Red Light Therapy

[sb]

Good deal, our snow season is looking pretty bleak at this point.

We have already been hitting the river and hiking plus some trail work so we are using the RLT on the regular.

[sb]

[Dexter Rutecki]

What else did you do?

Shane Dorian has been posting for the last few months about getting a shitload of stem cell injections done in Mexico back in October. As part of the treatment he had to take over a month completely off (nothing allowed except easy walking), and that is followed by 6+ months on intensive PT. He's only recently started surfing again. That begs the question of how much are the stem cells (or RLT, etc.) actually doing above and beyond the rest and PT? Some of his posts specifically talk about the fact that he ended up this broken because he couldn't stay out of the water and allow these injuries enough time to heal in the first place.

FWIW I had excellent results from a stem cell injection for a knee injury a few years ago (I don't know anything about what Dorian did in Mexico and certainly didn't have a 'shitload' of injections), and I know someone else with a similar experience (don't know real details, though). I was quite skeptical that the treatment would have any effect at all on me, but a week or two following the pain I'd been experiencing was basically completely gone (and has remained so years later). Obviously it's possible it was just coincidental timing and the pain might've gone away regardless, but this was about six months after the injury and once the swelling from the treatment was down it was night and day difference, so it's hard for me to believe now that the stem cells didn't create the effect.

Obviously purely anecdotal and I haven't looked into any of this for awhile--I will say I'm kind of surprised there are still no(?) good studies on the therapy given how common it seems to be.

[auvgeek]

My wife (aka jesski here on TGR) also had excellent luck with stem cells in her ankle. It went from looking at a total ankle replacement at age 33 (due to a 2 bad climbing falls onto the same ankle in a 5 year span) to being biomechanically stable and she’s back to skiing, hiking, etc. The stem cells were kind of a last resort after a full year of rest and PT. There are quite a few other anecdotal experiences.

Vail Orthopedic Hospital now covers the cost of BMAC stem cells with their orthopedic surgeries (at least their knees). My understanding is that insurance won’t cover the stem cell procedure so the hospital pays for it because the hospital is convinced the clinical outcomes are that much better. I doubt they’re doing this on the basis of “snake oil.”

There is a huge difference between autologous BMAC harvested from the iliac crest (which are your own stem cells) and allogeneic stem cells from somewhere else (sharks, umbilical cords, etc). My understanding is that allogenic stem cells are banned in the US, while autologous are allowed. To be honest, I don’t know too much about autologous stem cells harvested from adipose tissue vs BMAC, but I have the sense that BMAC from the iliac crest is the most potent but more painful to harvest vs adipose tissue which is easier to obtain. But there's a lot going on in the orthobiologic injection community that I don't fully understand when/where it would be better, and IMHO is still being flushed out -- like Platelet Poor Plasma.

I have also had good experience with PRP, as long as the injection is in the right spot. That’s really the key with these injections — making sure the injection is into the pain-generating tissue.

I understand the placebo affect is strong, but when rest, rehab, supplements, etc, don’t work and then an injection makes a big difference, I think that counts for something.

[Dexter Rutecki]

There is a huge difference between BMAC harvested from the iliac crest (which are your own stem cells) and stem cell from somewhere else (sharks, umbilical cords, etc). To be honest, I don’t know too much about stem cells harvested from adipose vs BMAC but I have the sense that BMAC from the iliac crest is the best.

Mine came from iliac crest (harvesting sucked!), and again, despite all my skepticism I have to say the effect seems to have been pretty dramatic.

I have also had good experience with PRP, as long as the injection is in the right spot. That’s really the key with these injections — making sure the injection is into the pain-generating tissue.

I understand the placebo affect is strong, but when rest, rehab, supplements, etc, don’t work and then an injection makes a big difference, I think that counts for something.

This is what I think, and especially since I wasn't expecting any real improvement I would discount placebo effect in my case (the reduction in pain also just seems too dramatic to me, and the fact it's never returned). And the only thing that changed for me was the fact of having had the injection, so unless it was just random, coincidental timing I'm very inclined to say it was the stem cells that did the trick.

[auvgeek]

I believe there are peer-reviewed studies showing the efficacy of stem cells in knees because jesski and I read them all when trying to figure out what to do about her ankle -- and I recall we could find studies for knees, but not for ankles. Because her damage was primarily cartilage and also ligaments (but nothing fully torn), we hoped damage to ankle cartilage would behave closely enough to damage to knee cartilage.

[sb]

RLT along with strong diet management is helping my GF with her lymes issues in her knees and else where.

My buddy who is a competitive trap shooter uses skirub and RLT reports no pain after three week long daily comp.

We also started using the yuka app which is food and cosmetic app. Not only does it tell you what is bad but the how and why its bad also. Very informative.

We scanned nearly everything in the house, threw out some things and others will be phased out.