oneilltalk

DHL delivered this device on January 19, 2021.

  Safety First  

I had spoken with Pete about how to place the thing. (See pictures in gallery below).

• • • I asked that they send it with a door hanger. If that fits on a door somewhere it may be the best solution. Some door tops may be too thick.
    • I moved mine up to our gym area. I hung it up at one end of a chin up bar that is part of a multi-function exercise frame. I had some baling wire and several turns of that provided a secure hanger. Whatever works.
    • Since it does have some weight to it, I placed a wooden stool beneath it to avoid its crashing down to the floor just in case. That too is optional but perhaps a good idea. 
    • It comes with a cord and pulley that works like a cleat on a sailboat. Takes a little getting used to. Pulling the thing up a bit higher with the cord is easy, but how do you get it back down? I showed this to Pete with a picture found in the gallery below. Above the circular pulley that the cord passes over is a latch. Slip your index finger onto that, and while securely holding the cord and pulling slightly, activate the latch, then the light can be lowered to the ground. Once in place, much of this up and down movement may become unnecessary.

  Physical things in using it - Anything to avoid?  

• • • Effects on the eyes. Mentioned only to be quickly dismissed. The attorneys advising the manufacturers have certainly advised to "play it safe" so your device probably arrived with some dark glasses or eye cups for protection. In fact, and I have the references, those studying effects on the retina, and repair of retinal damage from white neon light or aging effects (Age-related Macular Degeneration), use the same light in all of their experiments on optic nerve or retinal damage and with excellent results. So without devoting a 20 minute session to looking directly into the light, having it fall on your field of vision as you move around will cause no harm. In fact, your vision may improve! See where you are with that impression in about 2 weeks.
    • This light does not burn skin. It doesn't heat much at all, unlike infrared bulbs in a sauna. After being on for 20 or 30 minutes, there is some mild heat emitted. The device has fans in the back. Those are not there to avoid overheating for you. They are there to keep the light's LEDs cool because they don't like heat, which also reduces their lifespan. So forget about heat and burns. Trish has already learned all about this with her little lamp.

  How do you used the thing?  

• • • Apply the light to your skin at a distance of 4 to 6 inches away, without any concern. The "energy density" (Jouls/ cm²) = the "irradiance" (Watts/ M²) of the device x time. And as one backs up from the light, irradiance goes down quickly (by the square of the distance). Now if you stayed 2 feet away for an hour, that might be equivalent. But 10 minutes at 6 inches is certainly more practical.
    • The light doesn't pass effectively through clothing, so this requires getting undressed. 
    • Aiming the thing where? Well athletes who do pre- and post-workout sessions aim it at the muscles that they are trying to develop. They like the fact that it seems to limber them up, and provides a sense of increased energy. Also faster recovery from a workout.
    • Those being treated for traumatic brain injury, or even depression, get helmets of red light placed on their heads for 20 minute sessions a few times a week. It brings back their cognitive abilties. In ICUs, some people being ventilated for COVID-19 are getting treatments over the chest/ lung areas.
    • While the idea of directing the light at an involved area, like Trish's kneecap, may make sense, I'm also starting to think that if you just shined the thing on a thigh, it would have a benefit on cells at a distance in the body. Trish's increased mobility may be an example. 
    • Here's an added treat. The gut symptoms related to this and other viral illnesses, or post-antibiotics intestinal problems seem to benefit from this light. The "microbiome" refers to all the good bacteria one is supposed to have in one's intestine with (supposedly) myriad positive effects on the body from brain to skin. So absolutely nothing prevents you from shining this light on your belly. Your gut may like that. The literature supports the idea.
    • I think that if you were to bend your head forwards and place your forehead about an inch away from the thing, for 20 minutes, 3 days in a row, you may notice in subsequent days some increase in mental energy, whatever that means, but if overdone, bordering on jitteriness. So no need to do that. See if any of this registers better after a week of using the light.

  Your light has several lights - which light?  

• • • My light has two switches that turn on either the red (660 nanometers) or Near Infrared (NIR, 830 nm) lights. I think yours has buttons (and LEDs) that provide a few more choices. All I can say is that most of my experience and what one reads in the medical literature, is in those wavelengths or pretty close. The NIR lights look like they're barely working when on. That's because they are working just at the edge of the visible part of the spectrum. But they are in fact on and working when you flip the the correct switch. NIR light penetrates further into tissues than the Red. Don't worry too much about that. To get through the skull, some clinics working with cranial trauma patients only use NIR for that reason. It gets several cm (5?) into the brain.

  "So what do I do again?"  

• • • Get a kitchen timer or equivalent.
    • Warm up the space enough to be comfortable in a pair of gym shorts or sweat pants.
    • Expose front of torso, from waste, belly surface, to top of chest for 6 minutes.
    • Turn your back to the light, and do 6 minutes there as well.
    • Because the light is longer than it is wide, once placed at the right height, no other manipulations should be necessary.
    • For the first week that you do that, call it quits after 12 minutes total.
    • Thereafter, either continue just like that, or see what 15 minutes on a side feels like over time.
    • That may all seem short, compared with a usual period of exercise, but should be effective. Even less (4 minutes on a side) probably has a positive effect.
    • No need to get into thoughts like: "I didn't feel a thing. I think I'll do 30 minutes on a side."
    • If you don't feel like doing it after a day or two in a row, skip a day. They do that in the brain trauma clinics.

  What is actually happening in your body?  

• • • If you can decipher the instructions that came with it from China, thay may be well written, but probably not. And their pitch will be that if they're no longer going to sell you a tanning bed, then red light. Red light for acne, skin wrinkles, hair regrowth, general well being, and more energy for athletes plus faster recovery from exercise. Dermatologists are of course little by little getting into it. Some or all of those indications may find a little bit of scientific support.
    • Just as plants have chromophores that convert "sunlight" (including these wavelengths) into chlorophyll in their leaves, lo and behold, our cells have chromophores as well. These are proteins or grouped proteins in our cells that can convert light energy into cellular energy. The best known human chromophore is hemoglobin in our red cells. (Prepare to gloss over the sentence that follows)...
    • In mitochondria, the last protein complex in the electron transport chain that leads to our cells making ATP for energy, is a chromophore.
    • I'll stop with the science there, or almost.

  To get deeper into the science (if desired) 

• • • You recall that last April I sent a copy of a protocol for safekeeping. It relates to use of such lights in an ICU setting. That to simply say that I've been into this for a while now.
    • But so have the real scientists, and in many domains. So I have collected all of that together on my site LTCOVID.com.  There is a 7 minute "fly-by" overview to see where I've been and where I'm headed. But all of the documentation about this light and its effects on mitochondria and maybe fixing those damaged by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is on this page as well as others. That page has sort of a "converting disbelievers" flavor about it. But the references are quite solid science, published in the right places.
    • Enough on all of that.

  Enjoy the light(s)!  And don't hesitate to send any questions my way.  

Can Trish use the light? Yes. Can Pete use the light? Yes. If the virus saps one's cellular energy, why not fill up the cellular tanks to the max in case one catches the damn viral thing. Like filling up one's car's gas tank before heading out across the desert. Like part of an endurance athlete's goal of staying maximally fit, whatever that means.

I'll let you negotiate how much you want to charge per minute for use of your light.

They had a version that comes with a meter, but I decided against it.

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