Therapeutic Lasers: The Side-Effect Free Parkinson’s Symptom Treatment

Parkinson’s Disease? What? How? 

Story by journalist Lizzy Scully

John was only in his early 50s, active and healthy. This disease was for people in their 60s! He was devastated when he got the PD diagnosis in the late 2010s. And then shocked. The disease would progress slowly, but never stop. Eventually he might be disabled by severe tremors and stiffness in his trunk, limbs and extremities. He might have difficulty moving, a shuffling gait and a stooped posture.

And then it started happening. His gait started to falter, and he’d stumble. His focus waned. A public speaker with a high-powered job, he could no longer think as quickly on his feet during presentations, something he’d always been good at. His balance started to fail. He saw no possibility that he could turn the clock back.

A Parkinson’s diagnosis is heart wrenching. It’s neurodegenerative, which means the nerves that transmit information to and from the brain or spinal cord stop functioning normally. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH), it’s a slow, progressive and unending movement disorder that affects muscles and organs. Not only does it cause the tremors and stiffness John started experiencing, it can also affect speech and coordination or cause cognitive impairment, depression, fatigue and constipation.

Parkinson’s origins remain unknown, though scientists have found that symptoms appear “when 50% or more of the dopamine neurons in the midbrain are lost” (NIH). Dopamine transmits messages to parts of the brain that coordinate muscle movement. The gradual loss of these neurons may result from environmental toxins, to put things really simply. And it may start in the gut, though it destroys cells in the brain.

But things turned around for John. He met Dr. Loyd Frank Jarrell, a Durango-based doctor of chiropractic, who has been practicing for nearly 30 years. Dr. Frank isn’t your typical chiropractor, however. He utilizes a variety of progressive, creative and forward-thinking techniques to treat the complications of diseases like Parkinson’s.

Part 1: Spinal Reflex Therapy—an assessment and treatment technique

Dr. Frank approaches healing from numerous avenues. He developed Spinal Reflex Analysis (SRA), a combined diagnosis and treatment tool to address spondylogenic reflex syndrome (SRS). This, he says, is the common root cause of most nerve, muscle, joint and skeletal pain and dysfunction.

Looking at it another way, an SRS is your body’s attempt to compensate for spinal instability brought on by injury or disease, including Parkinson’s, for example. Your brain tells you, “PAIN” to warn you of impending damage to your body, and then your body hurts, shakes, fatigues quickly or does any number of things you don’t want it to do and that you can’t seem to control.

When developing SRA, he drew from research on spinal instability studies over 85 years, current scientific concepts in physiology and neurology and nearly three decades of clinical and therapeutic application on his own patients. He evaluated studies on how instability in the vertebra create a cascade of reactions throughout the body and he created solutions that can be accessed in seconds.

Over the last couple decades, he has trained thousands of physical therapists, massage therapists, chiropractors, nurse practitioners, athletic trainers and medical doctors in these techniques. He also has a book and software app to help health care workers quickly evaluate and treat patients.

So how does he figure out what’s wrong? He uses a handheld thermal imager (aka a “point and shoot” camera) to assess where a patient’s tissue is hot and inflamed. Then he analyzes those infrared images and identifies possible treatments that might include one or more of the following: chiropractic adjustments, nerve/muscle therapy, exercises to strengthen unstable sections of the spine, or laser therapy (aka “photo-bio-modulation).

Part II: It All Starts with Light

High power/high frequency laser therapy is the use of advanced photo technology that uses “warm to the touch” levels of red and near infrared light (i.e., levels with no, or low-level heat on your skin) to slow or stop the symptoms caused by injury, disease or aging. Many of Dr. Frank’s patients, especially the Parkinson’s patients like John, have experienced significant, long-lasting results.

“The laser used is a refined version of particular wavelengths found in sunlight that rapidly activate cell level repair and healing,” Dr. Frank explains. “These wavelengths of light improve micro-circulation in tissue and deliver increased amounts of nutrition and oxygen, modulate the rate of local mast cell activity in injured or damaged tissue and improves the immune system’s response to trauma, dysfunction and toxicity.”

They also reduce pain and suffering and can “increase nerve health and protection from stress, toxins, chemicals, medications and neurodegeneration.”

Increasing numbers of research studies confirm the positive effects of this type of therapy. According to a January 2016 Frontiers in Neuroscience journal article, “Red to infrared light therapy, and in particular light in the near infrared range (NIr), is emerging as a safe and effective therapy that is capable of arresting neuronal death.” They recommend NIr therapy as a disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients.

Dr. Frank emphasizes that he does not *cure* patients, but rather improves their health-related quality of life until a cure can be found. “I focus extensively on health-related quality-of-life factors that define our experience of health and wellness. My patients range from a few years old to 99 years young and our clinical outcomes demonstrate as much as a 50 – 100% reduction in multiple nerve, muscle and skeletal symptoms across a broad array of conditions.”

Wow, huh? John agrees wholeheartedly. He experienced numerous monumental results from Dr. Frank’s treatment, including an improved ability to walk, focus and balance.

“I really saw myself actually moving in a positive direction, which was so wonderful,” John explains of his months working with Dr. Frank. “And there weren’t any downsides. It doesn’t feel like there are a lot of options for Parkinson’s patients. We just have to take more and more medication. So, to actually have the possibility of staying healthy for longer, it’s a pretty huge thing for me."

Dr. Frank is a partner in Lasene.com with therapy centers planned for the U.S. Europe and Asia.  He can also be reached at hello@drafrankjarrell.com.