Business Innovators Radio - Dr. Ben Smith: How Laser Therapy Can Transform Your Healing Process

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

In this episode, Dr. Tami Patzer talks with Dr. Ben Smith of Hoover Spine and Relief Now Laser Birmingham about the power of laser therapy in treating various conditions. Dr. Smith, a chiropractor with 20 years of experience, shares his journey into chiropractic care and how laser therapy became a game-changer for his patients.Dr. Smith started exploring laser therapy about 10 years ago when he encountered a surge of patients with arthritic knees. After extensive research, he discovered the incredible benefits of class four laser therapy, which had a significant impact on various conditions, including rotator cuff issues and neuropathy. In March 202, Dr. Smith invested in a class four laser and hasn’t looked back since.The class four laser used in Dr. Smith’s clinic is a surgical-powered laser that uses light energy to stimulate cellular metabolism, tissue healing, and pain relief. The laser’s energy is absorbed at the cellular level, promoting energy production and accelerating the healing process. It also stimulates vasodilation, increasing blood flow to the affected area. The laser’s analgesic effects provide immediate pain relief, allowing patients to regain their freedom and mobility.Who should listen to this episode? Anyone who is seeking an alternative to surgery or medication for their condition should tune in. Dr. Smith’s laser therapy offers a drug-free and non-invasive solution for patients dealing with spinal issues, degenerative disc diseases, rotator cuff issues, plantar fasciitis, and peripheral neuropathy.To learn more about Dr. Ben Smith and his laser therapy practice, visit the website www.reliefnowlaserbirmingham.com. You can also contact Dr. Smith directly at [e-mail] or call 205-536-7758. Mention Dr. Tami’s show to receive a free consultation and your first laser treatment for free.In conclusion, laser therapy has revolutionized the way patients receive treatment for various conditions. Dr. Ben Smith’s expertise and dedication to his patients’ well-being are evident in his approach to chiropractic care and his incorporation of class-four laser therapy. If you’re looking for a safe, effective, and drug-free solution to your pain and mobility issues, laser therapy may be the answer you’ve been searching for. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to experience relief and regain your freedom with Dr. Ben Smith’s laser therapyThe Optimal Health Showhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/optimal-health-show/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/dr-ben-smith-how-laser-therapy-can-transform-your-healing-process

It's time to put your health in your own hands. Get ready to learn from today's top health and wellness innovators and thought leaders on Optimal Health Radio. Now, here's your host. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Tatser, and this is Relief Now Laser Method, sponsoring optimal health. And today, my guest is Dr. Ben Smith of Hoover Spine and Relief Now Laser Method. Laser Birmingham.

So we're just going to have a nice conversation talking about laser and how it may be able to help you with some of your needs. So let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Smith. He is from Birmingham, Alabama, where he attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham for his undergraduate degree in exercise science. And then he obtained his chiropractic degree from Texas College of Chiropractic. And he shows exercise science as a pre-professional degree because he had planned on going into physical therapy. And at that time, he actually was playing rugby for the Birmingham Balkans.

And in the second season, guess what? He started to have back pain and other issues. And as the pain persisted, guess what he turned to? Chiropractic. So he actually ended up going to the chiropractic school so that he could help other people. So now, fast forward, 20 years have gone by. and he has been focusing on restoring the function to the spine and joints of patients so that they can have the freedom to perform their daily activities and any other activities that they'd like to do. So with that, doctor, I'd like you to tell me a little bit more about your background and why you decided that laser therapy was something that you wanted to add to your practice.

Yeah, so as you mentioned, I've been practicing for 20 years. About 10 years ago, really more like 12. I had this rash of arthritic knees that came into my clinic. And we just discovered we didn't have a good answer. I mean, we just did not. So that took me to the research. It took me to the market. And looking around at the various options that would be available to it,

us. And the research with class four laser was just unbelievable, even at that time. There was so much research you could put your hands on that validated that the laser was working and working well in many conditions, but specifically for the knees. And so I just kind of continued to watch that for the next several years because we didn't have as many knees coming in. But we found that it was kind of. I helped with neuropathy, rotator cuff issues.

