In today’s world, we’re continually being exposed to electromagnetic fields, which tends to make people nervous. Who hasn’t heard concerns about EMFs and their potential health harms? We’re imagined to keep our cell phones away from our heads, turn the wifi off at night, avoid living under big power lines.
So it will make sense for those who were wary of PEMF therapy. In each cases, the “EMF” stands for electromagnetic field (the P standing for pulsed). But while just-EMF is imagined to be harmful (although the degree to which we’d like to fret is still up for debate), the pulsed kind is imagined to offer wide-ranging advantages. What gives?
Let’s back up. PEMF therapy claims to make use of low-frequency electromagnetic fields to assist your personal electrified cells function more optimally. With chronic illness on the rise, PEMF potentially offers a non-invasive therapy that may be used rather than or alongside conventional treatments to boost their effectiveness.
People have been using magnets for therapeutic purposes since precedent days, long before the principles of magnetism and electricity were fully understood. Modern PEMF technology has been around for many years and is well-studied, although much of the early research was conducted behind the Iron Curtain, so it perhaps feels newer than it actually is. But PEMF therapy isn’t latest, nor does it fall under the realm of “alternative” therapies. It has been FDA-approved for healing nonunion fractures for over 4 many years. NASA has developed PEMF technology to be utilized in regenerating cartilage. There’s an honest probability that your allopathic doctor knows about it and should actually have a PEMF device of their clinic.
Before trying it out for yourself, here’s what it’s worthwhile to know to start.
How Does PEMF Therapy Work?
First, you’ll need access to a PEMF device, which generally consists of a control unit attached to an adjunct corresponding to a paddle or mat. The accessory comprises metal coils through which electricity is passed, generating an electromagnetic field. Simply place the paddle or pad over the treatment area, activate the machine, and let it do its thing. Some machines include pads the scale of small throw blankets so you may treat your whole body without delay.
When you lie there, a pulsed electromagnetic field (hence the name) is passing through your body. That feels like the stuff of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory, nevertheless it’s not painful. You shouldn’t feel anything apart from a pulsing or tapping sensation and maybe some muscle contractions.
Because the electromagnetic field passes through, it interacts along with your body’s own electrical systems, for those who will, to enhance health. Exactly the way it does that it still something of a mystery. The essential science is well-understood, boiling right down to Faraday’s law of induction (for all of the physicists in the gang. The remainder of us don’t must get bogged down in the small print, although I invite any of you physics-minded types to expound on electromagnetism within the comments.) But, for those who keep drilling right down to the basic how of all of it, things begin to get murky.
The overall idea here is that when your cells aren’t functioning optimally or they will’t communicate with the cells around them, this forms the idea of many chronic illnesses. PEMFs seem to advertise or restore healthy cellular functioning.
By my reading of the literature, PEMF therapy is best characterised as an “enhancer.” As a substitute of injecting some therapeutic agent or prompting supranormal physiological responses, PEMF enhances your body’s ability to do what it will ideally do naturally: maintain homeostasis, heal from injury, fight off foreign invaders, and eradicate dysfunctional cells (including cancerous ones). It clears the way in which for optimal functioning, removing barriers where they exist and facilitating the body’s ability to construct, repair, and heal itself.
There are actually hundreds of studies demonstrating various mechanisms of motion of PEMF therapy. These include but usually are not limited to
- Enhancing cellular energy by promoting ATP synthesis. (ATP, you might recall, is the “energy currency” that fuels all cellular processes.)
- Acting on the cellular membrane. Restoring membrane potential and modifying the activity of receptors and ion channels, allowing for higher passage of nutrients and oxygen into the cell and waste products out. Modifying the activity of proteins on the cell’s surface and impacting intracellular communication.
- Modulating gene expression.
