Accident Recovery - Light Therapy

Accident Recovery – Light Therapy

I’m Ed Smith, a Lincoln Truck Accident Lawyer. Car crashes cause a lot of injuries ranging from life-threatening head injuries down to mild muscle soreness. After an accident, your doctor may write you a prescription for physical therapy, or recommend that you see a chiropractor. While going through therapy and treatment you may notice some interesting machines and tools they use to improve your recovery. Some of these modalities involve the use of light as a therapeutic aid.

How Does Light Therapy Work?

Light therapy devices use special wavelengths of red light to penetrate deep into human tissue and aid in the healing of an injury. This window of wavelengths is between 660 nanometers and 905 nanometers to achieve the most absorption of the different molecules that make up skin, muscle, and other tissues. The human eye can process light in wavelengths between 380 nanometers and 760 and infrared light measures from about 750 nanometers to about 1 millimeter. Therefore the most effective wavelengths in therapy will be right on the edge of the visible spectrum and the infrared spectrum which will appear a vivid red to our eyes. When absorbed, this light has many beneficial effects on injuries.

Beneficial Effects

NASA conducted research on how this light affects our bodies and found some very interesting results. One of the main things they found while studying this exposure is the increase in production of a cell’s energy source called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. ATP is made from the nutrients that you eat by organelles in a cell called mitochondria. When ATP production is increased, cells can perform their jobs better, and sometimes faster. During these studies, scientists have also noticed the increase in fibroblast production with the increase in ATP. Fibroblasts are cells that construct collagen. Collagen is a protein that is basically the framework for human tissue. With more fibroblasts, the healing process is sped up because there are more cells laying down collagen just like a construction project will speed up by hiring more workers. Other effects include pain relief and inflammation reduction. Therapists use this modality for all types of injuries including; muscle strains, sprains, joint surgeries, low back pain, and much more.

How is it Administered?

There are two main ways to deliver light therapy to an injury site. The first way is through a laser wand. This machine produces an intense, concentrated beam of red light onto the skin for maximum penetration. Lasers are best for reaching an injury that is deep within a large muscle or if the patient has a thick layer of adipose tissue (fat). The light that is emitted from a laser is classified as coherent, which means all the waves emitted are uniform and symmetrical. This helps the waves to penetrate deeper into the tissue because of less scattering. The other method is most commonly used with LED red light. A LED is classified as noncoherent and therefore will act the opposite of lasers. The light from a LED will scatter around and cover a greater area. This is great for large muscle soreness as you can just place light pads on a patient and walk away during treatment as opposed to lasers which require the therapist to operate the device the entire time.

Additional articles on Recovering from an Accident and Truck Accidents:

Lincoln Truck Accident Lawyers

I’m Ed Smith, a Lincoln Truck Accident Lawyer. I have served the city of Lincoln and nearby areas with truck accident, auto accident, and personal injury assistance since 1982. Call me for free, helpful legal advice at 530-392-9400 or 800-404-5400.

To learn more about me and my team, check out our previous verdicts and settlements and read my reviews on Yelp, Google, and Avvo. You can also visit the website I created, autoaccident.com, which is one of the most educational sites on truck accidents, car accidents and personal injuries in Northern California.

I am listed on milliondollaradvocates.com which contains the top rated trial lawyers in the United States that have won million dollar or multi-million dollar cases.

Sources:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/556396-red-led-light-therapy-for-sports-injuries/

http://www.physio-pedia.com/Low-level_laser_therapy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum#Infrared_radiation

Image Source: By Robert D. Anderson – Wikimedia Commons

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Accident Recovery – Light Therapy