Podcast Episode # 17: Lasers in Dermatology with Dr. Glynis Ablon

In today’s episode, we sit down with Dr. Glynis Ablon, sought-after speaker and researcher, to discuss how Erchonia’s Lasers are providing doctors and patients with powerful new options in helping those who are looking for solutions for non-invasive fat reduction. To learn more about these tools you can check out Erchonia’s site here: https://www.erchonia.com/product-category/lasers-for-fat-loss/

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Dr. Chad Woolner: What’s going on everybody? Dr. Chad Woolner here with Dr. Andrew Wells and this is Episode 17 of the laser light show and on today’s episode, we have with us our good friend and special guest, Dr. Glynis Ablon, and we’re going to be talking about lasers in dermatology. So let’s get to it. 

[INTRO]

Growing up in Portland, Oregon, I used to love going to laser light shows at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. They would put on these amazing light shows with incredible designs synced up to some of my favorite music. From the Beatles to Pink Floyd to Jimmy Hendrix and Metallica; they were awesome. Little did I know then that lasers would have such a profound effect on my life decades later. As a chiropractic physician, I have seen first-hand just how powerful laser therapy is in helping patients struggling with a wide range of health problems. As the leader in laser therapy, Erchonia has pioneered the field in obtaining 20 of the 23 total FDA clearances for therapeutic application of lasers. On this podcast, we’ll explore the science and technology and physiology behind what makes these tools so powerful. Join me as we explore low-level laser therapy. I’m Dr. Chad Woolner along with my good friend Dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to The Laser Light Show.

All right, welcome, everybody to the show, and a special welcome to Dr. Ablon. Good to have you here with us. Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to be on the show with us. 

Of course. So you are a dermatologist in Manhattan Beach, California, correct? That is correct. And you were just saying before the show that you’re literally on a movie studio lot. Is that where you’re where you said your app?

Dr. Glynis Ablon:That is my office has been here now for about 21-22 years on the Manhattan Beach studio lot. Yeah.

​​Dr. Chad Woolner: So you’ve seen a lot of movie stars, a lot of movies and or movie stars. I should say.

Dr. Glynis Ablon:  We do see our fair share of crap.

Dr. Chad Woolner: How fun is that? That’s cool.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: So people are interesting during the day? Yeah, no

Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah, no doubt, I bet.

Dr. Andrew Wells:  So this podcast is about lasers in dermatology. And when I think of not being a dermatologist, I’m a chiropractor. When I think of lasers in dermatology, I think of automatically like burning, cutting, removing, like some of like surgical applications for potential applications for laser therapy. And obviously, that’s not what we’re talking about today. But maybe if you can give us kind of a little bit of a background on, on who you are, what you do. And then we’ll kind of segue into how we’re using lasers and how you’re using lasers to help your patients.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: Of course, I am a board certified dermatologist. I do my training at Baylor College of Medicine. I actually got into lasers back in 1993 with my mentor, Dr. Ted Rosen, over at Baylor, in Houston, Texas. And we had the good old fashioned co2 Laser back then in 93. And we had, I think, one type two laser. And then Dr. Leonard Goldberg, taught me about a pulsed dye laser. And that was pretty much it at that time. And I just thought it was fascinating. I think that we should have so many applications. After graduating in dermatology, I opened my practice here in the Manhattan Beach chapter, I actually worked in some other offices for a while and then opened my own office. And I have a medical dermatology cosmetic dermatology circle dermatology and Research Center here in the city a lot. And lasers are one big part of what I do. And I think it’s fascinating. It’s exciting. It’s ever evolving. And there’s so much information out there.

Dr. Andrew Wells:  What was it that worked? So you worked with some mentors that use lasers, but what was it that you mentioned that this is a big part of your practice integrating your practice? Why is it such an important role? using lasers with what you do?

