Light therapy and PSC

Hello everyone.

I hope we are all keeping well.

Has anyone done any deep dives into light therapy and PSC? Looking for reading material and other peoples experiences.

All the best everybody
Ivan.

For cholestatic pruritus, UVB seems to be the wavelength of choice. Medical UVB lamps can be obtained by prescription. Tanning beds and the sun mostly emit UVA that appears to be less helpful for alleviating itch. All of these options have the caveat that they are bad for your skin and can lead to other issues.

I don’t have any personal experience with phototherapy. My itch journey involved cholestyramine (didn’t work) and oral vancomycin (worked).

Here’s a study: Cholestasis-induced pruritus treated with ultraviolet B phototherapy: an observational case series study - PubMed

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I have been wondering about the same for a bit. My wife uses LLLT / Red light therapy to help reduce inflammation in her body. Not sure whether its helping her but we think it is.

To my knowledge, I have not seen any good study in humans that talks about its impact on liver, leave alone bile duct inflammation.

Here’s a related study in rats though: Low-level laser therapy ameliorates CCl4-induced liver cirrhosis in rats - PubMed

I don’t know whether we would get a definitive answer since PSC is so rare and doing a RCT is even tougher.

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Thank you. I’m trying to figure out what exact therapies there are. Appreciate the link. All the best.

Have to read about the lllt therapy more. I’m happy to hear it’s helping your wife.

What does everyone think about deep reaching light therapy, can this get to the cells to relieve inflammation?

Anyone ever look at specific machines?