An Illuminating Approach to Pain Management

The LumiWave™ deep-tissue, infrared-light therapy device from BioCare Systems is FDA-cleared and provides temporary relief from minor pain or discomfort associated with muscles and joints.

The device's patented technology uses Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to deliver therapeutic levels of infrared light directly through the skin and into the affected area to temporarily reduce pain. Described by users as an easy and highly effective way to manage pain, LumiWave combines light weight, comfortable fit, durability and portability with an optimal power-emission rate, light-source wavelength and dosage duration.

Light Therapy: An Illuminating Approach to Pain Management
Light therapies have become the leading non-drug alternative to pain relief. Also known as photo-biostimulation (exposing affected tissue to very specific light energy to achieve relief from pain and stiffness), light therapy is being used by physiotherapists and sports-medicine specialists to treat a wide variety of acute and chronic musculoskeletal aches and pains.

The science behind light therapy has a nearly 100-year history. The scientific literature on photo-biostimulation encompasses over 2,500 titles and a Nobel Prize, substantiating the technology's ability to promote and enhance pain relief.

Numerous studies - both in humans and in experimental models, in vitro and in vivo - have documented a wide variety of biological actions of light at the levels and spectral ranges employed in deep-tissue light therapy. Studies have provided evidence to support the concept that light, at proper power level, wavelength and dosage duration, has bio-stimulatory, ameliorative effects that promote the inherent healing capacities of the body, such as increased circulation and regeneration of normal tissue.1

Clinical studies conducted for NASA and the Russian Academy of Science have shown that the stimulating effect of photon (light) penetration and cell absorption is critical to biological results: deep-tissue light therapy increases the speed, quality and tensile strength of tissue repair; provides pain relief; resolves inflammation; and improves function of damaged neurological tissue.

Researchers are currently investigating additional light-therapy applications for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, strokes, brain tumors and tissue, muscle and organ regeneration, wound treatment, ophthalmic applications and diabetic neuropathy.

Modern Western Medicine: Pharmaceutical Approach to Pain Control
Treatment of pain has a long history. Societies around the world and throughout time have taken advantage of the medicinal properties of a variety of plants containing natural opiates (white poppies, coca leaves) or anti-inflammatory substances (willow bark). In the middle- and late-19th century, Western medicine made great strides in pain management with the chemical determination and synthesis of opiates and aspirin-like chemicals for anesthesia and pain control.

The powerful effectiveness of pain medications led Western medicine to focus on pharmaceutical treatment of pain, almost to the exclusion of non-pharmaceutical approaches, through much of the 20th century.

The Drawbacks of Drug Therapies
Drug therapies often come at a high price, however. Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen) cause significant stomach ulcers in 2 percent of patients - and up to 20 percent of those patients die from bleeding. Opiates have long been recognized for their addictive side effects. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 6.2 million people abuse prescription drugs.

Growing awareness of the drawbacks of drug therapies has encouraged the emergence of new approaches to pain management - such as light therapy - over the past 20 years.

BioCare LumiWave Deep-Tissue, Infrared-Light Therapy
BioCare's LumiWave infrared-light therapy device emits energy in the infrared spectrum for the purpose of elevating tissue temperature and providing temporary relief from or reduction of minor muscular pain and minor joint pain and stiffness.

In addition, LumiWave provides a temporary increase in local blood circulation to offer temporary relief from muscle spasms and minor sub-acute or chronic pain associated with arthritis, sprains or strains.

LumiWave Device Design
The LumiWave device comprises a series of pods that contain Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), which deliver infrared light to the tissues to which they are applied. An independent, temperature-regulation system contained in each LED pod controls the temperature at the treatment site. The LED pods are connected together on a flexible band, making LumiWave easy to use on different parts of the body. A controller pod activates and times the therapeutic effect of the LED pods.

1 Nordeen, Steven K., Low Level Light Therapy for Pain Management, 2004