Safety of Laser Therapy for Hair Loss—Can it cause cancer??  What about eye safety??—ANSWERED!

I know what you're thinking, and you're right.

I swore to myself that I wouldn't put this type of stuff up on my site because I wanted my site to be a "STEP 2"<... a place where you would go when you already *had* the answers, and you were looking to take it to the next level and become an ACTION MAN! lol...

Well, because of the sheer number of times this question comes up, I've decided I'd compromise... I'm going to allow myself to cut and paste the best, most concise answer I've found (that, of course, has all the necessary sources listed)! This is from eLearning's "What is LLLT: Risks, Side Effects & Contra-Indications article, and I couldn't have written it better:

No Cancer Risk

Read it...

Can laser therapy cause cancer? The answer is NO. More than 2000 clinical studies have been conducted on the use of LLLT and in all of these studies NO mutational effects have ever been observed resulting from therapy with wavelengths in the Red or Infrared red range, in doses used within laser therapy.

But can laser therapy stimulate cancer growth if laser therapy is used on a person with cancer unknowingly? Will laser therapy speed up or accelerate the growth of the tumor? Well the effects of laser therapy on cancer cells in vitro have been studied, and it was observed that they could stimulate b laser light. However with respect to a cancer in vivo , the situation is rather different. Experiments on rats shown that small tumors treated with laser therapy may recede and completely disappear, although the laser treatment hand no effect on the tumors over a certain size [1] . The local immune system is probably stimulated more than the tumor [2] [3] [4].

In vitro: Literally in glass, as in a test tube. A test that is performed in vitro is one that is done in glass or plastic vessels in the laboratory. In vivo: In the living organism, as opposed to in vitro (in the laboratory).

[1] Saldo I et al. Effcets of GaAs-lasers combined with radiotherapy on murine sarcoma depends on tumor size. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. 1989; Suppl 1:40.

[2] Dima F V et al. doserelated immunological and morphological changes observed in rats with Walker - 256 carcinosarcoma after photodynamic therapy: a controlled study. Laser Therapy. 1991;3(3):159-168

[3] Skobelkin OK et al. Preoperative activation of the immune systems by low recative level laser therapy (laser therapy) in oncologic patient: A preliminary report. Laser Theraoy. 1991;3(4):169-176

[4] Mikhailov V A et al. Investigations on the influence of low level laser diode laser irradiation of the growth of experimental tumors. Laser Therapy. 1993;5(1): 33-38

The situation is the same for bacteria and virus in culture. laser light in certain doses stimulate these. While a bacterial or viral infection in vivo is cured much faster after the right treatment with laser therapy.

In summary LLLT is non-ionising , and will not cause cancer, damage to skin or damage to tissues or DNA.

What about eye risks?

This is from the same article, eLearning's "What is LLLT: Risks, Side Effects & Contra-Indications"...

Risks of Eyes Injury

Risk of injury to the eyes is always consideration when handling laser devices. For this reason lasers were divided into five category (Class 1, 2, 3A, 3B and Class 4) according to their potential to damage the eyes. Classes 1 to 3A is considered safe, whereas Class 3B involves a certain risk and Class 4 is a definite risk. Class 4 lasers are usually strong industrial used lasers and surgical lasers capable of generating such heat for cutting and burning.

Note: Our diodes are class IIIA, but are right on the border between IIIA and IIIB, so you still need to be careful. However, simple "interaction" with the beams -putting on the laser helmet and talking it off, etc- shouldn't do any damage.

Always be careful, but obviously don't be stupid with lasers... and yes, if you figure out some way to hurt your eyes with a class IIIA laser, you are more-than-likely being HELLA STUPID with them! That's called "Darwinism". Oh, but to sum up, in the case of cancer or tumors, you are perfectly safe.

LAST QUESTION: O.M.G., you always talk about your devices being "high-powered"... does this change anything that you just quoted?? How do you know that your "higher powered" diodes are as safe as other laser brush's diodes?

Ha! I tried to fool you but I'm sure you caught it! You already know the answer to this one by now, don't you! That's not even a valid question! Man... y'all are getting sharp! You already know that "high-powered" was a term I adopted to describe simply MORE of those very same, boring, low powered 5mW/650nm diodes, and doesn't at all mean "higher wattage diodes". There is nothing different with the diodes I use than a standard laser brush's diodes... we just have MORE OF THEM so we can eliminate the need for having to move the diodes in a feeble attempt to get the necessary energy to cover the whole scalp.

And, in fact... it has been revealed to us that the exact same diodes are used in our devices as the five major manufacturers' devices! So ABSOLUTELY these are as safe... they're the SAME THING! lol...

Good job, though, everyone! I knew I couldn't trip you up with that last "fake question"!

-O.M.G.