Dr. Glynis Ablon: So lasers, again, you mentioned, you know, you imagine it for surgery, it’s used for many different things. So we can use it in surgery, we can use it for different kinds of birthmarks that people have that can be, you know, very traumatic, we can use it for vascular malformations, we can you know, there’s many different different things again, starting with the basics. So Laser Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. That’s what it is. That’s what lasers, it’s an acronym. And if you think black people talk about lasers that pay a little to do a little history, please. Yeah, please. Okay, so back to really I want to say like Einstein and 1970 would be the first person to really lay the foundation of lasers and that’s the concept of that stimulated emission. And then the first thing that came before lasers was actually called a major which was a microwave application of stimulated emission of radiation. And those were done in Columbia University by I think it was LB and Gordon and then some Russian guys. That’s off and Cobra, something like that. And they did amazing And they actually got a Nobel Prize in 1964. for that. Then you go into Dr. Theodore maiman, who was at the Hughes research lab and basically took that laser and then became intubate the laser field and demonstrate the first working laser in about 1960s. So it’s been around since 1960s, just before I was born, and has evolved on so many levels. And we are talking about you know, we went from things that were like a millisecond round, which is 1/1000 of a second pulse, to where now we have the, the picosecond and a lot of lasers now are picoseconds, and those are 1,000,000,000,000th of a second. And now what they’re come out with the femtosecond, which is one quadrillions of seconds. So the lasers just keep getting more and more advanced. When we use a laser, it’s important that you understand kind of how a laser works and what you’re dealing with. But I think what’s interesting for me is that I think a lot of people have the idea that no pain, no gain. So if it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t really. And I don’t think that’s just lasers. I think a lot of people think, Well, I do something and it doesn’t I don’t feel it. And it doesn’t either hurt me or feel a little bit uncomfortable. I’m not getting any effect. And I think what is remarkable, the devices in what are called low level laser technology, and that is what is coming is low level laser technology is something where you can have no pain, and you can see dramatic effects.

Dr. Chad Woolner: My brother has one of his favorite sayings is no pain, no pain. That’s his. And so you’re saying no pain, no gain here but with our Erchonia their motto should be no pain. No pain is what is so absolutely incredible. 

Dr. Glynis Ablon: And that and that’s really essentially important thing because again, we now understand whenever I’m speaking about low level lasers, I always talked about the fact that whether it’s electrical ultrasound, whatever it is, you we had the skepticism, which I think sort of Erchonia, really, to me was the one that the foundation that really kind of broke through the mold. You know, they start I think they’ve been doing this for 26 years now. And they really broke the mold. And you know, we had three of their devices, using it from you know, for I use it for pain, I have a device that we initially bought for, for fat reduction, and I tore my Achilles out now I tore my gastroc. So I had a tear, and I was in a boot. And I was supposed to be in my boot for six weeks, as we all know. And I was limping around the office, I did my red low level laser from Erchonia or virtually was the name of it. And I did it every other day. Nine days later, I was at my academy meeting in dermatology in Washington, DC. I attended a lecture, and I went dancing that night.

Dr. Andrew Wells: Wow. You did that in high heels as well.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: I did it? I don’t know. But they were. Yeah. That’s cool. Yeah. And so nine days, I mean, that’s unheard of, you know, to be able to do that is really remarkable. And so, for me, it has kind of changed the way I think about lasers and how I approach things with my patients on a regular basis.

Dr. Andrew Wells: No, it’s a funny thing with their Erchonia because you don’t feel it. It’s like dandruff shampoo, like you can really feel it working. It can be frustrating sometimes I think for patients to ask the question, is it working? Is it on? Is it doing what it’s supposed to be doing? And if it weren’t, if it weren’t for all the research that Erchonia has done and with the FDA clearances. I think a lot of practitioners as well have some skepticism like how do we know it’s actually doing what it says on the box that it’s going to do? And fortunately for all of us Erchonia has done the hard work and the labor necessary to prove it’s doing what it’s doing. And you can take that confidence with the patient knowing okay, you may not feel it right now. But wait, wait till your body starts to heal. And it has the effect that it’s supposed to have on the body and you’ll feel you’ll feel the results that way.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: Absolutely. You know, one of their devices is for toenails. It’s for toenail fungus. And I will tell you that a ton of points is one of the hardest things to treat Dr. Rosen. I did 100 patient studies that we published the data on topical use for toenail fungus, which was quite dicey. A lot of toenails. But there is no great treatment for toenails. And the success rate is very low on everything we do even the oral medication is not great. But I’ve had wonderful stuff with this violet and red light to kill fungus. And I’ve also killed bacteria like I just had dramatic improvements where my patients are thrilled. And there is zero pain. I mean, that is a really big deal. And I have two other devices that haven’t been used in years. I won’t even say the name But they were so painful, they would come and go, I don’t care what you do, I am not doing that device that leads to absolutely not. So to be able to provide great results, and have that no pain issue is wonderful.

