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A Look into George Floyd’s Cause of Death, From an Anatomical Perspective

by Pain Doc | Jun 4, 2020 | Anatomy and Dysfunction

On May 25, 2020 an African-American man named George Floyd was apprehended by four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. During the apprehension, a police officer named Derek Chauvin placed the handcuffed Floyd prone on the street, then knelt over him, placing his left knee on top of Mr. Floyd’s neck. From the image circulated in the media, it appears that Chauvin exerted his full weight over his bent knee. He kept his knee in position for 8 minutes and 46 seconds despite please from Floyd that he could not breathe. Tragically, Mr. Floyd died at the scene. Two autopsies on Mr. Floyd ruled the death a homicide. The county version “revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation” while a private autopsy ruled he died of “asphyxiation due to neck and back compression.” Asphyxiation is the deprivation of oxgyen to the body, resulting in death. Chauvin was fired and arrested shortly after the incident, and charged with 3rd degree murder and second degree manslaughter.

This tragic and awful case spurred protests and civil disobedience throughout major cities in the U.S., against systemic police brutality and racism towards African-American men, which continues as I write this. It is also a case that has drawn interest in the medical and forensics community, as to how exactly George Floyd died. This is important to investigate, as it has consequences for the trial and also provides information to police forces to help them determine which types of restraints should and should not be used.

Before discussing the medical aspects of Mr. Floyd’s death, I want to emphasize that the most important thing about this incident is that a man unnecessarily lost his life to a trusted law enforcement officer, in a most inhumane way. It is especially bad because of the systemic racism element to it, and the fact that Chauvin had several opportunities to get off of him in time after being warned by another officer at the scene and multiple witnesses, but failed to do so. This was a textbook lesson on how not to subdue a person, and the price of this lesson is going to play out for weeks to months and will be costly to society in more ways than one.

That being said, I will discuss the anatomical and physiological factors involved in Mr. Floyd’s death. There is some controversy over how he died, which will determine what sentence, if any, Derek Chauvin will receive.

As you will see, the neck contains several structures directly tied to sustaining life, which is why the neck is a logical target when it comes to martial arts/ self-defense, and yes, murder.

Mr. Floyd was lying prone (stomach down) with his hands handcuffed behind his back and neck turned to his right. So when Chauvin placed his knee over his neck it contacted the lateral (side) aspect of his neck and some of the anterior portion. The critical structures found at the side of the neck include the vertebral arteries, cervical nerve roots, carotid arteries, jugular veins and lymphatic vessels. Attached to the carotid artery is the carotid body, a cluster of special cells that detect oxygen saturation levels in the blood leaving the heart, and passes the information to the brain, which the brain uses to regulate heart and breathing rates accordingly.

Inside the cervical spine (the neck bones) there is the spinal cord which is comprised of the neuron axon bundles that control body movement and sensation; and lying just outside and against the cervical spine is the sympathetic chain ganglia, which play a role in innervating the heart, lungs, adrenal glands (adrenaline secretion) and other organs during “fight or flight” moments of stress.

The critical structures found in the anterior neck are the esophagus, trachea (wind pipe), larynx and thyroid gland. Also present but not critical to life are the vocal cords.

The contact area on Mr, Floyd’s neck, based on the typical size of a bent knee, was about 4 square inches. Chauvin weighs about 170 pounds, so I estimate that the force placed on Mr. Floyd’s lateral-anterior neck was (.9)(170 lbs)/4 in sq. =153 lbs/ 4 in sq. = 38.25 lbs./in sq. So imagine four, 40 pound dumbells stacked and resting on the side of your neck for nearly 9 minutes.

What I believed happened is blood flow to the brain was cut off, making Mr. Floyd unconscious after a few minutes, as would happen in a martial arts choke hold. We can assume the loss of consciousness due to restricted blood flow to the brain occured the moment he stopped talking. Chauvin kept his knee in place for nearly 3 minutes after Floyd stopped moving. If there was any chance of resuscitation, that chance ended with this additional time of compression.

