While alternative treatments are taking one step forward in providing patients with non-pharmacological methods for treatment, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is trying to make sure that pharmaceutical options are always regarded as a more effective option—even when they’re scientifically proven otherwise.
The FDA recently approved a new Alzheimer's disease drug that has immense evidence proving that it isn't an effective treatment option for the disease even though it was given the green light. Drugmaker Biogen's aducanumab entered the market to treat mild stages of Alzheimer's disease. While many families who have loved ones with Alzheimer's disease viewed this as a ray of light, it appears that Biogen isn't holding up to its promise.
Two large clinical trials tested aducanumab’s performance, proving the results were insignificant at best, resulting in Biogen halting the studies. However, through collaboration, the FDA and Biogen were able to collect a small amount of data from one study, showing that the drug provided a small reduction in cognitive decline among patients with mild Alzheimers who took a higher dosage of aducanumab.
Aducanumab is estimated to cost $20,000 to $50,000 a year per patient, with 2 million Americans eligible candidates for treatment. Naturally, alternative and cost-effective treatments, such as light therapy, are being swept under the rug.
But while this drug continues to be controversial, Alzheimer’s patients don’t need to waste time waiting for its results. It’s time that Alzheimer’s patients looked at other methods of treatment. Light therapy for Alzheimer's has proven to be highly effective in slowing down Alzheimer’s symptoms.
Giving Alzheimer’s patients the ability to treat themselves without invasive methods at a fraction of the cost isn’t what the pharmaceutical industry wants to advocate. However, they cannot deny science.
But how do Alzheimer’s disease and light therapy work together?
As we know, Alzheimer’s slowly destroys brain tissue through the death of cells. Through light therapy, it’s been proven that this method can slow down the process in various ways. Light therapy works on the cellular level, improving the connection between nerve cells, reducing inflammation, and preventing cellular death.
In 2016, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge found that shining a light into the eyes of mice reduced the toxic buildup of amyloid and tau proteins. With light therapy suppressing Beta-amyloid buildup, brain cells can return to their natural state.
Second, it boosts a form of brain wave called gamma oscillation which is impaired in people with Alzheimer’s disease. “It seems,” says senior study author Li-Huei Tsai, professor of neuroscience and director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, “that neurodegeneration is largely prevented.”
Lastly, light therapy has also been shown to help strengthen the ability of microglia—a type of immune cell—to handle inflammation. Doing so allows the microglia to clear waste materials in the brain, preventing the buildup of toxic plaques and tangles.
Currently, no other method of treatment provides this level of neuroprotection. As of now, light therapy is the only alternative treatment that's showing real results. While the FDA is approving a drug with inconclusive results on its effectiveness, innovative new treatments like light therapy are proving to majorly help patients here and now.
At Kaiyan Medical, we specialize in manufacturing MDA-certified and FDA-approved light therapy devices used for clinical or at-home use. It's time Alzheimer's patients are given the opportunity to be treated with methods that work.
Losing our memory is something we all fear of. Alzheimer's disease is a very difficult, and the most common form of dementia. This general term refers to the loss of memory and other intellectual skills so severe that it interferes with daily life. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 50-80% of dementia cases.
Alzheimer's is a neurological disorder believed to have genetic components. It's thought to be caused by the abnormal build-up of proteins in and around brain cells; and Alzheimer's is not just a disease of old age, as it was once widely believed to be. Up to 5% of people suffering from this disease have an early onset of Alzheimer's disease (also known as "early-onset"), which often appears when a person is between forty and fifty years old.
It is a life-altering disease and can be extremely challenging. It's not something that affects only the patient; it is a disease that alters the lives of those around you, as well.
The life expectancy after diagnosis is typically eight to ten years. Of course, this varies; a person can live up to 20 years post-diagnosis. Sometimes people don't get diagnosed for a few years, thus leading them to have less time.
When Alzheimer's disease strikes, it initially presents symptoms that may be so mild that they go unnoticed by both the patient and his family; however, as the disease progresses, these symptoms become more evident and begin to interfere with daily activities and relationships.
The main symptoms are significant memory loss, difficulties in producing and understanding language, inability to recognize people, objects, or places, decoding external stimuli, and difficulty performing simple voluntary movements, such as using objects. As the disease progresses, psychiatric symptoms often occur, such as depression, anxiety, apathy, irritability, and even aggression.
A person with Alzheimer's needs a safe place and environment. Things must be kept simple, and their life significantly changes. You can't really expect a person suffering from this disorder to be the same. Their personality and behavioral changes are entirely normal.
The list of light therapy uses and benefits goes on and on, as it is a form of treatment that can help with many health issues and disorders. However, for people with Alzheimer's, it can have a powerful effect on their experience.
Red light therapy is a form of therapy that works simply by producing light. There are many different devices, lightboxes, masks, and lamps that are used. The ultraviolet rays you receive in a light therapy session are the ones who directly target at the cellular level. Once the cells are penetrated by light, they accelerate at their reproductive level, increasing ATP production. ATP is the powerhouse of the mitochondria, essential for our system to function optimally.
