My Laser

“I was ready to take the #$@&$#& gas pipe!”, exclaimed Manayunk community leader, John Bernard,
turning to us on his way out the door. “I mean it! I couldn’t even stand up and take a step. This hip was killing me! I’m telling you, I was headed for surgery. I’m gonna’ tell everybody I know about this laser.”

After months of agony, John’s hip pain is just about gone after only a few treatments with the laser. So is his shoulder pain. And – amazingly – chronic pain from a forty three year old severe knee injury, for which he had recently consulted an orthopedic surgeon, has also vanished. (By the way, don’t worry about John gassing himself. He has an electric oven.)

Victoria Panasevicz was told by “one of the best neurologists in the city” that she “had no hope of ever feeling normal without surgery to my two lower discs.” It took quite a few laser treatments because of the severity of her condition, but she is back to work and, except for a setback from a fall from which she has recovered, she is back to normal – without surgery!

Then there's Mrs. Joanne McGuigan who works as a secretary for Channel 6. Mrs. McGuigan had also received a great deal benefit from chiropractic adjustments. However, she was still partially disabled from pain and we couldn't seem to get past a certain point with her condition. She had had back surgery years before and couldn't stand or walk for very long.

As she tells it: “After the first treatment with the laser device I immediately felt the difference. I went faithfully three times a week and I have felt 85% better. I walk straight with no pain in my hip or my lower back. I still can't stand in one place for long, but I can walk a half-mile around the high school field which I had attempted before and couldn't do."

Watson Straub loves golf. He came to me as a last resort after unsuccessful medical treatment and physical therapy. He wasn’t even able to shake hands without debilitating pain in his right elbow. After a few weeks of laser therapy, he’s back on the golf course, vigorously shaking hands all he wants. WITHOUT PAIN!

Speaking of elbows, Margie DuBrow is very pleased to have her nagging elbow pain almost gone after a four laser treatments. It may take two or three more to get rid of it altogether.

Paula Straka’s foot pain had been interfering with her fencing for months. When someone is coming at you with a sword, you have to be able to move quickly! ONE laser treatment was all it took to eliminate the pain!!

Olivia Gilinger injured her big toe years ago. Long ago, it got to the point where she couldn’t move it. After just a few laser treatments, she can wiggle it as well as the others.

Susan Roxandich, an operating room nurse, didn’t know whether or not her knee pain would ever go away. She was not at all happy with the treatment she had received elsewhere. After being treated with the laser, the pain is just about gone.

This is NOT just temporary relief. Except in cases of re-injury or severe degenerative changes to the affected part, THE RELIEF IS PERMANENT!

(By the way, the laser isn’t actually cold. It just isn’t hot like a surgical laser. Surgical lasers cut or vaporize tissue. This laser doesn’t need all that power. It uses the energy of laser photons to stimulate healing and kill pain. You don’t feel anything at all during the 8 to 12 minute treatment.)

Skeptics want to know: “Why in a city of world-class medical facilities, can the only cold laser of its kind in the entire state of Pennsylvania only be found in a little home chiropractic office in Roxborough?”

As a skeptic myself, I think that’s a perfectly reasonable question. I can answer it, too.

When I came across “cold laser” therapy, I was, indeed, skeptical. It didn’t make sense to me how laser light could stimulate healing. As time went on I read about it in journals and heard about it from other doctors. I became more interested.

I did a Web search and printed out page after page of information and research about "cold lasers". I joined online discussion groups. I checked out the web sites of every brand and type of therapeutic laser. I started e-mailing the support staff at several laser companies. I sent away to Sweden for a textbook on laser therapy written (in English) by the two top experts in the field. I exchanged e-mails with one of the authors.

I narrowed my search down to one particular type of laser.

Then I hit a dead-end.

There was no laser of this type approved for use in the United States. Now, this is one of the several types of lasers that have been used for 30 years in Europe. In fact, it is the laser of choice of the doctor who is considered the expert in the field - one of the authors of that textbook that I mentioned. But, as I said, getting any type of medical device through the FDA is a long and very expensive process. The one company that I knew of that did make this type of laser, a Swedish company, apparently didn't think it worthwhile to jump through the FDA hoops.

