The Root of The Matter

Light's Healing Touch: From Dental Relief to Combatting Seasonal Blues

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Discover the transformative power of light as Dr. Rachel Carver, alongside Scott Kennedy of Light Path LED to uncover the remarkable effects of light therapy. This conversation takes you inside the innovative uses of this treatment in dental and veterinary practices, where it's making waves in pain management and healing acceleration. From sharing Scott's transition towards photobiomodulation to recounting Dr. Carver's own encounter with the immediate anti-inflammatory benefits of red light therapy, this episode promises to shed some light on the body's profound ability to heal with a little help from our luminous friend.

Venture through the expansive benefits of light therapy that reach beyond physical healing, touching the realms of mental health and cognitive function. As the days grow shorter and Seasonal Affective Disorder looms, learn how light therapy can be your beacon of hope. Professional athletes and military personnel are already tapping into this resource for systemic health improvements—why not you? We'll guide you through the adaptable nature of light therapy devices and share compelling stories of how this innovative treatment has improved sleep and vitality, offering a natural ally in your quest for balance and well-being.

Finally, grasp the critical balance of energy and timing in light therapy for optimal outcomes, and understand the importance of a "low and slow" approach to avoid the pitfalls of over-treatment. Our exchange will leave you informed about finding your personal "sweet spot" in light therapy, equipping you with the knowledge to harness its power in a world fraught with challenges. Join Scott and Dr. Carver in this enlightening journey into the realm of light therapy, where health and harmony await.

You can access more information about from Scott on YouTube @ www.youtube.com/@lightpathled

To access Light Path LED go to: lightpathled.com

Use 'carver' at checkout in discount code box to get discount on your order.     
 
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To learn more about holistic dentistry, check out Dr. Carver's website:

http://carverfamilydentistry.com

To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com. 

Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office?  Call her practice: 413-663-7372




Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to another episode of the Root of the Matter. I am your host, dr Rachel Carver, and I'm very excited today to have Scott Kennedy with us, who works with Light Path LED. Many of you talk a lot about light therapy. If you're one of my patients, you know I'm using that on almost every single one of you, so I thought it was time we really talk a little bit more about light energy, why that's important, how the body actually uses the light, and those of you who have already purchased, learn a little bit more about how to use it, and I'll give you some information at the end of how you can get your very own, whether you want a panel or a handheld. There's so many different options out there today, so let's just dive in. Welcome, scott. Why don't you tell us a little bit of how you got into lasers and light?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks for having me. Interestingly enough, you're the first dentist that I've had a podcast with, so that's pretty cool. I've had it with some other doctors, a lot of more podcasters that do wellness in general. So it could be light, it could be hyperbaric, it could be sonic, it could be supplements, things like that. I think it's great that this is getting more and more into the dental community and I honestly think the dentists and veterinarians with animals are the two practitioner doctors that are using light most frequently. I think the medical side is a little bit behind, but I think a lot of that is just they're so limited on time with patients that they don't have the time to explain, and light's not something that just goes oh, it's not like, hey, here's a pill, take this once in the morning and in the evening, and they don't have the time to sit down and sift through and share it.

Speaker 2:

So I actually began my experience in dental. I was a dental assistant in the military and then I became a dental hygienist. Eventually I got into working with high-powered dental lasers the Photona Lightwalker like the one you've got and amazing what it's capable of doing as far as not just ablative, so periodontal, endodontic, sleep cavity preps without anesthesia so many amazing things. What I really loved was how we lower the power to be non-ablative, so it's not damaging tissue, it's using just the right amount of energy to create a healing effect in our cells.

Speaker 2:

And we had a handful of dentists that really thought outside the box so they would use it on their father who had shingles, or their wife who had an infection, or their kid who had a sprained ankle. And so that's where I really started to learn and delve into what we now know as PBM or photobiomodulation. From that point it was just finding my mentors, taking the courses, reading all the literature as much as I could. That's out there. And then I got to a point where I felt confident enough to start up my own wellness center where we did a mix of red light therapy, infrared sauna, vibration, plate laser as well. Now my main focus is on devices generally for home use or for wellness centers.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic. I think I've been using lasers for about four years now. I purchased my first handheld one at a dental conference back in 2020. And at first it was actually. They tried to sell it as more of an aesthetic thing Get rid of your wrinkles, or the blue light was for eczema, or which is something that I've suffered with for years. So I was like, ok, yes, let me purchase these things. And then I started bringing it into the clinic. Oh, maybe I could. People have a lot of pain. Red light is really known for helping with pain, so I started using it for that when I bought my Fotona a couple of years ago. That is my third hand. That is such an amazing machine and, like you said, there are so many amazing things that we can do. In my practice as a biologic dentist, I'm really focused on getting at the root cause problems and enhancing the body's ability to heal itself, and that's what I really love about light, and I think people don't really understand how light is used in the body, and I'm going to tell a quick story and then maybe we can talk about why this works. So a couple of my patients have heard this story. It's absolutely amazing, but in 2020, we weren't working.

