Dr. Henderson, we'd love to hear some stories that pertain to your why
Well, you know I started out
in functional neuroimaging and
You know, I would read brain spect scans, which is a functional brain scan on
patient after patient after patient and
I'd be telling them well you have a brain injury
We don't have a treatment for you so have a nice life we can't do anything for you and
That's very frustrating for a physician. I'm a healer. I believe that my job is to heal people and
so
To say to someone I've got nothing for you
was very frustrating and
so when the science about
infrared light began to emerge and the workout of infrared light
And the workout of Harvard and Uniform Circus Hospital and some of these other places was coming out
Showing that in a mouse model and a rabbit model
They could induce brain healing. I
Got very excited
and in fact because
One of the key factors that infrared light turns on is a is a growth factor called brain derived
neurotrophic factor or BDNF
There's a side story in there talk about you know my why
This is literally what I did my postdoctoral research on
So I have a PhD and my PhD was on brain development and
Then I had two NIH funded postdoctoral research grants as a medical student and a graduate student
and as a resident and
You know that work was focused on BDNF. So I know BDNF very very well
It's an old friend and so suddenly I realized I had a way to activate
This key growth factor in the adult brain and induce healing
That's very exciting. So that was really the why of why I got involved in all of this
That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that with us. Yeah
Where would you say Dr. Henderson that you're going with your vision?
Yeah
Well infrared light therapy or photobiomodulation as the entire field is called
Photo being light bio life modulation being altering
It's it's a mixed field right now
There's a lot of people working with low-power infrared light
They're putting creating devices you can buy and stick on your head and
Pads that you can put on your you know shoulder or your back or whatever wrap around your knee
And then there are you know, a very small group of us that are working with the high power or multi watt infrared light
Now multi watt infrared light particularly with what we're doing
Gets through the skull and the scalp and into the brain and we're directly
Treating the brain cells these low-power devices
They don't even penetrate the skin
And so what they're doing is and they're inducing some chemical in the skin and I've shown that
And I could talk about that study
And that chemical does something beneficial for the whole body so
You could put the infrared light pad on your knee and you'll help your brain as well
But it's at a very low level. It's very small benefit
And so, you know my vision is to kind of try to consolidate the field towards
An understanding that if you want to treat the brain, you've got to treat it directly. That's where you get the most robust changes
And that's where you get the lasting changes
These low-power devices work as long as you keep using you use them every day. You'll see benefit as soon as you stop
It starts to go away
Yes
Wow
You know, I uh, I think I shared this with you last time you came on the show
Um, I had noticed like and I have no way near expert in this field whatsoever
but
I did notice when I was consistently doing red light therapy at the gym
Um, I like my muscles got less sore
I would recover faster
But it's not i'm guessing not that you said it's not as nearly as helpful as
Penetrating deeper within the skin where we should because 15 minutes 20 minutes at tops
Um once or twice a day is not as even beneficial as have a deeper
Wavelength of of light, correct?
That yeah, and there's several parts to that number one
There there are many wavelengths of infrared light
So red light therapy technically is in the red visible light range. So it's very low power
That penetrates into muscles for example, and it's really good for reducing inflammation
So when you do a big heavy-duty workout, you've got a buildup of lactic acid
And you've got inflammation
and
Red light helps you to recover faster
And you've got inflammation and red light helps to clear that out
But the higher wavelengths of infrared light those work directly directly on the mitochondria
Wow, and the little organelles that are the that make energy in our cells
That's the difference
What are the side effects of using red light therapy if any?
Again, you know looking at uh
Uh low, uh, let's start with low watt infrared light
You spend two thousand dollars to get a device you stick it on your head
Let's ignore the fact that the infrared light doesn't get through, you know your hair my hair
It would block all that infrared light
um, so
Let's ignore that part
So one side effect of that is that you spend a lot of money and you don't get a lot of benefit
So it's hard on the pocketbook
Um, but if you're consistent and use it every day and you stick it, you know on your back or your knee or your arm
You you will get some benefit and that's been shown over and over again
But as soon as you stop it starts to go away
It's transient benefit
In terms of the multi-watt infrared light therapy the high power
treatments that we do
Um, number one it has to be done by a professional. These are powerful devices
People can't just you know, do it to themselves
um, so there's the
Expense of you had to go to a clinic and you had somebody has to administer that
Side effect wise if we just think about it like a medical procedure was the side effects very very little
Uh, some of our patients about 10% will experience a headache after the first treatment
Generally not after the second third fourth fifth, etc. But after the first treatment about 10%
Some people will feel tired after the treatment
But you know, sometimes they feel energized
So in fact, you know, I check in with patients after each treatment and sometimes, you know, they're they feel tired
Sometimes they feel really relaxed. Sometimes they feel energized and ready to go out and you know tackle their day
Um, so it really depends
But other than that there aren't any side effects. There aren't any risks
Um, all of our patients have seen benefits
Awesome. Thank you for sharing that with us
My next question for you, um you being
The healer instead of
A primary physician doctor. I think i've had a few people on my show now who have actually
Taken a step back from the medical world of primary physicians insurances and medicine
And gone to actually finding ways to heal people some to natural remedies come through light
Um some through herbs. There's a lot of things that i've seen around
Um, and you have done a lot for that like you going and doing i bet would not easy
So according to your opinion, dr henderson
Why do you think leaders hide?
from funding their vision
And then how can those leaders then lean into funding that vision?