And all of this was in research that I was just kind of following. And so finally in 2020, in March of 2020, I invested quite significantly in a sum as P4 class laser. And the very next week, COVID hit. So it was a interesting time to say the least. But we have never looked back. And we have recently decided to open up a laser-only side to our clinic. It's going to be kind of a separate thing where we're really going to go after those patients who may not necessarily come to a chiropractic office, but are looking for alternatives that would keep them from surgery or, you know, medications or, you know,

they just like to get back to things in their life that they can't do anymore because of these particular conditions. Well, I think that with the laser, one of the main things about it is it's drug-free and it might help people avoid surgery of some sort also. And so I think that's really important. So what are your specific specializations? So currently I am AIMLA, American Institute of Medical Lasers practitioners certified, and it's a very unique course. There are no certifications to have to do laser. There are many lasers on the market. Not all lasers are created equal.

Anything below Class 4 does not have the research. to validate its healing properties. Now that being said, all laser above a class three is going to have healing properties. It's just they're not going to be able to apply that laser long enough to that patient and continue to do some of the other things that they do for that healing property to properly take hold. So with the AI,

IMLA, we're getting well versed in the physics and the science behind what's really going on. And that has been just fabulous to learn and be able to share with patients. Because as you know, part of the healing process is understanding what it is that you're doing. And if they can understand it, then their mind can be wrapped around the fact that this can heal. and that just is a tremendous step for patients. That's really interesting that you say that because I am one of those patients that the more I know about it, the more I think I can help my own recovery process. Because like you said, when you actually understand what's going on, that can really be useful.

So can you talk a little bit more about how laser therapy actually works on the body? Yeah, absolutely. So the Class 4 laser is actually a surgical powered laser, meaning it's 25 watts, roughly, depending on which brand you pick. The difference between a surgical laser that acts like a scalpel and the laser that, the class four laser that we'd use is the handpiece. The handpiece is what either converges the laser or diverges or separates it out. And our handpiece separates it out so that it actually passes through the skin and enters the tissues as light energy.

That light energy is in the form of a photon. Okay. and photons then get deep into the tissue and get absorbed at the cellular level at what's called a chromoform. And there are many different chemicals that make up a chromoform that will, you know, interact with light. But specifically, they're on the cellular membrane and at the mitochondria. And so this interaction creates a photochemical reaction, very similar to photosynthesis in a plant that stimulates energy production. And part of what's going on when you have an injury, an ailment, a condition, whatever,

is the cellular metabolism goes way down in those areas. The cells themselves become sickly. When we get that energy flow up, we're going to bring that metabolism of those cells back to normal and allow them to kind of move through their own process 30 to 50% faster. So what that means is a cell is going to divide faster, which is all a cell does. But one cell becomes two, two becomes four. And what that means is you're going to get new tissue healing.

It's also going to stimulate vasodilation in the area significantly, which is tremendous because now we're going to have more blood flow coming in, which is going to bring more healing nutrients. It's going to bring oxygen, all of which is going to stimulate the activity to move faster and we get tissue healing. In addition to all that, it will stimulate analgesics endorphin release in your body and several other things that will help with the pain side of it. But our focus has obviously been on we want you to heal. So that's, that's kind of lost. They talk more about that. So, so basically the laser is putting a lot of energy into the damage and it gives the cells the ability to do what they're supposed to do,

reproduce and create new tissue, healthy tissue, and analgesic is pain relief. Am I right? That's correct. And so you get the pain relief because I know I have a shoulder injury and I know the pain is what stops me from using it, you know, from that process. So I can understand how having that pain relief and having that energy. About how long would you say it takes to get any type of relief from Class 4 laser? So typically we're going to recommend we start with a baseline of six visits. A visit could last anywhere from five to 15 or even as high as 22 minutes, depending on the condition that we're treating.

Some conditions are more in detail and they require more laser to multiple body parts where there's others you might be specifically right on the area of complaint. And, you know, the effects of that laser will last for about 24 hours. And many patients will receive, will feel almost instantaneous relief immediately. A lot of it has to do with the heating effect of the laser, which is going to be therapeutic in itself. But six visits is where we find it's not really a cut line, but where we find we now have enough to see that this therapy is going to work for this patient and a good baseline

to determine how much more we need from an exam. that point. So can you have, would these six visits be like once a week or how often or what would be realistic in terms of how often would those six, how much time would be between those six visits? So at least a day, you know, we want to get a real picture of what's going on with this patient and the treatment that they're getting. So typically I'll go at least twice a week for three weeks, but on a more severe case, we might go, you know, every other day where we're going three times in a week for two weeks because, you know, we want to make sure that we're getting that accurate picture.