Dr. Chad Woolner: So you have the lunula laser, you have the excuse me, Lulu. And then what other lasers do you have?

Dr. Glynis Ablon: I had originally which is a red, which initially was used for fat reduction. Okay. And then we now have the new emerald that FDA cleared for obesity, BMI as a 30 to 40. And I think the biggest thing is that, you know, we see a lot of patients post COVID, people are really unhappy, they have been stuck in their houses, they have not exercised, they’ve gotten into these eating binges. And so a lot of people have gained a lot of weight that were otherwise in good shape, and they’re very unhappy. And for us, the device becomes a really good motivator to get these patients seeing some results and working on their health and nutrition. You know, when I see patients, whatever I’m doing, whether it’s, you know, fat reduction, things like that, I think everything we talk about stars in the gut. Whether it’s rashes, acne, I really do think everything starts in the gut. And I think that when we can talk about our patients, to be honest, and to be upright, and upfront, and really go through, it’s not just what I’m looking at that rash, or that infection, or that fungus, or that, you know, fatty part, it’s kind of looking at that patient as an overall whole what’s going on in their gut, what’s going also on in their life, you know, are they depressed? Are they having issues? are they dealing with these issues, are they stressed, you know, cortisol levels go up, everything else goes wrong, and people are stressed. And so really to address the patient as a whole, starting with a gut going over mental, you know, issues that are happening. distressing, I always talked about meditation. I actually wrote a book on this called What stress in your face, before the pandemic is talking about stress and how it affects your body. And I really tried to talk to my patients about meditation. So fish may come in for a cosmetic console for fat reduction, we’re talking diet, nutrition, stress, meditation, yoga, you know, we’re kind of going over the whole gamut of what else we can do to help the body as a whole. And my patients that really do take this in as not just, oh, just do this machine and nothing else, and everything will be fine. These are the patients that are coming back and saying, I literally got into my pants that were a full size, four inches smaller, in, you know, six weeks. And they’re feeling good, they’re motivated. And you know, you can continue down the path, especially again, if you’re addressing this as an entire, you know, system as opposed to just this one little part.

Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah, there’s two things that I want to kind of clue into, or kind of point out that you mentioned there that I think are really worth kind of focusing on there. The first thing is, how incredibly forward thinking of you, and or holistic have you to look at the whole person that way, because far too often, all doctors, not just medical doctors, chiropractors, naturopaths, all of them, a lot of times we’ll get very focused on, you know, one system one problem, you know, type type thinking, whereas you’re looking at this from a much broader standpoint, looking back. And to that end, I thought it was really incredible and insightful of you to look at the lasers as a catalyst of sorts, right, that you’re talking about that? I think sometimes we think that these lasers are the end itself. And as great and as amazing as they are, because they are incredible tools. But you’re missing the mark, I think if we don’t plug them in, in the right appropriate way. And what I mean by that is, we see in our practice, a lot of times patients who come in, and they’ll they’ll be frustrated because they’ll talk to their doctor and their doctors, like the answer to your problems is you just need to exercise and eat right is their answer to them. And they’re like, Well, duh, I get that. But either way I’m not motivated to do that because it hurts to do that. And so I continue to not do those things. And so the spiral continues. And so anytime you can introduce something that can act like a catalyst like you’re saying there, you can use that as a gateway or an entry point to then begin the conversations that might be a little bit more challenging. Before that catalyst is introduced right. Now the patient’s motivated by this, they start seeing some positive changes that are happening, they’re probably going to be far more apt to hear you out when you say okay, we need to start talking about diet and exercise and all those other cool things. And so I just wanted to kind of connect some of those dots there that you mentioned inherent. I think that’s so incredible. And no doubt, I’m guessing that as a result of that, you probably see some pretty remarkable results with your patients, because you’re doing more than just, you know, a single modality thinking that that’s going to be this magic bullet magic wand type solution for patients.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: Yeah. And I think that I think people appreciate it. I think that it’s, I think we are doing a disservice if we don’t do don’t do that. And, you know, I think it’s so interesting, because you know, what, what we call it, it’s called the SAD diet. That’s the standard American diet, like, how sad is that? Like, I mean, I think you live up to your name. And obviously, it’s lived up to its name. And so I am a big proponent of kind of, again, doing everything you can and so and to have a tool again, that, that I don’t cause pain, you know, I see a lot of kids in the office, and I see younger individuals. Now, again, obesity is on the rise. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s traumatic when you see this, and you know, that it’s not just about the physical that you’re seeing, it’s about the entire body, and organs being compromised, and diabetes and hypertension, and all these other factors. So I think the more we can look and help our patients in any way that is, and low, again, low level license, this one of them

Dr. Andrew Wells:  I’m really curious, you mentioned that a lot of health issues started in the gut. Now you’re a dermatologist. And what you’re saying makes total sense to me. I’m just curious, do you use laser level laser therapy on the gut? Is that part of your protocol? 

Dr. Glynis Ablon: I understand that one of the things that happens with the laser that we’re talking about this low level laser, the MO laser, what we’re finding is that these low level lasers actually go six centimeters into the tissue. So you’re going deeper in than we ever imagined we could get with certain lasers. And when you get deep in there, you go back, and I’ll just explain all that. So when we’re specifically talking about the AMR laser, it takes a fat cell. And that low level laser, which is a laser in low energy, so there’s no heat generated, it doesn’t blow anything up, it doesn’t destroy anything, it actually creates a core in the fat cell. And that poor bit to the transitory score, where actually it allows the fats to come out of the fat cells. So you’re excreting fat, you’re then digesting it and sending it out of the body and getting rid of it. And so in that way, that’s how you’re reducing the fat cells that die. With the gut, you are talking about, typically things that are coming into the body. So we’re not actually destroying anything through that laser. But to me, it is, we know how the microbiome of the gut works. More and more, we are getting more information on that. So it is a matter of like, for instance, sugar, when we put sugar in our body, sugar is more addictive than heroin. Sugar is something that bad things like to feed off of whether it’s Syria, that’s not the bread, whether it’s cancer cells. And so when we are putting sugar in our body, whether it’s natural sugar, or not, whether it’s carbohydrates that turn into sugar, whether it’s alcohol, or sugar and alcohol, but the idea, again, is that you are putting things in your body that will not be healthy and helpful for your body. So for me, it’s not about the laser doing anything to the gut, but about us being one portion of our overall self and thinking okay, what am I putting in my body? And how is that going to affect all of the different parts of my body from my joints, you know, we know that different kinds of rheumatoid, rheumatoid arthritis and different kinds of like lupus, all these different kinds of connective tissue diseases are made worse by poor nutrition, and excess weight, they all are, are worsened by that we have other skin conditions in dermatology that we see like I dread medicine for fever, that is also worsened by excess weight or exacerbated by it. So for me, it’s again, it’s addressing all of these issues and talking about the different aspects of how we can make your body the best it can be, so that you can feel the best that you can be and everybody is different, you know, everyone’s not going to be excited to know that you know, they’re eating you could be the healthy cedar, and maybe for you, that’s the size 10 And as long as your you know, your labs was good and your heart and your lungs and your your gut and your poop and all that good stuff is working Right, you’re okay.

