What to expect from this & Recap of the 21st ISLA Conference on Photobiomodulation Therapy
Welcome to Light and Equanimity
What to expect from this
As a young guy in school I thought a lot about writing. My friends and classmates started talking about the careers they would pursue or at least the university programs they would apply for. I had no clue at all what I wanted to do professionally. All I knew was that I was looking for adventure, freedom, and a life that I could design in my unique way. Travelling the world while being some kind of writer was basically the only way I could conceptualize these desires as, inspired by guys like Jack Kerouac and the other beat generation poets. Well, I found my ways of living life the way I wanted to but never started any serious writing. There was always another, easier way. But even today, 20 years later, I still like the idea I had back then and still enjoy introducing myself to others this way. “Guys, I used to be the one who didn´t care about a normal career, who always wanted to live differently and had his own mind and dreams. I was to become a writer.”. So really, the idea that writing could be a part of and good for me always stayed with me. These days, I feel myself somehow coming back to it, even though I have absolutely no writing practice and surely my doubts about my ability to do it decently. But I feel it could somehow be the bridge between what I´m doing for a living and what I mostly care about on a personal level. The world of Photobiomodulation Therapy (“PBM”) is where I come from professionally. I have had my doubts about its decency as a medical intervention when I started to consider working in the field but hearing many fantastic healing stories and seeing that there are already many studies out there quickly convinced me that it is a super cool therapy about which I wanted to learn more. Today, I am an even bigger fan of it and believe that also other people should learn more about I. So I will try to support that by providing information about how lasers (and almost similarly LEDs) can be used in medicine, as a generally side-effect free therapy that is worth a try in many cases before buying into the school medicine narrative that so often leads to the treatment of symptoms instead of root causes and to so many people being depend on taking more and more “medicines” over the years. I will share and briefly discuss interesting studies, present interesting case reports and testimonials and simply share news from the field. All this information is primarily directed to those who are already working professionally with lasers and LEDs and those who consider such treatments for themselves or already use them at home. And yes, there will be a special focus on everything that´s going on at Weber Medical and the ISLA (International Society for Medical Laser Applications) because the people there have been my entry point to this world. Also, I will continue making my living primarily with their technologies, at least for the foreseeable future. And most importantly they are doing a wonderful job. However, there will also be independent news.
What I personally care most about is, very generally framed, the art of living a joyful and healthy life. So often, this starts in our minds. There is always some degree of freedom and choice regarding how we perceive and look at the things that happen to us. We have concepts of the world that work like filters and that give us our individual perception biases. Becoming aware of these concepts and adjusting perspectives can sometimes make profound differences for the individual realities we live in. I really like the term “equanimity”, it resonates deeply with my whole character, and what I personally perceive as the way to living a happy life. The word itself derives from the Latin word ‘aequus’ which means ‘balanced’ and refers to the art of having a balanced mind by being as free as possible from internal judgements, prejudices, specific expectations, and mental disturbances. Instead, we try to feel calmness, tranquility, and internal balance. In other words, it is about making a good deal of peace with what happens to us – that includes not only our experiences, but also our thoughts, emotions, and our whole ways of being. I can say with certainty that I feel the happiest whenever I give up my resistances towards how life is and how I am and instead accept and embrace all of this. I feel my mind to be very peaceful and open in those moments. However, the concept is not to be confused with the suppression of feelings, passivity, or apathy. It is not the dogma that “everything is perfect as it is”. You can come from a more balanced, more neutral perspective towards things and still work on making the world a nicer place. But you start by working on yourself, your inner world, your emotions and perspectives, and your understanding of why things are as they are. Balanced and less unhappy people in average make much better decisions for the whole world, I am deeply convinced of that. Contemplating the concept of equanimity helped me a lot to re-appreciate the value of being a good, real and loving person – for myself and also others – and to act from this perspective. It sounds simple but was exactly what I needed during less happy times and I believe it is also what the world needs so much more right now. Well, this is where the name comes from - “light and equanimity”. I will pick up on the concept many times. Related to that, I will dive into topics like meditation, breath work, and psychedelic medicine as well as philosophical and psychological streams of thought, and much more – basically into all the things I care about a lot. While doing so, I intend to find the right balance between science and personal stories. The personal stories will come along in many different ways. There are so many inspiring human beings out there whose stories are worth telling. It will often be people who faced difficult times and gained some wisdom about the art of coping with things out of it. These people often show us what matters to all of us on some level, even if the severity of our problems might not be on the same level.
