There are some past postings on helmets for PD and some were thinking about making their own.
You can try the search tool here to locate those old posts..
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/search.php

Though I am not an expert in this area by any stretch of the imagination, and I can't answer your question regarding lasers, I will refer to the presentation given to me by Berman. If you have further questions, I suggest contacting him directly.

1072nm light provides the greatest penetration with the least amount of heat. Because bone is porous, it is translucent and allows infrared light to penetrate into the out layers of the cortex. Most of the IR light is absorped by the skin, with 6-8% of the light being absorbed by the cortex (3-4cm). In addition, because the posterior IR light is shined at an angle, it is postulated that it will pass through the occipital bone/foramen magnum of the skull to stimulate the cerebellum:



Many articles have been written about the benefits of other wavelengths, and I included a link to an article that shows 680nm has significant therapeutic effects on mice with Parkinson's. I imagine that 1072nm is used in humans due to the thickness of the skull, and thus offers greater depth of penetration to reach the underlying cortex.

Here is the research I've found on the topic of IR and alpha-synuclein so far:

Non-invasive infra-red therapy (1072 nm) reduces b-amyloid protein levels
in the brain of an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model, TASTPM

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23603448

Here is a PDF of that research:

http://stevekbaker.com/wp-content/up...ouse-model.pdf

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Therapeutic effect of near infrared (NIR) light on Parkinson's disease models

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22201916

Link to full paper:

https://www.bioscience.org/2012/v4e/af/421/2.htm

"The mice were sacrificed after six days, and the brains were processed for tyrosine hydroxylase immunochemistry. Dopaminergic cells from two regions were studied, the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and the zona incerta-hypothalamus (ZI-Hyp). The SNc is the region showing the main loss of dopaminergic cells seen in Parkinson's disease. The major finding was the presence of significantly more dopaminergic cells in the MPTP NIR light-treated animals as compared to MPTP alone animals. In contrast, the ZI-Hyp samples showed no significant difference between these groups. In addition, cell survival was MPTP dose dependent. After the higher MPTP dose, the magnitude of cell loss was similar in the two regions, while cell loss was greater in the SNc than the ZI-Hyp after the lower dose. This neuroprotection of dopaminergic cells by NIR light therapy, more evident in the PD relevant SNc, has clear clinical applications in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

7.2. Transgenic mice

The study of alpha-synuclein point mutations has been expanded from the neuroblastoma cell model to a transgenic mouse model by investigating the protective effects of NIR light therapy in transgenic mice expressing the A53T human alpha-synuclein point mutation (31). A53T transgenic mice received NIR light treatment at 670 nm and 7.5 J/cm2 three times per week beginning at eight weeks of age. At phenotype onset mice received NIR light once per day until they exhibited signs of extreme distress. Onset and severity of disease phenotype were analyzed.

NIR light therapy delayed disease progression and attenuated the severity of the disease phenotype. The median age of disease phenotype onset was 455 days for non-NIR light treated mice and 535 days for NIR light-treated mice. At 500 days, significantly fewer NIR light treated mice developed the disease phenotype. Also, of those mice that developed the disease phenotype, NIR light treated mice demonstrated delayed progression of disease measured from time of phenotype onset to sacrifice. Utilizing a grading scale developed to score disease phenotype, the median scores of NIR light treated mice was 1, whereas non-NIR light treated A53T mice had a median score of 2. These findings support the neuroprotective actions of NIR light therapy in an established animal model of Parkinson's disease.

8. PERSPECTIVE

The PD models detailed in this review allow us a way to test a promising new therapy for neurodegenerative diseases using near infrared radiation. As the cellular mechanisms and processes involved when using NIR light therapy are unraveled, against a background of established PD models, we can work out the details of the necessary light exposure and the changes we expect to see. Work has been pushed forward to include rodent models and actual behavioral measures, which brings us closer to our goal of an effective therapy relevant to the needs of actual human Parkinson's sufferers. As current Parkinson's treatments revolve around counteracting the effect of neuronal loss, we are still in the stage of trying to make the surviving neurons "work harder". A more elegant, and possibly more effective, goal would be to prevent the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the first place. Although this would not reverse any degeneration that may have occurred already, we may be able, for the first time, to actually arrest, or at least slow down, further neuronal degeneration and perhaps halt disease progress. As Parkinson's patients do not normally present until the disease stage is well advanced, this is perhaps the best course we can offer.

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Low-Intensity Light Therapy (1068 nm) Protects CAD Neuroblastoma Cells
from β-Amyloid-Mediated Cell Death

http://omicsonline.com/open-access/l...s1-1000003.pdf

Hi Jo*mar,

Thanks for the info. I had already conducted a search on the topic and listed some of the results on this thread, but there has been no followups that I'm aware of.

But I took your advice and I went back and looked at a thread on the Parksinson's forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...+helmet&page=4

I would build my own helmet if I had the technical expertise. I was under the impression, based on my original interpretation of the post above, that the LEDs were $400 a piece, but I think I misread that--I think they meant $400 for all the parts needed for a completed helmet. I'm seeing the 1070 LEDs for $20, so that certainly changes the cost factor. But I'm not an electronics expert, so I would not feel at all comfortable building this myself, as the wrong configuration can be harmful.