Speaker 1:

My husband was out in the garage and he was trying to take paint off of a metal chair, so he had a little metal grinder. He was wearing a sweatshirt with a hoodie with the strings hanging down and he ended up wrapping the string and his hoodie into the grinder. So at 7,000 RPMs, his hand that was holding the grinder came smashing up right below his eye. He fractured all of his sinus bones. We didn't know that at the time the sweatshirt actually closed. So when he came all disoriented wandering back to the house, he only had a small cut, but his eye started to swell immediately. And the time we had some panel red light panels in the house and I said go stand in front of that panel. Within five minutes there was no swelling and he only had a tiny little cut. But we said probably should go to the ER because I don't know if you did any more damage. Said probably should go to the ER because I don't know if you did any more damage.

Speaker 1:

Went to the ER. They said yeah, you'll be out of here in 20 minutes. This was during COVID right. So I was sitting in the car twiddling my thumbs for hours and I finally called in. I said what's going on? They had decided to take a CT scan just because of the nature of the injury.

Speaker 1:

And the surgeon came back in. Or the ER doctor said holy cow, you, this kind of trauma is what we see in a head-on collision at 70 miles an hour. He's, I don't understand why you are not swollen and black and blue. I just what's going on?

Speaker 1:

So then they were waiting for the oral surgeon, had him on speed dial. I'm calling up my friend. I'm like Eric Pete, go take a look at that. And he told me oh, I'll see him tomorrow, but he's going to be really swollen, black and blue, it's going to be bad. So the nerve that innervates some of the teeth was affected. So he had numbness in his teeth and when we went to the surgeon the next day he also was aghast that how is there? No swelling, no, black and blue. I don't even understand. He said he may never get that feeling back in the teeth. I took that as a challenge Between light therapy and post electromagnetic frequency. He had all that feeling back in six weeks Again never swelled, no swelling, no, nothing. Amazing, amazing. So I've been obviously a huge proponent. So maybe you can explain to us why and this is another big thing too right People always think when they injure themselves, they've got our ice right. But no, that's not really what we want to do. So maybe explain how did that light help prevent swelling?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and those are great. I love hearing those stories and I hear those stories a lot and I hear these doctors that are baffled. And then you tell them hey, it's light. And then all of a sudden this glaze goes over their eyes.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2:

Digging in further and going, wow, I need to learn more about it. But it's very common to hear stories like that. Light, first of all, is a bit of a misnomer. It's just because it looks red. But they've got multiple different wavelengths red into the near infrared. You can even get down lower into some of the blue. But the technical term is photobiomodulation, which is just such a mouthful. So red light is what it is.

Speaker 2:

Light is really only doing one major thing, and I make sure to tell people that it's not curing anything, it's not healing anything. It's not the fix all for this. All it's doing is it is increasing the life of the cells. It's increasing the energy that cells put out, called ATP. On the side, through that process, it's releasing nitric oxide, which gives us vasodilation, more blood flow to certain areas, more oxygen to certain areas.

Speaker 2:

It's also creating an increase in reactive oxygen species, which we initially go oh, no, that's bad. No, reactive oxygen species is a hugely important signaling molecule in the body that actually responds back to our cells and say hey, let's say I've been running hard, I'm overdoing it with exercise. The ROS tells the cells hey, this may be a new thing that we got to get used to. So we've got to increase our endurance, our strength, our ability to detox on the lactic acid buildup. So that's really what it's doing.

Speaker 2:

Everything else is downstream, so whether that's anti-inflammatory RNA synthesis, DNA synthesis, upregulation of certain positive genes, downregulation of certain negative genes, increased in fibroblasts, collagen for the skin, genesis, so we actually have creating new nerve connections, angiogenesis, so we have new capillaries, new blood vessels that are forming, and again it's not like light is going. Hey, here you go. It's doing all these things. All it's doing is taking our cells to a level where they should be if we weren't in such a world of toxicity and stress and poor diet and lack of sleep and all the other things that can negatively affect our body.

Speaker 1:

And this is why I love light so much because, again, we're not it's not like a drug, where we're going in and we're manipulating some body reaction. We're stimulating the body to heal itself. This is what this is why sunlight is so important, right, Because light. We don't realize these little photons, these measures of light. Right, they impact, like you said, at the cellular level and all of our energy comes from that cellular level. We live in such a toxic world, right, and I really believe all disease really stems from these toxins and these infections that are attacking our mitochondria at that cellular level, and then nothing really works properly. And we're all different. We have different genetics, different lifestyles, so we may manifest things differently, but it all comes down to what's happening in that cellular energy. Right, that's what aging is. We're not able to produce as much energy, right? Why do we get white and graying hair? Right, we just have less cellular energy in those areas. And so when you're not directly manipulating a bodily function, you don't have side effects, right, it's just all you're empowering the body to heal, and this is, in my opinion, how we get true healing.

