How Chiropractors Can Use Red Light/Infrared Therapy for Better Patient Outcomes

Need to perk up your practice?  Or make your clinic stand out from the ever-increasing competition?  Red Light/Infrared Therapy is a great partner to chiropractic!  Here is why this unique healing modality has gained favor with the chiropractic community, and how it can benefit your clinic.
 
Red Light/Infrared Therapy and Chiropractic
In their quest for better patient outcomes, chiropractors, perhaps more than other healthcare professionals, have always been open to investigating and embracing promising new healing modalities.  They have found that, like chiropractic, Red Light/Infrared Therapy stimulates, accelerates, and supports the body’s own innate healing ability while being non-invasive, drug-free, and highly effective. Red Light/Infrared Therapy is also painless, simple, fast-acting, and safe.  It is very easy to administer, allowing patients to be left unattended during treatment.  
 
And last but not least, an impressive list of musculoskeletal issues are amenable to Red Light/Infrared Therapy, from sprains and strains to chronic back, knee, hip, shoulder, neck, ankle, wrist, and hand issues. Scientific studies have found that Red Light/Infrared Therapy has a positive effect on both acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain, and “is beneficial for many individuals suffering from musculoskeletal pain, regardless of the cause.”[1]
 
Safe and Risk-Free
Red Light/Infrared Therapy, like chiropractic, is an effective alternative to the unpleasant and potentially dangerous side effects of pharmaceutical drugs and/or the pain and risks of surgery with its required recovery time — not to mention the sky-rocketing costs of these typical medical treatments. However, Red Light/Infrared Therapy is unique in that it is risk free and can be administered without any concern about negative side effects.  Red Light Therapy has been proven to have “…an almost complete lack of reported adverse effects...”[2]
 
 
Class II Medical Devices with FDA Clearance
Red Light/Infrared Therapy can add value to any clinic, allowing chiropractors to expand their scope of treatment for better patient outcomes.  Red/Infrared Light Therapy systems are considered to be Class II Medical Devices, and have been granted FDA clearance for increasing circulation, relieving pain, relaxing muscles, relieving muscle spasms, and relieving the aches and stiffness caused by arthritis. 
 
How Red Light/Infrared Therapy Works
Red Light/Infrared Therapy can potentially enhance the benefits of chiropractic by providing faster pain relief and support for cellular healing. Whenever a Red/Infrared Light Therapy Pad is placed on the body, photons of light are released which induce cascades of beneficial biochemical processes within the cells.  “Radiation of tissue with light causes an increase in mitochondrial products such as ATP, NADH, protein, and RNA…”[3]  Nitric oxide is also released which increases circulation, so that blood teeming with oxygen and nutrients can now flow more freely into nerves, muscles, joints, and other tissues within that local area. In turn, this accelerates the body’s natural healing processes, leading to better health and wellness. “This vasodilation increases the availability of oxygen to treated cells, and also allows for greater traffic of immune cells into tissue.  These two effects contribute to accelerated healing.”[4]  
 
How to Administer Red Light/Infrared Therapy
Red Light/Infrared Therapy is simple and easy to administer.  Therapy pads are situated on the body wherever pain relief and increased circulation are needed, the system is turned on, and the pads proceed to do their work during the typical twenty-minute therapy session.  
Red Light/Infrared Therapy can be administered in three ways:

• Pre-Adjustment:  Red Light/Infrared light penetration will increase circulation, reduce pain and stiffness, and potentially help ease adjustments. Most chiropractors choose to utilize light therapy pre-adjustment.
• Post-Adjustment: Due to the benefits of increasing circulation, light wave penetration may help the adjustment to hold for a longer time period.  Also, any pain, stiffness, or soreness still lingering on after the adjustment may be alleviated by the chemical benefits induced by the light waves.
• Stand-alone Treatment:  Patients with painful acute or chronic conditions may desire a stand-alone treatment session.

But no matter how you administer Red Light/Infrared Light Therapy, it can be depended upon to quickly and effectively increase circulation and relieve pain for better patient outcomes that lead to increased patient satisfaction.
 
Deciding on Your System
Before purchasing a professional level Red Light/Infrared Therapy system, please keep these questions in mind:

• Is the system from a reputable manufacturer with an FDA clearance, so that your system meets all required safety standards?  
• Does the company offer a warranty and is there a repair center available to you even after warranty expiration?
• Are the sizes and shapes of the therapy pads offering the most benefit to the greatest number of your patients?
• Does the controller have enough ports to operate the number of therapy pads that you want to use simultaneously?  Utilizing from three to six pads at one time will provide an extensive therapy session for your patient that can treat multiple problems at once.

 
Benefits to Your Clinic
In addition to helping patients by enhancing the benefits of your chiropractic treatments, Red Light/Infrared Therapy can benefit your practice by:

• Expanding your treatment menu
• Expanding your fees by allowing you to charge extra for augmenting adjustments with Red Light/Infrared Therapy 
• Boosting revenue through sales of Red Light/Infrared Therapy systems to patients 
• Using Red Light/Infrared Therapy as the foundation for in-home programs for patients with chronic conditions to help them between appointments 
• Making your clinic stand out from the competition.

 
The Bottom Line
Red Light/Infrared Therapy has proven itself to be a great adjunct to chiropractic.  It can be depended upon to not only bring quick and effective pain relief to your patients, but to also trigger the biochemical stimulation that supports and accelerates healing. Two or three Red Light/Infrared Therapy pads and a three or six-port controller will make a big difference in your clinic.  For more information on Red Light/Infrared Therapy systems, contact Rob at Energia Medical at 860-707-4220.


[1] Cotler, Howard B. et al.  The Use of Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) For Musculoskeletal Pain. MOJ Orthop Rheumatol.2015  ;  2(5): . doi:10.15406/mojor.2015.02.00068, p. 6.

[2] Hamblin, Michael R. “Mechanisms and applications of the anti-inflammatory effects of photobiomodulation.” AIMS biophysics vol. 4,3 (2017): 337-361. doi:10.3934/biophy.2017.3.337, p. 14.
 

[3] Chung, Hoon, et al. The Nuts and Bolts of Low-level Laser (Light) Therapy. Ann Biomed Eng. 2012 February; 40(2): 516–533. doi:10.1007/s10439-011-0454-7, p. 5 of NIH Public Access version.

[4] Ibid., p. 6.