But for, in general, two to three weeks would be your first six visits and then depending on how we have to distribute out the remaining ledgers, you know, two months, you know, six weeks, depending on those types of factors. So you mentioned that you actually got interested in the laser therapy because you had patients coming in with the knee issues. Do you have any little antidotes about what some of your patients and how the laser affected their knees? Yeah, I've got a patient right now that came to me after a soccer match with a torn MCL,

and he said, I got a match in four weeks, and I want to play. And so he is going to finish his sixth visit tomorrow, and he's already confirmed to me that he feels like he can play. he's going to see his orthopedic at the end of this week to get his blessing, but he's already told me we're going to finish this out, and he's playing. So we're going to get him started on his second round, and then we're going to kind of devise that based on a little bit before you go play and probably a lot of it after you go play,

because we anticipate that he will probably re-injure that to some extent. We're not terribly worried about that because he does play goalie, And there is a lot of lateral movement there. But it's that lateral with forward movement that really is what would concern you with that meniscus or MCL. Hmm. So, so he's, and I, what interested me was the fact that you said he's going to go see his orthopedias. So you work in conjunction with other medical professionals to make sure that everything is, you know, going. right with each patient.

It sounds. Yeah, we do. We try to co-manage as much as possible for two reasons. One, you know, not every condition is going to respond to the laser. Okay. So we need somebody who's there to help us that we can trust and we can feel comfortable sending our patients to that they're going to get the same type of approach that we take that is going to be as conservative as possible to least, you know,

least conservative. And the other reason is, you know, when a patient comes in and they've got torn ligaments in their knee, they're automatically thinking, I've got to go see the orthopedist. This is an orthopedic only condition. So we want patients to be comfortable in that realm. So that takes some onboarding with the orthopedist or the general practitioner or whomever it is that that patient has their faith in. so that they can have faith in us and confidence in what we're doing to give that patient enough time to see that this is working.

And, you know, it's a process. But yes, we do co-manage those in many cases. So with your different patients, what you said that you didn't see as many arthritic means as you did back in the day. what are people coming in now to see you about when they're asking about laser therapy, what types of conditions are you seeing more of now that made you decide that you're actually opening up this totally separate laser center? So we are seeing a bunch of these now since we got the laser and started trying to push the laser.

and that has been really good. We always did rotator cuff issues. We do a lot of rehab in my clinic. We have found that we've been able to reduce those rehab visits with those rotator cuff issues by adding the laser to them. You know, we obviously see a lot of spinal issues, herniated disc, degenerative disc. those have responded really, really well, again, allowing us to reduce the number of times that we need to see that patient to get them to a stabilization point. And in some cases, patients that we wouldn't be able to get the results with, we've been able to get those results by using the lasers. So plantar fasciitis, we've seen a ton of that.

As a matter of fact, I've got one now. And it has blown as mine that we're actually doing laser. calf and found a lot of scar tissue in there, which the laser will help break up. He said, you know, I've been to several places and nobody has looked at my calf. And I said, well, this is 90% of all plantar fasciitis is going to come from scar tissue built up in your calf, which is why our laser is designed to do both sides when we're dealing with or both body parts when we're dealing with a plantar fasciitis patient. that's important because a lot of times people are thinking my pain is in my foot normally isn't

that where the pain from that is that's it thinking oh it's being caused from like you said my calf muscle having scar tissue or something and i think that's where you come in because you know the body So it's like this could actually be caused by something that isn't even in your foot. Because I can imagine that there's a lot of different things. Do you see very many people with neuropathy? Actually, I do. We see quite a few people with neuropathy. We have several studies that show that we are,

the class four laser is 90% successful with peripheral neuropathy. we have seen that in the numbers that we've seen. As a matter of fact, I just finished a patient three months ago. And he is currently with me for maintenance on his low back issue. And I was talking to him about it. And he said he has not had any pain since we finished with him three months ago. And so that has been just tremendous that addition to our clinic. Well, the pain is significant.

