What is Stiff Person Syndrome?

What is Stiff Person Syndrome?

The singer Celine Dion, whose glorious singing career spanned the last four decades, was recently diagnosed with a condition called Stiff Person Syndrome.  Unfortunately, the condition is prevening her from performing, due to its debilitating effect on muscle control, including the vocal cord muscles.

Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) is a rare, progressive neurological disorder characterized by significant muscle rigidity and spasms, often leading to debilitating physical and psychological symptoms. This article provides an overview of SPS, delving into its causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and current treatment options, as informed by medical research and trusted medical resources.

What is Stiff Person Syndrome?

SPS is an autoimmune neurological disorder primarily causing muscle stiffness and painful spasms. These spasms can worsen over time and vary in symptoms, including an unsteady gait, double vision, or slurred speech, depending on the SPS type. The condition can be severely disabling, often leading to hunched over postures and frequent falls due to impaired reflexes​​​​.

Causes of Stiff Person Syndrome

While the exact cause of SPS is unknown, it is believed to be an autoimmune reaction where the immune system attacks glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) in the brain and spinal cord. GAD is crucial for producing gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter controlling muscle movement.  Neurotransmitters are protein molecules released from the ends of neurons, which then attach to other neurons causing them to continue the nerve impulse until it reaches the muscle.  Disruption in GABA production can lead to continuous neuron firing, contributing to muscle rigidity and spasms seen in SPS. Low GABA levels are also associated with anxiety and depression. Interestingly, SPS often occurs alongside other autoimmune diseases like type-I diabetes, thyroiditis, vitiligo, and pernicious anemia​​​​.

Symptoms of Stiff Person Syndrome

The primary symptoms of SPS include progressive muscle rigidity and painful spasms, often triggered by stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress. Initial symptoms typically manifest between the ages of 30 and 60 and can vary in severity and progression. Common initial signs include muscle stiffness and pain, especially in the lower back and legs, potentially leading to difficulty in walking and performing daily activities. Severe cases may require wheelchair use, and there’s an increased risk of anxiety and depression​​​​.

Diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome

Diagnosing SPS is challenging due to its rarity and symptom overlap with other conditions like Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia. A definitive diagnosis is often made via a blood test measuring GAD antibodies. Most people with SPS show elevated GAD antibody levels. Electromyography (EMG) tests can also be employed to measure muscle electrical activity and assist in diagnosis and monitoring treatment response​​​​.

Treatment Options for Stiff Person Syndrome

While there is no cure for SPS, symptoms can be managed through personalized treatment plans focusing on pain management, muscle relaxation, and immune response suppression. Common medications include pain relievers, muscle relaxants, anti-seizure and anti-anxiety drugs, sedatives, and steroids. Non-medication treatments like physical therapy, heat therapy, red light therapy, and pulsed EMF are also beneficial. In cases where medications are ineffective, treatments like Botox, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), and stem cell therapy have shown promise in symptom improvement​​​​.

Additionally, a narrative review of available medication treatments for SPS suggests starting with benzodiazepines as a first-line treatment, adding medications like levetiracetam or pregabalin if symptoms persist. For second-line therapy, oral baclofen is preferred over rituximab and tacrolimus. In cases of refractory symptoms, treatments like intrathecal baclofen, IVIG, or plasmapheresis can be effective, with intrathecal baclofen and IVIG being more effective than plasmapheresis​​.

Conclusion

Stiff Person Syndrome presents a complex clinical challenge due to its rarity, varied symptomatology, and the intricate interplay of autoimmune responses. Understanding its underlying causes, symptom patterns, and current treatment modalities is crucial for effective management. Ongoing research continues to shed light on this condition, offering hope for more effective treatments in the future. For individuals diagnosed with SPS, a collaborative approach involving neurologists, rheumatologists, and physical therapists, alongside personalized treatment strategies, is key to managing this condition and improving quality of life.

And lastly, when your body is struggling with disease, give it assistance by providing it with nutrients, water, sunlight and mild exercise when possible.  Mind-body approaches including meditation, flotation therapy, biofeedback, yoga, tai-chi, deep breathing and so on, may provide some relief as well.

Sources:

Johns Hopkins Online

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/

National Institute of Neuromuscular Disorders and Stroke

https://www.ninds.nih.gov/

American Brain Foundation

https://www.americanbrainfoundation.org/

How I Used Red Light to Speed Healing of a Bad Knife Cut

How I Used Red Light to Speed Healing of a Bad Knife Cut

Recently I had been careless in the kitchen while cutting food and sustained two, pretty severe cuts on my left hand in separate incidents.

