MILWAUKEE – It seems almost too simple to work: Significantly reduce pain and numbness that prescription medications can’t defeat by passing near-infrared light through the skin.

But that’s what physical therapists are doing for many patients who have been unable to get relief from traditional medical treatments for a common complication of diabetes.

Use of monochromatic infrared energy, or MIRE, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994 to treat patients with diabetic neuropathy, though many health care professionals have not used it in their treatment plans.

Diabetic neuropathy is characterized by numbness and sometimes pain and weakness in the hands, arms, feet and legs that may initially go unnoticed.

It can gradually progress to severe weakness in the foot muscles.

Standard treatment includes medication to help relieve discomfort and prevent further tissue damage, and also can involve special care for the feet or legs.

“There’s no treatment to retard (diabetic neuropathy). We can give them medicine to help with the pain – but there is nothing to help with the numbness,” said Alexandru C. Barboi, an assistant professor of neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital physician.

The new treatment involves wrapping a flexible rectangular pad that houses a light unit around the problem area for 30 minutes.

The pad passes near-infrared light through the skin and into the body’s deeper tissues, triggering a cascade of events that gradually release energy and stimulate healing.

“The primary mechanism is release of nitric oxide gas,” said Mary Carle, a co-owner and physical therapist at Active Care Rehab in Glendale and Mequon, Wis., who uses the treatment. “We’ve previously tried nitric oxide creams, but they don’t have the same effect because it doesn’t get down to the cellular level needed to produce results.”

She said some doctors remain skeptical of its benefits, but thinks that increasing scientific studies and anecdotal stories from patients are convincing and will serve to shift its use into the mainstream.

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Mary Veenendaal, 68, of Sheboygan Falls, Wis., began the therapy shortly before last Thanksgiving and now administers it to herself at home.

Before the treatment, she said she took 15 pills a day to reduce the unbearable pain and numbness in her legs and feet, which began about five years ago.

Veenendaal eventually found herself unable to walk for more than 15 minutes at a time and had to use a wheelchair for one summer because the bones in her feet and ankles had become too weak.

She lost sensation in her feet and didn’t realize she had glass stuck in her right foot until it became infected.

“I probably would be in a wheelchair if it weren’t for this,” she said.

“It feels like my feet belong to me again. I’m walking better, shopping again and getting around the house much better.”

Veenendaal treats herself for two hours, three times a week.

Pat Harkensee, a regional business manager for manufacturer Anodyne Therapy, said that home units such as the one Veenendaal uses cost $2,995. If a patient has Medicare coverage and meets treatment requirements, the cost is $499. It also can be covered by other insurance plans.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, diabetic neuropathy tends to affect people who have difficulty controlling their blood glucose levels, who are overweight, or who have had high levels of blood fat and blood pressure.

They also tend to be older than 40.

Though Barboi has not referred any of his patients for the treatment, he said that it did “sound like it could be helpful.”

He would like to see more studies, particularly those with more people, before he feels confident that it really works.

“This is something that could be used over time, still not something to reverse the disease,” he said. “As long as it’s cost-effective and doesn’t have side effects, it may be worth a try.”

In addition to diabetic neuropathy, the treatment has been used for swelling associated with amputations, wound healing, fibromyalgia, arthritis and some ulcers, Carle said.

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AP-NY-05-20-04 0622EDT