Today, I want to start the series of photobiomodulation related content with a recap of the “21st ISLA conference on medical laser therapy” that took place in Germany on the 9th and 10th of September. Ironically, it was the first ISLA conference that I missed since 2013 as I was home sick with Covid. So writing this is a great way for me to make sure I am not missing out on the contents and I hope you will enjoy the brief summaries of them. There will be another ISLA conference on the 28th and 29th of October, this time in Bangkok. Some of the “Beverungen-lectures” will also be held there. I will skip those and provide their summaries as a recap of the Bangkok conference. This newsletter is supposed to be a more or less monthly thing, so you will get it by the end of November.
Recap: 21st ISLA Conference in Beverungen, Germany: September 9th - 10th 2022
Being absent I couldn´t directly contribute to the event, which I was supposed to by taking care of a small portion of the first lecture. But the day very well took its course without me and Dr. Michael Weber, the president of the ISLA and founder of Weber Medical, gave the first lecture together with his son Robert Weber.
Lecture I: Latest Developments and Studies in the field of PBM and Photodynamic Therapy
Dr. Weber started off by reminding the audience of the big picture. He summarized the different fields of application that together sum up to the large field of photobiomodulation therapy: Laser acupuncture, external pain therapy, interstitial, intraarticular, intravenous, photodynamic therapy and – mostly excitingly for me personally – transcranial applications which we use for various mental and neurological disorders. There is a bit more on this below.
Then it was time for Robert to take over and present the research we conducted together on the application of “anti-microbial photodynamic therapy” on Malaria. We had already done a small pilot study in 2017 and used the quieter times during Covid to follow up on the very promising previous results, this time with a bigger sample size, namely 50 patients in the treatment group and 50 in a control group. The control group received an artemisinin-combination therapy [ACT] which is the standard Malaria-therapy in Nigeria, where we conducted the research. Important is the quick reminder about the differences between the “normal” mechanisms of PBM (regenerating, restoring, and improving natural body functions) and photodynamic therapies (PDT). Whenever the term PDT is dropped, we know that there are different mechanisms at play (mediated by what we call a “photosensitizer”) and that the goal of the therapy is the selective destruction of specific cell types through oxygen radicals and singlet oxygen - in our case the disease-causing parasites (Pl. Falsiparum). I will surely elaborate on all these details soon, at latest once our research was published. What matters for now is that it can be regarded as a fantastic proof of concept for the intervention. The conventional AC-therapy usually works well for most patients but there are nevertheless important issues such as increasing drug resistances in the local population. Our Riboflavin- and IV- PBM- based protocol led to fast clearance of the disease-causing parasites and a rapid improvement of symptoms. We also looked at hematocrit values and did white-blood-cell-counts to test the safety of the protocol. There were no undesired effects and we feel very encouraged to follow up on this with more research of this kind. Most likely on other infectious diseases since we expect the protocol to also be effective in many other viral, bacterial, parasitic or fungal diseases.
Robert continued by presenting a new product – the laser watch 2.0, which he called “Endolight Band” – and his latest project which is a truly amazing one: The non-profit Global Heartbeat project which he runs together with his wife Nina and friends Ela Rückschloß and Benedikt Jilg. They support health-related projects in less-wealthy countries as well as medical research and other projects – you will wish to congratulate them to this amazing project from the bottom of your heart when you soon hear Robert tell the founding story of this project. The website is so far only available in German but work on the English version is in progress. So, for everyone who speaks German (or is simply fit to use translation tools 😊), here is a link to learn more about the project already now:
https://www.global-heartbeat.org/uber-uns
Lecture II: Transcranial Photobiomodulation
The next lecture was given by Prof. Gerhard Litscher from the University of Graz, Austria. He talked about my favorite PBM topic – the field of Transcranial Photobiomodulation. I will put a focus on all related aspects over the next year or so and will talk in detail about the studies that are already out there. It is a lot, reaching from neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer´s and Parkinson´s over mental disorders like depression and anxiety to traumatic brain injuries and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism. I´ll skip more details for now as I think that my first reach out to you is getting pretty long anyway. There are quite some other lectures worth being summarized.
