Sunlight strikes the brown lens causing a red glow to reach the eye
“We believe this represents a paradigm shift in the optical industry as our new technology breaks away from the limitations of red LED lights to provide PBM in a way that is powered by sunlight.” says Dr. Gallas.
SAN ANTONIO (PRWEB) December 06, 2017
Texas based, Photoprotective Technologies, Incorporated (PPT) has developed a patented technology that uses the sun’s energy to actually repair vision and rejuvenate the skin. Applied to sunglass lenses or to skin care products, the new technology is able to transform part of the sunlight energy into the red and near infrared wavelengths of light shown to be effective for the repair of the photoreceptors in the eye (1) and reduction of wrinkles and roughness in the texture of the skin (2).
With patents pending for the skin care products, PPT has already been awarded a US patent for the use of the new red light therapy technology – also called photobiomodulation - in sunglasses. “We have been able to utilize a growing body of research on photobiomodulation that used LED lights,” say Dr. Jim Gallas, the San Antonio-based physicist and CEO of Photoprotective Technologies. “Instead of using red LED lights, our sun lens technology uses the sun to create additional red and near IR light,” adds Gallas.
For more than a century red light and near infrared light have been used as a therapy to heal injuries. However, in the last decade, there has been a rapid growth in our understanding – at the molecular level - of how red and near infrared light are able to repair our cells (3, 4,5). The widespread availability of red LED lights has allowed medical scientists to better define the physical parameters (light intensity, dose and specific red and near IR wavelengths) that produce reproducible therapeutic benefits. And the awareness of the efficacy of light therapy has been a growing. Experts estimate the worldwide light therapy market to increase at a compound annual Growth rate of ~4.7 percent between 2016 and 2020. PPT expects to take a dominate role in this field by removing the need for consumers to purchase expensive and complicated laser or other lighting equipment to achieve the same results.
“We believe this represents a paradigm shift in the optical industry as our new technology breaks away from the limitations of red LED lights to provide PBM in a way that is powered by sunlight,” says Dr. Gallas. PPT has pioneered the use of melanin and Occular Lens Pigment in sunglass lenses to enhance and protect vision; now it aims to evolve the role of sunglasses to include both protection and repair.
References:
1. Geneva I.I, Photobiomodulation for the treatment of retinal diseases: a review. Int. J. Opthalmol, 9(1), 145-152 (2016).
2. Seung, Y.L. et al. A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, and split-face clinical study on LED phototherapy for skin rejuvenation: Clinical, profilometric, histologic, ultrastructural, and biochemical evaluations and comparison of three different treatment settings. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology. 88(1), 51-67 (2007).
3. TI Karu, Chapter 4: Cellular Mechanisms of Photobiomodulation, - Lasers in Dentistry: Guide for Clinical Practice, 2015 books.google.com, 23-26.
4. Prindeze NJ, Moffatt LT, Shupp JW, Mechanisms of action for light therapy: A review of molecular interactions, Experimental Biology and Medicine. (2012); 237(11): 1241-1248
5. F de F L, Hamblin M. Proposed Mechanisms of Photobiomodulation or Low-Level Light Therapy. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. 2016; 22(3):1-7