Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) Therapy (Discussed in Energy Medicine DVD)
Magnetic Molecular Energizer Therapy (MME) applies a static, uniform magnetic field to a dysfunctional internal organ or body region. The velocity of orbiting valence electrons is accelerated, increasing the rate of all useful biochemical reactions, including ATP energy generation and utilization. Over the past three years, we have utilized MME under the auspices of an IRB (FDA Institutional Review Board), adding this technique to our prior best therapies, in an effort to help people who we could not previously help (neural injury, CP, cardiomyopathy, etc. – see amri-ohio.com). We are completing clinical trials of MME’s efficacy in diabetic neuropathy and chronic low back pain.
Magna Charge, via a different pathway, also increases the cellular energy charge (MME and Magna Charge are about as similar as are radio and TV). Magna Charge restores the electrochemical gradient across the cell membrane back to its optimal level of -70 mV, thereby increasing ATP energy generation and restoring cellular function. The interior of our cells should be electrochemically negative relative to the outside, extracellular fluid (essentially salt water with high sodium content). This gradient is critical to the process of ion transport across the cell membrane, ATP energy generation, and the exchange of oxygen for cellular wastes. The gradient is created by the active exchange of sodium out for potassium in across the cell membrane, in a process that requires energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate, always lacking in dysfunctional cells). Healthy cells maintain their -70 mV electronegativity. Any challenge to the cell, such as oxygen/nutrient deficiency, toxicity, or inflammation can degrade the gradient from its optimal -70mV. As the gradient falters, sodium can no longer be pumped out of the cell; the cell swells to produce edema and inflammation. As the gradient falls lower, oxygen delivery across the cell membrane into the interior of the cell is compromised. Without oxygen, the cell cannot generate ATP energy; the sodium-potassium pumping mechanism cannot be fueled, and the gradient falls further. A downward cycle of disordered cellular physiology will follow, leading to cell death or malignant transformation.
We want an electrochemical gradient of -70 mV. We know that the gradient is compromised in sick cells and in sick people - so how can we regenerate it? The long term process follows my basic philosophy of Medicine – optimize the nutritional status of the cell, ensure that it gets all the oxygen and hormonal support that it needs, and then remove every toxic substance from the cell. If we repair the cellular biochemistry, energy generation will pick up, the sodium-potassium pump will come back on line, the gradient will return to -70, and the cell will thrive – and so will the patient!
But this process takes time, and many of you present with advanced conditions where the cells of the affected organ are too far gone to take in adequate oxygen/nutrition, or maybe the cells are so toxic that they just can’t generate the energy needed to restore the gradient. In these conditions, if we could apply an exogenous electrical field to rapidly restore the cell membrane electrochemical gradient to -70, we could “jump start” your cellular biology, just as does the application of an exogenous electric field to your worn out, energy depleted car battery.
Electrotherapy was common place in American Medicine 100 years ago; various devices we used in the hospital and office setting, but alas, they went off patent and were replaced by pharmacologic and surgical techniques. They also had limitations. Electrical therapy is still used in current day Medicine. Consider the TENS unit, which applies a weak electric current at the level of the skin. It helps with pain relief – but how? Electroshock therapy for mood disorders and electrical cardioversion for cardiac arrhythmia serve as deeper, more powerful, but also more traumatic electric therapies, and we all know what the sustained application of an electric field to the human body does – this is electrocution.
So how do these electric therapies work, and how can the Magna Charge supply an electric field to our internal organs without damaging the cells? The answer is in the physics (and now I know why I had to take a semester of Physical Chemistry in college). Magnetic fields give off electric fields as they decay. The Magna Charge device gives off extremely brief (for a few billionths of a second) but repetitive pulses of magnetic energy. In contrast to the situation with an applied electric field, our body does not resist or absorb a magnetic field; it passes right through us but as it decays it gives off an electric field, which in Magna Charge therapy is used to restore the electrochemical gradient across the cell membrane back to -70 mV.
In theory, we could accomplish the same by applying an electric field, but in practice, outside of the superficial TENS unit, this approach would damage you. Our body, beginning at the level of the skin, resists transmission of an electric field – we will convert an applied electric field to heat and ionizing radiation, cooking our cells. An applied, weak electric field at the level of the skin, not designed to penetrate into our internal organs, can help with pain relief (with TENS therapy sodium will be pumped out of the more superficial cells, swelling and inflammation will subside, and you will not be damaged). Electroshock therapy involves the application of a stronger, deeper reaching field, but only briefly – you will experience some cellular damage and if we do it over and over again the damage will be significant.
Magna Charge “sneaks in” the electric field, as a local by-product of the applied pulsed magnetic field (that can transverse your body without generating heat, ionizing radiation, or tissue damage), but additional safety is added. The electric field generate by the Magna Charge device could still hurt you, that is, if application of the field was prolonged. With the therapeutic application on an electrical field, our goal is to convert the applied energy into biochemical energy, to be used to repair damaged cellular infrastructure, pump our toxins, and optimize cell performance. What we do not want to do is to generate heat or ionizing radiation. Physical chemistry tells us our goal is best achieved by the application of a high power but brief electric field. Here the energy can be captured by the cell, but as the field duration is brief, cell heating and ionization will not occur. Electrocution involves the prolonged application of an electric field and exerts the opposite effect. Cardioversion and electroshock therapy apply a high power but relatively brief electric field; clinical benefit will follow but tissue damage does occur. Magna Charge involves the repetitive application of relatively high power but extremely brief (a few billionths of a second) electric field across your cell membrane, maximizing energy capture. Healthy cells are not damaged by this brief electrical “recharge”. On the other hand morbid, dysfunctional cells, the ones that should be culled out to make room for fresh cells, will be damaged and will die out (apoptosis) – a good thing. Cells that have undergone malignant transformation will not take up the energy; in fact the ultra brief electric field may damage them, just as it does morbid, dysfunctional cells – not a bad thing at all.
