How Lasers Work to Relax Tight Muscles
Tight Muscles are a Physical Problem Caused by a Biochemical Problem
Tight muscles in a living person are like Rigor Mortis in a dead person. ‘Rigor’ means stiffness, and ‘Mortis’ means death.
When a person dies, their muscles tighten up so much that the person is stuck in the position in which they died.
Now, of course, you are alive, but the reason for the rigor (stiffness) in a dead person and a living person is a lack of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) energy production in the muscle cells.
Rigor Mortis is due to a lack of circulating blood. Rigor in your muscles is due to a problem in your cells, which lasers can correct.
Lasers do not directly loosen your muscles; they do so indirectly. The laser reinvigorates your muscle cells, allowing them to produce more ATP. After the laser treatment, the muscles continue to produce more ATP. It is this increased ATP production that relaxes your muscles.
People often notice that their laser-treated muscles loosen during treatment and even more the day after, or the day after that, because the treated muscles have had time to produce more ATP. The important point here is that the laser therapy works biochemically, not by heat.
How have the therapies you have received over your lifetime helped with your aches and pains? For me, it was quite discouraging. As the years went by, I continued to get worse and worse. I had been trying to solve my tight muscles with physical solutions when the true problem was chemical. I needed a chemical solution, and that’s when lasers came into my life story.
I cannot tell you how much they have helped my patients and me. People are happy to pay for the laser care they receive in my office because of the results they achieve. I believe lasers are part of the next evolution in health care. Just like antibiotics changed the world, lasers will change the world. But there is a problem. This is a simple explanation, but there’s much more to explain if you are interested.
What is the Difference Between Infrared Saunas, Red Light Therapy and Laser Therapy?
This is a common question. Some people ask, “Why should I pay for laser therapy if it is the same thing as infrared and red light therapy that I can get for free with my gym membership?” The main point is that while these therapies appear similar, key differences in how they work and what they offer make each unique.
As we discuss the different technologies, I’ll refer to the energy spectrum graphic below. Although we usually call only the visible section ‘light,’ the full spectrum includes invisible forms of light such as infrared, microwaves, radio waves, ultraviolet, and gamma rays. We can’t see these, and that’s probably a good thing—imagine trying to process the entire spectrum of light with your eyes. We would be overwhelmed.
Infrared Saunas
Let’s start with infrared saunas since they are the most familiar to many.
Infrared saunas are used to heat the body, promote sweating and eliminate toxins, and increase circulation, among other benefits. This infrared energy can be generated by powering heating elements.
On the energy spectrum graphic, infrared is marked in red. Above it is an image of a remote control for a TV or stereo, which uses an infrared LED you can’t see to send signals. While your remote emits very little power, its beam could create heat if it were much stronger.
You know from experience that microwaves (produced by microwave ovens) also produce heat. You might use them daily to warm food or beverages. Radio waves can also heat things. A guy I knew said he could tell when the radios on his naval vessel were transmitting because he could put his hand in front of the antenna and it would warm up.
We don’t use microwaves or radio waves in saunas because their energy is harder to distribute evenly. In your microwave, some spots overheat while others stay cold—a problem somewhat solved by rotating the food, but rotating people isn’t practical. Microwaves penetrate better than infrared but aren’t suitable for people.
Radio waves penetrate deeply, often passing straight through us. Radio waves from many sources pass through us all the time. But they are low-powered, so you do not feel them. But if you were close to a high-power radio station transmitter antenna, you would warm up.
Lower frequencies have longer wavelengths and pass through materials better, such as how bass from a car stereo is easier to hear outside the car or in an apartment. In contrast, vocals with shorter wavelengths are blocked.
Infrared energy is readily generated by heating elements similar to your toaster. The sauna’s wall heaters provide uniform heat, which makes you sweat—a simple and effective therapy.
Longer wavelengths penetrate better: radio waves penetrate furthest, then microwaves, infrared, visible light, and finally ultraviolet, which penetrates least.
Red Light Therapy
Though increasingly popular, red light therapy remains confusing because the term is used so broadly.
Red light therapy is simply therapy using red light.
The light is usually created with rows and columns of Light-Emitting Diodes, or LEDs for short. You see LED’s everywhere, from your car dashboard to flashlights and even computer monitors.
Red light therapy can come from lasers since lasers can also be red, but this is not the norm due to their poor coverage area.