A review of red light therapy is something we can all benefit from. There are no downsides to red light therapy, as it is a non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical procedure.
Light therapy focuses on the cellular level. MRI imaging uncovered a 61% reduction in whole-brain atrophy and losses of volume in areas associated with Alzheimer's from red light therapy treatments. It works by rejuvenating the cells, creating new ones at a higher rate. Our organism benefits from cellular alteration because of the production of new cells. This means they're not only fresh cells, but they're stronger than before.
Light therapy masks help suppress Beta-amyloid (Aβ) build-up, the protein that forms senile plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer's and dementia. So it's focusing on getting rid of the root of the problem. With a reduced build-up, our brain cells return to their natural state, the protein having been successfully eradicated.
Kaiyan specializes in light therapy devices that are MDASAP-certified and FDA-approved, making our product easy and accessible, perfect for at-home treatments – even for some of the most challenging diseases and health conditions. Contact our team for more information.
Alzheimer’s is a very complex disease, and one that is still undergoing significant research – there’s still a lot we still don’t understand about how and why this disease happens.
We know that Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that starts slowly and progressively worsens in most cases, and the actual memory loss and cognitive issues experienced we refer to as dementia; Alzheimer's is the physical disease that causes dementia to develop. When a person is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the connections between their nerve cells within the brain are damaged and eventually entirely lost.
What causes the connections between the nerves to disappear is protein. Protein builds up with patients with Alzheimer's, specifically within the brain, which then causes abnormal structures we call "plaques" and "tangles." The lost connection inevitably leads to the complete death of the nerve cell, leading to lost brain tissue.
But, in recent years, studies have shown that there could be a way to improve and lessen the symptoms of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s. And it starts with light therapy.
You may have heard about light therapy, but didn’t think much of it with respect to degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Well, think again. Light therapy is a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical treatment for the body and mind. It targets the pathology at the cellular level, contributing to ATP stimulation and increasing and improving cell reproduction. Essentially, it can help with providing better and stronger cells to the body, thus resulting in a stronger organism and overall improved health.
Research suggests that exposure to a light flickering at 40 Hz may promote gamma-wave brain activity, which could potentially activate cells in the brain to eliminate the plaques that are common in Alzheimer's disease. They are called beta-amyloid plaques, ones that exist due to the protein build-up.
There has been testing surrounding the development of a light-sensitive molecule called a photo-oxygenation catalyst that's injected into live mice with Alzheimer's disease. Researchers have shown that while the catalyst remains mostly inactive as it rests in the cells, it activates when hit with near-infrared light. This light therapy treatment has been used by researchers on mice brains for 30 minutes each day for one week, and significant reductions have been observed in the amyloid proteins. According to the study, they successfully disrupted the amyloid structures by changing the chemical bonds holding them together.
Now that the protein has been disrupted, after destabilizing the plaque, the body’s immune system takes over and clears away the damaged cells. The researchers saw a phase occurring in mouse cells growing in a dish. The brain’s immune system enveloped the oxygenated amyloids and broke them down in acidic compartments.
Another recent investigation featured in Neuron shows that boosting gamma oscillations can improve the connection between nerve cells, reduce inflammation, and preserve against cell death in mouse models of Alzheimer’s. It also shows that the treatment's far-reaching effects involve nerve cells, or neurons, and a type of immune cell called microglia.
The researchers also examined gene changes in the treated and untreated mice. They found that the nerve cells of untreated mice had reduced activity in genes that repair DNA and in those that help operate the connections between nerve cells. The treated mice, on the other hand, showed greater activity in these genes. The treated mice had also been seen making more connections between nerve cells, and that these connections operated more coherently.
Through technological advancement, light therapy is making tremendous leaps forward in helping people with Alzheimer’s. To learn more about the benefits of light therapy on other degenerative diseases, head to our blog. If you’re interested in learning more about the power of light therapy in your own life or for your business, please reach out to our team – we look forward to connecting.
Brain waves are oscillating electrical voltages in the brain, measuring just a few millionths of a volt. At the root of all our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are the communication between neurons within our brains. Brainwaves are produced by synchronized electrical pulses from masses of neurons communicating with each other.
Brainwaves are detected using sensors placed on the scalp. They are divided into bandwidths to describe their functions but are the best thought of as a continuous spectrum of consciousness, from slow, loud, and functional — to fast, subtle, and complex.
It is a handy analogy to think of brainwaves as musical notes — the low-frequency waves are like a deeply penetrating drum beat, while the higher frequency brainwaves are more like a subtle high pitched flute. Like a symphony, the higher and lower frequencies link and cohere with each other through harmonics.
Our brainwaves change according to what we’re doing and feeling. When slower brainwaves are dominant, we can feel tired, slow, sluggish, or dreamy. The higher frequencies are dominant when we feel wired or hyper-alert.