Hmm. That's a great question
And and let me just clarify a little bit so leaders
are not necessarily the the inventor of the
approach say
You know discovering a particular combination of herbs, but you're talking about
The the fiscal leaders of our country or yeah. Okay, just to make sure I understand
well
And and uh
This is confessions of a medical heretic here. Um
And quite literally, I mean one of the first books I read when I considered going into medicine
Was confessions of a medical heretic
Because I had seen how
Corrupted and messed up medicine was just as a patient without even really thinking about it. I could see it
And I think we all see it, you know, you know, why does an aspirin cost ten dollars in a hospital?
Well, because you've got to cover the insurance. Yeah, so all of that stuff sort of feeds into
A very jaundiced view at this point
And and i've seen this over and over again
And and this will be a very personal example
so
Here i've got this amazing technique. I'm going to show you how to do this
So here i've got this amazing technique. I have patients who have parkinson's disease
That I treated they're now 10 years out from treatment. They have not gotten worse
That's unheard of in parkinson's disease. That would be a michael j fox miracle
If you could stop the progression of parkinson's disease, and this is what we're seeing
You know patient after patient
So, you know we go to a particularly big funder of of parkinson's research and i'm not going to name any
Individual or foundation but i've gone to both type, you know individuals and foundations
And they they said wow, this is really kind of cool. Let me run it past my neurologist
Who is my advisor and see what they say?
And that's the end of it the neurologist
Maybe gives a cursory glance as soon as he sees infrared light or he or she says
Can't be doing anything. This is poppycock
And to be honest
That was my initial reaction when I first encountered this work. I said that's impossible
You can't treat the human brain through the scalp and skull with infrared light
But there's no way it's going to get through
And but I took the next step
Which was let's research it. Let's find out
and
these advisors are
Generally very you know, very conservative very stuck in allopathic medicine
And they don't think out of the box
So, let me give you one other example not mine
So there's a neurologist, you know picking on neurologists. Here's the other side
By the name of bretteson b-r-e-d-e-s-e-n
bretteson
Wrote a book the end of Alzheimer's disease
And then he wrote a kind of a guidebook for you know, a handbook for patients
and he is treating patients and
by diet more than anything else because he discovered the link between
our insulin receptors
and
Diabetic and Alzheimer's disease
now our insulin receptors
Get you know, if we're drinking alcohol and we're eating, you know carbohydrates and eating canned food or prepared food
You know, we're eating
We're bombarding our insulin receptors because there's so much carbs that your insulin shoots up
And your receptors either get overwhelmed or they just stop responding altogether
And so what he showed is that all these people were developing dementia had decreased insulin receptor
responsivity
And by changing their diet getting their insulin receptors to respond again
They started to get more and more
Usually a year ago which was actually probably some years ago
So some years ago, September 21st
He started working with benefits特別
AndSomething to do with the좯 organizational
Pronunciation proposal so that when all this
stuff that started spotting wrestling Abbess knob's
She didn't have such a big
battery
They covered everything
inevitable. You can't stop it. You can't reverse it. There's no such thing as surviving Alzheimer's
disease. And they just shoot it down. So how could leaders lean into funding
these innovative approaches? First off, you've got to have your eyes open. And second off,
you've got to listen to a chorus of advisors, not just one allopathic voice or a group of allopathic
voices all locked in this one position. You have to listen to multiple voices.
Thank you for sharing that. I think
there's more people out there that are in your same or similar shoes, but they're afraid to take a step
in helping people because there's bigger organizations they're going against. So I think
that advice would be very, very helpful for them and also for other leaders and entrepreneurs who
just don't know what approach to take. So thank you for sharing that with us.
One more question for you today. This is a hard question. You can take time to think about it.
As a leader or as an entrepreneur, what has been your most significant learning experience?
I think I'm still in the middle of it. And let me be specific. So every entrepreneur,
whether they've invented a widget, a thing, or they've invented a technique,
and honestly, widgets are easier than just a simple thing. So I think that's a good point.
I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point.
And honestly, widgets are easier than techniques. It has to be able to convince other people that
it's a good idea. I think of the original Apple computer. How do you convince somebody that
everybody should have a personal computer? That was unimaginable. And now we've got a personal
computer we carry around with us all the time that we can't put down. We're looking at it constantly.
But at that time, it was inconceivable that everybody would need a computer in their home,
let alone in their pocket. So what I have struggled with is how to convince investors
that what we're doing here is a good idea. And this is not only is it something that will
revolutionize medicine, it's something that will make them a lot of money.
If we revolutionize medicine, we make people money. So I've not figured out how to do that yet.
And as I've said, I've talked to investors and they go to their advisors and that's the end of
the discussion. Or I talk to investors and they say, well, if you can make this person better,
if you can make this person better, then we'll invest. But then that person never shows up.
And so it just dies on the vine. But I've not had the situation where someone says, wow,
I totally get it. I totally see that if we open 10 clinics and we treat 260 patients, we make X
dollars, which is pretty obvious. But they can't seem to get over the idea that light could be a
treatment. Interesting. So for me, the model is stem cells. When stem cells first came along,
stem cell therapy, it's like a stem, you want to stick a flower stem in me? What are you talking
about? So nobody knew what a stem cell is, but now everybody knows what a stem cell is. And so they
at least kind of get, okay, you have the cell that turns into good things in your body. And we got to
get that to that point with light, that the idea that infrared light, not just going out and get on
a sunny day or going to get red light therapy in the gym, but specific infrared light therapy can
be brain saving, let alone life saving. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you
tuned into Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as
well. We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and
attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.