The Miracle of Light & Neurodegenerative Diseases
The Miracle of Light & Neurodegenerative Diseases
Neurodegernerative Diseases; Such as Dementia, Alzheimer's Multiple Sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's or (ALS), and Parkinson's can benefit.
Light is in fact an essential nutrient for humans and hour health depends on getting the right dose of these five types of light. The point is that modern humans are deficient in the benefits of all of these five wavelengths of light, such as Blue Light, Red and Near-Infrared Light, UV light, Far Infrared Light and there are health consequences when we don’t get enough.
Our modern light environment of too much of the wrong kinds of light and too little of the right kinds of light is called mal illumination. The vast majority of people living in the modern world are suffering from chronic mal-illumination and don’t even realize it. It has widespread effects on our brain and organ function, immune system. Energy levels, mood, neurotransmitter balance, and hormone levels.
New Research shows Direct Muscle Activation by LED Light Therapy How it Can Help ALS Patients.
Courtesy of ALS News Today Oct 19, 2015
ALS is short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Researchers at the Dalhousie Medical School and the Brain Repair Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have successfully stimulated muscle fibers directly by light, bypassing the nervous system and showing for the first time that it is possible to restore function to denervated muscles. The research study, entitled Direct optical activation of skeletal muscle fibers efficiently controls muscle contraction and attenuates denervation atrophy was published in Nature Communications.
The researchers genetically engineered an ion channel, responsive to light, into a strain of mice whole muscles contracted when exposed to blue LED light.
Dr. Victor Rafuse, professor in the Department of Medical Neuroscience and Director of the Brain Repair Centre, commented on the research breakthrough, “We’ve found we can prevent atrophy in completely denervated muscles by shining light on them through the skin for an hour a day. Others have used light to successfully stimulate nerves, but we are the first to bypass the nerves and go straight to the muscles. This is vital, because the nerve tissue is completely destroyed in many injuries and in diseases like ALS, so you can’t rely on stimulating nerves to activate muscles”.
Importantly, these findings could also mean a new therapy angle for ALS patients, a disease characterized by neurodegeneration that leads to the death of motor neurons. This light- stimulated strategy could attenuate and even improve patients’ breathing function as a consequence of motor neuron loss and proper innervations of the respiratory system.