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    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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  1. C

    Infrared Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) and Photobiomodulation (PBM)

    PBM is a term that includes Red and Near Infra Red light-they are not separate. Tell us more about Pulsed Light--much PBM is pulsed.
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    An update after a longish pause. With experience, I am now more sceptical of any connection between the use of my BIOMAX 900 and those heart issues. But I did manage to break a collar bone in a fall in early September, but am pretty sure that liberal (12-15m) of the light helped speed up the...
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    NIR Light Boost ATP Production in Eyes

    there is now some published research showing the success of using PBM to improve macular degeneration...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Mary, thanks for this info. I do take 400 or 600mg Mag daily, and have for a long time, but take your point about intracellular levels--may try to get that test.... There is now a thing called a Mitroclip that is intruduced through an artery or vein, like a stent, I believe--not available...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Mary; this answer is going to b a bit complicated--and reveal why I have been quiet for a while. I have known for quite a while that my Mitral valve is regurgitating more and more, and I began noticing disturbing signs of cardiac arrhythmias; finally got a Holter test which confirmed this...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    A bit more on overdosing--I think I had overlooked Whitten's main dealing with this--pp.252-255. I fear that he is probably right--I may have been doing just that since my BIOMX 900 was finally delivered. Ah well, experience is the best teacher, though it can be tough...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Fair question. There is a great deal of research published showing this, but in my case I get pain in my right foot sometimes, and my little Red Light Man NIR light helps that; and I often get rib cage pain that I strongly suspect is partly caused by pulmonary effluence, and my BIOMAX helps...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Here is the next bit of my thinking about dosing: everyone agrees that LLLT increases ATP production via that cytochrome molecule; but Naviaux thinks that, with the Cell Danger Response, many of those ATP molecules are leaving their proper "daytime" jobs and "moonlighting" as signals telling...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    I am now thinking about dosage for us with ME, and make a start by quoting two comments from Whitten's book. First, p.68-70: "this same effect would likely also benefit chronic fatigue syndrome...though it has not yet been studied" (we are trying!) the reference is to inflammation in the...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Mary; in spite of having a 90 angle, the BIOMAX achieves a very high density, and the wider angle means the light reaches further down my legs--having waited over 3 months for it, I think I will keep it! But will look up what Whitten has to say--somehow missed that when I was using the book.
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    I forgot one discovery I have made--though I am not at all colour blind--I can see red books across the room, etc, it is clear that I have lost a good deal of red sensitivity--I needed my daughter's reassurances that the unit was really pouring floods of red light into the room--it just did not...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Aspen--the stand works well-it is the real reason I bought the Platinum . Hope we will get a positive update from you one of these days. @tyson; it is a tricky issue. There is no doubt that the NIR penetrates better than the Red. But maybe the red is useful for all the skin and shallow...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Yes, bought their horizontal rack; I have a queen size bed all to myself (alas), so it hovers over the unused side. At the moment it is about 13 ins above me--want to reduce that to about 8--figuring out the best way to accomplish that. The light seems more yellow-golden than really red, but...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Just received my BIOMAX 900, which I am using horizontally suspended from their stand above my bed: comfortable! Have had two 10m sessions, one front and one back--much too early to give a report, and I still have to optimize the positioning and distance issues, but feel optimistic that this...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Glad it is helping some!
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Sorry not to have noted that you had already got the Whitten book. Sounds as if all is going pretty well, and you feel confident enough to do a little experimenting. And one does not have to make every day the same, I am sure!
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Aspen, I guess that you have discovered that Whitten has put the whole of his book free on the net?
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Hi, Aspen---you actually seem to be controlling your use very well, but take note if/when you stop improving, I think. And it may be wishful thinking that improvement may go all the way to full recovery--though of course it just might--I don't think anyone certainly knows! You might be a first!
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @ aspen ; if you are doing 2 x 10 mins a day, you are giving yourself a pretty high total dose, depending on your distance from the light--it is possible you are overdoing it a bit--as you know, that is possible--you won't get sick, but it may have less effect. Besides the Ari Whitten book, here...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Aspen-glad to hear that it is still being helpful. To return briefly to the issue of acupuncture, I believe there are low powered lasers designed specifically of this, and they should be much more useful than the Vielight nasal units, which are designed to spread their light rather widely...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Tthere are two versions of the Vielight thing--the 633 is LED, the 655 is a laser, and more expensive. And might be more effective. But you would have to be careful to not shine it into your eyes, though it is so low powered that I think a casual glance would be unlikely to do damage. I just...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    There are all-body effects from partial body coverage--the term is "abscopal". The little nasal units from Vielight work largely by irradiating the rich nest of blood vessels in the nasal cavity, and I have seen suggestions that if you have a small unit it might be worth aiming it at the veins...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Viala; generating all that light does take electrical energy, which generates heat, but these larger units all incorporate cooling fans, so you should not feel much heat from them--this is a major advantage they have over sunlight on a hot day--I do not deal with sun's heat the way I used to...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Aspen--great to hear that overall you are still doing well--"best energy yet!" I do have some news--and maybe should preface it by a kind of apology---I only came down with ME in 2007, when I was already 74--had had a full working life, and have a decent pension--no way "rich,", but no...
  25. C

    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Aspen--great to hear that is continuing to help--you have my sympathy for the restrictions on your life of this damned disease. I have been using low dose Mestinon for about two weeks now, and it is definitely helping a bit... I am sure that my discovery that Orion and Platinum have such...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    @Aspen, you are of course right--the Orions do come with separate switches--guess I just missed out. But they do not appear to give one the choice of 50/50, or 100% one way or the other. The really odd thing is that they look identical, and are all three identical in size, to the three...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Aspen, great to hear that you are doing so well--and glad to hear that the Orion also has separate switches for Red and NIR--not mentioned on their site--at least I did not see it. Actually I have been thinking of adding to my rather small Platinum 300, and .... well, it's Canadian!! I...
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    My Red/Near Infrared Light Therapy Experiment

    Thanks for the note, and for introducing me to a hitherto unknown to me brand. Actually it looks very like my Platinum bio 300 unit that I have been using for about two years, though that has separate switches for the Red and Near Infra Red sections, and is available in three versions--all Red...
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    PEMF device experiences

    @kelly8 and debored13--read your interesting posts again, and listened to that interview with Dennis; have since bought and used an OMI mat and ring, and am a bit disappointed. The interview with the ICES guy focused on orthopedic, local use, for which it seems designed. I think to aim at ME...
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    Make your own Vagus Nerve Stimulator

    Jim Deuchars leads a group at Leeds UK that has published a good series of papers on this stuff (against a background that tells us that parasympathetic drive is low as we age, and is low in ME) that I found useful. I bought a Body Clock TENS unit, and they also make auricular clips, but they...