The first one occurred shortly after last Thanksgiving when I was using a very sharp carving knife to shave off the last bits of spiral cut ham off the bone.  I held the knife with my right hand and gripped the ham bone with my left hand. The knife slipped and cut deep into the side of the base of my left index finger. The knife was so sharp that it left a surgical-quality incision; deep but very clean edges (not jagged). I could see the layers of epidermis and dermis with the distinctive, yellowish subcutaneous fat as the flesh separated, and seconds before the blood started to flow. The wound went down to the muscle and probably cut a few muscle fibers as well. 

The image below shows the layers of skin, and the black arrow represents how deep the cut went.  Below the muscle layer is bone (not illustrated):

Layers of the skin

The second, more recent one occurred while I was cutting an onion (NOTE: never cut an onion on the convex side, because not only is it uneven it is slippery and presents a high risk of knife slippage, especially if your knife is not very sharp). This time, the knife slipped and I again suffered a deep cut this time to the lateral, distal middle finger at the level of the base of the nail. This also cut past the dermis and was stopped by the hardness of the nail.

In both of these laceration wounds, there was profuse bleeding. I went through many Kleenex tissues and kitchen paper towels to stop the bleeding. Facial tissues and kitchen paper towels are good for such cuts because not only are they highly absorbent, they shed tiny fibers into the cut, which are used by the fibroblast reparative cells for scaffolding as they lay down collagen fibers to fill in and close the wound, as well as scaffolding for clotted blood that stops the bleeding. These fibers become part of the scab that eventually disappears, so no need to worry.

Stages of wound healing

The main stages of wound healing. Credit to © Guniita | Dreamstime.com

When the bleeding stopped, I gently cleaned around it and put a bandage on, with firm but not too tight pressure.  Then I used my red light therapy torch device to accelerate the wound healing. I took off the bandage and applied the light to the cut 2-3 times a day, for about 6-8 minutes each time. I placed the torch directly over the cut, so there was light contact. Long story short, the wounds healed completely in little over two weeks!

Mind you, these were NOT scrapes, abrasions, or superficial paper cuts. These were deep lacerations. The first one on the base of the index finger, which I should have gotten stitches or surgical glue in retrospect due to its severity, I estimated to be 1.8 cm long and 4-5 mm deep.  Here’s what it looks like today:

Cut index finger healed scar

The second one was about 6 mm long and 3 mm deep, which would have been deeper if the hard nail bed wasn’t there to stop the knife, as I was putting a lot of force into cutting the onion.

For the second cut, I decided to take pictures to document the healing,

Images of my deep finger cut, treated with Red Light Therapy over 14 days

Day 0 of finger cut

Picture taken 30 minutes after sustaining cut

1st red light treatment

Day 2 of cut finger

Day 3

Day 6

Day 6 rlt treatment

Note, I actually applied red light to the wound almost daily  and include only pictures of two treatments here.

Day 8

Day 10

Day 15

You can see the dramatic changes in the way the cut healed in such a shorter period of time. The inflammation and swelling lessened; the space between the skin closed just after a few days, and the redness decreased until just the dead cut skin remained as a remnant of the cut.  I’ve had these kinds of cuts before where I did not have red light therapy available, and they took about 50% more time to completely heal. So, that’s my best estimate of the benefits of using red light therapy to heal injuries—for small wounds such as these, it can shorten the healing rate by about 50%; meaning, red light therapy can accelerate healing a flesh wound to completion in 2 weeks, that would normally take 3 weeks to fully heal.

How Does Red Light Therapy Work?

I’ve written about how red light therapy works several times on this blog, and made some videos on YouTube explaining red light therapy. Basically, red light uses photonic (light) energy to modulate (control; affect) certain biological activities that occur following injury.

Photons, the smallest units of light, are packets of energy and are received by parts of cells called chromophores. Chromophores are found in DNA, hemoglobin, proteins and most importantly, the mitochondria—the components in all cells whose function is to generate energy for the cell in the form of molecules called adenosine triphosphate, better known as ATP.

Photons from red light (wavelength of 620-750 nm, or billionths of a meter) tend to upregulate (enhance; trigger) some of the metabolic pathways involved in wound healing; notably collagen synthesis, reparative cell migration to the wound area, ATP production in the mitochondria; and downregulate the inflammatory and pain-producing pathways (it helps reduce swelling and redness).