Lecture III: The Effects of NIR Photobiomodulation on the Autonomic Nervous System in Relation to
CW or Pulsed Modes
Dr. Volkmar Kreisel, an Anesthesiology who runs a clinic for integrative medicine in Southern Germany, presented his own research in which he investigated whether non-invasive near-infrared irradiation on the solar plexus provokes measurable effects on the Autonomic Nervous System and whether the selected laser mode (continuous wave CW or pulsed mode) has an influence on these possible responses. He used 21 100mW lasers with a wavelength of 808nm for 10 minutes each, so that the total absorbed dose amounted to 11.45 J /cm²/ treatment. The total irradiated area was 55cm². Simultaneously, the autonomic nervous system responses were recorded by recording heart rate variability HRV. He conducted four measurement cycles with four different laser modes (continuous wave, 10 Hz, 4625 Hz or alpha sweep, whereby "alpha sweep" refers to a repetitive undulating sequence of pulses (8-13 Hz) rising and falling in 1 Hz steps each 10 sec apart). A measurement cycle consisted of a 1st HRV measurement at rest without laser irradiation, a 2nd HRV measurement under laser irradiation with one of the laser modes, and a 3rd HRV measurement 5 min after laser irradiation. HRV parameters (HR,SI, RMSSD, Alpha 1, SDNN) were evaluated by two-sample t-test ( p≤0.05).
The study was conducted on 10 healthy individuals. As expected for a healthy subject collective, the baseline values recorded in the 1st HRV measurements were within the normal range. In the 2nd HRV measurement under laser irradiation, sympathetic activity (SI) decreased highly significantly in all modes compared to baseline values (-69.2% to -79.3%). The strongest decrease was seen under alpha sweep (-79.3%), and this effect was still clearly detectable in the 3rd HRV measurement (-20.2%). Parasympathetic activity (RMSSD) was attenuated in the 2nd HRV measurement under laser irradiation with CW, 10 Hz and 4625 Hz modes (-9.8% to -15.1%), and the attenuation tended to be still detectable in the 3rd HRV measurement (up to -14.0%). Under Alpha Sweep, on the other hand, parasympathetic activity was stimulated in the 2nd HRV measurement (+19.0%), and this effect persisted until the 3rd HRV measurement (+15.5%).
What´s the conclusion of that?
The pilot study provides the first evidence that topical near-infrared- irradiation of the solar plexus provokes distinct responses of the VNS. Sympathetic activity was highly significantly reduced regardless of the laser mode. Parasympathetic activity was stimulated by alpha sweep, and CW and the other pulsed modes had an attenuating effect. These responses are likely to be explained electrophysiologically and can be used clinically since there are strong correlations between different diseases and stress reactions with increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic activity. Topical NIR area laser irradiation with Alpha Sweep could complement standard therapy in these cases, compensate for vegetative dystonia, and improve therapeutic outcomes. Of course, larger-scale studies are needed to confirm these results.
Lecture IV: 20 years experience with lasers in medicine
Dr. Michael Grandjean - an expert for general, environmental, traditional Chinese, and laser medicine – invited the audience to join him on his journey through 20 years of experience with lasers in medicine. Well yes, he has a lot of experience and we could easily get lost in the rabbit hole of everything he mentioned and knows about. Let´s try to stick with the bottom line for now, even though he has super interesting stories to tell: Modern laser medicine and traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture have a lot in common. Both approaches are not ignorant towards the importance of energetics in medicine, very much unlike our western mainstream medical system. Both are also fantastic tools to treat root causes of diseases rather than symptoms.
Lecture V: Looking into dentistry: Latest Research on Light Therapy for Periodontitis
Prof. Marzena Wyganowska, head of the Department of Oral Surgery and Periodontology at the medical university of Poznań, Poland, also presented her own research in which she examines whether anti-microbial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) – remember that from the first lecture – can be used to treat periodontitis - a chronic, multi-bacterial infection of the periodontium (connective tissue that supports the tooth, protects it against oral microflora, and makes the attachment of the tooth to the bone possible). She hasn´t finished the study yet but the preliminary results suggest a clear “yes”. We will certainly review her research in more detail once the study was finished.
