Take your aches and pains to the red light zone...

Laser focused solution helps tackle inflammation

- BY SARA ROUNTREE

I LAY down to get 40,000 laser beams pointed at me - and it wasn't for hair removal or tanning.

I visited Laser Medical in Ballincollig after the lovely team there invited me to try their newest, cutting-edge treatment technology: Whole Body Laser therapy.

Hailed by science and medical journals as a revolutionary new method to treat pain and inflammation, the idea of laying down under red lights to cure chronic aches and pains instantly caught my attention.

And while it may seem like an unheard-of concept (there are only two clinics offering it in Ireland), professional sports teams and physiotherapy practices have been promoting the health technology in America in recent years.

Laser Medical founder Shane Hennessy's clinic is most known for high power laser therapy for acute pain and injuries, the whole body laser bed is the newest addition to the first-of-its-kind clinic.

I was initially sceptical of a treatment designed to target everything from sports injuries to arthritis - and also hopeful that it may offer some relief for the twinge in my 'bad shoulder' and a solution for a lasting Electric Picnic-induced allover ache.

Shane told me: "There is good science behind this. Your cells work to manage your pain, but through things like injury, age and lifestyle, cells can become disfunctional.

It can affect everything from your mood to your sleep and energy.