Infrared/red light applied to the skull can treat Alzheimer's/dementia...

haidut

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...and improve cognition even in healthy people! The mechanism of action is the familiar effects of red/infrared light on stimulating mitochondrial function, and especially complex IV, while also decreasing chronic inflammation. The regimen was light exposure for 6min, twice a day, for 4 weeks. Even a single 100W red bulb should be enough to replicate the design of this study, but despite the study finding the treatment had no side effects, I'd make sure to be well-fed as overexposure to such light can lead to a drop in glycogen/glucose levels and a stress reaction.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1089/pho.2020.4956
Infrared light therapy might aid dementia patients

"...The research saw 14 healthy people, aged 45 and over, from the UK, receive six minutes of PBM-T twice daily at a wavelength of 1068 nanometres over a period of four weeks. This was carried out alongside a control group of 13 members using a dummy PBM-T helmet. Scientists conducted a series of memory, verbal, and motor skills tests on the participants in both groups before and after the treatment period to see what improvements in function might have been achieved. The researchers found a significant improvement in performance in motor function (finger tapping), memory performance (mathematical processing, a type of working memory), delayed memory and brain processing speed, in healthy people who had received PBM-T compared to those in the control placebo group. Participants reported no adverse effects caused by the treatment."

"...It works by delivering infrared light from 14 fan cooled LED light arrays deep into the brain, focused by the skull, at a wavelength of between 1,060 to 1,080 nanometres delivering 1,368J of energy to the cranium during each six-minute treatment cycle. This stimulates the mitochondria that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power cells’ biochemical reactions. This in turn leads to a rise in the level of an organic compound called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), markedly decreased in dementia patients, that provides the energy to drive processes in living cells and help nerve cells to repair."

"...The latest findings also follow recently published, separate pilot Alzheimer’s disease clinical studies involving Drs Chazot and Dougal. Published in the journals, Cureus and Aging and Disease, and led by Dr Jason Huang (Texas A&M University), those findings suggested that PBM-T1068 – also known as Transcranial near-infrared (tNIR) treatment – had a similar profound and rapid positive effect on the condition for both men and women with mild to moderate dementia."
 

Lejeboca

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@haidut , there is a typo in DOI (promulgated by news sources themselves). The correct one is
10.1089/photob.2020.4956 also available on pubmed:

I couldn't get the fulltext, unfortunately.

I see that their periods of infrared exposure to the skull were quite short, understandably so.
Do you think sleeping under just the red rather than infrared light would be also beneficial to memory and cognitive health ?
 

Lejeboca

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Do you think sleeping under just the red rather than infrared light would be also beneficial to memory and cognitive health ?
Well-well found an answer to my own question :cool: by looking at refs in the paper posted by OP.

"Previous research has indicated that depressed patients showed a beneficial effect on their affective state from a single LLLT [low-level light therapy] treatment to the forehead using 810 nm LEDs (Schiffer et al., 2009)." This quote is taken from

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Abstract: This is the first controlled study demonstrating the beneficial effects of transcranial laser stimulation on cognitive and emotional functions in humans. Photobiomodulation with red to near-infrared light is a novel intervention shown to regulate neuronal function in cell cultures, animal models, and clinical conditions. Light that intersects with the absorption spectrum of cytochrome oxidase was applied to the forehead of healthy volunteers using the laser diode CG-5000, which maximizes tissue penetration and has been used in humans for other indications. We tested whether low-level laser stimulation produces beneficial effects on frontal cortex measures of attention, memory and mood. Reaction time in a sustained-attention psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) was significantly improved in the treated (n = 20) vs. placebo control (n = 20) groups, especially in high novelty-seeking subjects. Performance in a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) memory task showed also a significant improvement in treated vs. control groups as measured by memory retrieval latency and number of correct trials. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X), which tracks self-reported positive and negative affective (emotional) states over time, was administered immediately before treatment and 2 weeks after treatment. The PANAS showed that while participants generally reported more positive affective states than negative, overall affect improved significantly in the treated group due to more sustained positive emotional states as compared to the placebo control group. These data imply that transcranial laser stimulation could be used as a non-invasive and efficacious approach to increase brain functions such as those related to cognitive and emotional dimensions. Transcranial infrared laser stimulation has also been proven to be safe and successful at improving neurological outcome in humans in controlled clinical trials of stroke. This innovative approach could lead to the development of non-invasive, performance-enhancing interventions in healthy humans and in those in need of neuropsychological rehabilitation.
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The connection of red light and cytochrome oxidase seems to be paramount in this mechanism of action. Also, apparently, this is a way to combat leaned helplessness without experiencing side-effects.
 

Kykeon

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It works by delivering infrared light from 14 fan cooled LED light arrays deep into the brain, focused by the skull, at a wavelength of between 1,060 to 1,080 nanometres delivering 1,368J of energy to the cranium during each six-minute treatment cycle.
bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. that would drive me nuts, but hard to get this done with passive cooling (water cooling mb)

i really wonder what would happen if there would be a little bit of blue light in the spectrum and some uv. with plants it acts as a very synergistic thing/far red and lower wavelength light (mc cree curve)
Untitled.png

I would really like to know which LEDs they were using, two also point at they eyes.

1635309036731.png
How much watt this device is using??
If i am correct this device is only using about 3.5 watt, but i dont know if i am doing the calculation right. (1300J for 6 Minutes->3.5 j per seconds = wattage?)
Brb building something

1635309781385.png

Very Interesting, awesome post @haidut
 

Lejeboca

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How much watt this device is using??
From the paper:

The power levels emitted by the CG-5000 were confirmed using a Newport model 1916-C power meter attached to a Newport model 918D-SL photodiode detector. (The power output is also automatically measured and calibrated by an internal mechanism, every time the treatment parameters are set by the user; the separate detector was used to confirm this calibration.) A range of power levels from 0.4 to 20 W was programmed into the laser, and the power density in mW/cm^2 was measured. Fig. 1 shows the highly linear calibration curve. The correlation coefficient was calculated as 0.9999, which was significant at p < 0.001, and the values were consistent with the cross-sectional areas of the beam itself (4 cm) and the aperture of the detector (1 cm).
 

Braisedsteel

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I wonder if firelight is beneficial in the same way. I've always had a strange urge to stare at fire whenever I get the chance.
 
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I’ve been using these
 

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I wonder if firelight is beneficial in the same way. I've always had a strange urge to stare at fire whenever I get the chance.
Definently is relaxing. I always sleep better after a nice campfire. Even better if that fire is in the snow rather than the oven that florida is.
 

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