Most pages selling this therapy will tell you it treats a long list of conditions. This one won’t, because the research doesn’t support that and we’d rather you heard it from us than found out later.
What we can tell you is what the therapy is, what we use it for, what the evidence actually shows — including where it’s weak — and what we’re doing to add to it.
What it is
Photodynamic and photobiomodulation therapy use specific wavelengths of light to influence cellular activity. The proposed mechanism is that light in the red and near-infrared range is absorbed by mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase, affecting cellular energy production, oxidative stress signalling, and inflammatory pathways.
We use Weber Medical systems, which deliver light four different ways:
-
Intravenous laser (ILIB) — an optical fibre placed in a vein, irradiating circulating blood
-
Photodynamic therapy — intravenous laser combined with a photosensitizing compound such as methylene blue, riboflavin or curcumin
-
Transcranial and intranasal — light delivered non-invasively to the head
-
Whole-body and interstitial — panels, or fibre placed directly at a target tissue
These are genuinely different interventions with different evidence behind each. We say so on this page because a great deal of marketing in this field blurs them — citing research on skin-surface light therapy to sell intravenous treatment. Those are not the same thing and the research does not transfer.
What we evaluate for
These are conditions where we will consider photodynamic or laser therapy as one component of an individualized plan, after evaluation. Being on this list means the question is worth asking, not that the therapy is established for it.
Where the evidence is strongest — musculoskeletal pain
-
Chronic low back pain
-
Neck pain
-
Knee osteoarthritis
-
Shoulder and rotator cuff tendinopathy
-
Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow)
-
Post-surgical recovery and delayed-onset muscle soreness
The American College of Physicians’ 2017 low back pain guideline lists low-level laser therapy among the non-drug options clinicians may select for chronic low back pain — while explicitly placing it in the low-quality evidence group. That’s the strongest guideline footing this therapy has anywhere, and we quote the qualifier because it belongs with the claim.
On knee osteoarthritis specifically, you should know that the guidelines disagree. Two competent meta-analyses reach opposite conclusions, and the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, in guideline NG226, recommends against offering laser therapy for osteoarthritis on the grounds of insufficient evidence. We keep knee arthritis on this list because we do evaluate for it and some patients report benefit — but you deserve to know a national guideline body looked at this and said no before you spend money on it. If you want the detail, it is in the musculoskeletal evidence article.
Where the evidence is weaker and we say so
-
Fibromyalgia and chronic widespread pain
-
Rheumatoid arthritis
-
Hashimoto’s and autoimmune thyroiditis
-
Post-viral fatigue and long COVID
For each of these, published human trials exist but are small, inconsistent, or contradicted by better-designed studies. We go through them honestly in the research section below rather than listing citation counts.
What we don’t list, and why
You will see other clinics list psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, Sjögren’s syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus and psoriatic arthritis on pages like this one. We looked for the human evidence and it isn’t there — several have no completed human trials at all, and the best-designed Sjögren’s trial was negative. We’re not going to put them on a page to catch searches.
Our long COVID case studies
We are conducting a case study series on photodynamic and laser therapy in post-COVID presentations — documenting individual cases systematically, with defined outcome measures and formal written consent, so that what we see here adds to the record instead of staying anecdotal.
We’re doing it because the existing evidence is genuinely inadequate and someone has to add to it. We are not doing it because we already know the answer.
We don’t publish patient cases on this website. The consent our patients give covers documentation and reporting — not advertising. If you ever see a clinic using individual patient stories to sell you a therapy, ask what they were consented for.
If you’re being evaluated here for post-COVID symptoms and want to know more about the series, ask and we’ll walk you through it.
What the research actually shows
Long COVID. One randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial has been published on photobiomodulation for post-COVID cognitive symptoms (Lim et al., eClinicalMedicine, 2026). It did not meet its primary endpoint — the composite cognitive score difference was not statistically significant (p=0.088) in 43 participants. A subgroup under age 45 did reach significance, but that is a subgroup of an underpowered pilot and should be treated as a question, not an answer. Notably, the trial’s fatigue measure favored the sham group. That study used intranasal and transcranial light, not intravenous.
The only published study of intravenous laser specifically in long COVID enrolled six patients with no control group.
Musculoskeletal pain. The evidence here is real but modest and mixed. Multiple meta-analyses find short-term pain reduction from surface laser therapy; the largest recent placebo-controlled trial in chronic low back pain (148 patients) found no difference from placebo. For knee osteoarthritis, two competent meta-analyses reach opposite conclusions, and the UK’s national guideline body recommends against offering laser therapy for osteoarthritis on grounds of insufficient evidence.
Autoimmune conditions. Thinner than most pages imply. A 2005 Cochrane review found short-term pain and stiffness benefit in rheumatoid arthritis; a larger 2023 meta-analysis of 18 trials and 793 patients found low-certainty evidence of no difference from sham. The autoimmune thyroiditis evidence rests substantially on a single 43-patient trial from one centre in Brazil, which has not been independently replicated.
Intravenous laser specifically. This is the honest core of it: we could not identify a single sham-controlled randomized trial of intravenous laser therapy in any orthopedic or autoimmune condition. The available studies are uncontrolled case series. That is why we are running a case study series rather than making claims.
Why methylene blue requires a full evaluation before we’ll use it
Methylene blue is one of the photosensitizing compounds used in photodynamic therapy. We do offer it. We will not give it to you on a first visit, and we will not give it to you at all until we have completed the screening below — because the two most serious risks are both invisible unless someone looks for them.
