In this episode of Medicine Health, Dr. Paul Anderson introduces photodynamic (photobiomodulation) therapies as a potentially useful option for chronic illnesses such as post‑COVID syndrome, post‑cancer recovery, and other inflammatory conditions. He explains the spectrum of light‑based treatments—from external red/near‑infrared panels and helmet arrays to internal endolaser (fiber‑optic) systems delivered via IV catheters. The discussion covers how different wavelengths interact with tissue (deep‑penetrating infrared vs. shallow UV/violet), the antimicrobial and cellular signaling effects of specific bands, and the physiological basis for therapeutic benefit. Anderson highlights a recent September 2022 study showing that brief infrared exposure (10‑minute sessions) can dampen TLR4‑dependent hyper‑inflammation linked to COVID‑19, offering a non‑invasive way to modulate lung and cardiac inflammation (myocarditis). He outlines a range of clinical applications (post‑COVID lung injury, myocarditis, stroke, brain trauma, oncology, dermatology), practical delivery formats (external devices, home‑use helmets, IV endolaser setups), and emphasizes safety, affordability, and the necessity of consulting a qualified practitioner. The episode concludes by positioning photodynamic therapy alongside other specialty modalities like hyperbaric oxygen and IV nutrient therapy, urging listeners to seek professional guidance before adoption.
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Welcome back to Medicine Health with Dr. Paul Anderson. That's me, I'm Dr. Paul. And today in our series of why can't I get better with— you fill in the blank— chronic illness, post-COVID, healing after cancer, etc., we're talking about potentially helpful therapies. So in the world of potentially helpful therapies, the next one we want to talk about is photodynamic therapy. And that sounds maybe, unless you've done it a little bit strange because photo means light, dynamic means there's something happening other than static light, and then therapy is therapy. Basically, photodynamic therapies come in a lot of forms. And so you may have seen something more global like red light therapy. There's a lot of red light therapy stuff you see on social media, et cetera, for helping with hormonal modulation and other things like like that where you're literally having red light sources that are, you know, cascading on your body. There's also approved in, you know, North America and most of the world red light therapies that they kind of look like a helmet and they're actually doing red light therapy to the skull and a little bit to the brain. And they're used in dermatology and oncology and a few other places like that. Then there are photodynamic or light therapies that would be what we would call an endolaser or an inside treatment. So now we're going from light that's on the outside of us to light that may be going through a fiber optic cannula or catheter that is inside of your body somehow. Now, this is done a little bit more I will say, in, in countries outside of North America, although it is done here in North America. It is a very useful therapy, but obviously this is a little more invasive than having the light on the outside of you. And so why would these things even work? It seems like weird that, you know, a light would create any, you know, physiologic change other than maybe a sunburn or something. Like that? Well, what we know based on a lot of research and science over time, etc., because light therapies, light as a healing modality, is a very old idea. This is not something that's new, and that's why some of these therapies have been approved for a long period of time. What we know is that certain things like some infections do not do well in the presence of certain wavelengths of light. Some cell processes are shifted in the presence of certain wavelengths of light, and there's any number of other things that can happen. Well, how does that work? Well, one of the ways that it works is if we remember the visible light spectrum, and so, you know, you've got, you know, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, you know, the rainbow spectrum. That's the part we can see. Now, on the blue end, then we have ultraviolet, and on the red end we have infrared, and those are just beyond where we can see. Okay, and there's of course different, uh, kind of flavors of those as well. But what we found a long time ago was that There were certain physical or physiological changes when we were down, especially in the violet and ultraviolet ends of the spectrum, such as some antimicrobial abilities and other things of that nature. And then in the red end or the infrared end of the spectrum, there's different sort of shifts that go on. And this is why I was saying, you know, now on, on social media, you see people sometimes they're sitting in a You know, red light, they'll call it red light therapy. Usually it's near infrared and there's a mixture of red and infrared in there, which is why you can see it. And they're doing that and they're saying, well, this is helping me with, and you fill in the blank. Could be energy, it could be hormones, could be any number of things. So external does work. Now, what we know with external application of light therapy is the further you go in the red or infrared end, the deeper it goes through into your body, like through your skin and into the blood and everything like that. The further you are on the blue end of the spectrum, the shallower it goes. Now, that's why a lot of the old ultraviolet therapies would be done around mucous membranes like your mouth, ear, nose, and throat, stuff like that, because it's easier to get that in there, or it's more of a topical effect. But then that's where the endolaser, the lasers that go inside the body, are used. And these are used in oncology. They're used in a lot of other chronic illnesses, et cetera. And so with an endolaser, for example, when we would use them clinically, we would start an IV, and there would be in the IV catheter setup, there would be a fiber optic. And then there would be on the outside of the person, of course, the electronics that would go to the generator that would generate the wavelength and spectrum. And so then that would give whatever light you were doing, all the way from, you know, infrared to ultraviolet, everything in between, access to the cells and the plasma, etc. Now it turns out that in itself has shifts that it does inside of your body and inside of your biology. So how would this be useful? Now, as I say in all these little modules, in the show notes I'm going to put together some links so you can read about these things and you know, see what's going on. Is this like a lot of these therapies, a therapy you're going to find at your local doctor's office? Probably