What the Resarch Says About Red Light Therapy

If you wish to read less biased, more scientifically-based information on health and therapy-related topics, which you should as the internet is full of unreliable and often downright false information, go to Pub Med.  This site is basically an index of medical research produced by those directly involved in treating medical conditions (medical researchers, doctors) and evaluating certain therapeutic interventions for those conditions.  Pub Med is free to the public (other medical databases require a subscription).

A quick search on Pub Med on the efficacy of red light therapy (also referred to as phototherapy and LED-Low Level Light therapy) produced a study, among many others, in the medical journal Laser Therapy

Here’s a snippet from the abstract:

“…Among the clinical applications, non-healing wounds can be healed through restoring the collagenesis/ collagenase imbalance in such examples, and ‘normal’ wounds heal faster and better. Pain, including postoperative pain, postoperative edema and many types of inflammation can be significantly reduced.”

Kim, W. Is light-emitting diode phototherapy (LED-LLLT) really effective?2011;20(3):205-15.

And as I like to mention whenever explaining the therapeutic effects of red light, it is actually common knowledge that light has beneficial effects on living tissue. Three, well-known examples are: how light catalyzes photosynthesis in plants, enabling them to synthesize sugars for their energy needs; how UVB light starts Vitamin D production in the skin; and how animals rely on the diurnal cycle of sunrise and sunset to regulate their biorhythms, the patterns of physiological activity involved in the functioning of all living organisms.

A fourth example that suggests the connection between light and health that isn’t quite fully understood by science is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a mood disorder characterized by depression that occurs at the same time every year in regions where there is less sunlight at certain times of the year.

In summary, therapeutic red light can speed up wound healing by accelerating the metabolic pathways involved in tissue repair. It is therefore logical to conclude that red light can also help with other types of tissue healing such as bone fractures, tendinitis, muscle bruises, gum and tooth pain, vascular pain, and nerve pain. There are even red light devices to help relieve sinus pressure and improve certain gynecological conditions.

As far as red light therapy devices go, the most common types are the handheld red light torch as I mentioned in this article, which resembles a small flashlight and are ideal for focused treatment on small wounds/injuries; and the multi-LED wraps, which can be used for larger areas such as for low back (lumbar) pain and which can be wrapped around an extremity such as the knee, elbow, or shoulder. Some people even use red light LED wraps to reduce fine facial wrinkles. You can also place your feet on an LED wrap placed flat on the floor to treat plantar fasciitis or general foot aches and pain.

Finally, there are the more expensive, “industrial strength” red light panels which are popular in medi-spas for whole body red light therapy skin treatment.

Bottom Line: Red light therapy devices make a great addition to your home therapy kit and are a great investment in your health because they are relatively affordable; are safe to use; are easy to operate and portable (take to office or travel); and most importantly, are known to provide good results for tissue repair and pain reduction, and have published medical research to back their efficacy in this regard.

 

What is Red Light Therapy, and Can it Help Arthritis?

What is Red Light Therapy, and Can it Help Arthritis?

Red light therapy (RLT) is a type of treatment provided in clinical and cosmetic settings that incorporates red light to improve the skin’s appearance, such as reducing fine wrinkles, scars, redness and acne.   It is also used in the medical setting to help reduce pain and increase healing in the joints, such as tendinitis, sprains/strains, and arthritis.

Red Light Therapy is also known as:

  • Phototherapy
  • Photodynamic therapy
  • Photobiomodulation
  • Low-level laser light therapy*
  • Low-power laser therapy*
  • Cold laser therapy*
  • Biostimulation
  • Photonic stimulation

*this is a misnomer, because red light therapy does not use laser energy.

Interest in red light therapy emerged decades ago when NASA conducted experiments on growing plants in space and healing injuries to astronauts.  Results of this research pointed to a connection between red light and positive, biological effects on human tissues.  This ability of light (photons) to alter biological activity in living cells is called photobiomodulation and is the means by which RLT achieves therapeutic benefit.

What is Light?

Understanding this requires some basic knowledge of how the eye works, and physics.

First of all, vision is possible only in the presence of light.  This means light must bounce off objects in your visual field and enter your eye, which then “translates” the bounced light into an image that is perceived by your brain.