Red light therapy using LED’s has advantages and disadvantages. The best advantage is its larger coverage area. There are full-body red light therapy beds with thousands of LEDs. You lie in them like suntanning beds and get red light therapy over your entire body.
Other systems are smaller and cheaper, costing a few hundred dollars for at-home or clinic use. Covering more surface area with these smaller devices takes longer because the light source is smaller.
The challenge with red light therapy is that its shorter wavelengths and low pulse power, especially with LEDs, limit its penetration depth. We’ll discuss LEDs more after introducing laser therapy.
Laser Therapy
Lasers, developed in the 1960s, emit light in a single direction rather than scattering light like LEDs. This focused beam provides targeted treatment to problem areas.
Lasers have a narrower spectrum than LEDs. For example, a red LED emits multiple shades of red, whereas a red laser produces pure, coherent light without multiple shades in its color spectrum. This enables deeper body penetration than LEDs.
LEDs and lasers look similar but produce different types of light, each having unique uses.
What does a Typical Laser Treatment Feel Like?
It depends on the laser, but usually only a gentle warmth is felt. Very low power lasers, often referred to as ‘cold lasers’, do not produce any perceptible heat whatsoever. They also do not make anything cold, so the reference to cold lasers should be discarded. That is my opinion. Every laser delivers energy, but when the power is low enough, you cannot perceive it as heat.
The laser I use is a super pulsed laser called the Lumix Q from Laser Biotech International. I’ll cover more on this later. With this laser, people notice a little warmth or none at all, depending on how close I hold it to the skin and how fast I move it around. Heat dissipates quickly, so my patients do not notice it much, yet they can feel the muscles loosen and the tenderness decrease when I touch them. But more importantly, due to the super pulsed laser, the heat is spread deeper into the tissues and does not just accumulate at the surface.
How do I Know Where to Apply the Laser Therapy?
Every doctor will treat somewhat differently. The way I practice is very straightforward. I feel for stuck and tight tissue and apply laser therapy to loosen it up. I am also well-versed in the fascial lines throughout the body that need to be considered when treating patients for maximum effectiveness.
An example would be someone who has pain in the front of their shoulder. It usually hurts when they raise their arm or reach for something. The patient can always point to exactly where they hurt. If they had a laser, they would always treat right where they hurt, but they would overlook the true problem because the true source of the problem oftentimes does not hurt.
In the case of the shoulder, I have to look further down the arm into the biceps, triceps, and lateral intermuscular septum, which I will show later when we cover the fascial lines of the arm. It is here that much shoulder pain comes from. Yes, I have to laser the shoulder, but the upper arm is actually more important, even though it does not hurt. These areas will be tender when I push into them, and the patient will know they are a problem. This is where experience and knowledge come into the picture.
In addition, it is difficult to evaluate yourself because you usually cannot reach the areas you need to check, like your back. And if you can reach it, you are usually reaching too hard, which makes the tissues feel tighter than they might be.
What is Power Density and How does it Affect Depth of Penetration?
One might think that having hundreds of LED’s covering, say, a square foot would be better than one laser with one source of light covering, say, five square inches.
The easiest way to explain this is using flashlights as light sources.
Let’s say you have three flashlights in your left hand, all with the same brightness. And in your right hand, you have one flashlight that is three times more powerful than the individual flashlights in your left hand. In other words, we have the same power in the flashlights in your left hand as in the single flashlight in your right hand. Which is better?
It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are looking for coverage, the scenario on the left is better. If you are looking for depth, the scenario in your right hand is better. Why? To get into a full explanation, you have to get into Quantum physics, which I do not understand nor care to. But try using the lights in your left hand to shine through, say, four sheets of paper. The one flashlight with three times the power will shine through the paper much easier than the three flashlights with one-third the power each.
Another example is with radio antennas. If your goal was to broadcast to the farthest possible distance, what would you rather have: three antennas with 10 watts each, or one antenna with 30 watts? Clearly, the one antenna with three times the power would go much further, because the three antennas with 10 watts each do not collaborate to achieve greater range. It is just physics.
Another example would be three water hoses at the same pressure compared to one hose with three times the pressure. The single hose will go much farther than the three hoses because the three hoses cannot work together to extend range. They would get more coverage, however, just not the distance.
