Pros and Cons of Low Level Laser Therapy

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Low level laser therapy, or "cold" laser therapy, is a historically new medical field that first came about in the mid 1960's, shortly after the first working laser was successfully tested. Unlike studies on the medical uses of light conducted in the decades before the laser that focused on the destructive qualities of light, cold laser therapy marked a shift in the way medical researchers study light by focusing on the non-destructive, non-thermal medical benefits of light and radiation.

The Pros

The field of cold laser therapy was pioneered almost singlehandedly by a man named Endre Mester, who was a Hungarian researcher at Semmelweis University in Budapest. He successfully showed, in 1967, that low level laser light had the potential to stimulate or inhibit cell functions, and could thus be used to aid in tissue repair. His main goal for studying the medical benefits of low level laser light was to find a new treatment for diabetic ulcers.

Since Mester, other medical researchers have been busy looking into the widely varying potential health benefits of cold laser treatments. The field of cold laser therapy has yet to be fully explored, but thus far cold laser light has been proven effective in the treatment of neck pain, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, and liposuction equipment from Erchonia. Another attractive aspect of cold laser therapy is the fact that it is a non-invasive and painless alternative, and also it appears to have zero negative side or after effects.

The Cons

The biggest con about cold laser therapy is that, being still a relatively new field of medical research, there have not been enough properly conducted studies to verify cold laser therapy's effectiveness in treating certain ailments. A lot of enterprising companies looking to take advantage of the growing popularity of laser treatments, however, will still advertise these procedures even though they have not been proven to work by a sufficient number of scientists, researchers and other members of the medical community.

The FDA has officially approved several cold laser therapy treatments (such as the treatment of muscle pain and carpal tunnel) but it still considers it an experimental field.