PEMF Therapy
What is Pulsating Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) Therapy?
PEMF Therapy is one of the fastest growing methods of natural pain relief. This safe and effective modality is used for accelerated therapeutic purposes with a wide range of applications. Clients who have found benefit from this therapy include those who have experienced injuries, chronic pain, neurological conditions, and more. Clinical experiments have shown that PEMF therapy can reduce pain sensations almost immediately.
According to Dr. Robert J. Rowen, PEMF works like a magnet, but it’s different than refrigerator magnets which are static (meaning an unchanging field). PEMF pulsates its field and biological systems which generate their own electromagnetic fields are extremely sensitive and responsive to such fields.
During a PEMF session, the pulsating field reaches the cells, exercising the cell membranes and increasing flexibility and vitality. When the cells expand, fresh nutrients and oxygen can rush into the cells. When the cells contract, toxins can be pushed out. As a result, the cells are cleansed and refreshed.
At Designed For Thriving, we find that chronic stress in the endocrine system, especially the adrenal glands (the body’s “battery pack”), becomes electrically depleted leading to a condition commonly called “burn out”. We often use our PEMF technology to stimulate points on the body supporting specific aspects such as the adrenals, for the purposes of restoring vitality. When we do this, the body can heal itself.
Why does PEMF therapy work?
According to Keith R. Holden, MD, “Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy is effective because time varying or pulsed electromagnetic fields create micro currents in the body’s tissues. These micro currents elicit specific biological responses depending on field parameters such as amplitude, frequency, and waveform.”
The body contains multiple electromagnetic fields. Just as you have a unique DNA signature, your body also has a unique energetic signature. In fact, each tissue and organ has a unique electromagnetic signature.
PEMFs are critical for human metabolism. According to Dr. Faith Nelson, NASA scientists have observed a previously unreported illness experienced by a number of the first astronauts. This illness came to be known as “space sickness”. Eventually, a decreased exposure to the earth’s magnetic field was found to be responsible for space sickness. Since then, zero-field studies and experiments have confirmed that living cells will die within hours if they do not receive the PEMFs of the Earth.
PEMFs are as much required elements of health as food, water, oxygen, and sleep. In fact, Dr. Nelson, says you can live longer without food and water than you can without PEMFs.
In general, we are not getting the full benefit of the earth’s electromagnetic field. Contributors to this include a general weakening of the earth’s magnetic field, inhabiting steel and concrete buildings, and exposure to more high-frequency electromagnetic pollution including computers, televisions, cordless phones, wifi, cell phone towers and cell phones themselves.
For decades technologies such as Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) scans and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans have been taking advantage of these unique pulsed electromagnetic field signatures to create a map of the body’s tissues for diagnostic purposes.
PEMFs technologies used therapeutically are becoming increasingly utilized in both integrative and conventional medical models. That’s because all types of cells respond to PEMF: muscle cells, blood cells, brain cells, bone cells. The magnetic field “permeates” all cells in the body simultaneously, down to the last molecular level, which means it can reach parts of the body that cannot be influenced efficiently with other methods.
It can be helpful to conceptualize PEMF therapy if you think of your cells as little batteries. We know that the voltage of a healthy cell is about 70 millivolts. According to Dr. Faith Nelson, that voltage can drop as low as 30 millivolts when we are sick, and even lower in the cases of terminal cancers. PEMF Therapy can act as a catalyst and battery recharger for the cells, enhancing ion exchange and cell voltage, normalizing circulation, and increasing the oxygen utilization of the cell. The positive effects of this on acute and even chronic conditions are great.
Benefits of PEMF Therapy
The benefits of PEMF therapy have been documented in multiple peer-reviewed clinical studies for a wide range of medical conditions including:
Chronic low back pain
Fibromyalgia
Cervical osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis of the knee
Lateral epicondylitis
Recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery
Recovery from inter-body lumbar fusions
Persistent rotator cuff tendinitis
Depression
Multiple Sclerosis
A 1995 Siskin and Walker provided a summary of clinical results on soft tissue damage reported the following positive effects:
Decreased pain
Reduced inflammation
Increased range of motion
Faster functional recovery
Reduced muscle loss after surgery
Increased tensile strength in ligaments
Faster healing of skin wounds
Enhanced capillary formation
Acceleration of nerve regeneration
Decreased tissue necrosis (premature cell death caused by external factors including infection, toxins or trauma)
Dr. Rowen states, “Studies have shown that PEMF helps improve the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome in 93% of users, and 83% of those with rotator cuff tendonitis (shoulder). Migraine sufferers can expect total improvement in 73%, with 45% of users getting substantial improvement in just three weeks of use. Female disorders such as endometriosis, painful periods, painful intercourse, etc. respond with up to 90% marked or dramatic relief. Patients receiving PEMF will find significant pain control after an operation.”
Preliminary data in clinical studies also shows PEMF devices using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has promise in treating schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.
Mainstream Use of PEMF Therapy
Hospitals use PEMF therapy to accelerate the healing of fractures This application was the first PEMF therapy to be cleared by the FDA in 1979 and can be especially effective since magnetic fields permeate all materials, the patient can be treated even through a plaster cast.
Since then, the FDA cleared PEMF therapy for failed joint fusion following arthrodesis, failed spinal fusion, and congenital pseudoarthrosis. In 1987, the FDA cleared a high frequency PEMF device for adjunctive therapy in the palliative treatment of postoperative edema and pain in superficial soft tissue. In 2008 the FDA cleared a PEMF device using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder in adult patients who failed to achieve satisfactory improvement from prior antidepressant medication. According to Keith R. Holden, MD, in a multi-center clinical trial, approximately half of the patients experienced significant improvement in depression symptoms, and approximately one third of the patients experienced complete symptom relief at the end of six weeks.