But how do we perceive color?  White light is actually made up of wave energy that propagates in multiple wavelengths.  It is this difference in wavelengths, the molecular properties of all objects, and the design of the human eye’s retina that creates the perception of color. Objects that appear a certain color reflect the wavelength of just that color into your eye and absorb all other wavelengths. For example, a red shirt reflects the red wavelengths and absorbs the blue, orange and yellow wavelengths.  Altogether, these component wavelengths of white light is called the visible spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is shown here:

Electromagnetic spectrum

Electromagnetic energy exists as an electrical field with a magnetic field 90 degrees to its axis and propagates at the speed of light.  The electromagnetic spectrum is the range, in wavelengths, of electromagnetic energy existing in nature, from the very tiny wavelength gamma ray (.0001 billionth of a meter) to the very long wavelength of AM radio (100 meters).   Light is in between these extremes and is the only EM waves humans can see, between the wavelengths of about 380 to 700 nanometers (nm, billionths of a meter). 

When light passes through a crystal prism, it bends.  Since light is made up of different wavelengths, the component EM waves of white light behave differently (bend at different angles and speeds) as they enter the prism and can now be visually distinguished from one another as separate colors in a band:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.  Similarly, rainbows form when suspended rain droplets bend the sun’s light and separate it into its component colors.

Prism and light spectrum

RED light is the longest wavelength of visible light, while VIOLET is the shortest.  As the electromagnetic wavelength increases, the frequency (the number of times the wavelength passes a fixed point, measured in hertz – Hz) decreases, and so does the amount of energy it carries.  So, the very small wavelength/high frequency gamma and x-rays carry a lot of energy and are dangerous to tissues.  You may have heard that ultraviolet (UV) light can cause skin cancer.  This is because much of its energy is absorbed by the skin, where it does damage to cells.  Red light, being the longest wavelength of light, doesn’t have the energy level of UV and therefore does not pose danger to tissue; in fact, as we will discuss later, it has beneficial effects to tissues.

Comparison of visible light wavelengths

How Does Red Light Therapy Work?

Red light therapy is used to:

  • Improve wound healing
  • Reduce pain in joints
  • Treat tendonitis
  • Reduce headaches
  • Reduce stretch marks
  • Reduce wrinkles, fine lines and age spots
  • Improve psoriasis, rosacea and eczema.
  • Improve appearance of recent scars
  • Improve hair growth in people
  • Improve acne

It’s well established that light can initiate biological change in living organisms.  Perhaps the most well-known is photosynthesis, the series of biochemical reactions where sunlight energy catalyzes the formation of sugar (glucose molecules) in plants.  Photons from light get absorbed by tiny structures in a plant called chloroplasts, which provide the biological machinery to synthesize glucose (basically, stored energy) from inorganic carbon dioxide and water.

Photosynthesis

Another example of light effecting change in living tissue is vitamin D formation, where the pre-cursor of vitamin D is created when UVB light strikes 7-dehydrocholesterol molecules in the skin

Sunlight catalyzes Vitamin D synthesis in skin

With red light, the pathway is likely similar.  Many research studies have been conducted over the years to uncover the mechanism behind red light photobiomodulation; i.e. the nature of its therapeutic effects.  What is definitely known is that the red light wavelength (in the 660-700 nm wavelength range) tends to get absorbed in the nucleus and mitochondria of cells, in locations called chromophoresMitochondria (image below) are the structures where energy is generated for the cell, much like the previously mentioned chloroplasts in plant cells.  The nucleus contains the DNA, which is the template for protein synthesis.

microscopic view of a cell mitochondria

We also know that photons can “excite” electrons – the tiny charges that orbit atomic nuclei.  Cells and all their parts including the mitochondria are of course made up atoms.  An “excited” electron means a movement of an electron to a higher energy orbit (further from/ less attracted to the nucleus).

In short, red light stimulation increases the energy state of electrons in sick tissues, enabling faster/enhanced reaction between adjacent molecules, as electron interactions between atoms are the basis of all biochemical reactions.  This may translate into the cell “speeding up” its activities, particularly respiration (ATP formation from glucose via the Krebs cycle, i.e. energy production) as well as waste elimination and gas exchange.  Redox signaling is the term used to describe this activity, and is the leading hypothesis for the mechanism of red light photobiomodulation.

With enhanced cellular signaling:

  • If the cell is a fibroblast, it could lead to faster wound healing, as fibroblasts migrate to the injury/damaged site to synthesize and lay down collagen fibers.
  • If the cell is a stem cell (undifferentiated cell), it could enhance the transformation of stem cells to fibroblasts or chondrocytes, which make collagen and cartilage, respectively.
  • If the cell is an epidermal cell, it could mean faster cell turnover to clear out abnormal cells in skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.

Cells are programmed to respond to specific extracellular signal molecules for development, tissue repair, immunity, and homeostasis.  Errors in signaling interactions may lead to diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity (such as rheumatoid arthritis), and diabetes.  Given this, it is feasible to assume that if red light therapy can enhance cell signaling, it can benefit these cellular functions and support tissue healing and pain reduction.