The pressure also activated Mr. Floyd’s sympathetic chain ganglion, which caused a surge of adrenalin– a neurotransmitter secreted by the adrenal glands of the kidneys that prepares the body’s response to stress. This increased his heart rate, increased blood pressure by vasoconstricting his arteries; dilated his pupils, and attempted to increase breathing rate. However, with Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck, the increased respiratory rate did not result in more oxygen getting to the body and the diaphragm, the sheet of muscle that pulls down and expands the lungs for breathing may have spasmed as it fought against the air blockage.

Most of Chauvin’s knee was over the side of the neck, but the front (anterior) was subject to some compression. This likely partially collapsed the trachea, restricting air flow. Mr. Floyd was initially able to express his inabilty to breathe, suggesting that his trachea was still patent, but his words became less and less as the seconds ticked. Perhaps Chauvin’s knee shifted forward with his weight, slowly closing off the trachea. This makes sense, as the neck has a curved contour which would promote such slipping.

As the knee hold persisted cutting blood flow to his brain, Mr. Floyd’s blood rapidly turned acidic as all oxygen was used up (the brain has a high metabolic rate and therefore a high rate of oxygen consumption) and CO2 levels were rapidly rising (CO2 is a byproduct of cell respiration). This may have affected his speech center, which is supported by the fact he stopped talking a few minutes after the knee hold. The apneustic (breathing) center in his brainstem was starting to break down as well from the hypoxia (insufficient oxygen), hampering his breathing further.

It’s not clear at what point Mr. Floyd expired. Coroners define time of death at the point when brain activity ceases. But the nature of Mr. Floyd’s death was so prolonged, it is likely he experienced irreversible brain damage and would have been in a vegetative state even if Chauvin had gotten off of him a little earlier and Mr. Floyd was given immediate medical attention.

One of the tell-tale signs of asphyxia by strangulation is ruptured blood vessels in the conjunctiva (whites of eyes) and face, called petechial hemmorhaging. This information, as far as I know, is not available to the public. If there was no evidence of this, I can see why the county autopsy reached the conclusion that he did not die of asphyxia. In this case, it would suggest that Mr. Floyd’s primary cause of death was something else; perhaps sudden stoppage of the heart due to a breakdown in the cardioregulatory system. But, it is not clear if you can die from asphyxia from “gradual” strangulation and not have petechial hemmorhaging. It could also be that death was from a combination of both asphyxia and heart stoppage.

The autopsy did not mention fractured cervical vertebrae, which I could see happening if it were a smaller-framed person. The force Chauvin exerted on the neck appears enough to break one or several neck bones, especially if the person had osteopenia (bone thinning). Fractured neck vertebrae often result in spinal cord damage and paralysis.

Conclusion

George Floyd’s tragic death is a wake-up call for police forces across the country. Knees to the neck to restrain someone must be prohibited. There are too many ways for this to go wrong, given the high concentration of structures critical to maintaining life that reside in the neck. I understand that safety to police officers is important and fully support it, but it must not be accomplished by jeopardizing the safety of the person being restrained.

What Causes Low Back Pain?

by Pain Doc | May 29, 2020 | Low Back Pain

Low back pain continues to be a problem for many people. If not you, then most likely several people you know: neighbors, co-workers, friends and relatives. That’s what the statistics tell us.

Since it is so prevalent throughout the world, “what causes low back pain?” is a question millions of people want answered. Is it normal and expected as we age? Is it genetic? Will you need to get surgery? As you can expect, the answer is different for different people. First of all, the pain is not identical from person to person. Some people get low back pain on the right side; some get it on the left side. Some get low back pain into the hip.

In this post, I will do my best to help you understand what causes low back pain and at the end of the article provide you a tool to pinpoint what is causing your particular low pain.