Speaker 1:

Ozone is the same kind of thing. We create reactive oxygen species when we give you ozone, but it's again stimulating the immune system, stimulating all these cells to do what we need to do. Same thing with the circulation nitric oxide, all that kind of stuff, and so light, without having the pinch or having to go to a physician to inject you with ozone light. You get this right in your own home. Maybe talk to us a little bit about what's the difference between red light, near infrared blue? Why would we want it? What are the different benefits of the different wavelengths? Maybe explain to us about the wavelengths in general, how?

Speaker 2:

do we score light.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So wavelengths, that's going to be anywhere from the far end, like we've got radio waves, microwaves, all the way down to the visible spectrum. I remember back in school, roy B Give, so we had. I can't go through them all right now I can't remember them. But we go through the light spectrum and then we go down even further to A UVB, uvc, which is blocked, gamma rays, x-rays as well. They're all part of what we call the light spectrum, even though our eyes only see a small amount.

Speaker 2:

And that's the reds, the blues, the yellows, the greens. With sunlight we get all of that. So, unlike paint, when you mix a bunch of paint colors, you get brown. With light, when you mix a bunch of wavelengths, you get white. So we're getting all those. Like 25% of what we get from the sun is blue. We get a lot of it. That's green, we get a lot of it that's red and yellow as well.

Speaker 2:

Once we get over a certain amount, we start getting into what we say 800 nanometers. We get into near infrared, so that's where we don't visibly see it. But if we had infrared goggles, night vision goggles, then we could see certain animals will see near infrared or mid-infrared or far infrared. So these different wavelengths of light have slightly different effects on our body. More importantly, they have different depths of penetration.

Speaker 2:

So each wavelength has a chromophore or something that is excited by it. So certain things like blue is very excited by the bacteria that acne. So acne produces an excretion. That excretion absorbs that blue light, creates extra reactive oxygen species that can help kill that acne-causing bacteria. Red can penetrate through about the skin level but it gets highly absorbed in our blood supply in our red blood cells. Neuron for red passes much deeper through the body, up to a good couple inches. So they can work in tandem really well. Together have a really nice synergistic effect. In the end they're all trying to do similar things, slightly different, but to a large degree they're all still helping to activate and energize the cells.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely so. When we talk about frequency, when we talk about UV, we talk about UVs are so bad. Right, we can't have UV. There's UVA, uvb. Some of those may be more beneficial or more harmful. That's why people tend to stay out of the sunlight, right, because they're worried about that kind of light. So that's nice. When you have these panels, we don't have any of the man-made stuff that can potentially be harmful to us. So tell us a little bit about light path, led and the different types of panels and handheld things to use and why we might want to use one versus another.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I base everything on what the science literature is, so the science important to know. We've had more science done on light therapy than any medication out there. We've had well over 7,000 studies done. 700 of them have been done on humans. Many of them are done in the lab, on animals or in a test tube. So we've had studies done way back, going back to the 70s, and a lot more now, because we've transferred a little bit from when we talk about low energy transferred from lasers to LEDs, because they're more economical, they're safer to use as well and we're seeing the same performance of them. So we incorporate different wavelengths, particularly red and near-infrared, because they're the two most deepest penetrating lights. And I've also incorporated into the panels blue as well. Blue is really good for people dealing with in these wintry, cold northern months, seasonal affective disorder, but it's also been shown to be really positive for skin health, also hair loss. So there's a lot of benefits to the blue as well. And then it's just a matter of I've got a big panel behind me and we can add other big ones, so literally you can get your entire body, which is great for systemic benefits. So we want greater blood flow throughout the body. We want greater oxygen.

Speaker 2:

There's a reason why a lot of professional sports teams are using light like this. A lot of Olympic teams are using light. Ufc fighters, military personnel are using light as well. Then we've got wraps or pads so that like, maybe I've got a specific shoulder issue or they're doing a lot of great studies, uh, using light for cognitive issues alzheimer's, dementia, parkinson's, depression, anxiety as well so having a wrap that can go just around the head. And then we have things that get really small, like the torch. So this is great for the torch, so this is great for spot treatment.

Speaker 2:

So if I've got specific issues, so if I've got jaw TMJ type issues, if I have a lymph node, if your kid gets sick, the lymph nodes get a little swollen here in the armpit, this is great for that. You can even get them with an interaural tip. So this is ideal for inside the mouth for post-extraction, periodontal after a root canal, preventive as well. It can also be in the nose, go in the ear as well, and they can also be used for photopuncture. Instead of doing dry needling with an acupuncturist, you can actually use light at home. So they all range depending on what's going to be best for your particular situation and in some cases it may be best to have a combo to have something large that does systemic work on the body, particularly for people dealing with chronic type inflammatory issues, diseases, dysfunctions, and then to have something that's more going to be very localized, that's going to focus on a certain particular point, small areas in the body.

Speaker 1:

I think that's great. I think we started with a two-foot little panel and over the years now we have four panels in a special frame so we can stand in front. I do my qigong in front of my red light every morning for 15 to 20 minutes. That's how I try to start my day, getting that light in. But I also like the little torch that Scott showed. It is just a handheld those of you who are listening. It's a handheld device and it has a really great little tip.

