Abstract

The excessive body fat, one of the results of obesity, brings with it comorbidities such as lipid changes, insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus type 2 and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In this controlled and randomized pilot study, as a non-pharmacological and non-invasive strategy, we consider two groups during 8 weeks: the use of moderate intensity physical exercise and nutritional education, as control group (n=10) and moderate intensity physical exercise, nutritional education and phototherapy (n=10), as phototherapy group. The used phototherapy parameters were: laser Ga-Al-As, wavelength 808 nm, continuous mode, output power 100 mW, and total energy delivery 92.16 J. Selected patients were men with age between 20 and 40 years old, primary obesity, body mass index (BMI) between 30 and 34.9 kg/ m². The special device as described in the text was applied, allocated in the anterior region and posterior region of body during 5 minutes each side, totalizing 10 minutes of application of light, always at the end after session of exercise. Comparing the control group in relation to the phototherapy group, the better results were obtained for the phototherapy group, with statistical difference in all anthropometric variables, such as the increase of 3.54% (p<0.007) in total skeletal muscle mass; as well as, 2.77% (p<0.005) in the basal metabolic rate body; 5.47% (p<0.04) for metabolic progress; reduction of 4.67% (p<0.007) for body mass and reduction was also observed for total body fat, total trunk fat and visceral fat of which the phototherapy group showed the following reduction percentages: 14.3% (p<0.01), 14.7% (p<0.005) and 16.4% (p<0.03), respectively. A significant improvement was also observed in all the biochemical parameters and enzymatic analyzed, such as total cholesterol, triglyceride, the basal insulin, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, glutamic pyruvic transaminase, and gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase. Therefore the proposed treatment in this work suggests that the association of physical exercise, the nutritional education and phototherapy applied in obese men for two months caused great improvement in all anthropometric parameters, as well as, in all biochemistry and enzymatic parameters indicating that phototherapy is a potential instrument in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, being able to reverse the degree of steatosis in 8 weeks, besides it can be a new non-invasive treatment to obesity and its comorbidities.

Keywords: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; Obesity; Physical exercise; Phototherapy; Visceral fat