The Lumbar Spine and Its Significance

Your low back or lumbar spine engineering-wise is your body’s lynch-pin– along with your pelvis, it connects your upper body to your lower body and is tasked with balancing and moving your torso. If you injure your low back it can put you out of commission: any attempt at moving places a load on your low back and makes pain worse. In extreme cases it is even painful to take in a deep breath! Acute low back pain can instantly stop a 250 pound football player in his tracks; that’s the power it has.

While most cases of low back pain self-resolve over a few days, about 20% of them become chronic, or recurring. For some, it strikes every couple of months; for others, it’s enough to impede their daily activities and quality of life. In fact, low back pain is said to be the number one reason for lost work days (disability) in industrialized nations, and therefore lost productivity.

The reason why low back pain is so prevalent is a societal phenomenon, made possible by evolution. You see, humans are the only bi-pedal animal on the planet. Dancing bears and meerkats don’t count because although they can walk a few steps their pelvic design is still quadri-pedal (walking on four limbs). When nature selected homo sapiens to be bi-pedal, it freed up his arms to carry things–heavy things. Carrying and lifting things and bending the low back places a tremendous load on the lumbar spine, and like any machine, the components bearing the most stress will be the first to break down.

Secondly, the invention of the chair and desk. When our ancient ancestors roamed the plains and forests 30,000 years ago there weren’t any chairs around to sit in for hours, placing pressure on the low back and weakening the postural muscles of the spine. Today, many jobs require sitting at a desk in front of a computer, doing just that. Also, food these days is abundant and much less nutritious causing humans to gain excess weight, placing constant stress on the low back throughout the day.

Causes of Low Back Pain

The vast majority of low back pain cases are mechanical in nature; meaning caused by a breakdown of some physical component of the lumbar spine. These components are the muscles, fascia (muscle sheath), ligaments and tendons; vertebrae, vertebral joints, and discs (which are technically ligaments). If the dysfunction causes compression of nerve roots, then nerve pain is involved, which usually means shooting / radiating pain and/ or numbness down the buttock to lower extremity; sometimes as far down to the sole of the foot.

Here are the main categories of mechanical low back pain:

Congenital Malformations

Sometimes there are abnormalities in the development of the spinal column which interfere with proper movement and balance placing excess stress on soft tissues and sometimes nerves, generating pain or constant stiffness and aches, and loss of range of motion/flexibility. Examples include fused vertebrae (two adjacent vertebrae fused together instead of forming a joint); scoliosis; spina bifida, pars defect, hyperkyphosis (hunchback); and hyperlordosis (swayback).

Injuries

Low back pain is often due to injuries to tissues: sprains to ligaments; ruptured intervertebral discs from a herniated or prolapsed nucleus pulposus (jelly-like shock absorbing substance in all discs); strains (tears, small and large) to muscles and tendons; muscle spasms, and fractures. These can be traumatic from a specific incident such as a sports injury, or can be cumulative over time, often years, from performing a certain movement repeatedly or sitting/slouching causing gradual degenerative disc disease. With acute tissue injury, the inflammatory response is initiated, which is responsible for the pain generation.

Degenerative Changes

Joints wear out over time. Most doctors will tell patients their condition is from “normal” wear and tear. But that’s not accurate. For some people, joints deteriorate at an abnormally fast rate, mainly due to lifestyle factors under their control. I’ve seen X-rays of 60 year-olds look much better than 30 year-olds, on many occasions.