That said, I will have to find out more information about the cost of this study before I commit. Is there anyone I can hire to build this for us?

I am reading conflicting information about the cost of LED bulbs, but it looks like ONE LED bulb configuration costs $400. Is this right?

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...+helmet&page=4

I don't know about the costs , but I'm thinking LEDs should be cheaper than low level laser diodes. Unless it has something to do with the # nm part.
I don't know if anyone here ever finalized a helmet design, or actually tried it.

Since you are looking outside the box for treatments, what about things like grounding/earthing, detoxing, naturopathy, acupuncture?

What are your dad's most bothersome symptoms?



I can recommend low level laser therapy (also called cold laser, soft laser) for muscle & joint pain, as I had successful and quick results @ chiro appts. Treatments were for wrist, foot, shoulder, elbow, low back & neck pain. Many times it only took a one time tx of 20-30 seconds to stop the pain in this spot.

Over the decades we have seen many such convincingly bogus "treatments" for PD. There are many scammers out there, some who try awfully hard to seem legitimate. Only real evidence endures as treatments for PD, and so far the best neurologists in the world are attempting to resolve PD. They are not screwing around with stupid contraptions, whose methods and theory just don't make sense to the laws of nature. Infra red light is essentially just heat, which will simply be absorbed by your skin, and can't be "focussed" to probe any internal structure deep in our brainstems. Just like Mexican stem cell clinics and all other scams that are based on fleecing you because you are ill and desperate. These scams follow a simple path. Find some ********* to baffle the audience with and get some suckers who buy in. If we aren't bestowed with anything better to control the horror that PD can be, as of right now in time, then the answer is a great deal of thought and experimentation is being put into pd, but real accomplishments towards this goal will, as always come slowly, and we'd here about any real breakthroughs and the knowledge would travel quickly, and we would be told to get ready for a real game changer. So in the meantime, go ahead and take all the mucuna pruriens, vitamin supplements, excercise and other proven ways of dealing with PD, Please, no waste papa's money on snake oil.

I hope that I am not a sucker--I really think I am taking a logical approach to this. But if you think that only neurologists are the only people capable of evaluating the evidence to support potential new therapies, then you might want to take a look at the following abstract from the MDS 17th International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in Stockholm:

http://www.mdsabstracts.com/abstract...=798&id=107103

And you might also find the following article informative:

The potential of light therapy in Parkinson’s disease
https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=19055

"Functional restoration
Not only does light therapy protect against the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, but it also appears to restore func- tional activity to those neurons that are saved. For example, light therapy has been shown to correct abnormal neuronal activity generated by the parkinsonian condition.85 Using Fos immunohistochemistry (a well-established measure of neuronal activity), the overactivity of neuronal firing in the subthalamic nucleus and zona incerta (two key basal ganglia nuclei) characteristic of parkinsonian cases has been reported to be reduced substantially after light therapy. This reduction does not quite reach control levels, indicating that the restora- tion is partial, and has been attributed to the surviving SNc dopaminergic neurons being functionally active, continu- ing to produce and release dopamine at their terminals in the striatum.85 These early functional results could be built upon by further electrophysiological and pharmacological explorations."

I understand your anger at all of the therapies that promise bogus cures, but the evidence I have collected to date on this topic seems very promising. It might not work as well as the research indicates, and I don't think it will cure anyone of Parkinson's, but appears to slow progression, mitigate alpha synuclein deposition, reduce neuroinflammation, and increase ATP output from the surviving dopaminergic cells.

If any of us wait around for traditional MDs to save us with some sort of miracle, we will also have to wait years for clinical trials, as well as FDA approval. Not to mention that I have seen miracles in my profession (neurofeedback) on a daily basis with OCD, depression, ADD, Anxiety, etc etc. How many people know that depression and anxiety can be treated without medication using EEG biofeedback? How many people in the mainstream culture have ever even heard of neurofeedback?

Since Parkinson's is a progressive illness, I would rather experiment with therapies that don't work than do nothing. I was afraid to do anything with my dad until I realized this point. And while I appreciate your valid level of frustration of staking hope in purported therapies that have failed you over and over again, I am cautiously optimistic about LED technology. But given the remarkable amount of research that points to a potentially amazing technology, most of which has been studied by researchers with 0 financial interest in propagating snake oil, I am left with the hope that at the very least, it appears to possibly slow progression of Parkinson's, and at the best, offer a slight reduction of symptoms.

best of luck. ** i for one have not put any faith in unproven therapies and i doubt anyone on this board has either. **


i really don't want to discuss this to death, best of luck.

I'm sorry I offended you. That wasn't my intention. Best of luck to you as well!

Members are free to ask, post about or discuss possible alternative treatments, some may work and some may not, and some may be scams.

It may not be what you would explore for yourself but sometimes this is how discoveries are made.


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*If you are not interested in the topic just ignore the discussion, please.*