More Americans complain of suffering from pain than the number of people who have diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. According to the National Institute of Health, pain is the most common reason Americans seek medical help, and one in every four Americans have suffered from pain that lasts longer than 24 hours.
Those statistics are not surprising to us here at Foster Chiropractic Sports & Wellness. Many of our clients come to us for help with pain relief, whether it’s back pain, a sports injury, arthritis, or some other type of pain. We use a comprehensive approach that includes a number of types of treatments in addition to the alignments many people associate with chiropractic care. One of those types is cold laser treatments.
How Cold Laser Therapy Works
Cold laser therapy uses a low level of light to accelerate healing. It’s called cold therapy because the light is set at such a low frequency that it will not heat the body tissues. The laser is held directly above the injured area and set at a specific wavelength to interact with tissues.
The light passes through the different layers of skin to reach the muscles that are experiencing pain. Once there, the light interacts with light-sensitive elements in the cell to initiate a series of events that result in the reduction of pain and inflammation. The process can be compared to photosynthesis in plants, how the cells absorb light from the sun and convert it to energy.
Candidates for Treatment
Cold laser therapy is used to treat many different types of pain, including arthritis, carpal tunnel, knee, neck and back pain, as well as tendonitis, tennis elbow and bursitis. This type of treatment is appealing to people who are looking for non-pharmaceutical approaches to pain management. It is non-invasive and painless, and treatments last only a few minutes.
We usually recommend multiple treatments for best results. Patients will see a decrease in pain over time while using cold laser therapy. It may also be used in conjunction with other types of treatments, such as spinal alignments or decompression therapy.
To learn more about cold laser therapy and how it can be used to treat pain, call today to make an appointment for a consultation with Dr. Foster.