Dementia Patient makes amazing progress using infra-red helmet

[semillama]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1034936/Dementia-patient-makes-amazing-progress-using-infrared-helmet.html?ITO=1490

"Two months ago Clem Fennell was fading fast. The victim of an aggressive type of dementia, the 57-year-old businessmen was unable to answer the phone, order a meal or string more than a couple of words together. In desperation, his family agreed to try a revolutionary new treatment - a bizarre-looking, experimental helmet devised by a British GP that bathes the brain in infra-red light twice a day. To their astonishment, Mr Fennel began to make an astonishing recovery in just three weeks.

While the helmet has yet to be proven in clinical trials, the family say the effects of the 10 minute sessions are incredible. Mr Fennell can now hold conversations and go shopping unaccompanied. The treatment is the brainchild of Dr Gordon Dougal, a County Durham GP. He believes the device could eventually help thousands of dementia patients. "Potentially, this is hugely significant," said Dr Dougal, who is based in Easington, County Durham and is a director of Virulite, a medical research company. Developed with Sunderland University, the helmet has 700 LED lights that penetrate the skull. They are thought to be the right wavelength to stimulate the growth of brain cells, slowing down the decline in memory and brain function and reversing symptoms of dementia."

Sounds pretty promising, I'd like to see this lead to a bright future for dementia patients. The article is pretty light on details , though - I admit I don't understand how infra red light penetrates the skull, but then again, my formal biology education pretty much ended with one class in college. It would have been nice if the article could have illuminated me on the exact function.

[rateyes]

1. Cool. Maybe Dubya should get one of those things. nt

[LiberalFighter]

5. Bush doesn't have dementia. What he has is incurable.

[jbnow]

2. Well it helps mice...I don't get it either but

what an exciting prospect. I looked for other sources because it seemed to good to be true
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7208768.stm

Tests in mice showed it improved learning ability and a study in humans is due to begin in the summer.

Current treatments for Alzheimer's delay progression of the disease but cannot reverse memory loss.

The infra-red therapy was first developed to treat cold sores
But when researchers studied how it worked, they found it stimulated growth of cells and may have applications in other conditions.

In tests in people with dementia using infra-red lasers, eight out of nine people showed some improvement, said Dr Gordon Dougal, a GP and director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham.

It says the trials of100 people with age-related memory problems were starting this summer, The January article mentions the same doctor as in the article and this July article you posted said later this year.
Can't be soon enough. With the aging of the baby boomers the social impact of dementia could be enormous and if something like this makes the difference in self care at home or nursing home care...

[NV Whino]

3. Jesus no! My mice are smart enough.

[global1]

4. Hmmmmm - Thinking Caps.......nt

[Celebration]

9. Infrared can penetrate several inches

Red light doesn't penetrate well, and violet less so, but the longer the wavelength, the deeper it penetrates.

[cosmik debris]

6. On that skull thing....

I haven't figured that out either, but in astronomy Infrared is very useful for imaging because it does penetrate a lot of stuff. So it is not completely unexpected that it could penetrate the skull.

I want to know more.

[semillama]

7. Darn it, didn't anyone get my puns? n/t

[cosmik debris]

8. Sorry, I'm not that bright. n/t

[Celebration]

10. yes, but

Why would you want to make light of this subject? Because I don't want DUers to be in the dark about all this, I gave your post a recommendation.

BTW, I posted about infrared light being penetrating in the wrong place.(see post #9) Sorry.