Red Light Therapy is Shown to Reduce Inflammation

Many studies found that red light reduced inflammation in tissues.  Inflammation is the body’s response to injury or some kind of irritant and is characterized by redness, swelling, and pain.  It involves a complex series of steps involving multiple protein clotting factors in the blood and tissues.

Inflammation also involves several types of cells involved in the reparative process, including macrophages (“cleaner” cells that remove debris), basophils (a type of white blood cell that secretes histamine and heparin to make blood vessels more leaky and manage clotting), and fibroblasts.  It also involves cytokines—chemical signaling molecules that cells use to communicate and coordinate activities within themselves and with each other.

Inflammation often gets out of hand at the injury/ damaged tissue site and contributes to the problem by increasing pain and delaying healing.  In fact, diseases like arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, vascular disease, diabetes, and even Alzheimer’s disease involve chronic (ongoing) inflammation.  This is the basis for the utilization of anti-inflammatory medications such as steroids and non-steroidal medications (NSAIDs) like Tylenol and Ibuprofen for inflammation.

The inflammation-reducing ability of red light therapy is likely due to its ability to enhance cell signaling and molecular flow in the cell.  One study notes that overall reduction in inflammation is one of the most reproducible effects of photobiomodulation [from red light]. This is particularly important for inflammatory diseases affecting joints; acute trauma, lung disorders, and brain injuries resulting in inflammation.

Another proposed model to explain how light therapy works is photon-mediated ion channels in cell membranes (image below).  Basically, ion channels are the passageways in membranes (think tiny gated doors) where ions flow through, which require energy to open.  An electrical gradient is formed as the ion concentration differs on either side of the membrane, and this gradient can be used to drive movement of molecules into and out of the cell, very much like voltage.  In fact, this is how neurons produce nerve impulses.  Red light photons may be able to activate these ion channels, thereby boosting efficiency of ion flow and helping the cell maintain equilibrium.

Ion channels create energy potential in cell membranes

Should You Try Red Light Therapy for Arthritis?

Given its photobiomodulation ability, red light can be a useful, self-administered treatment for skin conditions and tissue injury/pain.  It has powerful effects of improving cellular function to diseased/ injured tissues, which can improve recovery and healing.  Being lower frequency, it is not harmful to the body, unlike UV light.

However, red light therapy should not be considered a “magic bullet” for “curing” things.  Every person is different, and if you have complicating factors in your health and/or your condition is advanced, it may not work as well.  While the human body has remarkable regenerative and healing abilities, there are limitations.

For example, in the case of advanced degenerative osteoarthritis of the knee or hip, much of the cartilage has worn away, and there are multiple areas of exposed bone.  Normal, healthy cartilage that lines joint surfaces is smooth and resilient to pressure.  Unlike the epidermis (skin), it does not regenerate very well, so if you lose quite a bit of it or tear it, it cannot regrow back to normal.

Osteoarthritis of the knee

But, if you are at the very early stages of osteoarthritis, red light therapy can be very helpful in arresting its progression.  Arthritis usually appears mid-age, but if you engaged in heavy contact or heavy impact sports such as football and gymnastics, it may start earlier.  What happens is tiny disruptions in the cartilage start to gradually separate, much like how a tiny crack in your windshield “grows” in length as your car absorbs shock from the road each time you drive.  These tiny separations then form pits in the cartilage, which widen. Bone is exposed, inflammation sets in, and you’re on your way to an eventual knee or hip replacement some years later.  But if you apply red light therapy to the tiny disruptions as they form, there is a much better chance of arresting their progression by stimulating cartilage growth.  The red light will energize chondrocytes, the dormant cells embedded in the cartilage matrix tasked with maintaining it, and can stimulate the proliferation of chondroblasts, the cells that secrete collagen matrix.

Chondrocytes

You can still apply red light to an advanced osteoarthritic knee for palliative purposes, since red light can suppress inflammation and therefore provide some degree of pain relief.  If doing so allows you to stay on your feet a couple more hours in a day, then that is definitely a positive benefit to your quality of life.

A good solution for applying red light therapy to the knee is the 120 LED wrap.  It is a flexible pad containing 120 light emitting diodes (LEDs) with each diode containing one (1) 660 nm red light emitter and two (2) 850 nm infrared emitters.  You wrap it around your knee and hold it in place with an elastic band that comes with it, and press a button.

