The MG-33 Experience (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy)

 

I am sitting in the clinic’s treatment room awaiting my first pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, PEMF for short.  I complete the standard new patient paperwork and wait for the doctor to return.   I nervously glance at the multiple electrical coils hanging on the wall.  I hope the doctor knows what she is doing.   I notice there is also a detoxifying foot bath on the floor.  I will be sure to avoid the footbath while plugged in.  Just as my nervousness nears a crescendo, the doctor returns - time to get down to business.   She previously instructed me to stay fully clothed.  Apparently, my clothes won’t have any impact on the MG-33, the PEMF device we will be using.  She selects a coil and proceeds to plug the end of it into the MG-33.  The doctor instructs me to pass the circular coil over my hand and slowly down my upper body until I reach my waist.  She turns a nob which causes the coil to emit a tapping sound similar to two marbles being knocked together.  She turns up the electrical current until I can feel the tapping.  As I move the coil down my body, I feel the tapping and with it, the underlying muscles seem to be contracting.  She says this part of the procedure is diagnostic rather than therapeutic.  Sites of cellular damage and injury will feel discomfort.  As I pass the coil down my body, I also get the sensation my internal organs are fluttering.  When I get to the level where the coil encircles my waist I feel discomfort in my right groin, a site where I think I have a small hernia.  She has me sit back in the chair with the coil around my waist.  My organ fluttering continues.  Not painful, yet not comfortable.   I am relieved that I urinated right before coming to my appointment.  Otherwise, I have the distinct feeling I would have wet myself.  After about ten minutes, she says it is time to focus on my knee.

                The doctor asks me to remove the large coil.  In its place, she attaches two smaller electrical coils which are held together by a Velcro strap and placed over my left knee.  She dials up the current until I again feel the tapping sensation.  She adjusts it until I can appreciate the tapping, but not to the point that it elicits pain.  She sets the timer for twenty minutes and steps out of the room.  I kick back in the chair and read the newspaper.  This sure is a lot less hassle than physical therapy.  Heck, if this does the trick, I may never stretch again.

               I finish the newspaper and begin to feel antsy.  Normally, I would be scrolling through the email on my iPhone, but the doctor explicitly told me to keep my credit cards and electronics at least five feet away from the magnetic coils.  My PEMF treatment will be much more costly if it forces me to buy a new phone.  As the twenty minutes is nearing its end, I am unable to contain myself any longer.  With the coils still firmly attached to my left leg, I hop across the room and grab my iPhone off the counter.  I keep the arm holding my iPhone outstretched while I hop back to the recliner.  My phone appears to still be working so I take a selfie and also a picture of the coils on my leg.  I hop the phone back to the safety of the far counter.  Shortly thereafter, the MG-33 clicks off.  I get up, remove the coils, and do a few deep knee bends.  Amazingly, my knee feels pretty good. 

                I walk out to the waiting room where the doctor is sitting. The bill comes to a mere twenty dollars:  one dollar for each minute of PEMF therapy on my knee.   What a bargain. This is cheaper than the titanium necklace and static magnets.  I just received one hour of professional consultation and treatment, and my bill is only twenty dollars.  There must be a catch.  I wait for the doctor to tell me about the need for repeated therapies of increased duration (and cost).  But no, when I ask about return visits, she says, “Only if you feel you need it.”  This woman obviously would have failed out of business school.  She says I can come back in a few weeks if my knee starts bothering me again, but she is hopeful the one treatment will be all I need.  I walk outside into the sunlight with a smile on my face.

              My knee feels pretty good.  When I get back to the hospital and climb four flights of stairs to my office, I notice a dull ache along my inner knee.  I assume all the benefits of the MG-33 have vanished, but surprisingly it is not the case.  My knee actually feels much better than normal over the ensuing two weeks despite doing the activities that usually aggravate my knee:  tennis with my son and hiking in the mountains.   I intended to return for a second treatment to do more “research” on the process, but my knee feels too good to justify a return.  PEMF seems to have done wonders for my knee.  Now I am curious about the other treatments offered by the doctor.  Perhaps the ionic detox footbath will help my headaches.

 

Next week . . . hypnosis.

