Whole-Body Regenerative Radiant Therapy

Safety of Infrared Energy

Is Infrared Radiant Heat Safe For Me?

What exactly is radiant heat? No need to worry - - it has nothing to do with either ultraviolet radiation (which gives you a sunburn and damages your skin) or atomic radiation (the kind from a nuclear bomb).

Radiant heat is simply a form of energy that heats objects directly through a process called conversion, without having to heat the air between. Radiant heat is also called infrared energy (IR). The infrared segment of the electromagnetic spectrum is divided into 3 segments by wave length, measured in microns or micrometers (a micron = 1/1,000,000 of a meter): 0.076 - 1.5 microns = near or close; 1.5 - 5.6 = middle or intermediate; 5.6 - 1000 = far or longwave infrared. The infrared segment of the electromagnetic spectrum occurs just below or "infra" to red light as the next lowest energy band of light. This band of light is not visible to human eyes but can be seen by special cameras that translate infrared into colors visible to our eyes. We can, however, feel this type of light which we perceive as heat. Our sun produces most of its energy output in the infrared segment of the spectrum. Our atmosphere has a "window" in it that allows IR rays in the 7 - 14 micron range to safely reach the earth's surface. When warmed, the earth radiates infrared rays in the 7 - 14 micron band with its peak output at 10 microns.

According to Dr. Tsu-Tsair Oliver Chi in his summation on the mechanism of action of infrared devices tuned to the human body, these rays are selectively absorbed by the tissues needing a boost in their output. The internal production of infrared energy that normally occurs within our tissues is associated with a variety of healing responses and may require a boost to a maximal level to insure the fullest healing response possible in a tissue under repair. After boosting a tissue's level to maximum, the remaining rays pass onward harmlessly. This phenomenon is called "resonant absorption".

The sun is the principal source of radiant energy that we experience daily. Have you ever been outside on a partly cloudy day of about 50 F and felt quite comfortable when suddenly the sun was obscured by a cloud? Although the air temperature had not had time to drop, you felt chilled, as the cloud would not let the warming infrared rays through to reach you.

Our bodies radiate infrared energy out through the skin at 3 - 50 microns, with most of their output at 9.4 microns. Our palms emit infrared energy at between 8 - 14 microns. Palm healing, which has a 3,000 year-old tradition in China, has been based on the healing properties of these natural infrared rays. The Yogis in India also use such palm healing and recommend it especially for relieving eye strain.

Health Benefits of Infrared Energy

Health benefits attributed to infrared rays in reports from around the world

Over the last 25 years, Japanese and Chinese researchers and clinicians have done extensive research on infrared treatments and report many provocative findings. In Japan there is an "Infrared Society" composed of medical doctors and physical therapists, to further research and support the health benefits of infrared as a method of healing.

Musculoskeletal Cases

Success reported with Infrared treatments by Japanese researchers:

• TMJ Arthritis
• Traumatic Arthritis
• Acel-decel Injury Sequelae
• Disc-protrusion Related Neuralgia
• Brain Contusion - accelerated healing
• Tight Shoulders - relaxed
• Compression Fracture - Example: pain stopped for 3 days with only a single treatment
• Spinal Cord Shock - post traumatic shock reversed
• Muscle Tension - relaxed
• Post-exercise Muscle Pain - vital to competitive athletes
• Arthritis: Gouty, Rheumatoid, DJD - each substantially relieved or improved
• Shoulder Pain - relieved or eliminated
• Muscle Spasms - reduced or eliminated
• Low Back Pain - relieved
• Adhesions - lengthened or more easily broken; they are common in competitive athletes, trauma and repetitive stress syndromes
• Bursitis - eliminated

"Medical practitioners make use of Infrared Radiant Heat to treat sprains, strains, bursitis, peripheral vascular diseases, arthritis, and muscle painÖ" according to the McGraw/Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.

Dr. Masao Nakamura of the O & P Medical Clinic in Japan has reported great success with the use of infrared treatments for:

Rheumatoid Arthritis

A case study was reported in Sweden of a 70 year-old man with Rheumatoid Arthritis secondary to acute rheumatic fever. He had reached his toxic limit on Gold injections and his Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate was still 125. Within 5 months of being treated with Infrared , his ERS was down to only 11.

In a case of Rheumatoid Arthritis in a 14-year-old, Swedish girl who couldn't walk comfortably downstairs due to knee pain since she had been eight years old, her rheumatologists told her mother that her child would be in a wheelchair within two years if she refused gold corticosteroid therapy. However, after 3 infrared treatments, she began to become more agile and subsequently took up folk dancing, without the aid of the conventional approach in her recovery.