Alternatively, if you are patient, you can use a red light torch device.  This requires you to hold it in place for a couple of minutes.  The good thing about the torch is that you can target small areas.  For example, if you know you have a cartilage tear on the inside of your knee joint, you can press the torch over it and concentrate the light on that one spot.  The torch is also good for small joints; i.e. knuckles.

As always, when you self-treat conditions use a multi-pronged approach:  improve your diet, get enough rest, drink enough water every day (sometimes not easy to remember!), avoid ingesting toxins as best you can (nix smoking, alcohol, processed food, excessive pollution); get fresh, clean air by walking where there are lots of trees; exercise/ move often to strengthen your muscles and heart, and avoid negative thinking, which elevates stress hormones.  Do all these things consistently and you can rest assured that you are giving your body its best chances for recovering from disease and pain.

Two Modalities to Heal Low Back Pain in Half the Time

Two Modalities to Heal Low Back Pain in Half the Time

Hey, I know there are millions of pages on the internet on how to fix low back pain.   It can be a dizzying experience searching through them.  It’s information overload.

I began blogging on this site around 2010, but actually have been writing articles on things like exercises for low back pain, neck pain, sprains and strains and so forth, since about 1994 when the internet was in its infancy.  Fast forward 28 years, and now there are tons of articles and videos online, including mine.  Much of the online content for treating low back pain is good:  well-written, easy to understand and follow, and backed by evidence.  Others are mediocre; just a re-hash of old-school approaches to treating back pain (rest, ice, no heavy lifting, etc.).

If you know me, when it comes to teaching others how to self-treat pain, I like to write fresh, interesting and innovative content.  I figure that there are more than enough good videos on stretching and exercising for low back pain.  What I like to do is explain the etiology of pain and propose interventions to prevent that pain from developing or getting worse.

If you have acute (recent onset) low back pain, research shows that in most cases,  it will go away on its own  if you just take it easy for a couple of days.   Sure, icing, applying hot packs and no heavy lifting are obviously recommended to prevent re-aggravating the condition.  The problem is that most people can’t afford to wait that long, and don’t like being in pain.  They have a job, they have responsibilities to other people, and, they want to have fun and do the things they want to do.

For these individuals, there are a couple of home therapies I recommend, to shorten the healing time.

When you have low back pain, muscles and ligaments in and around your spine are generating pain.  Something was disrupted mechanically, and inflammation is going on – blood vessels are releasing histamine and heparin and the inflammatory cascade is active—heat, redness, swelling, pain.  The inflammatory chemicals irritate sensory nerves, causing some of the pain; as well as the pressure from the swelling.  The nerves themselves may be over-firing; generating a level of pain that is not really proportional to the amount of tissue injury.

So with that, my go-to home therapy is a combination of Pulsed EMF and Red Light.  Pulsed EMF is an externally-applied, pulsed electromagnetic field.  The field, which is similar in frequency to the body’s own natural EM fields, passes through your body and essentially energizes the membranes of cells. 

Cell membranes let things in and out of the cell, especially synthesized proteins, nutrients, oxygen, and waste products.  They do this via active and passive transport, which both rely on membrane potential—a weak voltage created by negatively charged ions on the outside of the cell, and positive ions on the inside.  Like how a battery’s voltage can power a light bulb, a cell’s weak voltage along its membrane powers the exchange of molecules in and out of the cell.

When cells (in this case muscle, bone, nerve, blood vessel cells) are physically damaged or weakened, this exchange is hampered and the tissues are slow to recover and return to a normal, non-pain state.   Pulsed EMF lends a boost to this energy, helping cells become more robust in their healing and recovery activities.

Red Light therapy also can energize weak cells, but via photobiomodulation.  Cells absorb red light in the 660-720 nanometer wavelength (electromagnetic energy), due to their molecular composition.  Photons strike the nucleus, mitochondria and membrane, which changes the oxidative state of the cell.  When this happens, it triggers cell signaling pathways related to metabolism and energy production.  The cells increase their ATP output, which gives them more energy to repair damaged sites and synthesize needed repair proteins.

Pulsed EMF devices for home use are very easy to operate.  Usually, it’s a matter of just pressing the power button, and sometimes a Mode button and Timer button.  One of the better models is the BioBalance.   You can order it with a full body mat, or a pad.  Simply find a comfortable place in your home such as your sofa; place the mat on it, and lie down so that your low back is directly over the mat.  No need to remove clothing; the pulsed EMF field passes right through.  Do it 3x day for 20-30 minutes/ day to help your body heal and recover.

