Disclaimer: The information on this page is intended for current patients so that they can understand their light therapy treatments better. We do not allow walk-ins to be treated with light therapy. You must have a comprehensive health consultation and examination by Dr. Campise so that he can determine if light therapy is right for you. Light therapy is not right for everyone. Dr. Campise uses light therapy as a supplemental therapy to support the chiropractic treatments he provides. Light therapy is not a stand alone treatment, it only works in conjunction with a comprehensive treatment plan including chiropractic, dietary changes, proper exercise, and appropriate stress management.
Light Therapy: The Combo Bed and The Red Bed
Understanding Your Treatments
What to Expect
The Red Bed:
You can start your red bed treatments at the maximum time right away. There are no UV rays. Just lie back and enjoy! If you ever feel too hot or uncomfortable, go ahead and get out early and let the doctor know.
Pure Red
The healing properties of red and infra-red light are well known. But one frequency of red light has the most benefit due to its ability to heal combined with its ability to penetrate deeply into the skin and muscles. Some of the benefits of our Red Bulbs: 1) Help skin to heal and rejuvenate. May reduce wrinkles, age spots, stretch marks, and other skin blemishes. 2) Help skin wounds and bruises heal quickly. 3) Dilate blood vessels which can lower blood pressure. 4) Help turn down the stress response, creating a sense of relaxation and peace. 5) Help balance hormones via the hypothalamus/pituitary/thyroid/adrenal/ovary/ testicle endocrine cycles. 6) Stimulate normal hair growth. 7) Help prevent anxiety. *These are off-label uses and have not been evaluated by the FDA.
The Combo Bed:
This bed does have UVA and UVB rays. Too much exposure can burn your skin like a sunburn. However, the bed is designed to safely treat you for 20 minutes without any burning IF you have a mild tan. If you have a mild tan over your entire body, then you can start at 12-15 minute sessions and quickly work up to the maximum 20 minute treatments. Otherwise, you will need to start at 5 minutes and slowly work up in time until you build a mild tan from the combo bed. This typically takes 2-4 weeks. Stay out of the sun the day of your treatment if it is summer. If at any time you feel too hot or uncomfortable, just get out early and let us know. Build up your mild tan as quickly as your skin type allows by using the combo bed up to 3 times weekly. Then use the bed 20 minutes per session, 1-4 times monthly as needed to maintain symptom improvements. If you haven’t been in the combo bed for a while, the amount of time you should start with will depend on how much of your tan remains to prevent burning. Do not wear anything on your skin while in the combo bed including sunscreen, make-up, oils, or lotions because these will block the treatment. To get the most out of the combo bed, be sure to ask the doctor about taking extra vitamin supplements on treatment days.
The Combo Bed
3 Types of Bulbs
Turquoise bulbs: Have specific frequencies of UVB and UVA that: 1) Help your body make vitamin D. 2) Kill yeast and bacteria living on the skin. 3) Boost the immune system. 4) Mildly tan the skin creating a natural sunscreen. Blue bulbs: Have specific frequencies of high UVA and visible blue light that: 5) Strongly stimulate the pineal gland in the brain to make serotonin, the feel-good chemical. 6) Increase melatonin at night so you can sleep deeply and feel refreshed in the morning. 7) Help prevent depression. 8) Increase motivation to be active, to exercise, and to stick to your health goals. Suddenly, doing the right things for your health just comes naturally. Red bulbs: A specific type of red light that has strong healing properties. See the Red Bed notes for details. *These are off-label uses and have not been evaluated by the FDA. *Excessive UVA/UVB ages the skin especially when in combination with vitamin insufficiencies.
When the sun is blocked by clouds, fog, or smog everyone notices at least a mildly dreary feeling about the world. This is due to a deficiency of feel-good chemicals in the brain that can’t be made at optimal levels without sunshine.
Even on a sunny day in the winter, because of the tilt of the Earth, sunshine is much less intense than in the summer. You cannot get optimal biological effects from sunshine in the winter. You can’t make vitamin D on a sunny day from November through February if you live north of San Diego. Even in the summer, you can only make vitamin D from sunshine for about a 3 hour window around solar noon.
Optim
al serotonin levels in the brain prevent depression and anxiety and help to regulate the body’s metabolism set-point via appetite control. Drugs like Prozac that affect serotonin levels don’t specifically target the brain, but increase serotonin activity everywhere, including the gut. This leads to weight gain. Light therapy has a normalizing effect on appetite. This is because light therapy mainly increases serotonin in the brain, not the gut, helping to stop emotional food cravings.
Sunshine is essential to health!
Sunshine is needed for all life on the planet. Without it, life as we know it would cease to exist in just a few weeks.
Adequate sunshine exposure is needed for optimal brain chemistry such as serotonin for anti-depression, and melatonin for anti-insomnia.
Certain wavelengths of sunshine are extremely healing to the skin and surface muscles of the body. They have anti- inflammatory, pain relieving, and tissue repair stimulating properties.
Our light therapy beds attempt to mimic the known good aspects of sunshine while minimizing the damaging aspects.