Speaker 1:

I sell these in my office because it's so easy to get into the mouth with that little tip. So I've got one of those at home. I've got the wrap. Like you said, I have a bad shoulder. So having the wrap so I can get directly on that, because even though the red line is in the front of the panel, that can help my shoulder, but it's at a distance the farther away you get from the light, the less power that you have. So that's why I stand in amyloid for 20 minutes because I'm about foot or two away from it, whereas when you have spot treatment you can put this directly on the body.

Speaker 1:

I love the intraoral tip because I'm always talking about parasympathetic nervous system. None of us can heal if our nervous system is out of whack. We talk a lot about the vagus nerve that comes behind the ear innervates every digestive organ there is. So using that little intraoral tip we can. I tell my patients a lot. I keep mine right by my bedside Right before I go to bed. At night I shine that in each ear 60 seconds. When I wake up in the morning, 60 seconds in each ear. So I'm trying to, when I start my day, set my nervous system up good and healthy and when I before, I want to get good sleep. This is such an issue for so many people. Today, again, I want to set myself back into that parasympathetic for again, 60 seconds each year go to bed. It's absolutely fantastic. So I agree, it's nice to have you start with one thing. Maybe then you're like this is really great, but I need to want to use it for other things.

Speaker 1:

So you build a armature here.

Speaker 2:

And one thing when I had my wellness center, when I first started out, it was all focusing on pain-type issues. But what I realized really soon is my clients would start talking and you could just hear the stress, the anxiety and I realized, although I'm helping them, I'm not reaching the goal that I should be. So that's when I started taking courses on photopuncture and we started every single client. The first thing that we did is we would do the bladder meridians, the vagus nerve, which was so important in taking people from that sympathetic which is that fight or flight, which so many of us are in, that chronic fight or flight state, and taking us down to that parasympathetic, even if it's just taking a little bit of that edge off, can be so beneficial because, again, the body's not meant to heal when it's in that fight or flight.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. You can be eating the best diet and taking all the supplements, but if your nervous system is not balanced, if you can't drop into that calming parasympathetic, it really doesn't matter what you do. And that's why I love this light. It's so affordable, so convenient. I travel with it, I don't go anywhere, I take it to all my kids' athletic events because still they want to put ice on everything and I'm like no, let me bring my little red light. And you get injured instantly, Just like my husband's story is such a great illustration of the power of red light. And although ice may reduce the swelling, you're also constricting all the blood flow. You're compressing fascia like it's just just makes the injury take a lot longer to heal when you do ice.

Speaker 1:

So red light is super powerful, easy to carry. You don't have to worry about keeping something cold, it's just convenient pop it in your purse bag. I try to tell all my patients to. I think a red light, whatever form you get, needs to be part of everybody's first aid kit. It's just that powerful. So I know I have a lot of patients say how do I use this? So let's talk about if we want a healing reaction versus we have pain because we're going to use the red light a little bit differently. You said when you first started wellness because there was a lot of pain. So when we have pain, we're trying to inhibit all of those inflammatory chemicals that are causing their symptoms to feel pain. So how would you use red light? Let's say, sprained your ankle right and it's really painful, how would you use a red light on something like that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so there's a part of the science that's shown that there's a wide window of healing benefits. So when we talk about energy, we're talking about watts or joules, which is just joules is just a matter of a certain amount of energy over a certain amount of time. And we know we want to reach a certain rough amount of joules, somewhere between two joules and eight joules of energy. Now how do we get to that point? That's just a matter of understanding what the power is coming out of this times time. So this could be very well. This is about 200 milliwatts per centimeter squared. That's a number that people don't need to know, but I know that over a certain amount of time say two minutes I know I'm going to be getting in that vicinity of 12 total watts of power, simply for someone that's using it. It's going to be getting onto the right wavelengths, placing it into that area and then you're going to be doing two minutes and then you may move in, do two minutes and do another two minutes.

Speaker 2:

And we also have to remember we have a body that is systemic. It's not just here's the problem right here. This TMJ problem right here could be a trigeminal nerve issue or it could be a vagus nerve issue because there's a lot of crossover. It could be an issue in the vertebrae, in the neck area as well. Same thing with the ankle. We may have the injury in the ankle, but we also have the lymph node in the back area as well. Same thing with the ankle. We may have the injury in the ankle, but we also have the lymph node in the back of the knee. That's what's transporting all the phagocytes, macrophages, all the things that we need to heal that area and reduce that inflammation so it can go through the proper steps of healing.

Speaker 2:

That's where ice can sometimes reduce that healing process. It gets stagnant, becomes now a chronic issue. So when we talk about light for anti-inflammation, we're talking about a certain amount of power, and then we're talking about for inhibition of pain. We're going to add a little bit more power onto that. In many cases we can get a benefit of both of those. So we may be talking the difference between doing two minutes or three minutes per area or doing five or six minutes per area, and I like to actually alternate those. I may do one in the morning, as long as it's about five, six hours apart. I may do a smaller amount in the morning or a larger amount in the evening, and that way you're going to get the benefits of both the anti-inflammatory, the healing part, as well as the benefit of reducing the pain absolutely that's what I tell people.