A Shocking Experience (Pulsed Electromagnetic Therapy)

           I have tried titanium necklaces and static magnets, to no avail.  What is left in the field of magnetism to cure my woes?   It is time to seek professional help.  No more wimpy store bought contraptions for me; it is time to try pulsed electromagnetic therapy (PEMF).  It sounds like something from Star Trek.  “Set phasers to stun, the Klingons are energizing their pulsed electromagnetics”. You get the picture. According to Alternative Medicine Guide-The Definitive Guide, researcher Albert Davis, while investigating the impact of magnets on animals, found that magnets could kill cancer cells and be used to treat arthritis, glaucoma, and infertility.  A Dr. Wolfgang Ludwig said magnetic field therapy can be used to “treat every organ without chemical side effects”.  Sign me up. 

            I Google “pulsed electromagnetic field therapy, Cleveland, OH”; the city where I started my alternative medicine journey. I find a few references to various articles, but no links to local practitioners. When I repeat the search and substitute “Asheville, NC” for “Cleveland, OH” I find several practitioners who practice PEMF.  I love this town. As I delve deeper, I locate two offices not far from my home which perform PEMF using a MG-33 device. I am not sure what this means, but I am eager to find out.  I select the office closest to home and I arrange an appointment. 
 
             A few days later, I escape from work during my lunch hour.  The term “lunch hour” is a misnomer.  Usually, I scarf down a sandwich while writing patient notes in my office. The sheer volume of crumbs lodged in my keyboard will attest to this practice. I arrive at the clinic which provides “integrated health solutions”. It is located in a renovated two story house. As I open the office door I am met by the aroma of burning incense.  Sitting at a computer near the entrance is the doctor I have come to see. She asks if I am Scott, I say, “yes”. She then leads me directly to a small room with an easy chair in the corner.  She is a very pleasant woman.  She appears gentle in nature and she has a soothing voice.  She deposits me in the easy chair and she takes a sit opposite me. “What brings you here?” she asks.  I state that my left knee bothers me despite having had arthroscopic knee surgery six months ago.  I also mention that I suffer from chronic lower back pain, but I would prefer to focus on the knee.  She agrees.  It is clear that she truly believes the PEMF therapy will cure my knee.  She herself had a “creaky” knee which improved markedly with just one treatment.  She had tried the MG-33 on her own knee while at tradeshow, and it was this positive experience that led her to invest the device.  She says perhaps her knee problem was not as bad as mine, as she had never had surgery on hers. Despite this, she thinks a single treatment, or at most a few treatments, should do the trick.

             I glance at the MG-33 device sitting next to my easy chair.  It looks like a guitar amplifier. Hanging on the wall next to me are several circular clear tubes with wires running through them. They look like devices Dr. Frankenstein might use to raise the dead.  Apparently, these are the instruments which plug into the MG-33. I become a bit nervous, but I choose to keep my doubts to myself.  It is hard not to trust this gentle woman who also practices acupuncture and naturopathy.

            The doctor hands me some forms to fill out.  These include the standard health history forms, next of kin, and the like.  Also included is a disclaimer regarding PEMF therapy, and an information sheet about the MG-33.  The disclaimer states that PEMF is “not understood by allopathic medicine.” and that the MG-33 device is not FDA approved and makes no claims of cure.  Not a ringing endorsement.  The one page informational sheet about the MG-33 explains that all persons will benefit from its use.  It then goes on to explain how the treatment is done and what to expect. Hook me up.  I am ready for my “total body energetic recharge.”

Next week…the electrocution

The Miracle of Magnets

 

             I have been religiously wearing my magnets for the past month.  I even went so far as to wear my magnet headband at work.  After a couple of days, I felt compelled to stop wearing the headband during my interactions with patients.  Many of them were choosing to cancel their future appointments. Nevertheless, I have been able to wear the back brace at virtually all times, and I continue to wear the headband while in the privacy of my own office and while sleeping at night.  My wife is used to my antics, and barely bats an eye when I crawl into bed wearing both my magnetic back brace and headband.  Overall, I don’t mind wearing the magnets except for the heat the elastic bands create. At baseline, I am already prone to sweating.  If you put a thick back brace and elastic headband on me, I turn into a fountain of sweat.  I am frequently waking up at night drenched in a pool of perspiration.

