November 28, 2003

Light therapy brings relief, healing to nerve-damage injuries

BROOMFIELD — At first glance, using light to heal wounds or reduce pain might seem a bit strange and unconventional. But a medical procedure like light therapy isn’t really all that odd — particularly when it works.

“This is not some refrigerator magnet. This is not smoke and mirrors. This is the therapeutic modality of choice for the U.S. Navy SEALs,´ said Dale Bertwell, developer of the Anodyne Therapy System.

With that kind of clientele, it’s clear that the light-therapy system is not just a hit in alternative medicine meccas like Boulder. Since Bertwell sold his first unit in 1994, the light-therapy system can be found in more than 500 medical clinics and physical-therapy centers nationwide, including 42 in Colorado.

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It was in Denver in the early 1990s that light therapy technology got its start. A longtime Colorado resident, Bertwell, 53, was in the product development field during the 1980s when he became curious about the emerging use of light waves to treat wounds on horses. He wondered if there were human applications for the therapy.

There were, but first Bertwell had to convince the medical community and the Food and Drug Administration. He immersed himself in the science behind light therapy. He found that by applying pads outfitted with near-infrared light-emitting diodes to a patient’s skin, he could release nitric oxide molecules from hemoglobin in the bloodstream, thereby helping increase circulation and the delivery of healing nutrients to the injured area.

Bertwell soon discovered that his light therapy system was good for more than just wound treatment. It also helped give relief to people with arthritis, bursitis, musculoskeletal injuries and carpal tunnel syndrome. Armed with the results of his initial clinical studies, Bertwell received FDA clearance for human use of his technology in 1994, and Denver-based Anodyne Therapeutics was born.

Over the next few years, the system gained credibility through a series of human clinical studies that demonstrated its effectiveness in healing wounds and relieving various painful syndromes, like tendonitis. As the company’s success improved, Bertwell decided that licensing his technology was the way to go.

In 2000 Anodyne Therapeutics formed an exclusive manufacturing and distribution agreement with a Florida company, which now operates as Anodyne Therapy LLC. Bertwell moved to Tampa and became chief operating officer of the company, which has nearly 100 employees. Anodyne’s silver bullet, however, was still to come.

In early 2002, the company released the results of a clinical study conducted in Aurora that demonstrated restoration of sensation in the feet of 48 out of 49 diabetic peripheral neuropathy patients. Neuropathy, which is nerve damage that causes loss of feeling, can lead to balance problems, falling, and undetected injury to the hands and feet, which if left untreated, can result in severe infection.

Roger Rettig, owner of the Colorado Physical Therapy Institute in Broomfield, said 90 percent of his diabetic neuropathy patients improve with the Anodyne Therapy System. The restoration of sensation means his patients know that when they have injured their feet, the wound can be treated before it becomes dangerously infected. Before this light therapy system, Rettig said, the effects of diabetic neuropathy could be severe.

“First they amputate the toe, six months later it’s half the foot, and in another six months it’s the rest of the foot,” he said.

Which, coincidentally, is why Bertwell first pursued the technology. After he watched his father lose his foot, leg, and eventually his life to diabetic neuropathy, he went on a mission to find a treatment for the infectious wounds and sores that resulted from the condition. He ended up developing a way to help prevent them in the first place.

“I did not set out to treat peripheral neuropathy, but like everything in medicine, there are always secondary observations,” Bertwell said.

One of Rettig’s diabetic neuropathy patients is Robert Eson, 73, who made the Navy his career. He has suffered with the condition for 20 years. It left his hands and feet feeling as though they were perpetually falling asleep.

“You don’t have any feeling of leaning because your feet are so numb,” he said. “They don’t tell your body how you’re standing. Pretty soon, you don’t have control over them.”

After four months of 40-minute light therapy sessions twice a week, Eson said his condition has improved by 40 percent.

“The thing I noticed most was that I could feel hot and cold, which I hadn’t felt in many, many years,” he said. “I didn’t get cured, but I had some improvement.”

Over the last seven years, Rettig has treated more than 1,000 people with the Anodyne Therapy System at his clinic. He charges $38 for a half-hour session, but the therapy is covered by most insurance plans, including Medicare.

“When Medicare will pay for something, you know there is a lot of research to back it up,” Rettig said.

The professional version of the Anodyne Therapy System used in medical offices costs $6,295 for an 8-pad unit. A two-pad, home version goes for $2,495.

At Good Samaritan Home Care of Boulder, an assisted-living and nursing home facility, the staff has been using two of Anodyne’s units for about a year. Nurse Karen Fretwell talked the facility into purchasing them after she saw the therapy improve her mother’s condition.

She said Good Samaritan uses the light therapy to treat broken bones, joint pain and tendonitis. While the Anodyne Therapy System dramatically reduced pain in her patients, Fretwell said it was less effective on healing bedsores, possibly because the wounds had become too chronic.

“At least they get relief from the pain,” she said.

BROOMFIELD — At first glance, using light to heal wounds or reduce pain might seem a bit strange and unconventional. But a medical procedure like light therapy isn’t really all that odd — particularly when it works.

“This is not some refrigerator magnet. This is not smoke and mirrors. This is the therapeutic modality of choice for the U.S. Navy SEALs,´ said Dale Bertwell, developer of the Anodyne Therapy System.

With that kind of clientele, it’s clear that the light-therapy system is not just a hit in alternative medicine meccas like Boulder. Since Bertwell sold his first unit in 1994, the…

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