ABSTRACT
Medical science has begun to embrace the general modality of using
non-ionising energies of static E and H fields and electromagnetic
(EM), ultrasonic and audible acoustic (A) fields as various means
of delivering therapies. There is a critical need to improve current
techniques and to engineer methods for many diseases where
there is a paucity of current effective surgical or pharmaceutical
treatment, such as critical tissue cancers, motor neuron disease,
multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer disease. Novel areas of medical
application may include neuroscience where problems such as
addiction and psychosis are common aspects of modern life. Medical
science is now engaged in the battle for health, incorporating groups
across the globe from the East and the West. Therapeutic methods
incorporating static and time-varying fields use applicators either
directly to the skin or interstitially, or as radiations, to generate
waveforms of differing forms of energy that can be applied to organs,
tissues and anatomical areas of the body. In this chapter we examine
two methods with differing characteristics and mechanisms. The
first using EM fields induces biochemical cascades where the EM
field acts as first messenger, which piggy-backs on to the body’s
natural methods of growth and repair. Non-thermal levels of pulsed
EMfields (PEMFs) can be applied via interstitial electrodes to induce
significantly enhanced concentration levels of Ca2+ acting as the second messenger on to the surface of cells in the chemical pathway
associated with regeneration. Non-sinusoidal, for example, pulsed,
waveforms create field components larger than the sinusoidal case.
Therapeutic, medical and post-surgical benefits are observed. In
the second case a spatially variable H field is used in conjunction
with a frequency-variable A field. This method uses the penetrative
powers of vibrations relative to EM fields within tissues of the body.
The fields are applied to the skin via an applicator incorporating a
permanent magnet. The applicator and magnetic head vibrate at a
frequency under therapist control. A range of results are presented
as a series of before and after thermographs and ultrasonographs.