           I attempted to continue my regular activities of biking, tennis, and kayaking while taking frequent note of how my back is feeling, whether I am more or less headachy, and if I am sleeping well.  I will be satisfied with the magnets if I see improvement in just one of these areas.  The one activity I put on hold is backwoods hiking.  I fear my compass will lead me astray due to the magnets’ impact on the compass needle. The weeks have flown by as I continue with my experiment.  Our electricity bill will likely be much higher this month, as I have continued to dial the thermostat lower and lower each evening in hopes of staving off the inevitable sweats generated by being ensconced in magnets. Also, I developed a beautiful fungal skin rash on my back and abdomen due to the persistently wet, warm environment created by the back brace. Alas, the one question you are all asking yourselves is do the magnets work?  Are my back pain and headaches gone?  Am I sleeping peacefully through the night?
         
          Unfortunately, the answer is no.  My back aches more than ever.  It now also itches due to the rash.  My headaches are little changed.  In truth, they may be a bit worse.  The constriction of the elastic headband seems to exacerbate my headaches.  Last, unsurprisingly, my insomnia has only worsened.  After four weeks of wearing these magnets, I am ready to cast them off.  Not only have my maladies persisted, but I am also ninety dollars poorer (the cost of the magnets).  Also, my wife thinks I am a leper due to my extensive rash.  Others may have found relief from “static magnets,” but not me.

 Next week . . . pulse electromagnetic therapy

Magnets to the Rescue

I do not understand the public’s fascination with magnets.  People sleep at night on magnetic mattresses; they wear magnetic bracelets, necklaces, and back braces.  I am not sure if they are making a fashion statement, attempting to ward off evil spirits, or healing an injury.  If you talk to a believer, you hear a litany of reasons why magnets are beneficial.  Our bodies are basically one big electric circuit.  The travel of nerve impulses and cellular communication require positively and negatively charged particles.  Even the iron in our blood carries a charge.  It doesn’t take much stretch of the imagination to see that magnets might be able to impact all of this polarized activity. Of course, my fear is magnets might screw up the well worked out balances of protons, electrons, muons, and so on.  Proponents of magnet therapy certainly don’t seem too concerned about throwing their electrical balance out of whack.  Quite the opposite appears to be the case.

            The proposed health benefits of magnets are many.  A quick online search reveals magnets have been used for thousands of years to treat various ailments ranging from exercise-induced muscle soreness to schizophrenia.  Although the exact mechanism by which magnets exert their healing influence remains poorly elucidated, alternative practitioners embrace their potential healing powers.  There are various types of magnets used for healing.  The most widely used and available to the average user are “static magnets.”  They are called static because their magnet field is constant.  This contrasts with other modalities such as pulsed electromagnetic field therapy which, as one might surmise, provides variable magnetic impulses and generally requires professional application.  Being a do-it-yourselfer, I start my investigation into the miracle of magnets with some store-bought static magnets.

            My research reveals that several companies sell “static” magnets for home use.  I log onto Amazon, my preferred shopping portal, and decide to buy two magnet arrays sold by Bioflex.  Bioflex is the self-proclaimed “original magnet manufacturer” with magnets designed “specifically and exclusively for human and veterinary medical use.”  Wonderful - if it doesn’t work for me, I can use them to heal my dog.  The Bioflex website claims its concentric circle magnets are able to modulate the body’s normal production of anti-inflammatory chemicals within affected tissues and thereby promote pain relief.  Despite my well-chronicled visits to multiple health practitioners, I continue to suffer from chronic lower back pain, periodic headaches, and insomnia.  With these ailments in mind, I order the Bioflex Deluxe Lumbar Back Support and the Bioflex Magnetic Head Band for $59.99 and $29.99 respectively.  My plan is to wear both of these as much as possible during the next four weeks.  I can wear the back brace, which is embedded with the static concentric magnets, throughout much of the day and the head band to sleep at night.  I am not sure how my patients would react to my wearing the head band to work.  Perhaps I will find out.  Needless to say, I will keep away from the MRI machines at the hospital and avoid curious children carrying paperclips and needles.

