I read it releases photons that targets particular molecules like those found in the mitochondria, but all the information I find about it is from a laser company or doctor’s office. I am completing laser therapy sessions after a recent surgery to speed recovery time. What is this sorcery!?
In: Biology
I’ve read into this a bit before. I’m not sure that we a tually know all that much about how it works or whether it is really effective. But the basic idea is that its using relatively weak lasers that can penetrate a few centimeters into your tissue without causing damage (like say the high powered lasers used in cancer treatment to target and destroy cancer cells). The generally accepted theory is this, eli5 as I can be: You may have heard of “ATP” before, often described as the currency of the cell. What this molecule does is travel around your cell and provides the energy needed for lots of biochemical reactions to take place. The way this works is that the “TP” in ATP stands for triphosphate, so it’s a molecule with 3 bound phosphates; those bonds have a lot of chemical energy stored in them. It gives energy to other reactions by breaking one of those bonds to become ADP, diphosphate, which then has to be “recharged” by adding the 3rd phosphate back. Normally they are recharged by a very long and complex chain of reactions called the electron transport chain that takes place at the mitochondria. But the enzyme involved in the final step that actually ultimately recharges the ATP is photosensitive, meaning it can be activated by photons – like those from the lasers in your therapy. So the theory is basically that the laser therapy bypasses most of the steps in the process to recharge ATP, giving the cell more energy currency faster to do the things it needs to promote healing. Hopefully that makes sense and wasn’t too advanced.
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