Dr. Andrew Wells: This is this by the way, this is very refreshing and not the direction I thought that this podcast will certainly go in. And I say this with total respect. But so I had an inkling that you’d be a forward thinking physician just because of the fact that user Erchonia lasers, we find that a lot of Doc’s using this type of technology are almost always forward thinking but you know, we commonly in dermatology, this is just pop health dermatology, we hear, stay away from the sun, use sunscreen, drink water, get sleep. And it’s sort of like sometimes kind of an outside in approach to you, your skin will be healthy if you avoid certain toxins or threats, like radiation or certain things that will interfere with the health of your skin cells. But rarely do you ever hear. At least I haven’t a lot of dermatologists talking about skin health or overall health, starting in the gut or the foods that you eat. And it’s like common sense stuff. But sometimes I don’t think dermatologists are putting these things together like yes, it may be helpful to avoid strong radiation from the sun on your skin. It may be helpful to us, sometimes sunscreens especially ones that don’t have a lot of chemicals and things in them. But what about what you eat? And like I’ve never heard a dermatologist talk about nutrition. So my hat’s off to you.

Dr. Chad Woolner: Yeah, I was gonna follow up with that I was simply going to pose the question to you, do you find that you’re seeing a positive shift in that direction with the profession? Or do you find that you’re kind of still somewhat on the outskirts beating a drum that is taking some time to kind of take hold?

Dr. Glynis Ablon: Well, you know, we live in a world where people have money, and they can kind of guide the direction of our country. And you know, whether that’s sodas, and by the way, as you can see, I’m drinking, I’m actually drinking revive, which is my favorite kombucha. But, we live in a world where, you know, sodas and chips, candies and things like that that we know really aren’t good for us are showing up in our kids’ schools. And it’s so sad to me that it’s not a bigger conversation. But lobbyists have more control than I do. I think that as medical students, we have very little information on nutrition. And I will tell you that my parents both passed away last year. And my mother was in an ICU. And she had a she was intubated, and she was getting fed through nutrition through a bag. And I asked to see the ingredients in that bag. And it was sugar. Basically, that’s all she was getting. And when I asked at least put vitamins in the answer was well, we don’t have any here. And, of course, if we’re not taking care of the nutrition of our sickest patients, how can you? How can you take care of patients? My dad went into brain surgery post surgery he was given the jello. What jello sugar water. So I ran out and I bought green juice. Like all the grandkids, your dad talks to the shades of green, and gave him that and these people looked at me in the ICU like I was out of my mind. And I’m like, this is going to be way better for a 91 year old, I post automated.

Dr. Chad Woolner: So telling the fact that it is absolutely insane to me that what you’re talking about there was viewed as somehow strange or odd or unusual. And yet pumping somebody full of a bag of sugar is like yeah, this is standard protocol. This is mainstream, absolutely incredible. I’ll never forget there was this doctor who was poking fun at various functional medicine, health care professionals and practitioners. And he said in the most straight faced and yet insulting, condescending tones, he said, these doctors somehow think that food is medicine is what he said and he said it with a straight face. And I’m like, you he really believes that that food isn’t medicine and I’m like, absolutely incredible to hear. That level of ignorance being spoken and yet what you’re talking about here is, you know, fairly pervasive and so kind of, you know, back back to kind of this whole idea of of your realm, obviously, in dermatology, you’re you’re focusing far more holistically I would I would gather than many of if not most of your counterparts there. How are lasers helping you in that kind of hole holding stick approach? We’ve talked a little bit about some of the ways. But maybe let’s talk about shifting gears a little bit, because I’m guessing you’re seeing a lot of autoimmune type conditions that will present with various skin issues, rashes and things like that. Do you use lasers for things like that? And does that help what? What happens there?

