The Epoch Times wrote a great article on PEMF in early 2024 and that article deserves credit for much of the information in this blog post.
Revolutionizing Healing: The Benefits of Pulsed Electromagnetic Frequency Therapy
Today, conditions like chronic pain, inflammatory diseases, neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases and mood disorders, including depression and anxiety, are on the rise.
Conventional medicine’s answer for many of these conditions is medication, surgery, or both. But what if there was a better way? A way to help your body heal naturally and avoid more invasive treatments?
Pulse electromagnetic frequency (PEMF) is a therapy that has been around for more than a century and is increasingly being used in clinics and hospitals to treat a wide variety of ailments that include pain, inflammation, wound healing, and bone repair, as well as psychological conditions like depression—providing a potential option for those looking for an alternative to medications and surgery, or anyone who has not found relief with conventional treatments.
What is PEMF Therapy and How Does it Work?
PEMF is a non-invasive type of energy medicine that directs pulsed magnetic fields toward the body to optimize cellular function and stimulate the body’s innate healing capabilities.
PEMF is often used to improve immune system functioning, circulation, bone healing, and accelerate healing after an injury. It is also used to boost energy, improve sleep, and relieve stress.
In the book “PEMF—The Fifth Element of Health,” author Bryant A. Myers, a former physics professor and leading expert in the field of energy medicine, describes PEMF therapy:
“You can think of PEMF therapy as a ‘whole body battery recharger.’ By using PEMF therapy mat just 2 times a day for 8 minutes you recharge your 100 trillion cells, improving ATP production (energy), increasing oxygenation, enhancing circulation, promoting hydration, facilitating detoxification, and gaining a better overall absorption of nutrients. It’s like putting little ‘tiny jumper cables’ on all your cells and ‘jump-starting’ them back to health.”
The Pulses used in PEMF therapy occur at very low frequencies that can penetrate the skin, getting deep into our tissues at the cellular level. This activates our cells and stimulates our body’s natural healing and repair mechanisms.
PEMF was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1979 for use in healing non-union fractures—fractures that do not completely heal due to a variety of factors that include decreased blood flow. PEMF has since been approved for a variety of conditions, including reducing post-operative swelling and pain, as an adjunct to cervical fusion surgery, for treatment-resistant depression, and for treating certain types of cancer (specifically, recurrent glioblastoma and metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma).
PEMF emulates the earth’s natural magnetic field, which is essential for life, and as important to human health as food, water, sleep, and sunlight. This field includes the Schumann resonance and geomagnetic frequencies according to Mr. Myer’s book.
We used to be much more connected to this natural healing energy from the earth, but over time, and with the advent of shoes with rubber soles (which disconnect us from this energy) as well as spending more and more time indoors, we have lost much of this connection to the earth’s healing energies. As a result, we struggle with an increasing number of health problems.
Another reason we get less of the earth’s healing energy is that over time this field has become weaker. In his book, Mr. Myers states that in the last 300 years, the earth’s magnetic field has decreased by approximately 50 percent.
Studied and Used by NASA
Mr. Myers explains in his book that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been researching PEMFs for some time because of their importance to astronauts while in space:
“Outer space is an environment that provides very negligible amounts of the earth’s PEMFs. As you go further out beyond the earth’s ionosphere there is a significant reduction in magnetic fields and the Schumann resonance. Out of necessity, NASA, and the shuttles and/or suits with Schumann or magnetic field generators to simulate the conditions on earth.”
NASA research demonstrates that when astronauts left the earth’s atmosphere, they developed significant health problems from being disconnected from the earth’s electromagnetic field, including bone loss and muscle atrophy.
Studies conducted by NASA explored the effects of PEMF on human physiology, and scientists at the NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a device able to stimulate cartilage regeneration by promoting the growth of new cartilage in synovial joints using PEMFs.
PEMF Therapy in the Clinic
At Brain & Body Rehabilitation Specialists, we use PEMF primarily to optimize healing and promote wellness. Many of our patients also seek this service as part of a more comprehensive approach for targeted conditions such as concussions, neuropathy, acute pain, chronic pain, bone fractures, and many more physical and neurological conditions.
PEMF therapy is delivered via devices that include full-body mats that you lie down on, smaller mats, and more local devices like paddles or rings that can target a specific area and direct the pulsed electromagnetic fields to the site of an injury or wound that is slow to heal. PEMF devices can also be purchased to use at home. Devices come in a variety of types, and the price varies depending on multiple factors like the intensity and frequency it delivers as well as portability, so be sure to do your research to ensure you are getting the best device for your specific needs.
PEMF Studies
PEMF therapy is well-researched, and a search for it in the PubMed database yields nearly 1500 results. The following are some studies demonstrating the effectiveness of PEMF therapy for a variety of conditions.
Perhaps one of the most common uses of PEMF therapy is for pain relief.
A pilot, double-blind, randomized trial demonstrated that one month of PEMF treatment decreased pain and improved functional performance in patients with osteoarthritis.
A review published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal found that PEMF significantly reduced pain and swelling after plastic surgery. The authors concluded that PEMF is “a powerful tool with no known side effects for the adjunctive, noninvasive, nonpharmacologic management of postoperative pain and edema.”
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, targeted PEMF was used on patients who underwent breast reconstruction surgery. The targeted PEMF reduced pain by 50 percent, edema by more than 40 percent, interleukin-1β (a marker of inflammation) by 40 percent, and the use of pain medication was reduced by 50 percent after the surgeries. The researchers concluded that “adjunctive pulsed electromagnetic field therapy could impact the speed and quality of wound repair in many surgical procedures.”
Studies also show that PEMF therapy is beneficial for those suffering from depression.
Transcranial PEMF, or T-PEMF therapy, was found to be a beneficial augmentation treatment to ongoing pharmacotherapy in patients with treatment-resistant depression, according to a multicenter study published in 2020 in the journal European Psychiatry.
Studies have even shown that PEMF therapy can affect organ regeneration.
Two different studies involving rats found that using extremely low-frequency, or ELF-PEMFs, helped regenerate the liver more quickly in rats who had part of their livers removed.
In Conclusion
In an age where our ailments are increasingly treated using invasive therapies like medications and surgery, PEMF therapy demonstrates that we can harness the healing power inherent within all of us by simply replicating the same frequencies provided by the life-giving planet we call home.
Dr. Linus Pauling, a two-time winner of the Nobel Prize said this of PEMF therapy:
“PEMF is a benefit for mankind from infant to the geriatric. PEMF will lead to a change in the paradigm of medicine.”
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