By now though, I was past the point of no return. My months of research had convinced me that this was an extraordinarily valuable tool. I had already decided. I had to have one. And I knew which one was going to work best for my patients. But they were not available in the USA.

I couldn't quit now though.

I went back on the Web and tried a variety of different queries. Then, on one of the searches, a new name popped up. It was a Canadian company that had just put up a website, even though they had been manufacturing and distributing their lasers to hospitals, pain centers, and chiropractic offices in Canada for more than 10 years. In fact, the company runs its own clinic and has tested the device on a wide range of conditions.

The reason that they finally got around to putting up a website is that they had just gotten FDA “second level approval” for their laser and were beginning to market it in the United States.

It was the exact laser that I was looking for. No..... not exactly. This was even better.

This laser has a very unique delivery system that clusters five of the lasers which I had determined would be the most effective for the types of deep muscular, disc and nerve conditions that I see PLUS four of the more commonly used lasers that are effective for joint problems closer to the surface.

BUT it had not gotten through the final stage of FDA approval at that point. The only way I could use the laser was as an “investigational tool”. I would have to fill out a ton of paperwork on each patient I treated and submit it to the FDA, documenting the effectiveness of the device. I hate paperwork!! And for the privilege of doing all this extra work I would have to pay more than $12,000 for the unit. No, I should say gamble it.

You see, years ago when I practiced in New York City, I bought a simple electronic device for pain relief. It cost a couple of hundred dollars. It gave some relief to most patients, but it was not anything special. I would use it every so often on minor sprains or strains. One day I got a letter from the FDA saying in big, bold red letters: THIS DEVICE MUST BE DESTROYED! Although it was a harmless device that worked by using small amounts of static electricity, the company must have somehow run afoul of the FDA.

To have that happen with a $12,000 device would be a disaster!

But I what I had read over the previous 6 months convinced me that this device was perhaps the most valuable tool I had come across in all my years of practice. If it worked as well as the research indicated, I might be able to help people who I couldn’t help otherwise. People who would have to risk all of the downsides of medication or surgery. Or go on suffering. Or, as often happens, suffer the side-effects of medication AND go through a surgery that either failed or made them worse.

I knew that there are over 2,000 research papers supporting the effectiveness of “cold laser” treatment for a wide variety of conditions. I also knew that in over 30 years of continued use in Europe and Canada, there has never been one documented side-effect.

So……..I went for it!

I am happy to say that the device did get final FDA approval.

You can see that one reason that I have one of these units and a big outfit like Moss Rehab or NovaCare does not is that I happened to “be at the right place at the right time”. I got one at the earliest time possible. Also, I was willing to gamble on FDA approval and use my practice as a testing facility.

My practice has a distinct advantage over hospitals and large rehab facilities. I don’t have deal with hospital bureaucrats. Getting approval for a new therapy at one of the large, prestigious institutions is a long, drawn out, complicated affair. “Cutting edge” therapies are seldom cutting edge by the time they get through the process. I have the advantage of researching a new therapy, making up my own mind, and just going out and getting it.

The biggest reason that the “Big Boys” do not have one of these units is economic. They are totally geared toward insurance reimbursement. For the most part, only insurance companies can afford to pay the fees that hospitals and other large facilities have to charge. Their overhead is tremendous! And insurance companies are even worse than hospitals when it comes to accepting new therapies. With a few exceptions, insurance companies will not pay for cold laser therapy.

So, what it comes down to is this: I can charge an affordable fee for this therapy. Hospitals and rehab centers cannot.

That’s my story. What’s your story?

Is it a long and dreary one about a pain that just won't go away? Are you just not able to do at least some of the things you like to do? Or have you been listening to someone else's story of pain and limitation?

If you ask me, I'd say you or that other person deserves a happy ending.

So, if you or someone you know has a problem that no one has been able to help with so far…… Don't throw in the towel!

The Facts:

· Treatment is totally safe, with no side effects.

· It may eliminate a condition that has been causing you pain and limitation for years.

· It’s affordable.

Your Choices:

· Do nothing or whatever other ineffective thing you've been doing and just live with

(i.e. suffer with) it.

· Become a guinea pig for the "next Vioxx".

· Go under the knife.

· OR the only logical next step: Give it a try!

I know what I would do.

Yours For Improved Health And Happiness,

Anthony P. Galzarano, DC