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https://www.allangardiner.com/restoring-lives
Disclaimer: The variable-wavelength wellness therapy is not intended to treat any disease or disorder.
The people in the interviews gave me personal permission to share their stories about their recoveries from chronic pain and impaired functioning. They had arrived in studies that I funded with hope (theirs and mine) but no reasonable expectation of improvement. Their return towards normal functioning and improved quality of life show how the body is always waiting to resume its ordinary tasks and balance, called homeostasis. The stimulation draws the body's attention to recognize and fix problems; restoring flows of information and energy that are fundamental to improving well-being and quality of life. PhotoMed's feasibility studies demonstrate improvements in sensorimotor functioning that appears to be "stuck" and waiting for a signal to resume updating and other tasks. These basic sensorimotor functions have been required, even in single cells, since the first organisms 3 billion years ago. However, this page is about improving the quality of life rather the science.
Allan Gardiner
Restoring Lives
By Allan Gardiner
This webpage is about life-restoring outcomes. Outcomes that improve my life, too.
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Meet 5 volunteers who introduce what “improved quality of life” really means:
Restoring homeostasis - a unifying principle
My favorite model for homeostasis is easy to test.
Go to a noisy restaurant and feel yourself leaning in, watching a speaker's mouth, and tuning out nearby conversations. The problem, impaired comprehension, is independent of the source of the noise.
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Analogous, impaired sensory and motor functioning can improve despite erosion from injury, disease, disorder, or myriad unknown reasons.
Your body automatically tries to improve your conversation despite the noise. Non-invasive therapies help the body recognize problems, but it is the body that makes adjustments just as it would have done before.
Looking for a a common factor
From the beginning of PhotoMed's studies in 2000, my team of engineers and I looked for common factors leading to the outcomes that nobody had predicted.
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Clearly, healing had somehow become blocked. But 75 years was a long time for Lois to wait for the “right” therapy.
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I was skeptical of the outcomes having no precedent. The team created sophisticated real-time recording systems to hopefully connect the dots.
Today, we recognize that each person suffered from blocked homeostasis. That is the impaired flows of information and energy that appears to underlie the more visible problems.
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The therapy happens to be effective and efficient at prompting the body recognize the impairments and unblock the flows of information (sensing) and energy (moving).
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Of course, many other non-invasive therapies and surgeries also aim to prompt the return to normal functioning (R2N), homeostasis, and wellness.
Homeostasis is a unifying principle for biology like how gravity is a unifying principle for physics and mechanics. Knowing how they work is not required to observe and predict the effects when their actions are unblocked. We call the path to homeostasis the return-to-normal functioning or R2N.
"But you are an engineer..."
Engineers often try to reduce problems down to unifying principles such as gravity. However, it took me 20+years to accept that homeostasis is the "gravity" of biology and that healing is homeostasis at work. Despite our gaps in "how it works" knowledge, the team could document the effects of healing. The team focused on unpredicted events showing the instant when functioning resumed. The events clearly show that the therapy "works" because no previous intervention had been able to "manage" the pain or restore the person's normal functioning. Beth and Mark show the importance of incremental improvements.
You can restore lives, too.
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Consider becoming a helper of people like Beth, Lois, James, George, Mark and their families. You and I can lend devices via gifts, donations, and grants.
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Contact me 510-541-9830
Please consider homeostasis as the reason for their improvements to their quality of life. The therapy helped the body recognize the impairments.
Beth: From a life of being fed to helping others.
"Beth" was in a car accident the first time that her parents let her ride with a teenage driver. The driver was not at fault but the accident left Beth with C5-C6 quadriplegia. Beth started PhotoMed's therapy about 18 months after her injury and her progress had plateaued. Improvements began during her first session.
Beth achieved progress from her first session. She transitioned to a manual wheelchair about 13 months after starting PhotoMed's therapy. (8:38)
Lois: 75 years PTSD flashbacks vanished
Lois had pain and PTSD flashbacks when she touched a scar in her right knee that had occurred for 75 years. Her flash-back took her back to the episode time when her older brother pushed her off of her tricycle and the pedal gouged her knee. Lois's PTSD and pain vanished while she watched.
Lois tells about her relief after her 75 years of PTSD flashbacks simply vanished. She describes her relieved memories during her 2-month followup interview. (3:15)
James was in a program to "get used to his pain" - he didn't expect it to vanish.
James had been sent by his insurance company to Dr. William Conard's to learn how to live with his chronic back pain after surgery left him with worse pain. He had no expectation that his pain might disappear. Especially during his second session.
James tells about his relief and about how his pain and medications affected his time with his kids who had little memory of him before his injury. (2:35)
George: Protective sensations resume after 8 years but are misaligned with his feet
"George" walked into PhotoMed's study looking at his feet because he could not feel them after 42 years of diabetes. He enrolled to learn if the therapy might relieve his back pain. His back pain resolved in a few minutes. That left time to try the therapy on his feet. He returned a week later having minor sensations in his feet. A few minutes of therapy awakened his sensations but were misaligned with his anatomy. Watch as he tries to identify where he is being touched and about his "new pair of legs".
