Dear Editor:
It is encouraging to see more data available on using laser in acupuncture therapies. A few people have tried over the years to incorporate laser into our practice in California, but so far it has not been successful. As Chon et al.'s article states, “LA is promoted as a safer pain-free alternative to traditional acupuncture, with minimal adverse effects and greater versatility. However, little is known about the mechanism of action of LA, laser characteristics, and effectiveness of LA therapy.”1
However, several things seemed to be missing from the article, specifically the work of Dr. G. Litscher, who has churned out a huge number of publications on a range of laser applications, which can be found on PubMed. The one study that was cited doesn't even scratch the surface of what he has made available for researchers interested in the topic. I have at least 41 of his articles in my primary citation manager database. Some of them are very short, but he specifies the different laser colors and what they do with regard to the Qi, as well as effects on the brain and heart-rate variability, including collaborations with researchers in China and in Austria. Based upon the sheer volume of work he has done researching laser as an “acupuncture” modality, there should have been more than just one citation of his work. I maintain a laser database from the early 2000s that now contains 131 acupuncture-related citations.
And somewhere between Dr. Weber, who manufactures the Weber Laserneedle machine, and Dr. Litscher's guidelines, there is a distinction between defining “laser acupuncture,” which they call the stimulation of one point at a time with a laser pen-type device, and “Laserneedle,” which uses the multiple fiber-optic lines that is shown in the article's photo to stimulate multiple points at a time. That approach is more in line with a typical “acupuncture” treatment. The Weber fiberoptic laser machine also offers a choice of laser colors, depending on what depth of stim or type of condition is being treated.
It is good that the Quah-Smith citations were offered. She also seems to be researching laser fairly thoroughly. I cited one of her papers in a review that I did of electro-acupuncture and laser treatments for depression in an acupuncture journal a couple of years ago, and we did e-mail back and forth on it a bit. She seems to be engaged in providing good data on using laser for “acupuncture-like” treatment, but the Dr. Litscher effort by comparison is huge in terms of investigating the relatively new and unknown field of laser as the “acu-point” treatment modality, rather than the traditional, now “old tech” metal needles, and he deserves more than being cited as just “one of the team,” rather than as the “lead investigator.”2–6
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.
References
- 1. Chon TY, Mallory MJ, Yang J, Bublitz SE, Do A, Dorsher PT. Laser acupuncture: A concise review. Med Acupunct. 2019;31(3):164–168 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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