Continuing with the unintentional theme for the day of medical advances we bring you the following article on infrared LED lights and how they seem to help speed the healing process.
Wired News: Light at the End of the Tunnel
On this much, scientists and doctors agree: Tiny flashes of infrared light can play a role in healing wounds, building muscle, turning back the worst effects of diabetes and repairing blinded eyes. But what they can’t decide on is why all these seemingly miraculous effects happen in the first place.
For more than a decade, researchers have been studying how light-emitting diodes, or LEDs—miniscule, ultra-efficient bulbs like the ones found in digital clocks and television remotes—might aid in the recuperative process. NASA, the Pentagon and dozens of hospitals have participated in clinical trials. Businesses have sold commercial LED zappers to nursing homes and doctors’ offices. Magazines and television crews have drooled on cue. Medicare has even approved some LED therapy.
Despite all that effort, “there’s not a clear idea of how this works. There are just working hypotheses,“ said Marti Jett, chief of the molecular pathology department at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
One possibility comes from Dr. Harry Whelan, a colleague of Jett’s and a neurology professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. In a 2002 study backed by the National Institutes of Health and the Persistence in Combat program from the Pentagon’s research arm, Whelan used LEDs to restore the vision of blinded rats. Toxic doses of methanol damaged the rats’ retinas. But after exposure to the flashes of infrared light, up to 95 percent of the injuries were repaired.
Human trials have been less dramatic, but still shockingly effective. Using a Food and Drug Administration-approved, handheld LED—playfully called Warp 10 for its Star Trek style—wound-healing time was cut in half on board the USS Salt Lake City, a nuclear sub. Diode flashes improved healing of Navy SEALs’ training injuries by more than 40 percent. And a Warp 10 prototype was used by U.S. Special Forces units in Iraq, Whelan asserts.
This is also timely for my family as my Dad has been struggling with his eyesight for months after suffering from a partially detached retina. Some days his vision is halfway decent and other days his vision gets all fogged up again. Perhaps he just needs to sit with the TV remote blinking into his eyes for a while every day to help kick that healing process into high gear.
Seriously, if they can figure out how this works and what the optimal frequencies are it could be a big boost in cutting down recovery time as well as dealing with difficult to heal injuries.
Posted on 10/29/2003 at 02:48 PM 
Posted on 04/16/2005 at 10:52 AM 
This has my attention, too. I had retinal rips in both eyes that are precursors to retinal detachment. Luckily, by some fluke they caught it early in life and I was able to have laser surgery to stop the degeneration.
I wasn’t kidding in that thread about evolution when I used myself as an example of really poor eyesight. It’s amazing I’m not blind. (And I’d be out of business…I’m an artist)
Did your Dad have the surgery (no laser…old fashioned scalpel) to repair his retina? My understanding was there was nothing but invasive surgery that could fix it after it “let loose”.
This is great stuff, I’m going to check into this some more…