Factors that promote lumbar spine degeneration include:

Being overweight
Genetic predisposition
Sedentary lifestyle/ lack of physical activity
Sitting frequently (airline pilot, police officer, truckers, data entry)
Heavy labor job
Contact sports, especially football
Occupation or recreation that involve hard landings (basketball, gymnastics, parachuting, etc.)
Previous injuries/accidents such as falls and car accidents
Poor diet (your body needs proper nutrients to heal tissues)
Smoking (smoking reduces oxygen to cells and may trigger inflammation)

Doctors use three terms to describe spinal degeneration:

Spondylosis when referring to the vertebrae as a whole;
Degenerative joint disease or DJD if referring to the vertebral joints: facet joints and intervertebral joints; and
Degenerative disc disease or DDD if referring to the intervertebral discs

In all cases, the joint surfaces of the vertebrae lose their smooth borders and form jagged bone spurs called osteophytes. You can have a lot of osteophytes in your spine and not feel pain at all. In fact, if you are over age 40 you probably have them yourself. But if the osteophytes get big enough to narrow the openings where nerves pass through, called foramen, problems start. This narrowing of the foramen is called spinal stenosis and can occur with the intervertebral foramen (IVFs), the small holes formed by adjacent vertebrae which nerve roots pass through; and also the central canal where the spinal cord and cauda equina reside. This can lead to shooting pain down one or both legs; numbness and tingling in the legs, and leg muscle weakness, atrophy and loss of sensation.

Since osteophytes do not resorb (shrink) and only get bigger with time the only option is spinal decompression surgery which involves shaving off the osteophytes to make more room for the nerves.

And there is another problem: when spinal discs degenerate, they lose height (this is part of the reason why most people get shorter as they age). A healthy L5-S1 disc can be in excess of 1 cm thick while a degenerated one can be just 2-3 mm thick. When this happens, the posterior and anterior longitudinal ligaments that run down the front and back of your vertebral column slacken, or buckle, at those levels. Like osteophytes, buckled ligaments can cause stenosis, compressing or irritating nerves and causing the same neurological symptoms.

When the degenerative changes involve deterioration of cartilage, you have bone on bone contact. The cartilage in your spine is located in the encapsulated facet joints, located behind the vertebral bodies. This triggers inflammation, which leads to osteoarthritis. It’s the same process as osteoarthritis of the knees and hips, occurring in the spine.

Like knee osteoarthritis, people with spinal OA will feel burning pain in their lumbar spine especially when standing, and stiffness which is worse upon waking in the morning. Osteoarthritis is a chronic, degenerative disease that is best managed by lifestyle modification (anti-inflammatory diet, exercises, stress reduction). Those with severe cases sometimes elect to use prescription anti-inflammatory medication.

Non-Mechanical Causes of Low Back Pain

Less than 1% of low back pain cases are due to other factors, most of which are “red flag” cases that require immediate medical attention. These include pelvic tumors, kidney stones, metastatic cancer (usually from prostate cancer), infection, and endometriosis. A brain tumor is capable of causing sciatica-like symptoms if it affects the sensory neurons that go to the leg. While rare, if you have low back pain that does not improve with physical therapy or rest, it is a good idea to see your doctor and get some tests done to rule out these conditions.

Summary and Main Take Aways

If you have low back pain, chances are very good it will go away with rest. Apply ice for the first 1 to 2 days. If severe, you can try taking over the counter anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) such as Motrin or Ibuprofen to knock down some of the pain. And if you are lucky to have a cryotherapy center near you, you can do a couple of visits to shorten the healing time.

If the pain lasts more than 4 days, then it usually means something is perpetuating it: perhaps you are not resting it properly; are re-aggravating it; or have some kind of contributing factor such as a rotated vertebra or disc protrusion. These issues can be dealt with by visiting a good physical therapist or chiropractor. You can even do some home exercises and home therapy for low back pain on your own and still get great results.

While most cases of low back pain go away, it doesn’t mean that it will stay away for the rest of your life: 20% of people who get low back pain will experience it again in the future; either from a new injury/event or a flare-up of a pre-existing injury. And remember, some cases become chronic (pain decreases, but the improvement plateaus and remains, with some days worse than others). Your prognosis will depend on what is causing your low back pain (see below for a self-diagnosis tool) and other factors related to your medical history and daily activities.

