Dr. Oz & Dr. Roizen
On New Ways to Beat Pain

Physicians have long known that “the body electric” is for real. Tiny electrical currents and magnetic fields are constantly firing off inside you. We just haven’t known how to harness these forces for healing. But a handful of scientists and medical innovators have relentlessly pursued this.
They are succeeding using something few doctors know much about. It is not a new pill or operation. It is magnets, not the kind you stick on the fridge but pulsating electromagnets. They produce invisible energy waves that increase blood flow and normalize some electrical impulses to and in nerves.
One Food and Drug Administration-approved device (Yep, they’re that far) relieves more than 50% of postoperative pain. Nobody appreciates what a godsend that is like an anesthesiologist (Dr. Mike) and a surgeon (Dr. Oz). Well, nobody except every surgery patient who has woken up to a world of hurt. Called the Torino, this PEMF post-op pain zapper is so new that even medical doctors who have vaguely heard of it probably think it is a new car.
How do devices that use a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) relieve post-op pain and intractable back, neck, foot and arthritis pain?
Your nerves, cartilage, spinal fluid, bones, muscles and blood all rely on a symphony of dancing ions. PEMFs activate these electrically charged particles in ways that seem to turn off inflammation and turn on cell repair. PEMFs rev up production of nitric oxide, which increases blood flow to the targeted area. The combo stimulates an anti-inflammatory cascade that, in the Torino’s case, not only halves post-op pain but also reduces swelling and speeds healing.
PEMF therapy also coaxes badly broken bones to mend that otherwise might not. When you break something, electrical “injury” currents rush through your bone signaling instructions for knitting it back together. But in nasty breaks that process short-circuits. To recreate the currents, surgeons implant electrodes into mangled bones. Not much fun. Plus, you look like Frankenstein.
Enter PEMF mats, bandages and knee braces, which stimulate healing currents. Aim PEMFs at the damaged zone for 8 to 30 minutes, two to four times a day, and you will heal better, faster.
Side effects? Zero, at least in the short term. The products are still too new to know whether there are long-term issues. (Full disclosure! Dr. Oz has no financial interest in any PEMF companies. Neither does Dr. Mike, but he is so excited about its medical potential that he may invest in one.)

So why hasn’t your doctor even mentioned PEMF? Three reasons:

  1. Doctors are repelled by “medical magnet” charlatans selling bracelets, migraine goggles and shoe inserts which are as healing as sugar cubes.

  2. Few physicians know a thing about how cells, nitric oxide and inflammation are affected by PEMF.

  3. It takes so much time and money to prove medical devices are safe and effective that only two PEMF gizmos have earned FDA approval so far. Since neither is owned by a drug company with mega advertising bucks, your doctor likely hasn’t heard a word about them.

What does a Low-Powered PEMF treatment feel like? “ Nothing,” says one person who has “tried everything” for back pain. “You don’t feel anything. Except immediately better.”
What if you or someone you love wants to try PEMF for pain that won’t quit? Consider only devices that use pulsed electromagnetic fields.

The “YOU Docs,” Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show, and Mike Roizen
of Cleveland Clinic, are authors of YOU: Losing Weight.  

 

Magnetic Brain Stimulation - By Elizabeth Svoboda Published in the June 2008 issue

 

For the 20 percent of depressed patients who don’t respond to drugs such as Prozac, the traditional last ditch treatment option has been electroshock therapy. Recently, researchers worldwide began investigating a promising new alternative: repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.  

In rTMS, magnetic pulses created by a metal loop attached to the scalp generate small electrical currents in the brain. These stimulate nerve cells in areas involved in depression—without harming surrounding gray matter.

The treatment gained more momentum this spring when the Israeli firm Brainsway announced successful trials of its newest incarnation: deep TMS. "The magnetic fields of standard TMS devices extend only about half an inch into the brain’s cortex," says Uzi Sofer, Brainsway’s CEO. "But the coils of deep TMS can stimulate neurons farther inside the brain by projecting magnetic fields into the skull from several points around its periphery." This means that, for the first time, clinicians can target the brain’s deep seated limbic system, which plays an important role in mood regulation. So far, the device has lived up to its promise: 40 percent of the 64 depressed patients who received deep TMS achieved a clinically significant degree of recovery.

As Brainsway lobbies for FDA approval of the device, Sofer is also evaluating deep TMS’s suitability for Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions that affect brain areas far below the surface.