Today, James and Dianne caught up with champion Australian all-rounder Shane Watson who has had his fair share of recent injuries. Shane’s sports physiotherapist recommended he start to use Q magnets to help manage his injuries. He has used Q magnets previously for back pain when on long plane flights with great effect.
While many elite athletes have embraced Q magnets to recover faster after injury, we find one of the best applications is for chronic pain. Q magnets are not for everyone, but patients that have not responded to conventional treatment often respond well to Q magnet therapy as an adjunctive treatment, see our chronic pain case studies for more information.
The Weekend Australian, 10th December 2011 had an excellent article “Medical maggot makes a comeback” – Treatments from the medieval medicine kit are gaining widespread acceptance.
The healing power of maggots!
An almost identical article could be written about the more credible forms of magnetic therapy. Maggot Debridement Therapy as it is called, is an extremely therapeutic, safe, painless, drug free treatment for wounds that are slow to heal. The specially bred maggots both clean the wound and speed up the healing. Who would have thought?
According to a recent article published by Health Services Research, 76% of US health care workers use Complementary and Alternative Therapies (CAM), whereas it’s only 63% of the general population as reported on Mercola.com.
This is something we have also observed with the development of our Q magnets, which fit into the CAM category. Many health professionals find this unique type of magnetic therapy the most useful treatment available to them for treating chronic pain and other chronic injuries.
Take this plastic surgeon from Canada who was discussing his chronic tibia stress fracture with an orthopaedic surgeon while operating. The stress fracture was preventing him from training for an important up and coming marathon and the orthopaedic surgeon suggested he look up magnetic therapy. The plastic surgeon looked up the Q magnet website and had a set express couriered to his home and you can read about how well the stress fracture healed here. Read more…
It’s true that many forms of magnetic therapy are questionable. However, the research shows that for magnetic therapy to work requires a high degree of specificity and just slapping on a bipolar magnet or wearing magnetic jewellery is not at the cutting edge of this promising area of treatment for chronic pain. So the question of does magnetic therapy work requires some big qualifications, such as what type of magnet (strength, size, bipolar, multipolar) and how is it used.
You have to look at the published research on magnetic therapy and speak to experienced health professionals who have extensive clinical experience using it on different types of conditions to answer this question. There are plenty of well meaning health professionals out there who are quick to judge but digging a little deeper, you quickly discover they have never experienced it, have little understanding of the science and rely on hear say.
Patient information is provided at the Lifestyle Pain Clinic
This is why Dianne Hermans, who has been a practicing physiotherapist for over 20 years, is an expert in this area. Dianne has treated thousand of cases using magnetic therapy over a ten year period and has presented at national and international conferences and trained hundreds of other health professionals. She has also recently completed a randomised controlled trial as part of a research masters at Griffith University looking at the effects of Quadrapolar magnets of osteoarthritis of the knee.
The dangers regarding overdose of prescription medications in the US is now becoming critical. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27,000 people died from prescription drug overdose in 2007, a 5 fold increase since 1990 with the main culprit being pain medications.
Even the cosy relationship between medical schools and pharmaceutical companies is coming under closer scrutiny. The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health which has been criticized for its advocacy of controversial uses of narcotic painkillers said it will no longer take money from the drug industry. The university had taken $2.5 million over a decade from companies that make opioids with a clear conflict of interest for their “independent” advocacy for the use of narcotic painkillers for chronic pain.
Meanwhile, ground-breaking therapies with little or no risk for patients such as neuromagnetics are practically ignored by doctors. Despite good evidence for this unique type of magnetic therapy, it still struggles for recognition. Principle physiotherapist Dianne Hermans has treated thousands of patients using quadrapolar magnets since 1999 with an 80% success rate, you can read some of the chronic pain case studies here. This supports the neurologist, Dr Robert Holcomb who pioneered this work with over 2,000 chronic and complex pain patients treated at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the 1990’s also with an 80% success rate. Read more…
Researcher and professor of psychiatry, Dr. Mark George said “We have settled a fundamental question about [transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS] therapy, which is: ‘Does it work?’” And “The answer is ‘yes.’”
Just like the MRI, TMS is another innovative use for magnetic therapy that relies on the unique properties of magnetic field gradients. Just like Q magnets and their powerful pain relieving abilities, magnetic field gradients are at the cutting edge of science and health care.
TMS machines work by passing short bursts of electricity through coils, which produce very dense and defined magnetic fields and small shifts or turns in the coils generate strong magnetic field gradients. The field gradients induce currents in the adjacent nerves within underactive areas of the brain which are related to depression, which is thought to be how they work.
A growing challenge for the Australian health system is the growing cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) which subsidises the costs of approved drugs.
Lifestyle Therapies offers drug free treatments such as neuromagnetic therapy that can dramatically reduce the costs and the side effects on your body. In fact, this case study presented by principal physiotherapist, Dianne Hermans at an International Physiotherapy Conference showed a gradual decrease in pain medication of over $700 per year to almost nothing after a 20 year chronic pain history.
Sam, a fifty year old man with a history of chronic lower back pain was referred to Lifestyle Therapies from a local health provider. Sam was initially referred for an electrotherapy called InterX, which is an advanced electrical nerve stimulator utilising skin conductivity. Sam had been suffering with constant deep pain and numbness in his right foot for 15 years, initially injuring his back when he was 20 years old. In his thirties, Sam underwent a laminectomy, followed by lumbar fusion of L5-S1 a few years later. Since then he has not lived a day without pain, significantly affecting his quality of life. In addition Sam was suffering hyperalgesia in his lower back due to an incident with a TENS machine. His skin in the lumbar spine was so sensitive, wearing clothes was unbearable which was an indication of Central Sensitization. He was unable to sit in a car for more than one hour without suffering significantly. Sam had one goal, which was to return to his hobby of painting.
Initial assessment findings:
Muscle inhibition of core muscles
High tones in gluteal muscles
Tender to touch adductors, ITB, and Quadricep muscles.
InterX readings were >100 at 2% intensity in the lumbar region with high sensitivity and pain, even with light touch; a sign of static mechanical allodynia.
InterX was used in the chronic setting for 15 minutes during the first visit. Immediately after, Sam was able to tolerate a 5 minute massage. He was also sent home wearing the OF50-3 Octapolar Q magnet, a breakthrough in magnetic therapy. This neuromagnetic device was selected since it’s large enough to cover the adjoining lumbar vertebrae L5,S1 and L4/5.
Background Adrian had complaints of upper back pain that he had suffered for more than 14 years. His symptoms had progressively worsened in the previous four years and recently became unbearable. He also had a history of a frozen shoulder that occurred 12 months ago. Adrian was emotionally frustrated having to deal with the pain for so long with minimal relief after seeing several different therapists, including an acupuncturist, physiotherapist, multiple chiropractors, rheumatologist and musculoskeletal doctor.
On Assessment
On assessment, the findings included:
• Muscle tightness especially in the Upper Trapezius, Rhomboids, Posterior Scalene muscles.
• Tender on palpation in the upper thoracic region with hyperactive trigger points.
• Poor posture
• and weak shoulder stabilisers.
It was determined that Adrian’s chronic pain had caused inhibition to muscle activation and increased muscle tightness which resulted in weakness and poor posture. Adrian’s goal for treatment were to decrease the symptoms frequency and to return to doing specific exercises and stretches that he has not be able to do in a long time.
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