The descriptions that follow are only broad descriptions — in practice, things are far more complex, and brainwaves reflect different aspects of different locations in the brain.
Brainwave speed is measured in Hertz (cycles per second), and they are divided into bands delineating slow, moderate, and fast waves.
Infra-Low brainwaves (also known as Slow Cortical Potentials) are thought to be the basic cortical rhythms that underlie our higher brain functions. Very little is known about infra-low brainwaves. Their slow nature makes them difficult to detect and accurately measure, so few studies have been done. They appear to play a major role in brain timing and network function.
Delta brainwaves are slow, loud brainwaves (low frequency and deeply penetrating, like a drumbeat). They are generated in deepest meditation and dreamless sleep. Delta waves suspend external awareness and are the source of empathy. Healing and regeneration are stimulated in this state, and that is why deep restorative sleep is so essential to the healing process.
Theta brainwaves occur most often in sleep but are also dominant in deep meditation. Theta is our gateway to learning, memory, and intuition. In theta, our senses are withdrawn from the external world and focused on signals originating from within. Twilight states that we normally only experience fleetingly as we wake or drift off to sleep. In theta, we dream; vivid imagery, intuition, and information beyond our normal conscious awareness. It’s where we hold our ‘stuff,’ our fears, troubled history, and nightmares.
Alpha brainwaves are dominant during quietly flowing thoughts and in some meditative states. Alpha is ‘the power of now,’ being here, in the present. Alpha is the resting state of the brain. Alpha waves aid overall mental coordination, calmness, alertness, mind/body integration, and learning.
Beta brainwaves dominate our normal waking state of consciousness when attention is directed towards cognitive tasks and the outside world. Beta is a ‘fast’ activity, present when alert, attentive, engaged in problem-solving, judgment, decision making, or focused mental activity.
Beta brainwaves are further divided into three bands; Lo-Beta (Beta1, 12–15Hz) can be thought of as a ‘fast idle’ or musing. Beta (Beta2, 15–22Hz) is the high engagement or actively figuring something out. Hi-Beta (Beta3, 22–38Hz) is a highly complex thought, integrating new experiences, high anxiety, or excitement. Continual high-frequency processing is not a very efficient way to run the brain, as it takes a tremendous amount of energy.
Gamma brainwaves are the fastest brain waves (high frequency, like a flute) and relate to the simultaneous processing of information from different brain areas. Gamma brainwaves pass information rapidly and quietly. The most subtle of the brainwave frequencies, the mind has to be quiet to access gamma.
Gamma was dismissed as ‘spare brain noise’ until researchers discovered it was highly active in states of universal love, altruism, and the ‘higher virtues.’ Gamma is also above the frequency of neuronal firing, so how it is generated remains a mystery. It is speculated that gamma rhythms modulate perception and consciousness and that a greater presence of gamma relates to expanded consciousness and spiritual emergence.
With a new $1.8 million grant from the Part the Cloud-Gates Partnership Grant Program of the Alzheimer’s Association, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts General Hospital are launching a new clinical trial to test whether stimulating a key frequency of brain waves with light and sound can prevent the advance of Alzheimer’s disease pathology even before volunteers experience symptoms such as memory impairment.
“Because Alzheimer’s disease leads to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline, the best time for intervention may be before those symptoms even begin,” said Dr. Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor of Neuroscience and director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. “We are hopeful that our safe, non-invasive approach of sensory stimulation of 40Hz gamma brain rhythms can have a preventative benefit for patients. We are very grateful to Part the Cloud-Gates Partnership Grant Program for their support in funding rigorous research to test this exciting possibility.”
In extensive testing in Tsai’s lab with multiple mouse models of Alzheimer’s, the light and sound stimulation technique, called Gamma ENtrainment Using Sensory Stimuli (GENUS), improved cognition and memory, prevented neurodegeneration, and reduced amyloid and tau protein buildups. The research showed that increasing 40Hz brain rhythm power and synchrony stimulated the brain’s immune cells and blood vessels to clear out the toxic proteins. Early results from human testing at MIT show that GENUS is well tolerated and increases 40Hz power and synchrony, just like in the mice.
The new study, conducted in collaboration with neurologist Dr. Keith Johnson at MGH, will enroll 50 volunteers aged 55 or older who show signs of amyloid protein plaque buildup in PET scans but remain cognitively normal. Experimental volunteers will receive an hour of GENUS light and sound stimulation in their homes daily for a year. At regular checkups, the team will monitor GENUS's effect on amyloid buildup via PET scans as well as other biomarkers such as tau and for changes in cognition, sleep, structural and functional MRI, and other indicators of brain function and health.
The trial will be double-blinded, randomized, and controlled, meaning that some volunteers will be exposed to non-GENUS light and sound during the trial to provide a non-treatment comparison group. To ensure that bias does not influence the results, neither the volunteers nor the experimenters will know which group's volunteers are.
https://brainworksneurotherapy.com/what-are-brainwaves