One strong laser will get much deeper than hundreds of weak LED’s. If you are treating the skin, the LED’s are a better option. But if you are treating painful muscles deep beneath the skin, a single, powerful laser is a much better option.
When I am treating people, they regularly say, “Too bad you couldn’t make a bed that could get my whole body at once.” I tell them there are LED beds, but they cannot fix their problem, which requires a completely different type of light source that can reach the source of their problem. If you cannot reach it, you cannot treat it.
Am I saying LED’s are bad? Not at all. They are just different. They have their own unique uses. The same goes for lasers. Is a drill better than a screwdriver? Not at all. They just have different uses. LED panels offer many other health benefits, but when it comes to treating tight muscles, they don’t have what it takes, and lasers ‘outshine’ LEDs. Use the tool that gets the results you desire.
Let’s move on to laser therapy itself, having somewhat distinguished the differences between LED (red light therapy) and Laser therapy
What Can You Expect After Your First Treatment?
People usually leave my office with less pain. About 50% of the time, they feel even better the next day or the day after that. The other 50% of the time, their pain returns. This can be discouraging, having obtained some relief only to have the pain return. It is not that the treatment did not work, but they need more.
Laser therapy is not a one-and-done therapy. Often, after the second or third visit, they really start to feel the changes. Even if their pain comes back, it is often less intense and less frequent.
Others will tell me they still hurt the same, but they are now doing more activities that they had to limit or could not do before treatment. The point is they are improving because they are doing more.
Understand that by the time people come to me with pain, their tissues are really stuck and dysfunctional. It takes some time under the laser to get things to let go fully. Most understand this, and as long as they see improvement, they stick with it.
Others, however, simply give up. I liken it to having your child’s braces removed after one month because the changes aren’t happening fast enough. Everyone realizes it takes time to change the jaw and teeth, since orthodontics has been around for a long time.
Lasers, however, are fairly new to people here in America, and they do not have any experience with how this type of therapy can truly help them beyond a few treatments.
Can You get hurt with Laser Therapy?
It is possible, but I’ve never heard of a case. When people ask me this in the office, I say, “Yes.” If I sit on you and forcibly hold the laser on one spot, then after five or ten seconds or so, it would start to hurt. That is how safe they are.
The laser beam itself does not look like a laser pointer. It is not a dot. Instead, it is a diverging beam that covers several square inches. The further I pull the laser head away from you, the larger the spot size. The point is, it is not super-concentrated energy.
My patients often fall asleep when getting laser therapy. It is very relaxing and rewarding because of the results it can achieve. I’ve never seen anything like it. I opened my practice in 1997, and oh, how I wish these lasers existed back then.
And for those who do not like chiropractic adjustments, stretching, or exercises, you will love laser therapy.
Is Laser Therapy a Once-And-Done treatment?
No, it is not. Is any therapy a once-and-done treatment? Are antibiotics? Surgery could be considered once-and-done, but what about the long recovery afterwards? Not really a one-time treatment. How about physical therapy? Exercise or stretching? Massage? Chiropractic?
Lasers do, however, offer significant relief oftentimes right away. But the full scope of the problem is rarely addressed in a single visit. In addition, what is more important than the number of visits is the exposure time to the laser light. If one doctor has ten-minute treatments and another has twenty-minute treatments, it will take two treatments with the first doctor to equal what the second doctor did in one.
When I have people come from a distance, I always encourage longer treatments because progress is based on exposure to the laser light itself.
Every doctor will treat differently. Several factors go into your results. The first is how well your doctor identifies the source of your problem. Secondly, the laser technology. Not all lasers are the same, even though they use the word laser. And finally, how bad is your situation? Are your tissues really unhealthy? Has this been a long-term problem? How old are you? How healthy are you? And more.
What are Common Conditions that can be Treated with Laser Therapy?
In the following sections, I will briefly discuss certain conditions and key areas that need treatment but are not directly on the painful spot. Then I will get into the ‘meat and potatoes’ of how I treat different conditions. I hope to inspire you to learn more about how your body functions and give you insight into treating the current problems you are having and problems that could come up in the future.
If your problem isn’t covered in the next few pages, don’t be discouraged. I can’t possibly cover every square inch of problems that could occur in a person’s body. However, it usually only takes a few seconds to realize what needs to be treated in someone to get rid of the most odd pains that people can have.