By MARY DURLAK – University of Buffalo
Light therapy has demonstrated its usefulness in treating a variety of diseases. But can it delay the occurrence of age-related disease?
The answer may be yes, according to a study in mice published in February in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. Praveen Arany, a UB expert in a form of light therapy called photobiomodulation (PBM), was co-principal investigator with Edward G. Lakatta of the National Institute on Aging, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Almost 20% of Americans older than 65 have been diagnosed with heart disease, and heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States. “The idea was to see if intervention in middle age could enable people to avoid further age-related heart deterioration,” says Arany, associate professor of oral biology in the School of Dental Medicine.