George shows how the body can abruptly restore sensations lost to diabetes. But the sensations resumed so quickly that reports the wrong touch location. His sensations realign correctly with his feet upon looking at where he is being touched. (4:30)
"George's" recovery of sensation and misalignment challenge notions about chronic pain, neuroplasticity, and and how touch maps are updated. The collection of events like this suggest that the sensorimotor systems were waiting to resume updating their ordinary maps.
Updating of maps isn't special, rather it is the delay that needs more research.
Mark: Huntington's - restoring functions improves his quality of life
The events and discussions below may be shocking to doctors who care for patients having Huntington's disease. The progression is considered irreversible. However, homeostatic processes attempt to restore basic coordination of sensations and movement that are separate from the neurodegeneration from Huntington's disease. The therapy helps the body recognize and improve the basic functions, like with the "noisy restaurant" model, despite the "noise" from the degeneration.
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Watch and listen to how Mark's improved gait, swallowing, and speech improve his quality of life.
In retrospect, I am embarrassed that I self-censored presenting Mark's story for 20 years for lack of an explanation. How many families affected by Huntington's might have had improved quality of life if I had been more bold? Allan Gardiner
Mark and Debbie were on the Huntington's path to immobility and early death. Their mom died of Huntington's at age 46. I'll focus on Mark because his improvements showed me the importance of including people in studies even when no one expects even the slightest improvements.
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Mark wanted to be a good father to his kids. But living in a nursing home to be fed and bathed wasn't how he wanted to live his remaining life.
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In a hurry? Let Mark tell you about becoming the father he wanted to be. Click here.
I met Mark, Debbie, dad, and stepmom in October 2003 at Dr. Haber's clinic (co-inventor of the therapy) where the early development of the therapy took place. We didn't take before videos of their walking or other impairments because we couldn't imagined any significant improvements. (Today, I'd be disappointed if there were no response.)
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In year 1, Mark moved from a nursing home to live independently again.
In year 2, Mark's speaking and movement improved enough to be given back custody of his 16-year-old daughter who was pregnant. He became the father that he had dreamed of being despite the decay from his Huntington's.
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Even at Mark's final interview, in 2008, he was optimistic that showing his improvements might help others believe that improvements are possible. He regularly expressed his gratitude for the team giving him years of quality time with his kids. He still lived independently with increasing support from his family.
PhotoMed's advisor Robert Florin, MD, retired neurosurgeon, met Mark and Debbie in year 3. Dr. Florin was ##**!! that Mark's neurologist wouldn't talk with him to confirm his improvements. Dr. Florin later realized that the neurologist's reputational asset would be lost if she told anyone what she had observed. I was rebuffed by two "centers of excellence" for Huntington's disease for suggesting that they look as our real-time recordings. ​Mark's improved functions were waning by year 5 (2008) but he still lived in his apartment with his son. Nearing the end of the study, he visited Constance Haber's clinic (my co-inventor of variable-wavelength therapy) nearly weekly until the economic downturn ended our study. I have self-censored Huntington's clips until now for lack of a "how it works" explanation. It took 20+ years for me to recognize that the therapy simply gets the body's attention to check out and fix impaired functioning.
The clips show only highlights. This page is about quality of life. I have unedited interviews for researchers to learn more.
Before the first therapy - family interview
I met with the family to go over study details. I thought that nothing would improve and that the therapy might last 2 weeks. You can decide for yourself why I continued to fund Dr. Haber for 5 years of therapy for Mark. Debbie decided to "let go" after about 2 years because she didn't have kids as reasons for continuing.
Mark and Debbie have Huntington's disease. Their mother died at age 46 and they know what lies ahead. Watch Mark's unintentional mouth movements. You are welcome to sample the conversations. (11:28)
Reactions to the improvements achieved during the first 40 minutes of therapy
Mark demonstrates his walking and then drinking from a Styrofoam cup that he reported was previously challenging for lack of dexterity and crushing the cup. The family describes their observations.
Mark demonstrates his improved walking and drinking from a cup. His family tells us why they are surprised. (6:03)
At the first anniversary interview
Mark's family talks about the observed improvements during the first year. After the first session, the family went to a buffet restaurant. Mark surprised everyone by carrying his tray and eating without choking.
Mark had moved from a nursing home to live independently again in an apartment.
Mark's family recalls their surprise at the buffet restaurant where he carried his tray and didn't spill anything. Life changing, he moved out of a nursing home where he had been fed and bathed. (2:58)
After nearly 2 years of therapy
Mark demonstrates his ability to walk forwards and backwards. He reports on how his renewed ability to talk allowed the courts to give him custody of his kids again. He talks about why this is important to him.
Mark's walks for the record. He talks about his ability to testify to get back custody of kids. Custody was given up when he entered a nursing home. (6:51)
A closing note
You may be wondering, as I did for 20+ years, how a few photons could do so many apparently different things.
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We'll leave that for researchers to discover.
It is the return towards normal functioning that improves the quality of life for the person, family, and communities. The therapy "works" or does nothing. Two sessions with no response are enough to suggest that perhaps a different therapy might be needed.
Know someone with no path forward? Want to be their helper?
Contact me. 510-541-9830