Magna Charge is similar to the Papimi device, upgraded by advances in electrical engineering and physics since Dr. Pappas developed the Papimi. Today there are many different PEMF devices available, but all rely on the physics originally elucidated by Dr. Pappas. To learn more, go to www.papimi.gr, read and think about this information, and then Google PEMF. You will be shocked at the amount of research that has been done in this area. The PEMF devices that you will read about are all a little different (how long the pulses last, the shape of the wave, etc.) but the therapeutic principle is the same.
You will need to sign a consent form before beginning Magna Charge, because this treatment is being applied to you in a medical office, but the risks of Magna Charge therapy are negligible. The Magna Charge device is less risky to you than is the use of your lawn mower, and it is regulated in similar fashion. Magna Charge is not considered to be a medical device; private citizens can buy them and use them. Magna Charge is not patentable, and as such we are not going to see multimillion dollar, multicenter studies documenting its benefit in specific disease states. Thus neither the manufacturer of Magna Charge nor the practitioners who use it are making health claims of benefit. Magna Charge therapy will not be covered by your insurer. The cost of treatment is $80 for a 30 minute session, or $250 pre-paid for five 30 minute sessions ($40/session for TACT study subjects; patients undergoing MME will receive Magna Charge therapy at their MME rate).
While the risk associated with Magna Charge therapy is felt to be negligible, as with MME, patients with implanted pacemakers or cochlear hearing devices cannot be treated. Please remove your hearing aids before receiving Magna Charge therapy. Keep your credit cards, cassette tapes, and electronic devices five feet away from the coils.
Who benefits from Magna Charge? All of us will (unless your name is M. Poppins). Our cells are not perfect in all ways. Wear and tear, toxicity, oxygen and nutrient deficiency have compromised our cellular biochemistry and ultrastructure. We can all benefit from a total body energetic recharge. Areas of focal cell dysfunction and energy deficiency (where we hurt) will benefit in the most obvious fashion. Painful cells are energy deficient; thus they are low in oxygen, high in sodium, with a faltered electrochemical gradient. When we restore the gradient, the cell starts pumping out sodium, cell swelling resolves, oxygen starts flowing back in, and pain may improve. One treatment alone is not going to repair the cell, but your pain level may certainly lessen. Dr. Pappas writes about application to the thymus region to improve immune function, and application to the trunk to improve function of our internal organs. Application to the low back and pelvic region may improve function of these regions. My knowledge of your condition, our intuition, and your initial response to Magna Charge will influence our approach.
In Magna Charge therapy, coils of heavily insulated cable will be placed on or wrapped around your body or a specific body region. The strength of the field is related to the voltage applied (which we can regulate), the number of coils applied, and the size of the loops (the larger the loop the stronger the field). We start by “scanning” your body with two tightly coiled loops. The field will make your cells jump and you will experience a not unpleasant sensation of muscle twitching, related, we believe, to increased ion transport at the level of the cell membrane. Dysfunctional musculoskeletal cells will not move within the field, and these areas will hurt. These are the areas of dysfunction, and we will focus your treatment on these regions. Our internal organs do not move in response to the Magna Charge field; thus we will treat these areas based upon our knowledge of your medical condition. A typical treatment will involve 20 minutes to the area of clinical interest, and 10 minutes to your head, neck, and trunk (as we want a healthy you, not just a you with less pain). For most applications, you will recline in an easy chair, with loops of cable draped around your neck and torso. For focal pain, the closed loops of cable (butterfly) will be applied over or under the area of interest. For low back pain or pelvic conditions, you will sit over loops of coil layered out on an easy chair.
Magna Charge therapy is relatively new and is not offered elsewhere in NW Ohio. I learned about Magna Charge because I am one of six physicians in the US allowed to offer MME therapy under the auspices of its FDA Institutional Review Board – thus I am in contact with like minded physicians who feel that Energy Medicine is going to play a key role in the future of Medicine, which will be a fully Integrated Medicine (we want to get there early). You can learn more about Magna Charge and Energy Medicine in general by reviewing the DVD of my two hour presentation of Energy Medicine techniques.
We "scan" you by passing a butter fly loop of coils over your body. Areas that hurt when exposed to the pulsed magnetic field are areas that need treatment. Here the cells are "stuck" because they cannot transport ions efficiently across their cell membranes. We may treat you with the butterfly loop, or we may rap coils around you to create a total body effect. The greater the number of coils and the larger the size of the loops, the stronger the treatment effect. On the right my picture is blurred because my cells were "jumping" as the electrochemical gradient across the cells of my body was being recharged.
James C. Roberts MD FACC 12/1/07