Laser Therapy Improves Nerve Repair

After severe injuries, many patients suffer not only bone, ligament, cartilage, and muscle damage, but also nerve damage. For the moment, we’ll talk about peripheral nerves.

Whether these nerves are crushed or even cut, they WILL grow back. The problem is that they grow back VERY SLOWLY (on average, 1 inch per month). The overall sensations of nerve recovery are NOT a smooth journey. The feelings during nerve healing range from numbness to burning, itching, pain, and throbbing, and eventually, hopefully, it will transition to normalcy as the nerve signaling “recalibrates” itself. This overall process ranges from several months to years for nerves to fully heal.

The good news is that several studies show how COLD LASER THERAPY can SPEED nerve repair. Specifically, 808 nm LASER treatment of damaged nerves showed SIGNIFICANT improved healing of both the myelin sheaths of damaged nerves AND higher levels of GAP43 protein expression compared to untreated damaged nerves.

The myelin sheath is the insulated layer around each nerve, much like the insulation around a copper wire. GAP43 protein expression has been termed as the “growth” protein because it is shown at high levels in nerve growth cones during nerve axon regeneration. It is considered a crucial component of an effective regenerative response in the nervous system. In other words, it’s an indicator of nerve growth. Higher levels of this protein suggest faster growth.

Several patients of mine have suffered nerve-damaging injuries from car accidents, skydiving crashes, mountain bike crashes, and even combat from military deployment. We have used both acupuncture and HIGH-quality LASER therapy to speed up the repair of damaged nerves.

We also must mention that damaged nerves can be the result of diabetes, chemotherapy, spinal injuries, stroke, and simple “old age”. Fortunately, we’ve seen dramatic improvement in nerve healing in these conditions, too!