Please read this section even if you plan to have this done somewhere else.
The interaction that matters most
Methylene blue is a potent MAO-A inhibitor. The FDA prescribing information warns that it can cause serious or fatal serotonin syndrome in combination with serotonergic drugs and opioids, and directs clinicians to avoid concomitant use with:
-
SSRIs — sertraline, fluoxetine, escitalopram, citalopram, paroxetine
-
SNRIs — duloxetine, venlafaxine
-
Tricyclic antidepressants
-
MAOIs
-
Opioids, including tramadol
-
Triptans for migraine
There is a specific reason this matters here rather than in the abstract. The people most drawn to this therapy — long COVID, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, chronic pain — are disproportionately likely to be taking at least one drug on that list. The population seeking the treatment overlaps almost exactly with the population at risk from it.
Some supplements count too. St John’s wort, 5-HTP, SAM-e and tryptophan are serotonergic, and people rarely think to mention them because they aren’t prescriptions.
Do not stop a prescribed antidepressant on your own in order to qualify for a treatment. Stopping an SSRI or SNRI abruptly carries real risks of its own and needs to be managed by the doctor who prescribed it. If a washout is appropriate, that is a conversation between you, us and your prescriber — not something you should attempt to arrange yourself.
The screening you can’t skip
G6PD deficiency is a contraindication to methylene blue, not a caution. In someone who is deficient, it can cause hemolytic anemia — and the label notes the hemolysis may be delayed by a day or more, so feeling fine when you leave doesn’t mean you’re clear. G6PD deficiency is more common in people of African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and South or Southeast Asian ancestry, and most people who have it have no idea. It is a simple blood test.
What our evaluation actually involves
-
A full medication reconciliation — everything you take, including anything prescribed elsewhere, over-the-counter, and supplements
-
G6PD testing before any dose
-
Review of kidney function, pregnancy status and breastfeeding
-
If a serotonergic medication is present, a conversation with your prescribing physician before anything is decided
-
Written informed consent covering off-label use and the risks above
If the screening says no, the answer is no. We would rather lose the appointment than manage a serotonin syndrome. If a clinic offers you IV methylene blue without asking what medications you take, that is the moment to leave.
Other things you should know
Methylene blue makes you sensitive to light, so sun and UV avoidance instructions are part of the treatment and are not optional. It interferes with pulse oximetry, producing falsely low oxygen readings — worth telling any other clinician who sees you in the following days, because it can look like a respiratory emergency that isn’t one. It turns urine and sometimes skin blue-green, which is harmless. At high doses it can paradoxically cause the very condition it’s approved to treat.
Intravenous laser requires venous access and carries the ordinary risks of that — bruising, infection, vein irritation.
Non-invasive light therapy has a benign safety record in published trials, with transient headache and skin irritation the most common effects. Intravenous delivery has not been studied nearly as carefully, and we don’t extend the one record to the other.
Methylene blue disclaimer. Methylene blue is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for one indication only: the treatment of acquired methemoglobinemia. Its use as a photosensitizer in photodynamic therapy, and any use for fatigue, cognitive symptoms, post-viral illness or mitochondrial support, is off-label and investigational. It is not approved to treat, cure, mitigate or prevent any of the conditions described on this page, no outcome is promised or implied, and individual results vary. Off-label use is lawful and common in medicine, but it means the evidence and regulatory review supporting the use do not exist in the form they would for an approved indication. We will discuss this with you, in these terms, before you consent to anything.
What we don’t claim
There is no FDA-approved treatment for long COVID, and Weber Medical systems are not FDA-cleared for the conditions on this page. Everything described here is investigational for these uses.
We don’t claim this cures anything. We don’t claim it treats viral persistence — that idea comes from laboratory studies, and the one time a systemic photosensitizer was tested as an antiviral in humans, it didn’t work and caused significant phototoxicity. We don’t promise outcomes, and we won’t tell you this is likely to be the thing that works when we don’t know that.
What we offer is a careful evaluation, an honest account of what’s known, a protocol for the cases where it makes sense to try, and a clear answer when we think something else would serve you better.
Practical details
Venturis Clinic is direct-pay and does not bill insurance. Photodynamic and laser therapy are not covered by insurance for these uses.
We’re at 7917 N May Ave, Suite B, Oklahoma City, OK 73120, in north OKC, and see patients from across the metro and from elsewhere in Oklahoma.
A free 15-minute phone consultation is available if you want to talk it through first. Call (405) 848-7246.
Further reading
-
What the randomized trial of light therapy for long COVID brain fog actually found
-
Laser therapy for musculoskeletal pain: what the evidence supports
-
Intravenous laser therapy: what is studied and what is only claimed
Reviewed by Dr. Alvin Philipose, B.S., B.S., DC, ICCP, Venturis Clinic, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Last reviewed: August 2026.
Important information: Photodynamic therapy, intravenous laser therapy, photobiomodulation and the photosensitizing compounds described on this page are investigational for the conditions discussed and are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment, cure, mitigation or prevention of any disease. Methylene blue is FDA-approved only for acquired methemoglobinemia; any other use is off-label. Nothing on this page is a claim of efficacy, and no outcome is promised or implied. Individual results vary. Participation in our case study series is voluntary, requires separate written informed consent, and is not a condition of receiving care. This page is educational and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, and does not establish a doctor–patient relationship. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider about your own condition.