As reported in Laser Focus World, a new study has concluded that laser light reduced overall cholesterol count by 16 points in 75 percent of participants in a study originally designed to investigate how dissolved fat affects body chemistry. Ryan Maloney, medical director of Erchonia Medical Inc. (McKinney, TX) is reporting the results at this week’s Annual Conference of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) in National Harbor, MD.
This recent report highlights the increasing role that optoelectronics plays in improving human health, one of the five key metrics we identified in our recent Green Photonics Report for OIDA. Erchonia researches, has developed, and markets their Low Level Laser Therapy (3LT™) systems for a variety of health related applications including neck and shoulder pain, burn, wound and bone healing, as well as cosmetic applications. Two examples of their laser equipment products are shown below.
These medical devices incorporate diode lasers operating at wavelengths of 405 nm and/or 635 nm at output powers in the 5-10 mW range to treat conditions including acne and chronic pain, and for laser assisted liposuction. Diode lasers are being increasingly applied in a wide range of applications encompassing medical devices, materials processing, Blu-Ray video players, and are proposed for use in vastly larger equipment including the Laser Inertial-Confinement Fusion-Fission Energy (LIFE) system proposed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Diode lasers are on their way to becoming a building block of our civilization as basic and widespread as the transistor. From providing healthcare solutions, to contributing to a future cleaner energy source, diode lasers will continue to drive Green Photonic solutions throughout the 21st century.