When dealing with low back pain, besides focusing on reducing the pain think of what things caused it and eliminate those causes as best you can. It may mean:

Getting a stand up desk (standing puts less stress on your low back than sitting)
Losing some weight
Eating a healthier diet
Stopping smoking
Exercising more often
Reducing emotional stress in your life
Improving the ergonomics of your work station
Learning how to lift properly
Getting your back adjusted by a chiropractor periodically to improve joint movement and joint health

And lastly, remember that low back pain should noticeably and progressively improve each day after initial onset. If you notice that pain does not get better with rest, express your concern to your doctor: demand an X-ray, MRI and/or a blood test. Red flag cases like cancer are often misdiagnosed by doctors (dismissed) as general back pain due to spasms because doctors know that the medical literature estimates red flag cases to be 1% or less of all low back pain cases. Remember to be persistent; it is your life you are dealing with.

Below is a low back pain algorithm I created to help you diagnose your particular low back pain so that you can take appropriate action. Use the top one if your low back pain onset was sudden; use the bottom one if the onset was gradual. This is only a guide; always check with you doctor who can examine you, to get an accurate diagnosis.

Self Rehab Videos for Pain In Production

by Pain Doc | May 1, 2020 | Uncategorized

Dear Readers,

As we approach age 40, one of the subtle, inevitable changes we experience is shrinking muscles and weaker joints. Since males on average have a higher percentage of muscle mass, the changes are more noticeable: less strength in the gym; it’s harder walking up stairs and harder to run. Shrinking leg muscles and loss of speed and agility are what cause great athletes like Michael Jordan and Joe Montana to call it quits.

What should this mean to you?

It means that if you want those future plans you have in mind to become a reality, you need to take care of your body today because it is changing, which demands certain adjustments in your daily routine to compensate. I know people whose life changed dramatically after blowing out a disc in their back. While injuries like this eventually heal, they often result in a percent loss of function and chronic pain. Those who got surgery didn’t fare much better most of the time, as surgery disrupts nature’s design.

With that, allow me to be one of your resources to help you improve and maintain your musculoskeletal health. Even if you currently don’t have pain or limited mobility, I hope you stick around because: (1) prevention is the best cure for disease; (2) your situation can change any day; and (3) you might discover something from one of my videos or articles that you can share with a friend who is in pain, and possibly save him/her from unnecessary suffering.

Products. I’d like to be transparent about this, so let me explain. But first — did you notice the Pain and Injury Doctor logo? A quick glance and it looks like the Red Cross symbol. Look closer, and the logo is actually four arrow pointing inwards. Each one represents a component of self-care for musculoskeletal health:

1 – diet and nutrition
2 – rehabilitative exercise
3 – manual therapy
4 – home modalities

(The four arrows form a small person with arms and legs extended (X) to symbolize maximum flexibility).

PainandInjuryDoctor.com falls under telemedicine; a broad term that encompasses aspects of health care delivered over the internet. You’ve probably heard of sites like WebMD, ShareCare and Mayo Clinic. These are more than websites; they are a form of telemedicine. They enable individuals like you to research symptoms, drug names, diseases and medical terms used by your doctor and get fast answers.

With PID, you get guidance on how to self-manage common, non-emergency forms of musculoskeletal conditions such as low back pain, neck pain, tendonitis and shoulder stiffness. Yes, there are tons of videos on YouTube on this; some good and some not-so-good. My intent is to explain the cause of common musculoskeletal conditions in simple terms, and special strategies I developed to get relief, even permanent relief, that involve the four components mentioned above.

The Big Idea of PID is that yes, you can cure common presentations of musculoskeletal pain faster than waiting it out by doing home rehabilitation. I’ll share with you videos of the techniques I prescribed to patients when I was in practice, and still personally use to get relief when needed. Some of these techniques involve using equipment. Yes, I do sell them on my site PulsedEMF.com. It’s obviously up to you to purchase them, and if you decide to do so, where to buy them. My job is to show and explain what I believe will bring the best, fastest results in relieving pain but the action is up to you. Rest assured, the products on my site are the select few out of nearly a hundred that I have tested over my 20 years in practice that I’ve seen actually work on pain sufferers. In fact, I have many of these products lying around my home that I use regularly to treat friends and family. They all have scientific and/or clinical evidence to back them up. Think of them as investments in your health and quality of life.