Another option is the OMI full body PEMF mat.  It is lower power than the BioWave, but sometimes that works just as well, as the EM fields are very subtle.  You don’t want fields that are too strong.  Remember, your body already produces weak magnetic fields; you just want to complement them with a boost of comparable energy.

Red Light therapy is also a great investment in your health.  I recommend getting a red light LED wrap, or LED panel.  The wrap is a flexible pad embedded with red light LEDs emitting red light and infrared light (660, 820 nm).  The red light diodes create photobiomodulation while the infrared diodes provide deep penetrating heat to dilate blood vessels and increase oxygen delivery to cells.

Red Light panels come in different sizes.  The small ones are popular for treating facial skin conditions and beautification.  The larger panels are better for treating pain.  You can mount or hang the panel on the wall, and position yourself so that you are exposed to the red light (usually requires standing up).

In summary, if you are prone to getting lower back pain or have chronic pain issues, Pulsed EMF and Red Light Therapy are two, powerful and safe modalities that can be used at home for self-treatment and are easy to operate.  Best of all, they have a long history of medical research to support their use in treating pain and healing injury.  It does require a modest investment, but what is more important to your health and well-being?  Without this, nothing else matters.

Can Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy Help With Pain?

Can Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy Help With Pain?

As a strong advocate for the advancement of science, the human capacity for ingenuity fascinates me. Not too long ago, if you were away from your home or office and needed to make a phone call, you had to find a pay phone and come up with a quarter.   Now how ancient is that?  If you wanted to check your email, you needed to have a dial-up internet connection on a big, bulky PC with big, bulky monitor.  CDs were the data storage choice boasting 600 MB of storage, and now tiny MicroSD cards are capable of holding 32 GB of data (which will likely be exceeded by the time you read this).  It seems that when certain milestone discoveries are made in technology, the floodgates open.

What separates humans from other mammals is the thirst for knowledge.  We have to know why things are, and how to make things in our lives better.  We observe phenomena, do research to determine cause and effect, and create machines, devices and other interventions like drugs to influence cause and effect to our advantage.  It could be something to make a task or procedure easier; or a therapy to reverse disease in the body.  Usually the first attempt is totally off and we have to start over again after doing more research.  But as we experience degrees of success, we make tweaks to our invention until it works as best we can get it to work.  This is the path taken by every single thing that ever was invented by mankind.

Let’s take for instance mankind’s development of electricity. In 1831, Faraday found that electricity could be produced through magnetism by motion. He discovered that when a magnet was moved inside a coil of copper wire, a tiny electric current manifests (later called induction) and flows through the wire. In 1820 H.C. Oersted demonstrated that conversely, electric currents produce a magnetic field. Inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, among others, furthered this research which led to the major inventions of alternating current, the electrical generator, radio, radar and Wi-Fi.

A long time ago, it was hypothesized that the human body used electrical activity to drive its many life functions such as movement, thought, growth, organ function and tissue healing, to name a few.   When instruments were invented to detect electrical charge, we found this to be true.  We know for instance that nerve impulses are the movement of positive and negative charges along a nerve; that the heart works by synchronized electrical charges that contract its four chambers to pump blood; and that there are sodium-potassium pumps (Na+/K+) that maintain proper electrical charges across the cell membrane (voltage), which drives the transport of water, proteins and nutrients into and out of the cell. 

We also know, thanks to Faraday and Oersted that electricity and magnetic fields occur together in nature.  When electricity flows it induces a magnetic field perpendicular to its direction of flow.  Likewise, moving magnetic fields cause movement of charges (electricity flow) in a conductor.

We learned way back when we were kids that magnetic fields attract metals (ever played with one of those horse shoe magnets as a kid?). When we think of metals we usually think steel and iron. But did you know that sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) are also metals? Check the Periodic Table of Elements if you don’t believe me.  As metals, they respond to magnetic fields. These of course are very important elements your body needs in order to function properly. The metals copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) are also needed by your body in trace amounts, often to catalzye numerous biochemical processes. Referred to as micronutrients, we get them from the food we eat (plants and animals), which get them from the earth’s soil. When these elements lose or gain an electron, they exist as ions and now have an electrical charge, which enables them to create voltage in your cells and drive tiny electrical currents to move things.

It is not known when humans first realized a connection between the electrical nature of the human body and health. Some say the use of magnetic therapy with natural magnets, or lodestones, goes back to 2000 BC when it was used by Aztec Indians and ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Chinese. In the late-18th century, German physician Samuel Hahnemann, widely known as the father of alternative medicine’s homeopathy, was reputed to use magnets in his treatment programs. In the mid-19th century D.D. Palmer, the father of chiropractic was a “magnetic healer” before he turned his attention to spine and nervous system.

