Joint pain can be frustrating, because it can sideline you for long periods of time, and effective treatments often have unwanted side-effects. At BodaHealth, we’re committed to offering our patients effective treatment solutions with minimal side-effects. With the addition of cold laser therapy, we provide joint pain care that’s safe, effective, and non-invasive.
Cold laser therapy is also known as low level laser therapy, or LLLT. It involves aiming low-intensity light emitted from lasers or LED’s at the targeted tissue. These units of light are called photons, and they penetrate deep into your tissue or painful joint. Cold lasers work differently than high frequency lasers that are used in surgery that burn or cut tissue. Instead cold laser photons work at a deep level by triggering a wide variety of biochemical changes that repair damaged tissue and prompt the affected cells to regenerate.
One of the most common causes of joint pain comes from osteoarthritis (OA), which is a condition that occurs from aging and wear and tear on your joints. In osteoarthritis, the cartilage that acts as a shock absorber between the bones within the joint wears away. This creates painful rubbing and pressure as the unprotected bones grind against each other. Cold laser therapy has been shown to be effective to reduce mild to moderate knee pain, improve pressure sensitivity and promote joint flexibility in patients with OA.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is different from osteoarthritis, because it’s not related to aging or wear and tear on your joints. Instead, RA is an autoimmune condition, in which your body’s immune system mistakenly identifies joint tissue as a foreign substance and attacks it. Research on treating RA with cold laser therapy has found that it reduced pain in treated subjects by 70%, compared to those who didn’t receive laser therapy. It also significantly reduced morning stiffness and increased hand flexibility.
The mechanism by which cold laser therapy treats both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis also make it a good choice for a wide variety of other painful joint conditions, such as sports injuries, frozen shoulder, traumatic injuries, and tendonitis/tendonosis. The biochemical changes triggered by cold laser therapy include:
- It ramps up your immune system to produce blood cells that help decrease inflammation
- The complicated cellular balance involved in tissue healing is restored to damaged cells. Cold laser speeds up cellular metabolism to promote the repair and regeneration of new tissue
- Increased vascularity occurs in the treated area, which increases the circulation of oxygen and other nutrients to promote healing. This improved circulation also helps flush out toxins and reduce swelling
- It triggers the proliferation of fibroblasts, which secrete collagen, a key component of connective tissue
All of these changes deep within the joint translate into pain relief, decreased inflammation and faster healing times. At BodaHealth cold laser therapy may be used as a stand-alone treatment or as an adjunct to other therapies, including acupuncture, massage therapy and active rehab. Treatment sessions last 15 to 30 minutes, and the number of sessions you may need depends on the nature of your condition. For acute conditions, such as an accident or sports injury, 5 to 10 sessions are recommended. For chronic conditions, such as arthritis, 10 to 20 sessions may be necessary.
The beauty of cold laser therapy is that it’s an effective treatment for a wide variety of conditions, with no side-effects. In addition:
- For treating joint pain, cold laser therapy is a good alternative to prescription pain medications
- It’s non-invasive—cold laser doesn’t damage or burn your skin or underlying tissue while it promotes healing deep within the joint
- The treatments are gentle and need no downtime afterward
- The benefits can be long lasting
- Cold laser therapy is safe
- It triggers your body to heal itself at the cellular level
The bottom line is that for treating trauma, sports-related injuries or arthritis, cold laser therapy is a great choice because it triggers healing biochemical changes deep within your joints without causing damage or side-effects. If you’d like to know more about how cold laser therapy can help you, please contact BodaHealth in Vancouver today.
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