PD Red and Near-Infrared Light Therapy Experience (Photobiomodulation)

(Please forgive me in advance, but I have red lights on my mind.) It seems like every other day, there is another ridiculous study about how one thing or another affects the probability of developing Parkinson’s Disease. Take for example, the recent study that concluded that residents of the red light district of Amsterdam are significantly less likely to develop Parkinson’s Disease than residents of brothels or bordellos that use either black lights or fluorescent lighting. When I first read this study, I was mostly intrigued that the researchers managed to get funding. I was not surprised that the Michael…

I first read about red light therapy for the brain in the Norman Doidge book from 2015, “The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity”. Neuroplasticity refers to the ability of the brain to change continuously throughout an individual’s life, and the book explores different factors that may promote positive changes, particularly in the context of brain injury or neurological disease. This Doidge book is best known in Parkinson’s circles for Chapter 2, “A Man Walks Off His Parkinsonian Symptoms” the story of John Pepper, who used exercise (primarily fast walking) and conscious control…

One of the most intriguing PD stories of the year has been an unusual fashion trend taking place in Tasmania (Australia). Wearing a red light bucket on your head for Parkinson’s is literally turning heads in Tasmania. The treatment is known as photobiomodulation. It is experimental and unproven. It does not claim to cure Parkinson’s. The people who have been experimenting with this technology claim to see slow and subtle improvements in PD symptoms over time. It is not a double-blind study, and it is possible a placebo effect is responsible for any improvements. An article on the ABC News…

I know what you’re thinking, there must be a sucker born every minute. That is a reasonable hypothesis, and by my calculation, probably a gross underestimate. The CIA estimates 2018 global population to be 7,503,828,180, with a birth rate of 18.2 births per 1,000 population. This translates to approximately 259 births per minute. In order to reach our target of one sucker born of every minute, we need 1 out of 259, or 0.38% of those born to be suckers. (Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html) In the USA alone, there are approximately 3.8 million births per year, or 7.23 per minute. In order…