Just a disclaimer up front, I am not involved in any capacity with anybody that sells the device for Low Frequency Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF). I also do not administer these kind of therapy. So if you come to me looking for one, I will simply show you the door and refer you to a friend. Having said that, the said friend does this sort of therapy and she claimed to be getting good result from her clients. My mom is one of her clients for her Parkinson’s and diabetes and so far she has been getting great results herself. This is a passive treatment and for back pained individuals, I believe that unless you make a lifestyle change, it is the equivalent of a stroke or heart disease patient that refuse to start doing some exercise or do diet change (avoiding trans fat richly available in bread and biscuits). You will always come back for more treatment and you will never be completely cured. So what does the research actually said about low frequency PEMF?
PEMF and Joint Pain
First and foremost, there are plenty of causes for joint pain, for your back joints (i.e. your spine), it could be a disk bulge, flattened disk, arthritis in your facet joint, end plate damage etc. And unless your doctor/therapist does proper load, posture and movement test to ensure the cause of the pain is found out, you might not get the assessment you need as a simple CT and MRI scan will not show everything. As I mentioned in the previous article regarding low back pain, you will also need to apply healthy spine hygiene to ensure true recovery and pain free living.
Now its time we dwell on what the research actually said. One of the latest research was done in 2009, in Chennai by Ganesan K, Gengadharan AC, Balachandran C, Manohar BM, Puvanakrishnan R. to treat pain, inflammation and dysfunctions associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). The result has conclusively shown that PEMF not only alleviates the pain in the arthritis condition but it also affords chondroprotection, exerts anti inflammatory action and helps in bone remodeling and this could be developed as a viable alternative for arthritis therapy.
Compared to existing pharmaceutical treatment via medicine (which will provide symptomatic relief), PEMF is much more effective. Another anecdotal evidence is in one of Dr. McGill’s patients who is a powerlifing champion with extreme damage to the lowest 2 sections of his lumbar vertebra. After an extensive treatment, the lumbar vertebrae was fused together and proper core training and healthy spine hygiene using the McGill method managed to get the patient to break another squat world record after two years.
PEFM and Cancer
Yes, cancer is highly varied in terms of its cause and behavior. Latest research said that if you are a male over 70 and you have been detected with prostate cancer, your best bet is actually just leave it alone.
However, there has been proper research done on targeted PEMF that is proven to help block the growth of cancer cells. This research was led by Boris Pasche, Division of Hematology/Oncology, The University of Alabama at Birmingham and was published in 2013. So its not completely voodoo science. Considering the fact that there was no known side effect detected on test subject that are experiencing advance form of cancer, this non-invasive method also seems promising.
Please note that this experiment was done on a specific frequency for specific types of tumor cells. They haven’t been proven as a be all treatment for all types of treatment plus it stops the growth of the said tumor cells, so you still need to combine it with other forms of treatment.
Conclusion
PEMF seems to be a rather promising field for non-invasive passive treatment. However, there are limits to it. The said friend has a patient with advance form of arthritis in his hip joint due to the leg muscles pulling into one direction. I assume that this is due to a lifelong habit of walking and squatting only using his quads without using his hamstrings and glutes. In this case PEMF treatment only works to alleviate his symptoms instead of curing the underlying cause.
I would be extremely cautious with claims made by Dr. Oz and Dr. Pawluk that this is a cure all for all your issues. I will always find that any publication that claims PEMF can cure such a wide variety of conditions to be fishy, especially if they do not link any original data related to the research from a reliable third party.
Pemf therapy is very much effective on joint pain and cancer. From your post, we get too many essential information about Pemf therapy. Your post is valuable for us. Thanks for this post.
Thanks Mike. I’m just putting in what the research said. Of course best result usually comes from combination of several therapy. For example, people that have knee pain tend to overuse their anterior chain of movement and under use their posterior chain of movement. training them how to squat and lunge properly will also help and ensure patients don’t turn into regular cash cow