Long time listener, First time caller

I've been skulking around the site for a while, but just registered today.

I saw a thread where someone was admonished for not posting here - so I thought I'd better mosey over and take care of it.

Since it's rude to talk about a woman's age - let's just say I'm old enough to have a career and a teenager (pray for me).

I'm interested in lasers for pain relief rather than as a hobby.

Umm...<awkward pause>...I guess that's it.

~MommaAng

Welcome!

No matter the road you take in to photonics (lasers) please be sure to protect your eyes once you have one of your own.

I cannot offer any advice as to pain relief via lasers, but I know that the related field of diathermy (electromagnetically inducing heat into tissue) does work for certain types of pain relief. It is one of the reasons I enjoy my Tesla Coils so much, the RF heating relieves arthritis and muscle pain.

Good luck in your searches and please do not gloss over any safety content - it is extremely vital.

Welcome to the forums MommaAng!

As Sigurthr said, be sure to buy some safety goggles if you're going to be dealing with lasers.

Welcome and i hope you enjoy it here! As for lasers relieving pain, i know nothing about. I hope you get into lasers as a hobby as well, they are great fun

No-one gets admonished if they don't Post in the Welcome
section of the Forum...

But it is the right thing to do if you first go to someones
residence...:beer:

to the Forum.... boywithlaser

39 Reasons NOT to Buy From Wicked Lasers

Enjoy your stay...


Jerry

Welcome Ang, indeed. It's nice to have someone around here who's also a parent and presumably somewhat a peer in age. My daughter turns 13 this weekend and has been building lasers with me.

Enjoy your stay.

Welcome to the forum. Glad to know we have a co-ed intrest in lasers. As has been stated, be ready to buy good apporpriate safety glasses. I am thinking you are going to want something in the 840nm range (Infared). I'm no doctor, but this is what the physical therapy people use on my foot I broke back in Nov. Makes my foot feel a lot better. Remember also that these lasers sould be treated with care and safety.
Good luck

The little bit of research I've been able to do on the subject seems to indicate two types of light therapy; thermal and LLLT ("biomodulation of chromophores. I know thermal works and is scientifically proven, but LLLT still seems to border on pseudoscience. Not my place to decide though.

10.6um is heavily absorbed by all organics, much more so than diode IR wavelengths, I wonder if a diffused or diverged low power CO2 beam would work well for light therapy. It is essentially the same as a theraputic heat lamp in terms of mechanism of action. Totally overkill, but should still work, heh. Definitely more eye safe than any NIR (>700nm - <1700nm) lasers which still penetrate the eye and can do blinding damage to the retina. Once I get my CO2 lenses in I'll try running my tube at low power and seeing if a warming divergent beam can be produced easily.

The papers I dug up seem to indicate that anything over 720nm has negligible LLLT use and only works via thermal means. Likewise many sources seem to indicate wavelengths bewteen 630-660nm as being optimal for LLLT. This is actually a fairly easily produced chunk of spectrum. Standard DVD burner laser diodes operate around 650-660nm, the ubiquitous red HeNe is ay 632.8nm, and the popular high brightness/high power "orangish-red" diodes are at 635-638nm.

Personally, being a man of science, I do not believe LLLT to be legitimately effective in any medical endeavor, but once again I repeat, it is not my opinion that matters here.

Thanks for the welcome everyone. And rest assured that I am already in the market for a quality pair of safety glasses and will not use a laser before I have a proper eye protection.

As for the questions regarding laser for medical purposes, there is actually quite a bit of research available. If you're curious, there are a number of legitimate sites you can check out. The two I can think of off the top of my head are the US National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (Home - PubMed - NCBI) and the World Association for Laser Therapy at WALT. WALT was founded in Barcelona in 1994 and has published dosage guidelines for 780 - 860nm and another for 904nm.

Regardless, even if the results are psychosomatic, relief is relief. Am I right? <doing my best Groucho impersonation>

Thanks again for being so welcoming. I look forward to becoming part of your community.

scumbagatheist: First, LOVE the username!

And a 13 year old girl? I do not envy you my friend. My daughter turned into a drama queen at that age, and never really grew out of it... My prayers are with you.