History
It took almost 20 years for me to recognize that the responses and outcomes from the variable-wavelength therapy are "merely" the body returning to its normal functioning and improved wellness.
The years and $$ that I have invested led to IP that may be reused. The Instant Verification System and its creating team can customize the System for internal needs and to support researchers who may wish to explore any of the unpredicted events that were recorded in real time.
The team created sophisticated real-time recording systems to help me overcome my skepticism. The recordings continue to increase in value by helping answer new questions.
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In 2024, my advisor, Parker Lapp, and I recognized that there is no medical term for abruptly returning to normal functioning from a not-healing state. We invented the term nostostasis that names a fundamental principle of biology: a change-of-state the resumes healing from a not-healing state.
Many non-invasive therapies aim to promote healing after conventional interventions failed. Nostostasis names the very first step in the resumed healing processes. The therapies appear to draw the body's attention to its error state. The rest is automatic.
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Another perspective is that some non-invasive therapies "work" by providing information or energy needed to end the delay. The healing processes are the same as should have occurred during the "acute" phase.
2024 - The team and I recognized that there is no medical term for the events when healing resumes from a "new normal" state wherein homeostasis maintains the chronic pain, impairments, and resists interventions and therapies. Nostostasis is a fundamental principle of biology: a change of state when healing resumes from a not-healing state. Nostostasis occurs at sub-cellular to whole person scales. Non-invasive therapies often aim to draw the body's attention to its error state to end the delay in healing.
However, the concept of treating a sign or symptom misses the fact that resumed healing is achieved by the body rather than being forced to do something that it would not have done in the normal state. (Pain blocking medications force an additional abnormality that would not have occurred in the normal state.)
Nostostasis provides an explanation for the seemingly unrelated maladies that can resolve while you watch. The principle of biology of changing states is at the essence of life. Sometimes the changes are in an increasingly impaired direction, such as a catastrophe.
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A catastrophe appears to switch homeostasis to a maladaptive set point at the time of an injury or trauma. From my engineer's perspective, the resistance to interventions and therapies begins at the time of injury. For example, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS or RSD) can start without a known injury. Conceptually, nostostasis provides an inverse (instantly getting better) to a catastrophe (instantly getting worse) at some emotional and physiological levels.
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Allostasis was coined in 1988 to account for a maladaptive shift in the homeostatic set point usually via stress. The concept accounts for a "new normal" status quo but does not include an inverse concept of a return to normal functioning. The "new normal" status quo actively maintains the chronic pain and impaired functioning by actively resisting interventions and therapies.
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Progressive disorders, such as Huntington's disease, push homeostasis to a maladaptive set point similar to allostasis, but via a disease the changes physiological components that affect the flows of information and energy. Nostostasis still applies as the first step in improving functioning, such as coordination in movement.
Infographic
The infographic shows relationships among nostostasis, allostasis, and progressive shifts in homeostatic set point. Key is that living organisms can have many parallel actions and responses.
2025 - Infographic showing conceptual relations observed in real-time recordings and data. The Varichrome Pro is shown as a corrective stimulus that represents any non-invasive therapy. Nostostasis is the first step in resumed healing. Note that improvements are in the signs and symptoms rather than "treating" a disease. For example, someone having Huntington's disease still has the disease with continuing progressive pressure on the homeostatic set point.
Hardware and software development
2000 - 2018 The therapy had to be interrupted to change settings via templates and express user selections.
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2018+ The Varichrome Pro enables the user to dynamically adjust the output during therapy via pre-programmed selections or by manually adjusting wavelength and frequency. The efficiency and effectiveness improved by enabling the user to monitor for changes in the skin, pupil diameter, and other physiological responses to therapy. The analog settings knobs let the user make adjustments without looking at the device as would be necessary with a touch screen
2000 - First prototype with manual wavelength selection - The new therapy prompted the resolution of a Morton's neuroma during the first few sessions.
2001 - Computer that controlled and recorded the wavelength emitted as it varied during therapy.
2001 - 2002 Early data collection using sEMG in real-time during therapy in a study of trapezius spams. The temporal and spatial details helped the team make the therapy more effective and efficient.
2001 - 2003- Tested various configurations but found that multiple simultaneous wavelengths did not appear to improve therapeutic efficiency
2003 - 2007 - The prototype documenting system evolved along with the therapy, a touchscreen user interface let the practitioner describe where the therapy was being applied. Questionnaires and other modules were added.
2003 - 2018 - Thermal imaging provided real-time documentation of skin temperatures linked with the wavelength and location applied during therapy. The systems were called the Rapid Discovery System because of the recording of unprecedented responses and outcomes to a single therapeutic method (variable-wavelength therapy or VWT). Later versions would be called the Instant Verification System. The study volunteers typically arrived with complex regional pain syndrome or diabetic neuropathy that included abnormal skin temperatures for monitoring and documenting responses and outcomes.