- Improving circulation, perhaps by increasing nitric oxide production, which acts as a vasodilator, and promoting angiogenesis, or the formation of latest blood vessels. This also boosts nutrient and oxygen delivery and waste product clearance. (Notably, though, PEMF also seems to exert anti-angiogenic effects on tumor cells, cutting off their blood supply. It also seems to disrupt harmful angiogenesis in rheumatoid arthritis.)
- Increasing cerebral blood flow.
- Reducing inflammation.
- Entraining brain rhythms and modulating neurotransmitter activity..
- Stimulating growth aspects that aid within the generation of bone and tissue.
- Regenerating neuronal cells.
What Is PEMF Therapy Used For?
Because PEMF therapy seems to advertise healthy cellular physiology, and each tissue and organ within the body boils right down to cells, PEMFs could theoretically be applied anywhere there is dysfunction or dysregulation. Indeed, for those who pop “PEMF and [any medical problem]” into Google Scholar, you’ll probably get successful.
This is to not say that PEMF therapy is the magic bullet we’ve all been waiting for, able to eradicate all disease so we will achieve our centenarian aspirations. Any proponents who’re being honest will inform you that it’s hard to predict if PEMF therapy might be successful for a given individual and, in that case, how long it’s going to take. Insofar as PEMF seems to spice up the body’s innate healing and homeostatic processes, it will possibly only achieve this much. Your body has to do the remainder.
Still, PEMF therapy shows promise across an impressively big range of conditions due to the mechanisms of motion listed above, plus many others. To offer you a taste:
Fractures, Bone Health
This was considered one of the earliest applications for PEMF and is still a preferred non-surgical therapy for non-union fractures, that are bone fractures that refuse to heal. PEMF therapy stimulates osteoblasts (bone constructing cells) and suppresses osteoclasts (bone degrading cells). A recent 2020 meta-analysis confirms that PEMF helps fractures heal faster and more quickly.
Similarly, PEMF therapy will help mitigate bone loss, improve bone mineral density, and reduce pain in individuals with osteoporosis.
Arthritis
Each rheumatoid and osteoarthritis may profit from PEMF due to its anti-inflammatory motion and the way it it promotes collagen deposition in joints. There’s also evidence that PEMF stimulates special cells within the joints called mesenchymal stromal cells that play an important role in healing and repair.
Pain
Pain management, especially chronic pain, is a vexing problem for medical providers or patients due to analgesic drugs’ long-term unwanted side effects, which are sometimes significant. PEMF doesn’t just mask pain but targets the underlying inflammation and edema that cause pain after injury or surgery, in addition to in chronic pain conditions like back pain and fibromyalgia.
Mental Health and Neurological Disorders
Electromagnetic therapies have long been utilized in treating brain issues like depression, but PEMF mustn’t be confused with electroconvulsive therapy (a really intense therapy reserved for severe depression) or the more common transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The latter is conceptually much like PEMF, with low-frequency electromagnetic stimulation applied to the brain, nevertheless it is more targeted and designed to induce neuronal firing. It can also only be utilized in a clinical setting. PEMF targets all the brain and may be used at home.
We’ve some evidence that PEMF generally is a protected and effective treatment modality for depression, and there is much interest in its potential to assist with other neurological disorders corresponding to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Cancer
PEMF therapy won’t cure cancer, but where it would shine is as an adjuvant treatment that increases the effectiveness of conventional treatments and reduces negative unwanted side effects. In in vitro studies, PEMF induces cancer cell apoptosis (cell death).
Long COVID
Untold numbers of individuals are going to be fighting post-COVID symptoms corresponding to persistent respiratory issues, weakness, and fatigue in the approaching years. PEMF might help by reducing inflammation, improving microvasculature, reducing rouleaux formation within the blood (the clumping together of red blood cells), or other mechanisms. There are already some published case reports documenting advantages. and at the very least one registered clinical trial. This might be a game-changer.
Is PEMF Therapy Secure?