Dr. Glynis Ablon: So the whole low level laser, we see a lot of hair loss, we see. And that can be seen with thyroid diseases with many different kinds of conditions. So low level lasers were great for hair loss. We grow hair with that, stimulating nitrous oxide. I mean, there’s so many different factors. We use it for exactly rashes. So I have people that come in all the time, I have low level lasers and also LED technology that runs throughout the day, treating redness and rashes and things that can come up from acne to rashes related to different kinds of again, diseases, I have a lot of COVID rashes that I see that I can treat with low level lasers in the red category. Again, I use it for injuries that we’re seeing more. So again, it’s kind of across the board, it really isn’t just dermatology. And I mean I take care of a lot of pro basketball players. And they all have injuries. And so we’re going to be doing Erchonia study on lower back injuries for chronic pain. And so again, we look at not just dermatology, and for me, it’s really important that I’m not. I really do treat the patient as a whole. You mentioned something about, you know, sunscreen and things like that. So I do have that conversation. But it’s important for me to, for my patients to understand that you know, vitamin D levels are very important for our body. So it’s not just wearing sunscreen, have a nice day, it’s when you use sunscreen, make sure it’s the one that’s appropriate for your skin type. I prefer minerals and chemicals because you’re not absorbing them. And then understand that it’s really the sunburn that turns into the breakdown of the oxygen free radicals and things like that, or the singlet that you want to prevent that burn. The issue with tanning is really more about damaging your skin and causing wrinkles and making your skin look older, which most people do not like. So I’m always like, skin cancer wrinkles like that kind of your choice if you’re gonna get a lot of sun. But again, wearing sunscreen prevents the burns getting checked regularly. That’s the other thing. I just had a lovely woman the other day who came in to see me with her daughter and she had melanoma because she had never been taught. And so we know that a lot of these skin cancers are very treatable. And if you catch them early, the success rate is phenomenal. But I also had a girl in my residency who was 39, she had two kids. She came in and she showed me a little spot on her abdomen. And I said, Well, what did it look like before it looked like this giant, you know, gross, it was like a mushroom coming out of her stomach. And she said it looks like a little milk. And she died about six months later of malignant melanoma that was everywhere. Wow. And her answer was, she didn’t want to wait in line at the free clinic to get to see. So access, that’s another big one: access to health care access to dermatologists access to the people that you need. And I think, retraining the doctors of tomorrow to understand that we really are a whole system and addressing all the parts of that system, and not letting the lobbyists kind of take over what we can and can’t do. I mean, it’s just like, we need electric cars. So we aren’t using as much gas that’s here in LA, it’s fixed. I just think I just paid $6.75 for the gallon. tank of gas. So you know, I’m gonna go electric next time. But I think just like we want to go electric cars, I think we also want to look at our bodies and figure out what else we can do. And you know, we got pollution. And I mean, I was hoping when COVID hit and everything changed in the environment. And we saw the canals of Venice had dolphins again, and we saw the skies were blue, and we had no smog. And they showed that in that first few months of COVID. And people off the streets and cars not driving, that not only did the murder rate go down, but we had our world back and that we really could do something about climate change and pollution and all that. And I was really hoping that people would wake up and it seems like we’re kind of back to where we were.

Dr. Chad Woolner: So my question would be sorry to interrupt the answer. I was just gonna say you’ve been in practice for 20 years now.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: Let’s see I became a dermatologist in 1996. So 26 years,

Dr. Chad Woolner: 26 years. So in that 26 year period, specifically with the low level lasers. Tell us about some of the coolest Maybe incredible miraculous stories that you’ve seen, some of the just the coolest examples of what you’ve seen. And this could literally be anything. It doesn’t have to be anything specific. I’m just interested to hear some of the cool success stories and or miracles that you’ve seen.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: Well, my dad when he was alive, I just lost him a few months ago when he was alive. And I got my first laser, my first virtue. He was my guinea pig. He always liked to try things. And he was not row 10. But he had gotten a little bit lazy about working out and he had some health issues and some hypertension and was on all these different medications. And I said, Dad, we’re gonna try something new on you. And he’d come in, and he was so excited, because he had no pain. And you tried that later. By the way, it was a pain all the love the linear loss, but he did not like the old ones. And he did the versus you and he lost six inches. He was hearing, yes, like he was just super excited to come in the office, he’d come for lunch, when we meet our drug reps, and he would tell everybody about it. And so it was really nice. And it was just he, he felt better. And again, he had no pain, it was nothing, it was no big deal, we literally would come in twice a week. So the sessions are twice a week, they just relax, we make it feel like there’s music going on, they can just relax, listen to headphones if they want. And he just was beyond excited, because he was able to wear those pants and, and feel good. And his blood pressure had dropped as well to the point where we could take them off two of the six medications he was on. Wow, that was a big deal for me. Yeah, and it’s personal too. As I said, with my emerald right now, I’ve had patients come back and we’ve only had it for, you know, six months. But we’ve had patients come back now and they are just so excited. And, they’re seeing such good results in one area. That’s because again, this is gonna be a total body. So we’re doing you know, they might love the way their abdomen is doing well now. So now they’re like, Okay, I’m gonna go into my thighs and buttocks and things like that. So not everyone wants to have giant backs, a lot of people want to have smaller ones. Again, we can reduce that. And I actually have a few patients that have come back and seen their primary doctors, and brought me back their lab work to show that their cholesterol had gone down as well.