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The team found no therapy settings that appeared to increase the magnitude of the thermal response. Because there were no precedents for these findings, it took years to recognize that the response is bounded by the initial temperature and the maximum bounded by core temperature delivered to the hands or feet. Findings also show that the painful feeling of coldness is independent of the skin temperature. The common feature appears to be a failure for the ordinary feelings of temperatures to fade over a few minutes (sometimes called habituation.)
2005 - 2007 - The Rapid Discovery System included a reduced size of the light emitting modules. A Doppler blood flow meter confirmed an increase in blood circulation when abnormally cold hands resumed normal functioning. Thermal imaging using a FLIR camera (not shown) provided real-time documentation linking skin temperature responses with the therapy parameters.
2006 - 2007 - This Rapid Discovery System was used in an IRB study that confirmed that red wavelengths are NOT a requirement for relieving diabetic neuropathy and that skin color doesn't appear to limit the responses and outcomes of the variable-wavelength therapy. 28 subjects having dark skin participated.
The all-electronic data set was a first for the statistician. In another study a Doppler blood flow meter confirmed an increase in blood circulation when abnormally cold hands resumed normal functioning. This confirmed the expectation that warming of the skin was a result of blood circulation rather than an increase in local metabolic action. A Raytheon thermal imaging camera (housed in the black box) was used to record changes in skin temperature, but lacked the desired stability.
2006 - 2011 - The Rapid Discovery System evolved to include a second monitor to observe data from multiple sources. The Photon Delivery System (box with shaded blue front) became PhotoMed's standard light source module with several operating in the field for more than 10 years. A FLIR thermal imaging camera provided data that was improved vs. the Raytheon camera, but a recalibration process every 5 minutes introduced challenges for detecting small changes in temperature during a 30-60 minute period.
2010 - 2017 - The Rapid Discovery System software moved to a laptop. An ICI thermal imaging camera (sitting on the coffee mug) provided adequate stability for measuring small changes in temperature during a 30-60 minute visit. Thermal imaging provided information for disorders with abnormal thermoregulation. The user interface capability was expanded to document changes in multiple sites of pain during a single visit . One system operated without a failure for over 4 years in an IRB reviewed study in Sacramento, CA. More than 400 volunteers enrolled with unrelenting treatment-resistant chronic pain, impaired functioning, and/or non-healing wounds.
2017 - A multiple camera setup in the Instant Verification System (renaming of the Rapid Discovery System) enabled the documenting effects during treatments. The return to normal functioning concept suggested that the therapy helped the patient overcome "learned non-use" of her limbs as she recovered from quadriplegia resulting from an auto accident.
The Rapid Discovery System was renamed the Instant Verification System to acknowledge that future "unprecedented" maladies were likely only confirm already documented responses. The responses and return to normal functioning outcomes appeared to be the same as if they had occurred during the "acute" phase.
2018 - 2020 First Varichrome Pro prototype introduced the adjustment of treatment parameters during therapy. FDA exempted photobiomodulation devices for improving wellness. PhotoMed's data suggests that wellness better describes the return to normal functioning than does the term "managing" or masking pain. The aim is to prompt improved flows of information and energy to allow the body to heal itself. The array of seemingly unrelated maladies that respond to the therapy during the first or second session suggests that the therapy is not specific to any disease or disorder.
2020 Field testing of the prototype suggested ergonomic improvements and finalizing the design. The Varichrome Pro added the the ability to vary the rate of wavelength variation during therapy, a full sweep of the visible spectrum, and a yellow only spectrum. The analog settings knobs let the user make adjustments without looking at the device as would be necessary with a touch screen. The new configuration included a removable lens to facilitate accessories such as a dual fiber optic cable and Relaxation Mask.
2022 The Relaxation Mask was released to provide the variable-wavelength therapy to the visual system. Exposure to pure wavelengths from all parts of the visible spectrum (a few wavelengths at a time) appear to help the visual system perform its ordinary housekeeping activities. The non-focusing experience allows the eye systems to relax. The dual-applicator fiberoptic cable can be used separately. Manual wavelength selection lets the person select and "bathe" in their favorite colors.
2022 The return-to-normal functioning outcomes from the therapy typically occur during the first or second session. It is the during therapy aspect of the responses and outcomes that make uninterrupted real-time recordings possible. PhotoMed's collection of real-time recordings show world-first events that can now be replicated using the Varichrome Pro.
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The responses and outcomes challenge current concepts in physiology, neuroscience, and pain abatement.