not. A lot of these things like intravenous nutrient therapy and hyperbaric oxygen and photodynamic therapy, they're all going to be usually things that are done more in specialty areas and, and all of that. But one of the papers I'm going to give you a link to came out fairly recently In this modern world, if you're listening right now, it's September 2022, we're still in the world of COVID and that sort of compresses timelines, but it's not too old of a paper, and this particular paper, so I'm going to link to the paper, I'm also going to link to another medical content provider, you'll have a link to their thing about it if you really want to watch an in-depth video about it. This particular paper talks about infrared light. So we're on the infrared end of the spectrum, relieving— I'll just read the way they did the title— TLR4-dependent hyperinflammation of the type induced by COVID-19. So spike protein problems are ubiquitous with people who've had, you know, COVID-19 or have had most of the vaccines. And one of the problems is, what do we do if we get too inflamed? inflamed. So as we're seeing now with COVID we have a chance of lung or heart inflammation. So heart inflammation we call often myocarditis in post-vaccine, especially in younger males. We have a higher signal for myocarditis in the research. And so people, whether it's COVID or whether it's the vaccine or whatever, there's some issues around that. Now this paper goes in very deeply to why would that happen? But the important thing really is they were looking at what could we do that could be non-invasive. So these are external therapies that could be helpful. And so the writers here say the leading cause of mortality from COVID-19 infection is respiratory distress due to exaggerated immune host response. And now we could add in heart inflammation, myocarditis, etc. Same mechanism. And drug-based therapies are limited efficacy, they're costly, and they have negative side effects. By contrast, photobiomodulation therapy, which involves periodic brief exposure to red or infrared light, is non-invasive. It's not going inside you. It's very safe, which is true. It's very affordable, that's also true. And it's used to treat a lot of inflammatory diseases. Now, what they come up with here then is a list, and if you'll get the link if you really want to dive into this, and they talk about all of the chemistry, the immune chemistry in the body that shifted simply by external red or infrared light being applied to the body. And what they did was they did exposures for 10 minutes, which is not very long, and then repeated it. Now, what they have shown is that the inflammatory response is modulated. So you don't want your inflammatory response to go away because that's part of your immune function, your immune response. What you want with your inflammatory response is for it to be more level and more normal. And so this is very exciting because regardless of how you got the inflammation or the injury, whether it was due to COVID primary infection or it's post-COVID or it's due to the way the vaccine worked on your body, or some combination thereof, doesn't matter, this is going to help with all of the inflammatory activity. Now they show a couple of possibilities for applications with patients, now of course if you're just listening on a podcast you won't see this, but again it'll be in the paper I link, and essentially what you have is a And of course, keep in mind they're focusing on the lungs, but you have something that is aimed at the chest from the front and the back, and they're going to do 10 minutes and take a break, 10 more minutes, etc. And it actually turns out that this modulates and levels out the inflammatory reactivity that causes the most trouble in COVID, post-COVID, and even in vaccine problems. So This is a really wonderful— it's a wonderful piece of data. It's a really inexpensive sort of treatment when it's external. When you get to endolasers that are going in your body or in your vascular system, that's more expensive. External therapies are much easier to obtain, easier to get, etc. Obviously, with anything such as you know, putting things in your body or giving yourself light treatments or any other thing, you want to talk to your healthcare provider because, uh, and you want to make sure they do this therapy. Because if you go to a healthcare provider that doesn't do photobiomodulation or photodynamic therapy, uh, they'll either refer you to somebody or they'll say, well, I don't know anything about that, I don't think that works. Uh, so you do want to talk to somebody who knows what they're doing. But the bottom line with it is it— especially these external therapies— have a real high yield potentially for a lot of problems. Now, these same things go on with other external uses of the red end of the spectrum. So other uses could include things like post-stroke care, Post-brain trauma care, a lot of things like that. We use those. Remember I said there's a red infrared light setup that looks like a helmet, so it fits on your head and it's got the light array kind of, you know, shooting the light down this way and it goes in. Uh, it's the same as these ones they're showing in this one to do the heart and the lungs. It's there on the outside, right? So that works, uh, can work quite well and it can be quite synergistic. One of the other benefits of external photobiomodulation or photodynamic therapies is that if the device is appropriate and the wavelengths are appropriate, et cetera, it can often be prescribed so that you can just do the treatment at home. Very, very useful. So photodynamic therapies come in a lot of different types and styles. They are generally using the visible or near-visible spectrum, so all the way from ultraviolet into violet up to red and infrared and all the colors in between. The most commonly used colors are red infrared or violet and ultraviolet because they have the most broad-ranging effects on people. And for external uses, more is infrared. And then like I say there's a little bit of ultraviolet. It's maybe done with mucous membranes or ear, nose, and throat, other areas such as that. So that's another nice possibility that can be used with photodynamic therapy. Well, we're running down on time to talk about photodynamic therapy, but in summary, it's a lot like, say, hyperbaric or IV therapies or heat therapies, et cetera. Number one, talk to a practitioner, healthcare practitioner about it who does this. Get proper advice, proper setup, proper prescribing, and then be monitored for it. But photodynamic therapy, again, I'll put some links in, you can read about it. Very, very interesting, very useful in all of the chronic illness end of the spectrum. We'll take a little break here. We'll be right back with the next module.