Dr. Chad Woolner: That’s amazing.

Dr. Andrew Wells: And that’s the fascinating thing about laser therapy is when you compare this against traditional letter Western medicine, sometimes you’ll take a medication or a drug that gets you the desired effect in the symptom that you’re trying to treat. But it also comes with other adverse effects that we don’t want. And that’s what I find so fascinating about laser level laser therapy in laser light is that you can get the intended outcome, but the side effect is better health, right? Whether it’s reduced hypertension or lower cholesterol levels, you’re feeling better, they look better. And there’s no side effects. And that’s one of the things that I really like about Erchonia is they have the research to back it up and the FDA clearance all show that there’s zero contraindications, zero side effects when you’re using this with patients. And so that must be comforting for you. And also, I imagine your staff Dr. Ablon, about when we’re using lasers, is probably pretty easy for your staff to pick up and use and to help patients.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: With low level lasers,I don’t have to put a patient under that machine, my staff can do it, a medical assistant can do it, my RN can do it. All other lasers, at least in California, must be run by nurses or doctors and any kind of invasive laser is run only by me. And the reality is we don’t see complications often but every laser that I do, has a list of publications and they can’t happen and I have a lot of patients they do a lot of expert testimonies on behalf of doctors that have had problems and complications and so I you know have to review records and go over and are these reasonable complications that have happened but that is not the case with low level lasers you are exactly right. There are literally no side effects there are no complications other than you didn’t have to something worked fast enough or as fast as you were hoping but yeah to be able to do that is pretty remarkable and are cut yeah are plenty of goes for the big guns I mean to go for obesity, this is the only laser period that we have to treat obesity. And I think again, making it a conversation and and here’s one of the things we have in the armamentarium is it is great to offer patients and and go down that road from there.

Dr. Andrew Wells: We had an interesting podcast interview with Jamie. She has weight loss and cosmetic, I think type practice in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And she mentioned that she’s using the lasers for helping people aesthetically with tattoos so they have a tattoo and then your laser the tattoos to help speed up the recovery time whereas typically I think it’s like four weeks or so. One thing that you want to protect it we’re now is that cuts it in, I think like half or something like that. I imagine you do some of your practice, do you do tattoo removal?

Dr. Glynis Ablon  

We do. We don’t have a lot of tattoo patients around here in Southern California. But there are some that want their touches moved to yellow properly now to get those that have not taken off our boat years, it will be I did for a while. I actually work with the LA Youth Network, which was a group of kids that were on the streets. Most of them had HIV. And I was doing pre tattoo removals on those kids at the time. And I think that, again, anything that can speed up the healing is great.

Dr. Andrew Wells: What are some of the topics you were talking about about weight loss? What are some of the other things that you’re using these lasers for?

