A Holistic Perspective on How Photobiomodulation May Influence Fatigue, Pain, and Depression in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Beyond Molecular Mechanisms

Abstract

Background: Numerous mechanisms, mostly molecular, have been tested and proposed for photobiomodulation. Photobiomodulation is finding a niche in the treatment of conditions that have no gold-standard treatment or only partially effective pharmacological treatment. Many chronic conditions are characterised by symptoms for which there is no cure or control and for which pharmaceuticals may add to the disease burden through side effects. To add quality to life, alternate methods of symptom management need to be identified. Objective: To demonstrate how photobiomodulation, through its numerous mechanisms, may offer an adjunctive therapy in inflammatory bowel disease. Rather than considering only molecular mechanisms, we take an overarching biopsychosocial approach to propose how existing evidence gleaned from other studies may underpin a treatment strategy of potential benefit to people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Main findings: In this paper, the authors have proposed the perspective that photobiomodulation, through an integrated effect on the neuroimmune and microbiome–gut–brain axis, has the potential to be effective in managing the fatigue, pain, and depressive symptoms of people with inflammatory bowel disease.

Examining Sound, Light, and Vibrations as Tools to Manage Microbes and Support Holobionts, Ecosystems, and Technologies

“…As described by Santos et al [92], photobiomodulation traces back at least to Finsen who won the Nobel prize in Medicine and Physiology for his light-based treatment of both cutaneous tuberculosis and smallpox [93,94]. The term photobiomodulation has been become associated with therapy using non-ionizing light sources (e.g., LED, lasers, and broadband light) in the visible and infared spectrums [92,95]. The therapeutic frequencies encompass a range of approximately 600-1200 nm with different frequencies having different skin penetration capacities [92].…”

“…Table 3 illustrates examples of the effects of light on microorganisms [92,95,96,104,[109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126]. In a review of PBM and chronic kidney disease, the pathways of PBM facilitating correction of mitochondrial dysfunction as well as gut microbiome dysbiosis are main pathways to health improvement.…”

Protocol for a Single-Arm Feasibility Study of Photobiomodulation for Fatigue, Depression, and Pain in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

“…Taken together, these research results suggest that PBM can improve fatigue, depression, pain, and microbiome diversity in chronic disease. Despite this, there have been no trials or reviews of PBM in IBD to date apart from our group’s recent article on the mechanism of PBM in IBD [ 26 ]. This prospective, single-arm pilot study of PBM in youth with IBD will therefore assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of PBM in IBD.…”

Evaluation of the Impact of Near-Infrared Multiwavelength Locked System Laser Therapy on Skin Microbiome in Atopic Dogs

“…The beneficial effects of PBM in reducing inflammation and edema, restoring blood flow, improving tissue healing, and inducing analgesia have been widely demonstrated in humans [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Moreover, there is also growing evidence that PBM may influence the microbiome [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Interestingly, Bicknell and colleagues demonstrated that PBM delivered to the abdomen of mice produced a significant change in the gut microbiome and, in humans, they observed a change in the microbiome in Parkinson patients after PBM treatment [ 21 , 22 ].…”