Next week . . . did the magnets work?  

The Science behind Performance Enhancing Drinks

            My personal trial has come to an end.  I evaluated how four performance drinks impacted my time cycling to the top of Elk Mountain.  Unbeetable is the clear victor.  The disclaimer being my trial only had one participant – me.  Plus, my experiment was heavily biased:  I was aware of what I was drinking prior to each time trial, and I had every reason to want Unbeetable to be the winner (I have 3000 cans in my garage).  Despite this, I tried my best to give 100% effort each time up the mountain, regardless of which drink was being tested.

           Now, I change hats. Instead of being the guinea pig, I comb the literature and find the science behind the claims of each drink.  Why didn’t I “grow wings” with Red Bull?  How did 330 persons go faster than me up Elk Mountain if I really am Unbeetable?  What is the proof any of these drinks work?  My experiment certainly doesn’t resolve the question. The four drinks evaluated are Red Bull Energy Drink, Coffee (Trader Joe’s Dark), Unbeetable (a beetroot derivative), and Gatorade G-series Prime (G1).

           A review of the ingredients of each drink reveals a few common themes.  Caffeine is a major component of both Red Bull and coffee (80 mg in an 8.4 ounce can of Red Bull, and 95 mg in a typical cup of coffee).  Carbohydrates, primarily in the form of sugars, are present in large amounts in all four (Red Bull -28 grams, Coffee- 8 grams per tablespoon of sugar, Unbeetable- 25 grams, and G1- 25 grams).  Unbeetable is unique in being high in dietary nitrates. Beyond this, each drink has various other ingredients which may sound good but for which there is no evidence for enhancement of athletic performance:  B-vitamins in Red Bull and G1, and anti-oxidants in coffee and Unbeetable. 

            I reviewed each of the drink companies’ websites to find the scientific justification given for claims of benefit.  I then searched Google and Pub Med to find more support for each drink, or for the ingredients fueling the companies’ claims. Caffeine, as an enhancer of sports performance, is well studied.  There is evidence caffeine improves performance in aerobic sports and to a lesser extent, performance in high intensity (anaerobic) exercises such as cycling. Although the overall impact of caffeine remains inconclusive, the International Olympic Committee felt the impact was strong enough to require a limit on the amount of caffeine measurable in one’s urine that is considered legal prior to competition.  The impact of carbohydrates on performance is also well studied.  The consensus is carbohydrates, prior to endurance athletics such as cycling, improve performance.  Nitrate, the active ingredient in Unbeetable, has scientific substantiation ranging from basic science research to clinical trials showing possible benefit in endurance sports.  High nitrate consumption leads to blood vessel dilation and improved muscle efficacy.

           When I tried to find research involving the drinks themselves, rather than extrapolating benefits based on the ingredients, I found much less data.  Red Bull is the best studied.  I found three studies concluding Red Bull improves aerobic and anaerobic performance.  In one of these studies, participants had improved performance during a simulated cycling time trial after drinking Red Bull.  I was unable to find any good studies evaluating coffee or G1’s impact on athletic performance. Unbeetable has a study showing increased blood supply to parts of the brain in older persons, but no studies specifically looking at athletic performance. The supporting references on the Unbeetable website focus on the studies of dietary nitrates which is the main “active” ingredient.

            How do I reconcile all this data?  Caffeine, carbohydrates, and nitrates all have well substantiated benefits as enhancers of athletic performance.  Hence, all of these drinks can rightly claim they “may” improve one’s athletic performance.  Red Bull has the most support with studies specifically evaluating its drink. 

           What will I drink prior to competition?  I will probably stick with Unbeetable because it seems to work for me.  The fact I had my best ride after drinking Unbeetable will forever bias me. Plus, I am not a caffeine junkie. If you are afraid of getting fat, you should probably steer clear of all these drinks, with the exception of black coffee.  The truth is, all competitive athletes are looking for an edge.  At this time, performance enhancing drinks appear to give them that slight edge.  Each athlete will have to determine which works best for them.

 Next week . . . magnet therapy.