Has your hospital done one damn thing from these 11 posts on infrared back to April 2011? My God, the incompetency out in stroke world is outstanding. Congratulations on being best in class for incompetency.
- infrared (11)
Parkinson’s Disease May Have Link to Stroke
Shining a (red) light on Parkinson’s disease
Infrared heat lamps for treating aches and
pains have been part of the home medical arsenal for more than half a
century. But now it looks like red light can do more than soothe
muscles; it can reinvigorate brain cells and may stave
off Parkinson’s disease.
Professor John Mitrofanis of the Sydney
Medical School has been researching the use of infrared light in the
treatment of Parkinson’s disease, with great success.
“Infrared light has been used for a long time
as an analgesic of sorts, to relieve pain,” he says. “Even the ancient
Egyptians had a sense of the healing properties of coloured lights.”
John’s interest in Parkinson’s disease was serendipitous.
“My first love was exploring brain circuitry,
figuring out how little bits of the brain work. I was focusing on a
small area and hadn’t yet figured it out, when I heard that some
surgeons had stuck an electrode in that exact region
by mistake and discovered that stimulating this part of the brain gave
relief from symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.”
The revelation gave John the explanation for
the latest part of his brain-mapping puzzle. Instead of continuing to
‘fill in the blanks’, he decided to concentrate on this new group of
brain cells and undertake research with the aim
of clinical application. Supported by funding from the Tenix
Foundation, he went looking for a treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Hypothesising that infrared light might slow
or stop the progression of the disease, he tested the light on mice, to
assess feasibility on a living animal. As mice don’t suffer from the
disease naturally, it had to be induced.
“The mice provide a good model for Parkinson’s
disease, as their brains show the pathological circuitry of the
disease, but they display no tremor or major movement disturbance. You
wouldn’t think they were disabled at all.”
Exposing these mice briefly to a red light
once a day had an extraordinary effect. It helped the brain cells
survive and stopped cell death. Furthermore, bathing in the red light
had no side effects, such as one might expect with
a medication. Far from causing distress, the light seemed to soothe the
mice.
“They appeared very sedate and calm when they
were under it,” he says. Infrared light treatment has been shown to
assist cell survival in a range of brain pathologies.
“In animal models of Alzheimer’s disease,
multiple sclerosis, retinal degeneration and traumatic brain injury,
infrared light has improved cell survival and function. It’s quite
far-reaching and seems to work on the same principle
of stopping damaged cells from dying. If you cause damage to a cell by
any means, the red light will activate something within that cell to
help it survive.”
Because the technology behind these amazing
results is so simple, John says the biggest problem at the moment is
getting people to believe him and his university colleagues, Professor
Jonathan Stone and Dr Daniel Johnstone.
“Even when I first heard about infrared light treatment I thought, ‘that can’t be right’.”
As the treatment works using a light anywhere
along the infrared wavelength of 600-1000nm, his results have been
achieved by shining a lamp with a red globe. As far as non-invasive
therapies go, it doesn’t get much more harmless
than that.
“It’s a protective thing. It’s like boosting
the batteries of the cell. And there are no reports of the red light
having any toxic effect.”
At the start of 2014, John began collaborating
with a French group to trial infrared treatment in monkeys. His
colleague Professor Alim-Louis Benabid is the pioneer of the main
surgical treatment of Parkinson’s disease, namely deep
brain stimulation, which involves implanting an electrical pulse
generator in the brain.
“With Parkinson’s disease, a specific group of
cells in the brain begins to die. We suspect that in the majority of
cases a toxin is involved in harming the cells, but we haven’t
identified it yet. Unfortunately, most people only
present symptoms when the disease has progressed quite far, and about
70 percent of these cells have already died.”
The diagnosis usually occurs once patients
develop a tremor, slow down or become clumsy because intricate movement
becomes difficult.
Until now, there has been no treatment to stop
or slow down the progression of the disease. As John puts it: “We
haven’t been able to stop cells dying.”
Current medications only address the signs of the disease.
Parkinson’s disease is not considered fatal.
Although life expectancy is a little shorter than average, individuals
with Parkinson’s disease can live a relatively long time, but their
lifestyle is severely compromised. Thus, the
burden of the disease is drawn out.
Tenix Foundation is the major funder of John’s work, and he is “forever grateful” for this support.
Over the past decade, the foundation has done
more than just assist him in seeking new treatments for a debilitating
disease, it has helped build the next generation of medical researchers.
“Without the foundation’s support, the higher
degree students who come through my lab wouldn’t have the opportunity to
go on with their studies,” he explains. “Tenix funds their places.”
Michael Lindsay, the foundation’s director,
expresses the pleasure his organisation receives from being able to
support John and his team of dedicated scientists as they work towards a
cure for Parkinson’s disease.
“The team has progressed their research with
tenacity and professionalism over the years,” Michael says. “We are
delighted that a relatively simple and inexpensive treatment may provide
relief for patients in the future.”
This story, written by Aviva Lowy, was first published in
INSPIRED Giving, 2013. Read more great stories in
INSPIRED Giving.
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