Light Therapy for IC Symptoms

[shelbyriva]

My doctor told me yesterday of some form of light therapy for IC symptoms. Has anyone heard about this or tried it? What does it entail? What type of doctor/person does this? Curious to hear people's thoughts as I cannot find anything on this forum about it.

[mellusk]

Do you mean some form of ultraviolet radiation, or something similar? I'm not sure I understand what "light therapy" means.

[MyDaughterHasIC]

My idea is this... what ever works.
I would like my daughter to try acupuncture. I think light therapy is simlar as it increases the endrorphins in your brain and that in turns lessens pain.
Try it, it could hurt.. good luck

[shelbyriva]

I have no idea that is all my doctor said "light therapy". To tell you the truth I don't even know if anyone here in Canada does this treatment. That is why I asked on the list to see if someone could shed some 'light' on it for me.......ha ha - no pun intended. I see mydaughterhasic thinks it might be painful.....yikes, not into that sort of therapy!!! HA!HA!HA!HA!

[July]

I do not think it would be painful. I do not know much about it, but know that some natropaths/alternative medicine practitioners and chiropractors use it. It is a warm light that is suppose to promote healing. I've heard it is used for many things. However, I have not heard about its use for IC. I would ask the dr. for a referral since he recommended it.

[Katrina]

I just got a presciption for a light Full Specman light box from my alternative doc to help with my fatigue but I don't know of any other kind of light therapy off hand...although I do have a sound therapy for IC and other things.

Curious to know more! Good luck!!

[shelbyriva]

Hi Katrina and July, if I find out more I will post for sure. This light therapy stuff waasn't recommended by my doctor, he doesn't really know what it is. He just mentioned it but is going to consult with my Urologist........he probably read about it in a Medical Journal or something. I think IC is more common in the USA (due to a bigger population). No one I have told about IC has ever heard of it.

[icnmgrjill]

Hmmm.. got me! Please send me more info if you get some!

Jill

[Katrina]

I was curious having not really heard of light therapy for anything else...and my first page of results...was about what I mentioned....talking about SAD mostly but the light I have a presciption for....I will ask my alterantive doctor what else it can do if anything. Now I am not saying if I didn't add IC to my google or go deeper into the page I wouldn't find anything more but just letting you know I am looking for answer.

[shelbyriva]

Hi Katrina,
It is possible that my doctor has not used the correct words for whatever it is he was trying to say!!! HA!HA!HA!HA! He was thinking pretty hard about something that he had heard about recently regarding IC and then he said light therapy so he might have it wrong a bit too. I don't mean to confuse anyone, but I just thought since he used those words 'light therapy' I would ask if anyone knew anything before he got back to me which could take a week or so.

[Katrina]

I have a good guess...light therapy can help with insomnia...and well we know that is often a syptom of IC...not sure if that is what your doc meant but it is the best theory I have other than helping the fatigue...which I know that is a factor often too.

[shelbyriva]

Hey Katrina, I have a question for you from your reply above. Do you think that lack of sleep or being overly tired increases the flare ups? Since I am new to this I have had 2 incidents of major bladder spasms (I think some people call it burning, but I don't feel a burn, it is a spasm) BUT....both times this has happened I was fighting lack of sleep and it seems that after 2 nights of good rest I felt a lot better. Do you know if there is a relation to feeling worse when you are overly tired? I am trying to see what makes me have these flare ups and so far that is my trigger, no foods yet..but then again I don't eat a lot of what the usual food triggers are. Thanks for your input, it is greatly appreciated. Oooppss.....sorry for being so long with this post.

[Katrina]

Tired is often your body in a weaker state so are other worse when tired yes!!
is there a corrilation between that and spasms...try to understand that when your pelvic muscles spasm they can do so in part because of being overly worked or too weak. Well if your tired...It is likely that those muscles are tired too at that time. Just a theory.

[purpleviolet]

light therapy

My hunch is light therapy could mean a number of things, as explained in some alternative newsletters. From one, I got some colored plastic sheets that you hold in a dark room with a flashlight shining thru it. You would have to lie down half naked I guess to expose you bladder for an hour, so I haven't done that one yet. The only side effect, loss of time and getting cold. I've also heard of infrared light therapy, low level laser light therapy, frequency machines, and even sonic therapy. Who has the time, money, and patience to try all these things? PV

[ihurttoo]

I havent really heard of it as a treatment for IC, but have heard of it being used for several other things like Seasonal Affective Disorder, depression, insomnia, Vitamin D deficiency, and a few others. From what I have read with other conditions, the treatment protocol varies a good deal from practicioner to practicioner. Like the others, I will be interested to see if it has any affect on your IC. Please let us know how it works out for you.

Hugs,
Amy