Laser therapy is a modern version of an ancient treatment. The curative powers of light have been known for thousands of years. The light emitted by a laser can penetrate human tissue and the healing power of light can be used inside the body with laser therapy. Light stimulates the body's natural healing processes and laser therapy is able to stimulate healing for musculoskeletal injuries, degenerative conditions and wounds.

Light is energy, and when that energy is transferred the cells of the human body, it is used to stimulate cellular activity. When the light used in laser therapy reaches damaged tissue, the stimulated cellular activity speeds up the healing process already underway in the body. The monochromatic nature and polarized characteristics of laser light allow for the deep penetration of tissue to stimulate damaged tissue while leaving normal cells unaffected. The energy transmitted by the laser light is absorbed by molecules in tissue cells. The light energy is transformed into biochemical energy and allows cells to function normally, which vastly speeds up their natural healing ability. In other words, it is difficult for an injured cell to heal itself, but laser therapy gives the cell the energy it needs to return to normal function and improved healing.

There are a number of advantages to laser therapy over conventional treatment methods. First, laser therapy is non-invasive, which means other cells are not affected. Surgery ?invades? the body with a process that affects other cells and requires additional healing. Pain reduction, which is used to mask a symptiom until the body has healed itself, can also affect the body in ways that are not related to healing or correcting the problem. Laser therapy is also non-toxic, unlike many treatments that involve chemicals that are harmful to other body cells and processes. Laser therapy is also a very effective treatment. Cure rates of over 95% have been achieved - all in a process that has no recorded side-effects.

Another advantage of laser therapy is that it is a cure, not merely a treatment of symptoms. By stimulating the body's natural healing energies, the problem is actually repaired, not masked. Curing the problem helps in a number of ways. There are no side effects from chronic conditions, where the body adjusts its structure and/or functions to compensate for an injury or affliction. Natural healing keeps energy levels throughout the body at peak levels, which reduces the incidence of a ?domino effect? of issues related to a root problem.

While there are no known negative side effects of laser therapy, there's an extensive list of positive side effects. It has long been known that exercise stimulates the body's production of beta-endorphins, which inhibit pain. Beta-endorphins are responsible for the ?high? that many athletes experience when performing. Laser therapy also stimulates the production and release of beta-endorphins in the body.

Laser therapy increases the production of cortisol in the body. Cortisol is the body's natural version of cortisone and helps the body deal with stress. Again, by stimulating the body's own defences, laser therapy speeds the healing process while keeping the rest of the body in peak, unstressed condition.

The list of benefits of laser therapy goes on. Long-term effects include improved cellular metabolism, allowing the body to generate more energy; higher DNA production; higher levels of serotonin and acetylcholine that stimulate nerve function; faster cell replication, which means damaged or abnormal cells are replaced faster; the formulation of new blood cells is improved and cellular communication is enhanced.

Unfortunately, laser therapy does not stimulate or release enough energy to have repair very serious cellular injuries and afflictions and so it is ineffective for many diseases, such as cancer.

However, additional laser therapy benefits include stimulated immune response, improved lymphatic drainage, more histamine and growth hormone production.

Overall, laser therapy stimulates the body natural healing processes which carries with it a number of physiological benefits that not only speed the healing of a wound or injury, but improves the body's other processes to help prevent re-injury and better prepare the body for further stress.

If an injury is keeping you from an active lifestyle, the expert laser therapy practitioners at The Urban Athlete can help.