Speaker 1:

So in general rule, to be very generalized less time for healing, more time when you have pain. So generally that's what I'm telling my patients one to two minutes for that good healing. If you have a lot of pain you can go long. You can go as long until the pain do you think can you overdo it. If you do 10 minutes, is that too much?

Speaker 2:

it can be again. There's there, there is a really large window and, although research really varies on this, that's what makes it a little bit difficult. There's so many little parameters involved in this and so much research where it's okay for this issue. Once we reached this point, we still saw a benefit, but it wasn't as much as a benefit when we did a little bit less. They did that for herpetic lesions and they found simply one joule of energy was actually better than slightly better than doing two joules of energy.

Speaker 2:

So, yes, there's a certain point where you can oversaturate the cell. So my analogy is like you've got a potted plant. You want to put enough water in there to saturate the soil, but you don't want to flood it because then you're going to drown it. The same thing happens with ourselves, and it's generally because we create too many reactive oxygen species where the body's not quite prepared to handle all of that. So, yes, more is not better with light, generally speaking, low and slow, lower power over a longer period of time is what the body really likes to heal.

Speaker 2:

So, yes, a lot of people they end up overdoing it and they either decrease their benefits, they don't see benefits, or they get to the point where when they're doing big panels, they're putting so much light on the body that they actually feel crappy the next day. No different. If you were to get up and decide, hey, out of nowhere, I'm going to go run 10 miles, your body is not going to be prepared for that. But if you do, if you walk a half mile, then you walk a mile, then you run a quarter mile, and then you slowly build up. Your body is going to be able to adapt to that. That's the same way that light works.

Speaker 1:

That's a great thought too, because some people might say, oh, I don't feel anything, or yeah, maybe I don't. I feel worse, like you said, because we are stimulating the cells to do stuff. Just like you said, if we give it a little too much, the body doesn't know how Sometimes it can send you into natural detox, and if you one, if you don't have good drainage systems, your kidneys and livers and bowels are all stagnant and clogged. Maybe you'll feel worse. So low and slow. I think that's really great and it's so important.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes we think when a little is good, more is better, but it's definitely not really the case with light. We just need a little bit of stimulation and you can find your sweet spot too. That's the cool thing. Play with these, because these are pretty relatively affordable things now, and to me it's just a no brainer. If you are really interested in preventing disease, in being healthy, we need things.

Speaker 1:

Because we live in such a toxic, crazy world, we need anything we can to try to boost that energy. Because when you think of most people who are going to the doctor, the number one complaint is fatigue, I'm tired, I don't feel good, my cells aren't making energy, and there's usually a variety of reasons for that. So, again, if we can combat that energy feed with something as simple as light that has no side effects, you don't have to be downing a gallon of caffeine or taking this supplement or that supplement. How about just a little bit light energy? I really again, obviously I'm a big proponent of it and I'm trying to get it into as many of my patients' hands as possible because I've seen such amazing effects of it. I just love it. How about tell us any other stories? Where else might we use red light? Else is it good for?

Speaker 2:

again when we start going through the research and this is one thing that's great about it is people can do their own research very easily. So if you just go to google and you yeah, you can type in red light therapy, but you're going to get a bunch of sales pitches and you can type in photobiomodulation and put down diabetes, stroke, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, I'm going to pause you for that one second.

Speaker 1:

So that's one thing. They give you the little eye lens that don't look directly at it. It's like an FDA thing, but they have done studies where shining the light in the eye, because the eye is one of the places we have the highest condensation of mitochondria right, and so maybe talk real quickly about how does that affect glaucoma or macular degeneration?

Speaker 2:

So you brought up mitochondria, so we'll go there quickly. Most of the time we say the root cause of our issues is inflammation. It's extremely true. We take it a level deeper and we've got mitochondrial dysfunction. So every cell except for red blood cells, but even mitochondria is flowing freely through our blood. Every cell has hundreds to thousands of mitochondria. Now when we look back at our science class in high school, we see a cell and we see one mitochondria, which it's just for a description, but there's really hundreds of thousands of mitochondria. That's the power bank of the cells. If those aren't functioning correctly, our body's not functioning. Mitochondria produce 90% of our daily energy. We're talking about in the trillions of ATP, little energy balls that are being created, of ATP, little energy balls that are being created. If we have issues because of toxicity in our body again, lack of sleep, stress, all these other types of issues our cells aren't functioning, our mitochondria is not functioning. So again, you can go to do a search and you can go mitochondrial dysfunction and oh my God, it will list everything. Just about every kind of disease, disorder, dysfunction at a really root level is a mitochondrial dysfunction issue. So that's where light is really working on is on the mitochondria, to heal it, to get it to grow larger, to get it to replicate more, to get it to produce more energy. So we go back to way back when I said how it's just really working on the cell. That's really what it's doing. So, like you said, the eyes have the most mitochondria in the body, and then it's not a surprise that second to that is the brain. All right, the things that we use and we take in the most amount of information is going to need the most mitochondria.