For now, let me share what I am particularly curious about: It is the relationship between microbial periodontitis and mental disorders. Over the last years, a lot of attention has been put on the connection between the health of the gut microbiome and mental disorders. However, data of the connection between mental health and the health of the oral microbiome is limited, even though the oral cavity houses the second most diverse microbial community in the body, with over 700 bacterial species that colonize the soft and hard tissues. Periodontitis can induce or exacerbate chronic systemic inflammations and thereby dysregulate the immune system – both of that being correlated with the onset of depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. So can we in some cases improve mental health conditions if we can reduce periodontal inflammations?
More and more data emerges that hints in this direction and you might find an interest in the review linked below. It discusses the role of the oral microbiota associated with periodontal diseases in anxiety, mood and trauma- and stress-related disorders, summarizing that there is a “epidemiological association between diseases with altered oral microbiota such as periodontitis and anxiety, mood and trauma- and stress-related disorders”.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8833739/
I really like how my work is overlapping with my personal interest in mental health here. There will be many such connections that we will explore in the future.
Lecture VI: PBM + Oxyvenation + Mineralization – Intravenous Mitochondrial Medicine at the Highest Level
It often causes a bit of confusion – there is another Dr. Michael Weber out there that is himself a great laser therapy expert, besides having a lot of expertise in acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, and mitochondrial medicine. It is one of the most common names in Germany, there is for example also a politician and an actor with the same name. But enough of side notes – he presented how he uses micronutrients, vitamins, oxygenation and photobiomodulation for the prevention and therapy of chronic diseases, especially by reducing oxidative stress and systemic inflammations. What I want to highlight from his lecture is the device he uses for intravenous oxygenation – the “Oxyven” device through which pure medical oxygen is given directly to the blood stream. It activates the prostaglandin “prostacyclin” that inhibits platelet aggregation and has strong vasodilatory effect, thereby improving blood supply to tissue all around the body. It also has anti-inflammatory effects by blocking the synthesis of leukotriene – a family of inflammatory mediators produced in leukocytes – by enabling Eosinophil granulocytes to form 15-lipoxygenase-1 from the arachidonic acid cascade. I think it will be worthwhile to have a more detailed look at this in the future. The technology is a nice example of another tool out of the toolbox of integrative medicine that has synergistic effects with photobiomodulation therapy.
Lecture VII: Endolaser Applications in Biological Dentistry: Rationale and Protocols with a Focus on Inflammations
Dr. Ana Paz, a dentist with postgraduation in advanced general practice, integrative medicine and many other areas, is currently the head of the department for biological dentistry at the White Clinic in Lisbon, Portugal. She explained how she uses photobiomodulation therapy in her daily work. That includes one of its best- established indications – wound healing. This complex and fragile process that is susceptible to interruption or failure can be accelerated significantly by photobiomodulation therapy. The major pathways thereby are reductions of swellings and inflammations and consequently the patient’s postoperative pain. Dr. Paz presented several case reports and her protocols. In her standard version, she gives each of her surgery patients 10 sessions of IV PBM therapy with the Weber Medical Endolaser and blue, green, yellow and red light. Besides the anti- microbial, regenerative, immunomodulatory and metabolism accelerating effects she particularly highlighted the relevance of the anti-inflammatory effects of PBM in her daily work.
Other lectures and next contents
The other lectures included the combination of laser therapy and stem cell therapies and the application of photodynamic therapy in cancer care. As already mentioned, these are topics that will be presented again at ISLA Bangkok, so I am leaving them to be summarized in my next reach out in about a month. I will then also share the first personal story with you, the story of my friend Ela. She has an autoimmune disease and was struggling heavily for many years. Laser therapy made a big difference to her and her journey eventually let her become a part of our team.
That´s it for today. I really hope that you find this new project interesting and valuable. It will live from your feedback and hopefully participation, so please subscribe and use the comment function for any questions, comments, or recommendations. And please let others know about this offer.
A big hug to all of you,
Martin