Light therapy doesn’t ease diabetic nerve damage

	Tweet

A type of light therapy involving infrared energy is no more effective than sham therapy for treating nerve damage, or neuropathy, in people with diabetes, according to a study reported in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

“Monochromatic infrared energy (MIRE) has been suggested to improve diabetic sensory neuropathy and even to prevent foot ulcers,” write Dr. Lawrence A. Lavery and colleagues from Texas A&M University Health and Science Center College of Medicine in Temple.

To investigate, they assigned 69 diabetic subjects with impaired vibration perception in their feet because of neuropathy to either active MIRE treatment or sham treatment, using the light units provided for 40 minutes every day at home for 90 days.

After that time, the researchers found that there were no significant differences between the active and sham treatment groups in measures of quality of life, vibration perception thresholds, or nerve conduction velocities.

“Overall, there was no statistical evidence that the anodyne treatment was effective in improving sensory perception compared with the sham treatment,” Lavery and colleagues report.

In fact, there was a large placebo effect, and people given the sham treatment saw as much or more improvement as those given the active MIRE treatment.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, February 2008.

RELATED STORIES:
Phone contact with nurses linked with better outcomes for women with gestational diabetes   Death rate drops among Americans with diabetes -CDC   Correct treatment of common diabetic foot infections can reduce amputations   “Pre-diabetes,” diabetes rising among U.S. teens   Experimental bariatric surgery controls blood sugar in rats with diabetes   53 millions Americans might develop diabetes by 2025   New inflammation hormone link may pave way to study new drugs for type 2 diabetes   Diabetic retinopathy research could reduce screening costs   Liver fat gets a wake-up call that maintains blood sugar levels   Low testosterone levels could raise diabetes risk for men   Prosthetic lets diabetic get a foot up on life   Dealing with Diabetes, One Patient at a Time

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]