Speaker 2:

So, yes, when we're talking about light, like we know, the sun can be very good for us. Morning light is great. I'm not going to go and stare directly at the sun because it's so bright. That's it. The only reason why they give you goggles is for some people. Sometimes the light can be a little bit too bright for them. I always recommend you just close your eyes, because the light is going to be able to go through that little thin bit of that skin of the eyelid and you're going to get just the right amount of light through the eyes.

Speaker 2:

Now, the eyes have a couple functions. That's really interesting One. Yes, we've got the makeup of the eyes, we've got the mitochondria of the eyes. So we can benefit that with light and that could be simply, I could be here, I could just close my eyes, put the light here for just a few minutes, and that's going to be very beneficial.

Speaker 2:

Now, one other thing is when you're going to see, pulsing is simply the on and off of light, but it's that very specific frequency, so it could be at what we call 40 hertz or 10 hertz, so that's 10 times on and off per second. The eyes from an external source, meaning the torch or the panel or something else, will actually be read by the eyes, transferred into an electric current and sent to the brain. So that's why they're seeing improvements in patients with Alzheimer's or dementia, because what it's doing is it's mimicking the brainwaves of what we say gamma, which is in that 40 hertz, waves of what we say gamma, which is in that 40 hertz. So that's why I know I'm going long on this why the eyes are so important to get light to them. You just don't want it to be so bright that your eyes are straining, because if your eyes are straining consistently, then that's just going to cause your eyes to be tired and then over long periods of time that could cause issues with them.

Speaker 1:

It's fantastic. It also made me think of my assistant. Her mother was having all these ear problems and they were giving her this drug and that drug and trying to get rid of the infection. Nothing was really helping. We did a little insufflation of ozone and then red light and all the pus drained. Nothing was really helping. We did a little insufflation of ozone and then red light and all the pus drained and she was fine. I was like, wow, that's all it took and those were totally natural.

Speaker 1:

Right, we didn't have to disrupt any microbiome with antibiotics or antifungals or whatever it might be. Because what were we doing? We stimulated the energy, the mitochondria within those ear cells. When cells have enough energy, they will expel the microbes, the toxins. That's a big problem. Why Our mitochondria are being attacked on a daily basis by all these toxins that are in the world today and they just don't have the energy. So they're dying faster than we can make one. So the light helping regenerate them, create more, create that energy. When we have energy, our body is resistant to microbes. It's resistant to disease and viruses and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1:

Again, why I think again, especially even just that 60 seconds in the morning and 60 seconds at night is pretty easy thing to do to really, and when you're shining that in your ear, that's also affecting the brain health. I was just listening to something yesterday. They were talking about when you start to lose hearing if you get older, then that also causes brain degeneration, and so that's not great. So let's keep our hearing intact, using that red light, which then greatly impacts the brain as well. I think all of us really fear coming down with dementia and stuff like that, and, like you said, brain is also a very high density of mitochondria, so we can ward off dementia.

Speaker 1:

It's obviously multifactorial, but the more energy our brain has, the more we're able to defend against all these toxins and pathogens that lead to the demise of all of our good cellular tissue. It's really exciting. I think just light is awesome and I think what else we want to mention? That's important for people to know what about? I have one question too Sometimes with people and when we're using LED, some people say, oh no, but now you're giving off EMFs. Is that some people may be more sensitive? Is that a major concern with these kind of panels?

Speaker 2:

No, unfortunately some company at some point in the beginning of the LED red light kind of panels no, unfortunately some company at some point in the beginning of the LED red light kind of movement started to market zero EMF and then that just caught on with other manufacturers because all of a sudden people started to say, oh, emfs could be an issue with red light therapy devices. If I match this panel up with a hairdryer or a cell phone or a vacuum cleaner, anything that plugs into the wall is going to have EMF. Just, unfortunately it was a marketing thing, that just misinformation which we get from time to time with lights, because people aren't aware of it, they don't understand it totally, so certain things can scare them. It's a non-issue. When I do measurements of this device, right about four inches, there's zero EMF, and I have people stand anywhere from eight to 12 inches away.

Speaker 2:

When you have something that's battery operated, it's zero EMF, and I have people stand anywhere from eight to 12 inches away. When you have something that's battery operated, it's practically nil anyways. And again, it is a. Even if you were to get some, it's a small amount compared to what you get in the entire day. So I tell people I said don't worry about it. Unless you're one of those few people that are so hypersensitive to EMF, it is not a concern whatsoever.

Speaker 1:

That's good to know, because there is a lot of that out there oh, don't buy this on or this or any LEDs in general and people get very concerned about this. However, what is light is another kind of frequency and that is such a powerful healing that, like you said, it's going to negate the little minimal radiation, the EMFs, that we might be getting.

