Daniel BuenoThe use of low-level lasers has shown promising results against hypothyroidism caused by chronic autoimmune thyroiditis, a disease in which the immune system attacks the thyroid, the gland that produces the hormones that control the body’s metabolism. In a study led by Maria Cristina Chammas and Giovanni Guido Cerri from the University of São Paulo (USP), the physician Danilo Höfling assigned 23 patients with this form of thyroiditis to a series of 10 laser sessions to treat the thyroid. Another 20 individuals were administered a placebo treatment involving light that offers no therapeutic benefit. After nine months, those who received actual treatment required only half the dose of the synthetic hormone they had been taking before the study. Those who underwent the placebo treatment needed larger doses (Lasers in Medical Science, 2012). The laser seems to have reduced the production of antibodies against thyroid. For Höfling, these results suggest an improvement in the gland’s function.
