Research at the University of Sunderland has shown that regular exposure to low level infra-red light can turn back the brain’s biological clock and reverse memory loss. Medical experts believe the discovery may be a key to providing treatment and potential cures for everything from dementia to learning disabilities and Alzheimer’s disease.
Neuroscientist Paul Chazot, who helped carry out the University of Sunderland research, told Britain’s Daily Mail, “The results are completely new – this has never been looked at before.”
Following the Sunderland research, Dr Gordon Dougal, a director of medical research at Virulite, a medical research company based in the U.K., developed an experimental helmet that transmits infra-red light into the brain, and is studying it’s effectiveness as a potential treatment or cure for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The helmet would need to be worn for ten minutes a day, and would treat the brain with infra-red light, which would stimulate the growth of brain cells. Dr. Dougal and his colleagues hope the new headgear might actually reverse the symptoms of dementia, including memory loss and anxiety, in as little as four weeks.
Although the research is still in the early stages, medical experts are calling the new treatment a potentially life-changing development.
Dr Dougal claims that only ten minutes under the hat a day is enough to have an effect.
“Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay – this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it,” Dr. Dougal told Britain’s Daily Mail.
Low level infra-red red is able to penetrate the skin and the skull, and is thought to stimulate the growth of cells of all types of tissue and encourage their repair.
“The implications of this research at Sunderland are enormous – so much so that in the future we could be able to affect and change the rate at which our bodies age,” Dr. Dougal said.
“We age because our cells lose the desire to regenerate and repair themselves. This ultimately results in cell death and decline of the organ functions – for the brain resulting in memory decay and deterioration in general intellectual performance. But what if there was a technology that told the cells to repair themselves and that technology was something as simple as a specific wavelength of light?”
An Alzheimer’s Society spokesman told the Daily Mail, “A treatment that reverses the effects of dementia rather than just temporarily halting its symptoms could change the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people. We look forward to further research to determine whether this technique could help improve cognition in humans.”
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Image Caption: lead researcher at the University of Sunderland Dr Abdel Ennaceur and Durham University s Dr Paul Chazot are pictured with Dr Gordon Dougal and a prototype cognitive helmet
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