Speaker 2:

And we already know how light minimizes the damage of UV. So something so simple is if you do light, I would if I was going to the beach. I'm away from the beach now, unfortunately, but when I was closer I would always use my light before I went out to the beach and I could go a good two, three hours and I'm very light Irish skin. It doesn't take but 30 minutes and I'm red. But I could go easily two, three hours before I had ever touched any sunscreen if I would ever get that long out in the sun. And it's been proven with plenty of research that light actually makes the cells more resistant to the harmful effects of UV. It does the exact same thing to EMF.

Speaker 1:

So this is a big mind-blowing moment here and I love this and I use this method too. And so, let's say, you're going on vacation, maybe you don't bring your panel. My husband loves this panel so much that if we travel with in driving distance, we're bringing our panels with us, but otherwise we'll have our handhelds. Having the little torch is great and, yeah, shining that. So how? Let's say, you're going to the beach in an hour. Do we need to do five minutes, 10 minutes, one minute? What do we need to do to protect us?

Speaker 2:

So the time that you do it is really going to be based on, of course, factors of the power of the device and the wavelengths, but it's really a matter of penetration. So so if all I wanted was skin, I'm only going in that far, I'm literally going in what? Two millimeters? I could get by with doing a couple minutes. But if I want to also get a little bit deeper and affect the blood supply, the lymphatic supply underneath there, and get a little bit deeper, then I'm going to do five minutes, I get a little bit deeper, I'm going to do 10 or 15 minutes. So my thought is if I'm worried about wrinkles on minutes, I get a little bit deeper. I'm going to do 10 or 15 minutes. So my thought is if I'm worried about wrinkles on my face, let's be real, we all are, we're all vain about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I could just do two minutes, three minutes, but why not do the full amount and get better eye health, get better brain health, get better lymphatics, thyroid area as well? So, just like I said, it's the potted plant. Let's saturate as many cells as we can. But again, there's many times where I only have five minutes of time. Okay, I'll do five minutes. I'll do my five minutes and then maybe later on the day I can do another five minutes, then maybe later on the day I can do another five minutes and I'm covered. So yeah, you could literally do two minutes and you're good. I would prefer doing just do the full amount, if you can.

Speaker 1:

And this is so great because so many we've been so scared about skin cancer and that we've got to block all these things. Even moisturizers and all They've got all this sunblock which one have so many horrible chemicals in them that our skin is our biggest organ. We talked about toxicity. Gosh, so many of these products that we use in our mouth, on our skin, contribute to this toxicity, which then affects our mitochondria, makes us less able to make energy right. So wouldn't it be amazing if we didn't have to put these chemicals on our body? We could use a little red light, get the benefits of the sunlight. Obviously, we're not talking about going out in the Caribbean at 12 o'clock with nothing. Obviously, we got to be smart about it. But this is really important to me because I don't love these sunscreens If I have to use it when I do go to the Caribbean, I like the zinc oxide, something as natural as possible, again having the benefit of our body, protecting ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Same idea like when you say you have to have dental x-rays. What if you shine the little torch in your mouth for just a couple minutes? And most offices now are moving to digital, so the radiation is minimal. There's still some and it can be cumulative. So how about a little red light? Same thing I tell patients drink something like pomegranate juice, cranberry juice. Things with a lot of antioxidants also can prevent radiation and stuff like that affecting our cells.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you think about all the people that are dealing with cancer and are going through chemotherapy radiation. They've got so much good research on using light through that process to help heal and detox the body from all those chemicals.

Speaker 1:

Okay, this is an awesome topic which so many people are suffering from, so this is great. Actually, as a matter of fact, it's funny that you say that Yesterday I had a patient call to the office and ask what they could do to help detox from the chemo. And hey, awesome, A little bit of light every single day. Because people they get chemo and then they're out for two, three days. They really feel horrible. So imagine just having a light panel.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's so sad when you have all these, when you have kids dealing with cancer and they have oral mucositis. Red light has been literally the only thing to show significant positive effects. And we're talking about kids. They can't swallow because of the pain. A lot of people dealing with chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, which can be horrible, horribly traumatic for them, when all they've got is pain and burning and tingling and numbing in their feet, in their hands. So that's where light can also be extremely better.

Speaker 2:

But not just to mention light helps balance your circadian rhythm so you sleep deeper. They did a study with patients dealing with dementia, alzheimer's. They generally only get about six hours of sleep a night. With light they were getting an entire extra hour. And we know our bodies, we know when we get that extra hour of sleep, how much of a difference that makes. Or when we lose an hour because of fall, we go back, spring we go forward. We just lost an hour. We know what that does to our body. They're under a lot of anxiety. Often they're dealing with depression issues. If we can be using light, particularly pulsing that at 40 hertz, how beneficial that is going to be for brain health as well and again we can say, okay, for this particular issue, we put the light here, but guess what? We're dealing with so many issues that overlay each other. It's not just one issue, it's this and now we have this symptom right here. So that's where light can be so beneficial for multiple things.