Dr. Glynis Ablon: So a big one for me is injury, pain, trauma. I also again use it for rashes, I use it for any kind of feeling. I’ve had patients that come in post operatively from other surgeries that have nothing to do with dermatology that come in and are still having pain and like hip replacement, things like that. And post surgically, I find it works dramatically, I use it on a lot of my shingles patients. I’m trying to promote people getting the shingles vaccine, because getting shingles at an older age is not fun. And the older you are, the worse it is because the post herpetic neuralgia is a higher percentage the older you are. And so I use that on patients who do have shingles and have post herpetic neuralgia, it really can reduce that pain, because that pain can be devastating for lots of different things in dermatology and then outside the realm of dermatology as well.

Dr. Andrew Wells: Amazing. What Do you do? Do you talk to your colleagues, other dermatologists about laser therapy? Is the profession open and receptive to this? Or is it? Is it something you kind of like very much an outlier and a pioneer?

Dr. Glynis Ablon: I think that more and more people are becoming receptive. I think there’s been a lot of skepticism, as I said, against things that don’t hurt. But I think now we have the data to show that it really does work. And that’s really what the dermatologist in my field wants. They want to see the data. So I’m an associate professor at UCLA, and I teach the dermatology residents there. So I’m always talking about devices. Again, they are something easy to add to your craft, and patients just really love it because of that lack of discomfort.

Dr. Chad Woolner: You know, I think that’s so nice. That’s a nice thing. I was just gonna say I think that’s such a nice thing to know that, that the future doctors are getting that mindset at an early stage in their training, you know, that’s really refreshing to hear that these are the types of things that they’re being taught knowing full well that at the end of the day, the result of that is going to be better outcomes for patients right at the end of the day. That’s the and it’s unfortunate when you see sometimes various individuals cling to dogma for the sake of clinging to dogma, you know, in terms of ego and whatnot. And what you’re talking about here is really ensuring that, again, patients are going to be the ones that benefit from this in the end. So that’s awesome.

Dr. Glynis Ablon: Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Dr. Chad Woolner: So Dr,. Ablon for those who might be interested in maybe learning a little bit more about what you’re doing obviously you teach at UCLA Do you do any other sorts of continuing ed training or anything like that?

Dr. Glynis Ablon: I am all over the place. In fact I fly out tonight after patients to Vegas to lecture has a cousin via Aesthetic Show this weekend. Over there. If you go on my website I try to post all of my videos and talk so I talk guys there’s a whole video on the Emerald laser there and and I do post all the different things I do on the news and so you can always go to my website which is Avalon institute.com and and watch a video and see things and get questions answered. We have sign up for people that are interested in research because we’re always trying new devices like I said we’re doing the chronic thing. And I put your name on the list if you’re interested in doing that. But I think just I what I say is take care of yourself you know you are what you eat take care of yourself. If you don’t take put yourself first no one’s gonna do it. It’s kind of like the whole story with the airplane where you say put your oxygen mask on first and then your child you know you have to take care of yourself and in a time of COVID and and zoom calls and we have dysmorphia now and it’s so important to really make time for yourself take care of yourself my kids know that I come home and I meditate for 20 minutes and in the past they would say we need you and I say okay and I dropped everything in and now they know I 20 minutes is mine I go meditate and then I can do a lot more for them and help Bam, then I said before, it’s been 20 minutes.

Dr. Chad Woolner: Great advice. Great advice. This has been incredible. Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to be here with us. It sounds as though you’ve got your hands in a lot of really exciting things between your practice, your speaking, your research, all of those things. And so we’ll make sure that we have notes for doctors in terms of learning more about the cool things that you’re doing and in terms of the research, will send some folks your way to have them learn about some of these cool things. So, Doc’s, we hope that this has been an incredibly enlightening podcast episode. Again, I would reiterate the same thing Andrew said, I didn’t foresee this going into some of these realms. And so we appreciate you sharing some of these really unique insights and experiences that you’ve had. And more importantly, if we really appreciate it again, I would reiterate that kind of forward thinking mentality that you have no doubt you have over your career. Probably a lot of lives in very powerful ways. And so that’s absolutely incredible. And docks, we hope again, you’ve had a ton of value from this episode, and we look forward to sharing more with you on the next episode. Have an amazing day. We’ll talk to you guys later. 

[OUTRO] 

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