Hi, Sasha–I shall try to answer those questions reasonably shortly, but the history is a bit complex! Like you, I was fired up by Doidge’s book–I had long known his previous book, so got this quite early–great stuff–I want one of those PoNS units, currently being tried on MS at McGill/Montreal Neuro. Decided I wanted one or two of the units used in the papers by M. Naeser and A. Saltmarche listed in his notes, so wrote to Margaret Naeser, who put me in touch with both Anita and Lew Lim–she copied to them, and both answered to me. Decided to start with the MED-X units because they had been proved in published research, discussed with Anita, and bought two of the capsules ( see
http://www.medxhealth.com/cmsAssets/docs/pdfs/Brochures/700-0142-7109-RevD_Home-OG-Brochure.pdf )–pictured is the older model, mine are a little different, and white. She offered me either a 3 capsule console that had been used in one of the research projects, or two single console units, new or used. I ended up buying two new units at a fair price–I am 82 and if I am going to improve it had better be soon, so was prepared to spend some money on a project that looked both promising and interesting. Anita asked for some feedback, but I made it clear that I kept open the possibility of adding a Vielight at some point–Margaret Naeser had made it clear that using both routes was important.
So I started using the MED-X units, aiming to slowly raise the dose using as targets two papers by Naeser et al listed in Doidge’s notes and found in PubMed, aimed at stroke and TBI ( concussion, etc) patients, with "neurodegenerative" diseases like AD and PD as additional targets. But then discovered that a local store carried the Vielights, went to take a look, was offered a free instore trial of the 810, went home and realized that the tinnitus that usually accompanied music had resolved, and a few days later bought an 810. At the same time I recommended a 633 to a friend who while decidedly not ME/CFS has some circulation problems in her right calf and some sinus congestion that I thought the 633 might help. So having learned how to programme the MED-X units (they are designed for use by health care professionals) started ramping up my protocol, meanwhile beginning a major research project into all this fascinating stuff.
As I recorded above, I ran into some problems, but they are now resolved, and I am continuing to use all the units–I added the 633 a couple of months ago after seeing what it did for my friend’s calf–impressed by its work on circulation problems. And Lew told me that in addition to Rudi he now had quite a few users who found the combo very effective. So I did in fact start out with one, and then added the two Vielights sequentially-
To add a bit to my current thinking, it has become clearer to me that though we share some things with Parkinson’s people, we are considerably closer to MS, and so refocused myself and found those very few papers on LLLT in MS, and reshaped my picture of what I was trying to aim at. One problem of course is that we still have no clear idea of the etiology of our disease. But we know that the ANS is central–Julia Newton’s group has made that clear, and I like the comment attributed to Nancy Klimas on post exercise gene expression studies—"first the ANS tanks, and then it takes the immune system down with it." And we have documented circulatory and cardiac problems. In addition, with the Rituximab story updated, there are now strong suggestions that we suffer from an autoimmune attack focused on the endothelium, which of course plays a central role in circulatory and heart activity.
The 633 aims at blood irradiation, and showed it could do good work there with my friend–and now with my varicose veins. Maybe it is partly responsible for the slow diminution of my OI. The 810, using a higher frequency, and also pulsed delivery, can penetrate further, and aims at reaching the brain stem and improving function there, including the ANS. Sounded like a win-win solution to me, and I think it is working, albeit slowly–my age is doubtless a factor there.
A few more things I have I think learned. One is not to use a pulsed unit like the 810 with another pulsed unit–that might confuse the brain. It would be OK to use the 810 with a continuous wave unit. Don’t overdrive–the "hormesis" principle–a tiny bit may be useless, too much may damage, get it just right in the middle–though noone knows exactly where that is. We need to recognize that we are participating in an ongoing and very interesting experiment; we are part of the experimental team, not just passive patients. There is ongoing discussion about the best wavelengths for specific purposes ( essays by T. Karu and M. Hamblin), pulsed or continuous (pulsed seems to be winning–deeper penetration, less danger of heating effects), total energy delivered, rate of delivery: all are still being discussed.
Finally, a few details on the MED-X capsules. Each one contains 9 diodes set at 633nm, power 1mW, plus 52 diodes set at 870nm, power 9.5mW, delivering in total 1 Joule/cm sq. per 45 seconds. Treatment area 22.48 cm sq. –they are quite small, about 3ins diameter. They can be set to light for up to 20 J–this means around 15mins Continuous Wave, around 30 mins pulsed at 50% Duty Cycle. The pulsing can be set anywhere from 2 to 2,000 hz, duty cycle continuous or from 10% to 90%. So almost infinitely adjustable. Since they are designed for programming by health professionals, they use a programming key, which is then replaced by the capsule itself and handed over for home use. One has to learn how to programme them, but details are given in the little booklet that comes with them; a bit tricky, but not difficult. If I can master it, so can you. Each capsule comes with its own power and control unit–quite small. They come with removable straps for use on joints and limbs, but those are too short for transcranial use, and are removable.
They are also available as a set of 3 capsules controlled from a single control unit. Two separate capsules can be hand held over the chosen areas of the skull; to use a 3 capsule unit, you would need to get something like a breathable swimming hair cap to hold them in place on your head.
I have no idea how this compares with the units rented and sold by Fred Kahn (see his Bioflex site), and would be interested to learn.
Finally, Anita Saltmarche told me she handles retail requests for MED-X, who are set up for sales to professionals–she worked for the company for several years, and was associated with the development of these units. I have her permission to give out her email to anyone seriously interested in buying these units, but I will not give it here. PM me if you want to know more.
I like the units, and they are much cheaper than the Bioflex units from Kahn’s outfit, though probably less powerful and do not contain any laser diodes. I have not done a thorough check of what there is available on the market–there are quite a few–but am content to keep working with these units, some of which Margaret Naeser is still using in her research treatment.