Locally made helmets changing people's lives
• Scottsdale’s Max Burr was the first person to trial red-light therapy on his brain to help with the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
• Bridport’s Malcolm Taylor has been using a red light therapy helmet made by the Scottsdale Men’s Shed for the past four months to help with his Parkinson’s.
“An inexpensive device that can slow the progression of the disease not only in Parkinson’s but Alzheimer’s too.”
By Taylor Clyne
February 06, 2019
Who would have thought that the answer to treating people suffering from Parkinson’s disease was a two-dollar bucket, some infrared lights and a bunch of inquisitive locals?
Sceptical, you say?
Well Scottsdale’s retired federal politician Max Burr is living proof that infrared light therapy works.
After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2012 and steadily noticing that his condition was deteriorating whilst using the prescribed medication, Mr Burr began looking for another alternative.
“I read a paper written by Sydney University’s Professor John Mitrofanis on the experimental work he had been doing with mice using infrared lights,” he said.
The work explored the used of red and near infrared lights and how they could reverse the effects of Parkinson degeneration on animal studies.
“The paper showed that the use of the lights protected the mice’s brains from the condition without any side effects, so I emailed the Professor and said I wouldn’t mind having a go,” Mr Burr said.
“Professor Mitrofanis replied and explained that under no circumstances would he recommend trying it as it hadn’t been tried on a human brain and they were possibly still another ten years off human trials.”
Mr Burr told the Professor that he didn’t have that kind of time to wait and that he was going to try the light therapy anyway.
“John replied to my email and said, ‘good luck, I hope you don’t fry your brain!’,” Mr Burr chuckled.
Lilydale’s retired Dr Catherine Hamilton, who had previous success on her knee whilst using light therapy at home, and her physicist husband David Hamilton offered to make the device for Mr Burr, and so the ‘home job’ unofficial experiment began.
“I could see that Max’s condition was going downhill; the research showed there was a real possibility that using dark red lights at a specific wave length could increase cell activity and improve his quality of life,” Dr Hamilton said.
With the input of Professor Mitrofanis
and Mr Burr’s geriatrician Pyengana born Dr Frank Nicklason, they tried head straps, lamp shades and even old styled hair dryers to hold the strips of LED bulbs emitting red light at a wavelength of 670 nanometres.
“We ended up using a two dollar bucket from Shiploads, they were better quality than the buckets from Bunnings,” Dr Hamilton laughed.
In January 2016 Mr Burr began using a red-light device for twenty minutes twice a day taking time to log a detailed diary of the changes he was experiencing.
“I was seeing and noticing steady improvements, the lights worked,” Mr Burr said.
“I recovered my sense of smell, my writing is firm, my gait improved. Overall I gained positive results that have remained the same ever since.”
Mr Burr’s specialist Dr Frank Nicklason was pleased with how well it worked for him that he began recommending other patients trial a light bucket for themselves.
One of those patients is Bridport’s Malcom Taylor who has been using the light therapy for the past four months.
"I've been using it twice a day for about six minutes on each cycle for the past four months," Mr Taylor said.
"I haven't noticed any real changes yet but I'm hoping it might improve over time," he said.
All the while Dr Hamilton has been tweaking her initial design to make it more user friendly.
“I’ve been experimenting all the way along, trying to improve the design, make it better and more comfortable,” she said.
Today Dr Hamilton has made and given away more than 100 light therapy devices and is currently actively working with twelve people while undertaking a second case study with Professor Mitrofanis.
She has published specific details on the experiment and how to make the device at home on her blog called Red Lights on the Brain.
“I put the information in the public domain so everyone could access it because it’s not pharmaceutical, it’s not a pill, it’s safe and can make a difference, so what’s not to like,” Dr Hamilton said.
The Scottsdale Men’s Shed have also gotten involved to help with the demand of people from all over the world wanting to try one for themselves.
“A freelance journalist wrote an article on the red-light therapy bucket hats and published it in The Weekend Australian, it was then republished in the New York Times, so we had people from all over the world contacting us for one,” Mr Burr said.
Men’s Shed Coordinator Mervyn Chilcott said he couldn’t believe how popular the product is. “It’s quite surprising how many orders have come in,” he said.
“Originally Max Burr was the catalyst that started using it, but the science has been around for a while. There are three specialists in Tasmania that are supporting the red-light helmets, so the recommendations are through word of mouth,” Mr Chilcott said.
“So far we’ve made 75 helmets and have another 10 on order at the moment, we’ve sent them all over Australia and had inquiries from Canada, England and Brazil.”
Mr Chilcott said the group were looking to plan a local information day and ask Dr Catherine Hamilton to attend.
“It would be good to give more information to the public about an inexpensive device that can slow the progression of the disease not only in Parkinson’s but Alzheimer’s too,” he added.
As for Mr Burr, he says the device gives people hope.
“From my experience the light device is not a magic bullet, it will not cure the disease, but what it does do is put a protective barrier over any further deterioration. And for someone suffering from Parkinson’s that’s a huge thing, to not get any worse, you’ve already won,” he concluded.