dementia patients.
The therapy can also improve the flexibility of the membrane that coats the inside of blood vessels, increasing nitric oxide levels and thus blood flow in the brain, according to the researchers. This dilates blood arteries, allowing more oxygen to reach the deep white matter of the brain.
Patients may easily put on the helmet, allowing for therapy to be administered at home. Other illnesses, such as Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injury, or motor neuron disease, may benefit from it, according to researchers. Each helmet costs around £7,250 to purchase.
In an Alzheimer’s mouse model, these studies revealed for the first time which PBM-T with a specific spectral memory and learning performance and reduced beta-amyloid—a membrane protein that normally plays an important role in neural regeneration and maintenance, but which later in life can increase and destroy nerve cells, resulting in loss of thought and recollection in Parkinson disease.