Researching Whether Infrared Energy Can Help Diabetics

Man putting on compression sock

Diabetes is a serious chronic health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy. Essentially, the body doesn’t produce enough insulin, causing blood sugar to accumulate in the bloodstream instead of being used by the body’s cells for energy. This lack of insulin, or inefficient use of it, causes very serious health problems as time goes on.

Diabetes is a widespread disease that about one in ten Americans have and about one in three Americans have prediabetes1. Prediabetes is an elevated blood sugar level that hasn’t yet reached the threshold of a diabetes diagnosis but puts people at risk for diabetes, heart disease and stroke. 90-95% of all diabetes diagnoses are for type 22. With its widescale prevalence it follows that diabetes is the leading cause of amputations, with more than 60% of non-traumatic lower limb amputations occurring within the diabetic population3, a number that is on the rise year over year. It has been estimated that every 30 seconds a limb is amputated, with 85% of these directly attributed to a diabetic foot ulcer4.

DIABETES AND CIRCULATION

Some of the symptoms that develop over time for diabetics are related to the circulatory system. As the blood sugar is high in the bloodstream, it narrows or causes blockages in the arteries, a condition known as peripheral artery disease (PAD). This means less blood and oxygen reaches the body’s tissues, causing even further health conditions and can be quite painful for some people. Additionally many people with diabetes, about one in three or one in two, develop peripheral neuropathy, causing nerve damage in the feet, which is painful and makes it easier to get ulcers and infections that could lead to amputation.

Infrared Technologies Improving Quality of Life and Health Outcomes for Diabetics

Infrared energy is known to increase local circulation and improve cellular oxygenation. Since diabetes has such a profound effect on the circulatory system, infrared is one treatment that has generated a lot of interest and study recently. If infrared can help improve the circulation of a person with diabetes it could help improve their quality of life and health outcomes by reducing or eliminating peripheral artery disease and peripheral neuropathy.

DIABETES RESEARCH AND INFRARED

Let’s look at some different research projects that studied the effectiveness of infrared on various aspects of people with diabetes. In each case we’ll take a quote from the study or abstract as provided, verbatim, including links to the source. Each study has its own objectives and own parameters in terms of the source of the infrared and the type of diabetes studied. CELLIANT, as well as our Science Advisory Board, has played no role in these studies whatsoever.

If we look at these studies the results seem to indicate there may be a role for infrared in improving quality of life and health outcomes for people with diabetes, but we encourage you to read each study and draw your own conclusions.

“Far-infrared sauna use may be associated with improved quality of life in people with type II diabetes mellitus. Uptake of infrared saunas use is greater than the uptake of other lifestyle interventions.”

“While the exact mechanism of action is not understood, infrared light may improve peripheral neuropathies by improving foot perfusion by stimulating nitric oxide production.”

“Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) using red and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths is being considered as a promising technique for speeding up the rate of diabetic wound healing, eradication of pain and reduction of inflammation through the alteration of diverse cellular and molecular processes. This review presents the extent to which the potential of red and NIR wavelengths have been harnessed in PBMT for diabetic wound healing.”

“Overall, our results demonstrate that LLLT [low-level light therapy] improves blood flow and autonomic nervous system regulation in DFU [Diabetic foot ulcer] and the importance of light intensity in therapeutic protocols.”

“The findings of significant improvements to objective and subjective measures of blood flow and neural function in the experimental group indicate that FIR [Far Infrared Radiation] therapy improves blood circulation to the feet. This therapy thus has great potential to be an effective adjuvant treatment for patients with diabetes mellitus undergoing hemodialysis.”

CELLIANT Infrared Technology and Diabetes

OUR PUBLISHED STUDY: EXPLORING THE EFFECT OF CELLIANT ON DIABETIC PATIENTS WITH VASCULAR IMPAIRMENT
As discussed diabetic patients often suffer from peripheral neuropathy and peripheral artery disease, which predominantly affects the feet. Members of our Science Advisory Board conducted our own study to test the efficacy of CELLIANT infrared technology on diabetic patients with vascular impairment. While the sample size of this study was small, and statistically significant results were not achieved by all patients in the trial, the study results indicated that some patients saw an increase of as much as 20% in tissue oxygenation and 30% in localized blood flow. These results are encouraging and mean that the effects of CELLIANT on diabetic patients with vascular impairment warrants further research. As the conclusion in the study states: The trends that were observed in favor of CELLIANT stockings suggest that a larger well-designed clinical trial should be undertaken, and may provide evidence of clinical efficacy in treatment of the diabetic foot.
READ THE STUDY
You can read the full study here, or visit our Clinical Trials page to download our library of clinical trial reports for all 10 of our published studies.
FURTHER RESEARCH UNDERWAY
Hologenix has embarked on a more comprehensive trial, “Study to Evaluate CELLIANT Diabetic Medical Socks to Increase Tissue Oxygenation and Incidence of Complete Wound Closure in Diabetic Foot Wounds” – NCT04709419, which focuses on the impact of CELLIANT technology to potentially improve tissue oxygenation and wound healing outcomes.
PARTNER WITH CELLIANT ON DIABETIC PRODUCTS
If you’re interested in partnering with us to create products that improve the quality of life for people with diabetes, we’d love to hear from you. CELLIANT-infused products that would be beneficial to people with diabetes include:
  • Socks
  • Compression socks
  • Calf Sleeves
  • Bedding
  • Pants
  • Shoes (CELLIANT can be infused in the shoe liner or insole)
PARTNER WITH CELLIANT ON DIABETIC RESEARCH
We are also interested in connecting with other researchers and experts in the field of diabetes. If you are interested in sharing protocol, outcomes, and ideas, or looking to utilize CELLIANT infrared technology as part of your own body of research, we invite you to get in touch.

GET IN TOUCH

1The Facts, Stats, and Impacts of Diabetes. (n.d.). Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/spotlights/diabetes-facts-stats.html#:~:text=37.3%20million%20Americans%E2%80%94about%201,t%20know%20they%20have%20it.

2Diabetes Quick Facts. (n.d.) Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/quick-facts.html

3Amputation Prevention Alliance. (n.d.) American Diabetes Association. https://diabetes.org/get-involved/advocacy/amputation-prevention-alliance

4Why does diabetes sometimes lead to a foot or leg amputation? (n.d.) Alliance Foot and Ankle Specialists. https://www.footdoc.org/faqs/how-diabetes-can-lead-to-foot-and-leg-amputation.cfm

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