ATP is the currency of cellular energy in man and animals. Death of microbes (single celled organisms) can be confirmed by the absence of ATP which is transiently made to power the cell. It is like the "manna from heaven" in that it provides energy sustenance transiently because it so readily discharges the energy to make heat or heat and cellular activity. 90% of the oxygen used by the body is consumed by mitochondria, the cellular energy factory, in making and storing energy in the phosphate bonds of ATP and ADP. The predominant source of that energy is the sun transferred to our planet as light energy. It warms the earth with heat and provides the source of energy for plant photosynthesis. All animals consume plants on earth or plankton in the ocean. Energy from the sun directly from plants or indirectly from animals that eat only plants. For warm blooded man, sunlight = warm environment + ATP.
Does light energize the cell directly? Yes, but only in small amounts.
The red and near infrared frequency are absorbed by cytochrome c in the mitochondria and absorb the energy as an electron and send the power to make ATP through the electron chain transport system that makes power or ATP for the cell.
How is this useful? It is useful in the same way that heater strips are useful in heat pumps. When the mitochondria becomes degraded and inefficient, light energy is the most efficient way to make ATP, just as heater strips make energy more efficient because the available temperature gradient is narrow.
In effect, aging inefficient mitochondria cannot make enough energy to refurbish and improve cellular functions to fight aging, senescence and cell death. Light therapy empowers the cell to heal and regenerate!
What evidence is there for light regeneration of cell, organs and organisms?
Rabbits underwent posterior knee deconstructive surgery damaging ligaments and cartilage. The post-op knees were treated with sham light and red near infrared light separately. The sham light treated knees were damaged after healing. The red near infrared light knees were not damaged after healing.
Knees treated with red near infrared light checked before and after treatment have reductions in synovial fluid inflammatory markers including COX2, TNF alpha and IL-6 levels. These are the targets for inflammatory treatments NSAID such as ibuprofen and TNF blockers such as Humira used in rheumatoid arthritis.
In rodents who have their bilateral sciatic nerves interrupted by removing a short length of the nerve but connecting the two ends by placing them in a sheath treated with and without red near infrared light; greater healing and less oxidation radicals occurred within the sheath of light treated side.
In cell culture, red near infrared treated cells have shifted ADP/ATP ratios indicating greater production of ATP.
The Willow Curve is a commercially available red near infrared laser treatment of knees, hips and shoulders with endorsements of pain relief and improved function that resulted in delay of scheduled surgical joint replacement.
Red LED light has successfully treated acne with and without blue wavelength light to disrupt the bacteria responsible for acne.
There are an abundance of LED devices. Examples include the LED devices sold by Elixa.com. These have single or double arrays. I use the dual array of red near infrared 120 array device that delivers 1J/CM2/Min. Published treatments of joints used 10-22 joules of energy daily. Published treatments of cells in culture used 2-10 joules of energy. Therefore I would use red only 2-10 Joules for skin or superficial structures (protecting or shielding the eyes and thyroid) and use red near infrared 10-22 Joules in two divided doses for joints or deeper structures.
One could use adjunctive light treatments for joint pain, wound healing, inflammatory acne and neuropathy.
Moreover, there is research on local light treatment and distal effects, a so called abscompal effect. In traumatic brain injury animal subjects treating the normal side of the brain improved the opposite untreated sided. In two genetic rodent models of Alzheimer's disease, treatment of the lower leg with 22 joules of red near infrared light resulted in prevention and delayed onset of dementia. In another animal model of drug induced Parkinson's disease leg treatment with 22 joules of red near infrared light prevented Parkinson's disease.
Could one prevent or delay neurodegenerative disease with light treatment of the tibia the lower leg bone? The distant tissue improvement was the result of activating adult mesenchymal stem cells in bone marrow. When activated or energized, the stem cells migrate to tissue secreting inflammatory cytokines ie. brain tissue. They remain stem cells and do not make new brain cells. They message or increase local healing growth factors to do the protecting or healing.
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