Speaker 2:

And what I tell people is when you have an acute issue, light is pretty quick at working. You're going to see a reason Again. It's not going to be like, hey, I take 800 milligrams of ibuprofen, all right. It's not going to be like, hey, I take 800 milligrams of ibuprofen. It's not going to be like that, but you're going to be able to get quick resolution without all the side effects of drugs. Now, for people that have systemic issues, the longer you've had something, the longer it's going to take. The body doesn't just snap out of it like that. We're basically helping the body to retrain and build its strength back up.

Speaker 2:

For me personally, it took me two months before I started to notice a great decline in my flare-ups of my neuropathy idiopathic but I also noticed my back acne almost disappeared and my partner would love torturing me on almost a daily basis by popping them. Maybe she can do it four times a year now. So a huge and this is, we're talking, my early 40s. It's not just time healed my acne, too much a noticeable difference. So I tell people with systemic issues treat it like a nutrient, treat it like a supplement.

Speaker 2:

All right, if you start taking vitamin D or zinc, which is great for you, you're not going to notice a huge difference right away. It's going to be a very slow process and it has to be just like you do it in the morning. I like to do my Wim Hof breath work in the morning. When I do my light it's no longer hey, let's just fix the issue and walk away from it. This is going to be part of my daily lifestyle because I know it's going to be bettering my health on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. As you said, if you just Google photobiomodulation, go to PubMed thousands and thousands and thousands of articles. When a patient buys one from the office, we actually give them a handout with, I don't know, maybe 20 or 30 different showing how it affects different conditions and they can look up the articles directly. But I love also what you said about putting them on acupressure points People who are familiar even we have patients in the office that are gagging. Sometimes I always forget to use this. There are certain places right on the hand where you shine the light. It will help with that reflex. Just doing that. We also have on the handout different parts on the head and the body, different acupressure points to press. It's like a five minute routine that you can do in the morning Again reset that nervous system. So everything starts, starts the day out. Great, having high energy. To me it's a no brainer. It really is.

Speaker 1:

I thank you so much for coming on the show for explaining how powerful light is for so many different conditions and, again, with no real side effects. Right, it's not like a drug. Like you said, it's not the instant, but even for my husband, within five minutes he had no swelling. So it's pretty powerful, it can work really quickly, whereas when you take a drug for, say, like ibuprofen, for pain may help, but a lot of times what drugs are doing? They're suppressing the symptoms and the inflammation deeper in the body. It's going to take even longer now to heal from whatever might be bothering you, whereas light has the same effects of the ibuprofen without all the damaging effects to the liver and the kidneys and all that.

Speaker 1:

It's wonderful that we have those medications when we really need them, but let's create this awareness around the power of light Because, again, there are thousands and thousands of studies. So, as we wrap up, maybe tell us how can we get a panel? How do we find you? How do we find Light Path LED? And obviously you can come to my office. We sell the torches, but we want a panel. Where do we go to look at those?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so lightpathledcom. And then you go to product and then go down and choose which one is best for you. I also have a YouTube channel, light Path LED, and that has a lot of whether it's demos on devices. I also have seven very simple, it's 90 minutes total seven chapters on what light is, what's the science, what device do you choose the safety, the pulsing. So it's a great way for someone who wants to dip their toe into light to get some education before they make a decision on what device to choose or what company to go with or whatever else, so that you just make a more informed decision based on your specific needs. And then I also have a Facebook group, light Path LED, where people can ask any kind of questions about light and whether I'm answering it or one of the thousands of people that are part of that group. They can bring in their personal experience as well.

Speaker 2:

So the key is, with something that's so new, people need handholding and that's all right.

Speaker 2:

It's not like people just naturally know oh, here's what I get, here's how I do it, here's how long, here's for what mode, all this stuff.

Speaker 2:

So whenever you're getting and that's why having torches at your office is great because you're not just going to be like, hey, here's the box, adios, enjoy. You're going to spend that extra time to go over how to use it and, like we all know, if you have something that you don't know how to use, it ends up in the corner, it collects dust, it frustrates you, it's a waste of money. So it's well worth taking that extra time research it, find a company that is going to back it, that's going to support it, that's going to help walk you through, so that you're taking the. And, just like with your laser, your Photona has so many options, so many different things that it can use it for. I know many doctors that may not know more than three things that they can use it for. They just aren't taking full advantage of it. So use me, use you, make sure you understand how to use it correct for your needs, and you're going to be so much better because of it.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. All right guys. So that's Lightpath LED. I'm an affiliate of the company, so in the code, if you put in my name Carver, so in the code, if you put in my name Carver, that will be helpful there. So thank you, Scott, so much for coming on and sharing all your wisdom with us. And again, everybody, check out the website, check out the YouTube. That's really fantastic. It really breaks it down really easily, so you know how to use that. And, like you said, you want to take advantage. If you're going to bring this into your life, which I think everybody should you want to know how to use it to maximize its effectiveness. So I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Go get a red light and we'll see you on the next episode. Have a great day everybody Thanks, take care.