If you’ve ever been to an acupuncturist, you probably know about ear magnets– tiny magnetic beads taped to various acupuncture points, usually in the outer ear. Acupuncture is based on the theory that disease in the body is related to blockages in the flow of energy along meridians mapped on the body’s surface, and that those blockages can be removed with needles inserted in certain acupuncture points along the affected meridian. While this might have sounded skeptical and quirky in the past, the fact that the human body relies on tiny electrical currents to function properly, and that electrical currents generate magnetic fields lends validity to acupuncture (a branch of traditional Chinese medicine). Could it be that the “energy flow” in acupuncture is actually the flow of the body’s magnetic fields, much like the magnetic fields of the Earth?

This brings us to the topic Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy, or Pulsed EMF or just PEMF. This technology was first used in the 1960s (back when a visit to the doctor’s office or hospital wasn’t so money and insurance driven) to help non-union fractures heal faster, which they did with the help of PEMF. It’s making a comeback, because recent research shows multiple health benefits of pulsed EMF such as decreased pain, decreased inflammation, improved wound healing, improved sleep, and improved energy levels. We’ve identified the low magnetic frequencies naturally emanated by the body, such as by the brain, heart, muscles and skin, and how they can be helped/ augmented by PEMF which duplicates these magnetic field frequencies. 

With the surge of mobile device use, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth the typical person is constantly bombarded with unnatural, high frequency magnetic fields which can disrupt or weaken the body’s own magnetic fields. This puts the body at a disadvantage especially when it is trying to heal from an injury or fight a disease.

Since the thousands of biological processes that occur every second in the body involve the movement of tiny electrical charges, these processes can be positively influenced by pulsed magnetic fields of a certain frequency, generated externally:

• Proper blood circulation
• Instructions from the nervous system
• Production of energy
• Transfer of nutrients
• Elimination of waste, toxins and dead cells
• Reduction of inflammation
• Defense through the immune system
• Repair and regeneration
• Need for mobility
• Operation of the senses
• Production and use of hormones
• Protection from the environment

Pulsed EMF devices are generally safe to use as they are low frequency and relatively low energy. They are so safe that you do not have to be a doctor to acquire one for personal use.

Note: higher frequency electromagnetic energy such as those produced by cell phones and power lines are the ones that are potentially harmful.  PEMF puts out much lower frequencies (1-100 Hz) that match the human body’s and are therapeutic in nature.

When you apply PEMF, you are essentially giving your body’s cells and tissues an energy boost by providing magnetic field strength to augment the fields that drive various cell activities which are weakened or abnormally functioning during injury, pain and disease. The result is more efficient cell processes, which leads to positive biomarkers such as reduced inflammation, reduced pain signals, improved protein synthesis, improved cell waste disposal, and improved membrane transport. The noticeable signs following PEMF therapy are not due to pain blocking, but rather improved biomarkers. This is basically true healing.

Today, many people use Pulsed EMF for chronic pain from arthritis and other degenerative conditions; heart and cardiovascular disease, stress, insomnia and a host of other problems. However, it is improper to state that PEMF can be used to “cure” or even “treat” a disease; rather, PEMF is used to boost the body’s natural maintenance and reparative processes on the cellular level so that it can overcome the disease and return the body to a healthier state. It’s like how regular exercise doesn’t cure heart disease but can nevertheless improve cardiovascular health by burning excess fat, lowering cholesterol and strengthening the heart muscles.

If you are experiencing chronic pain; have low energy, get sick often and find yourself having to see the doctor often, look into getting a Pulsed EMF device. It’s a great investment in your health and may actually save you a lot in annual health expenses (doctor visits, therapy, medications, sick days and so on). More importantly, it may improve your quality of life. Stay tuned for more ways Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy can be used to reduce or eliminate pain, and help with other health conditions.

In the meantime, watch this YouTube video where I explain PEMF.

Credits to:

Biography.  Nikola Tesla.  2015.

https://www.biography.com/inventor/nikola-tesla

A Brief History of Magnets and Medicine.  The Journal Times.  2002.

https://journaltimes.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/a-brief-history-of-magnets-and-medicine/article_ab4d6c8e-095c-5620-9f15-23bf52aea767.html

Pawluk, William MD.  Power Tools for Health:  How Pulsed Magnetic Fields (PEMFs) Help You. Friesen Press, 2017.

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