A clinical trial in Japan reported the successful solution of seven out of seven cases of Rheumatoid Arthritis treated with infrared therapy.

These case studies and the clinical trial indicate that further study is warranted on the use of infrared therapy in the care of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Therapeutic Effects of Infrared Radiant Therapy

1. It increases the extensibility of collagen tissues
2. It decreases joint stiffness directly
3. It relieves muscle spasms
4. It produces pain relief
5. It increases blood flow
6. It assists in resolution of inflammatory infiltrates, edema and exudates
7. More recently, it has been used in cancer therapy use in China

The following is summarized from Therapeutic Heat and Cold, 4th Edition, ED. Justus F. Lehmann, M.D., Williams and Wilkins, Chapter 9 or concluded from the data therein.

Generally it is accepted that heat produces the following desirable therapeutic effects:

• Tissues heated to 45° C and then stretched exhibit a non-elastic residual elongation of about 0.5 - 0.9% that persists after the stretch is removed which does not occur in these same tissues when stretched at normal tissue temperatures. Thus 20 stretching sessions can produce a 10 - 18% increase in length in tissues heated and stretched.
• This effect would be especially valuable in working with ligaments, joint capsules, tendons, fasciae, and synovium that have become scarred, thickened or contracted.
• Such stretching at 45° C caused much less weakening in stretched tissues for a given elongation than a similar elongation produces at normal tissue temperatures.
• The experiments cited clearly showed that low-force stretching can produce significant residual elongation when heat is applied together with stretching or range-of-motion exercises, which is also safer than stretching tissues at normal tissue temperatures.
• This safer stretching effect is crucial in properly training competitive athletes so as to minimize their "down" time from injuries.

• There was a 20% decrease in stiffness at 45° C as compared with 33° C in rheumatoid finger joints, which correlated perfectly to both subjective and objective observation of stiffness.
• Any stiffened joint and thickened connective tissues should respond in a similar fashion.

• Muscle spasms have long been observed to be reduced through the use of heat, be they secondary to underlying skeletal, joint, or neuropathological conditions.
• This result is possibly produced by the combined effect of heat on both primary and secondary afferents from spindle cells and from its effects on Golgi tendon organs. The effects produced by each of these mechanisms demonstrated their peak effect within the therapeutic temperature range obtainable with radiant heat.

• Pain may be relieved via the reduction of attendant or secondary muscle spasms.
• Pain is also at times related to ischemia due to tension or spasm which can be improved by the hyperemia that heat-induced vasodilation produces, thus breaking the feedback loop, in which the ischemia leads to further spasm and then more pain.
• Heat has been shown to reduce pain sensation by direct action on both free-nerve endings in tissues and on peripheral nerves. In one dental study, repeated heat applications led finally to abolishment of the whole nerve response responsible for pain arising from dental pulp.
• Heat may both lead to increased endorphin production and a shutting down of the so-called "spinal gate" of Melzack and Wall, each of which can reduce pain.

• Heating of one area of the body produces reflex-modulated vasodilations in distant-body area, even in the absence of a change in core body temperature; ie. heat one extremity and the contralateral extremity also dilates: heat a forearm and both lower extremities dilate; heat the front of the trunk and the hand dilates.
• Heating of muscles produces an increased blood flow level similar to that seen during exercise.
• Temperature elevation produces an increase in blood flow and dilation directly in capillaries, arterioles and venuies, probably through direct action on the smooth muscles. The release of bradykinin, released as a consequence of sweat-gland activity, also produces increased blood flow and vasodilation.
• Whole-body hyperthermia, with a consequent core temperature elevation, further induces vasodilation via a hypothalamic-induced decrease in sympathetic tone on the arteriovenous anastomoses. Vasodilation is also produced by axonal reflexes and by flexes that change vasomotor balance.

• The increased peripheral circulation provides the transport needed to help evacuate edema which can help end inflammation, decrease pain and help speed healing.

• This is a new and experimental procedure.
• It shows great promise in some cases when used properly.
• American researchers favor careful monitoring of the tumor temperature; whereas, the successes reported in Japan make no mention of such precaution.

Infrared healing is now becoming the leading edge in the care of soft tissue injuries to promote both relief in chronic and intractable "permanent" cases, and accelerated healing in newer injuries. Localized infrared therapy using lamps tuned to the 2 - 25 micron waveband is used for the treatment and relief of pain by over 40 reputable Chinese Medical Institutes.

Researchers reported over 90% success in a summary of Chinese studies that assessed the effect of infrared therapy on:

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