Like I said, I personally have a shoulder injury, and some of the pain that I felt in my arm is, like, way worse than, I mean, I equated it to childbirth, so that tells you it hurt. Right. You know, when you're able to go, man, that hurts more than that. So with the laser technology, you mentioned that there's a lot of scientific research related to the laser therapy. Is there any condition that you think should not be treated by lasers? Are there any things that you need to think about before you seek out laser treatment?

Absolutely. the biggest thing, as we talked about, we're going to ramp up cellular metabolism and a few other things. The biggest thing we can't do is treat an active cancer because we don't want to ramp up the metabolism of those cells. But ironically, I have had three patients with cancer come into me. Now, the cancer was not necessarily in the area of complaint. and I got on the phone and started talking to their oncologist. One of them had prostate cancer. One of them had non-Hodskins lymphoma.

And I'm trying to remember the other one, but it doesn't matter. And all three oncologists gave us their blessing. We talked about the treatment protocols. We talked about what the patient on their side was on. And we came up with some ideas that we might need to change up some medications that they were on at the time because that would be counterproductive to the laser. Or in a case of the prostate cancer, the oncologist had no idea about class four laser,

but she wasn't worried about it at all. So, you know, there are times when we can do it, we just have to do our due diligence and follow proper protocols. We can't inject, we cannot do laser over directly. over a steroid injection that's less than seven days old because it will affect the medication. You know, there are things that you have to be careful of, tattoos. For example, we'll heat up some tattoos, some tattoos will not. And I don't know why that is.

I have not been able to find that out. But there aren't many. As a matter of fact, it has just been proven that we can treat pregnant women with laser, which is a big plus because, as you know, having gone through childbirth, it can be very painful sometimes, particularly in the spine and pelvis area. Yeah, the sciatica. Yeah. It's like like that.

That is a great alternative for a pregnant woman who may not be comfortable with the idea of being adjusted, you know. Yes. But that calm, gentle laser that only makes you feel good while it's on you, you know, who wouldn't want that? So there's very little that we cannot do. In fact, I was just following a training today. And the teacher in that says that the cells, only the six cells in the area are going to absorb the laser. The healthy cells won't. So that is some research I'm looking forward to looking into because that says a lot. There's just not a whole lot that can be, that can go wrong with the laser as long as it's done properly. That is so interesting.

I mean, obviously you, you yourself are really making sure that you have the education and continuing education about the class four laser and how it marries into all of the other things that you do. How can people get in contact with you? So the easiest way, obviously we have our website, and that's www. Relief now laser birmingham.com. They can call us. It's 205-536-7-58. They can email me directly. We are still trying to get the email set up for our laser side.

but my current email at my other clinic, and I want to be very clear to people, if you email me and you're interested in the laser, we're not going to try to show you anything else other than what you are interested in seeing unless you change that interest. But that email is DR Smith at uverspine.com. Okay, Dr. Smith, DR.

at Hooverspine.com. And of course it is Reliefenal Laser Birmingham.com. So before I let you go, is there anything you'd like to add? I think we've covered a lot. I've enjoyed this a lot. I will say this. For anybody who's watching this or listening to the show, if you mention Dr. Tammy's show,

We're going to offer you a free consultation and your first laser is free to try to try this out. See if this is a good fit for you. We certainly don't want anybody under care that doesn't feel like they're getting their relief. And we totally understand that patients can, new technologies can be a little bit daunting. And we're going to help walk you through that as much as we can. and if you do all that and you feel like this is not for you, then at least you've tried. But we will be offering that for anybody who mentions this show

and that they saw us here. Great. Well, I appreciate that. So everyone, remember, optimal health, Dr. Tammy, anything to say will be acknowledged. And why not get that consultation and your first laser appointment at no charge. That's just a really nice thing to happen. So Dr. Smith, I really appreciate it. And I learned a lot today. I really enjoy learning about all of the different things directly from

a doctor who's practicing this every single day. I learned a lot from you today. So everyone, this is Dr. Tammy Patser, Optimal Health. My guest has been Dr. Dr. Tammy. Ben Smith, and this has been sponsored by Relief Now Laser Methods. Thank you. You've been listening to today's top health and wellness innovators and thought leaders on Optimal Health Radio. To get more solid health and wellness information, visit optimal health radio.com.