As I said, most concerns regarding PEMF safety are on account of inappropriately conflating PEMFs with EMFs from electronic devices and power lines. PEMF therapy devices have been studied for many years and are getting used each day in medical clinics and houses world wide with none reports of significant adversarial effects.
More to the purpose, PEMF therapy devices usually are not similar to the EMFs individuals are frightened about once they discuss “electro-smog.” Moreover, even for those who desired to avoid electromagnetic fields, you couldn’t. The Earth itself emits a pulsed electromagnetic field. Solar radiation—the daylight hitting your skin that is so essential for health that I made sun exposure considered one of the ten Primal Blueprint laws—is electromagnetic.
YOU are electromagnetic. The human body is principally electrified meat wrapped around a skeleton. EEGs measure electrical activity within the brain. You’ve heard about electrolytes and their critical role in on a regular basis functioning. Well, the electro in electrolytes refers back to the proven fact that electrolytes are ions that carry a positive or negative charge and facilitate electrical activity within the body. Briefly, don’t be postpone by PEMF due to “electromagnetic” part.
There are a couple of considerations to remember, though. Occasionally, people do report mild discomfort when using the device, but this could dissipate over time. Some people could also be hypersensitive to electromagnetic fields and so may be more liable to experiencing unwanted side effects like fatigue, brain fog, or dizziness. These folks will want to avoid PEMF therapy or at the very least proceed slowly.
You must seek the advice of a physician before starting PEMF therapy if you’ve any implanted metal devices, are pregnant, or taking any prescription medications. There is a possibility that PEMFs could increase the drugs’ absorption rate, potentially resulting in toxicity.
Selecting a PEMF Device
Many corporations now manufacture devices for home use. They vary in price from a couple of hundred dollars to hundreds of dollars and into five figures for the highest-end models. Which one to decide on?
I’d say the perfect plan of action, especially for those who intend to make use of PEMF to handle a selected health issue, is to refer to a practitioner acquainted with using PEMF to treat your condition. PEMF applications differ when it comes to the intensity, frequency, and waveform (shape of the wave), in addition to the frequency of treatment, length of every treatment session, and total duration. You need to try to decide on probably the most effective one. In reality, though, no person knows with any certainty what exact PEMF protocol is best for a given individual or a selected disorder. Still, try to search out someone to point you in the proper direction, ideally someone who doesn’t have skin in the sport. (If a salesman tells you their device is definitely best for you, back away slowly. They’re selling you unfounded guarantees.).
Understand that PEMF therapy may be an expensive and time-consuming proposition. In some studies, participants are using their devices for ten or more hours a day for months at a time. When you’re going to make that investment, it’s value getting the perfect device you may afford. When you can, start by finding a physician in your area who has a PEMF device which you could test drive for some time to see for those who notice any profit before purchasing one yourself.
Bottom Line
PEMF therapy is definitely intriguing. Sure, it’s not something our ancestors would have had access to. That is, unless you think about grounding. Grounding, or earthing, is the practice of walking barefoot to “plug in” to the Earth’s electrical field. Although a few of the claims related to earthing seem just a little far-fetched, it’s pretty easy to see the potential overlap between low-frequency PEMF and grounding. Is there something there? Perhaps.
In any case, the concept of using a non-invasive, seemingly low-risk devise to enhance cellular communication and energy is appealing.
To be clear, although I highlighted the positive effects of PEMF therapy here, loads of studies also show no profit (but additionally no harm). This may occasionally be since the researchers within the null studies simply used ineffective protocols. There’s no method to know without more data.
Finally, the present research understandably focuses on specific medical issues greater than general health and longevity, but I’m sure lots of you might be more fascinated by how PEMFs might be used to maintain the system fully charged, so to talk. Proponents of the technology will say that PEMFs may be used to keep up health and promote optimal well-being. And I can see why that may be the case. Unfortunately, that sort of thing is hard to check (and won’t ever get research money thrown at it).
What do you’re thinking that? Does this technology pique your interest? Have you ever used it before, and in that case, what were your results?
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