I truly believe this is just the tip of the telemedicine iceberg, and greater things are yet to come as technology advances. I believe that virtual assistants like Alexa, in the near future, will be able to project a hologram demonstration of exercises to do for a bulging disc; or be able to accurately diagnose a condition by scanning your body and reading your vital signs, right in your living room.

In the meantime, I welcome you to keep visiting The Pain and Injury Doctor online. I am in the process of producing self-rehab video guides for the 15 most common presentations of musculoskeltal pain I’ve come across. The ones for Low Back Pain and Fibromyalgia and Insomnia are completed. Next up is Neck Pain. Please share on social media, as there is a good chance someone you know can benefit from these free rehab videos. They are taking longer than anticipated to produce, partly because of the Covid pandemic, and partly because of my high quality standards. But when they are complete, I hope for these videos to help millions of pain sufferers across the world; especially those who do not have access to a doctor.

Also in the meantime, I plan to release more articles and YouTube videos on managing pain. Some of the topics coming up include what to do about foot weakness and pain; a great, inexpensive home recipe for joint health; and a factor that might be affecting your health that you probably don’t know about.

Till then, take care, and stay vigilant until the pandemic is declared over.

Dr. Perez

P.S. You can ask me a question any time on my FaceBook page, or you can use the form at the bottom of the PID home page.

Can Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy Help With Pain?

by Pain Doc | Apr 1, 2020 | Pulsed EMF

As a strong advocate for the advancement of science, the human capacity for ingenuity fascinates me. Not too long ago, if you were away from your home or office and needed to make a phone call, you had to find a pay phone and come up with a quarter. Now how ancient is that? If you wanted to check your email, you needed to have a dial-up internet connection on a big, bulky PC with big, bulky monitor. CDs were the data storage choice boasting 600 MB of storage, and now tiny MicroSD cards are capable of holding 32 GB of data (which will likely be exceeded by the time you read this). It seems that when certain milestone discoveries are made in technology, the floodgates open.

What separates humans from other mammals is the thirst for knowledge. We have to know why things are, and how to make things in our lives better. We observe phenomena, do research to determine cause and effect, and create machines, devices and other interventions like drugs to influence cause and effect to our advantage. It could be something to make a task or procedure easier; or a therapy to reverse disease in the body. Usually the first attempt is totally off and we have to start over again after doing more research. But as we experience degrees of success, we make tweaks to our invention until it works as best we can get it to work. This is the path taken by every single thing that ever was invented by mankind.

Let’s take for instance mankind’s development of electricity. In 1831, Faraday found that electricity could be produced through magnetism by motion. He discovered that when a magnet was moved inside a coil of copper wire, a tiny electric current manifests (later called induction) and flows through the wire. In 1820 H.C. Oersted demonstrated that conversely, electric currents produce a magnetic field. Inventors Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, among others, furthered this research which led to the major inventions of alternating current, the electrical generator, radio, radar and Wi-Fi.

A long time ago, it was hypothesized that the human body used electrical activity to drive its many life functions such as movement, thought, growth, organ function and tissue healing, to name a few. When instruments were invented to detect electrical charge, we found this to be true. We know for instance that nerve impulses are the movement of positive and negative charges along a nerve; that the heart works by synchronized electrical charges that contract its four chambers to pump blood; and that there are sodium-potassium pumps (Na+/K+) that maintain proper electrical charges across the cell membrane (voltage), which drives the transport of water, proteins and nutrients into and out of the cell.

We also know, thanks to Faraday and Oersted that electricity and magnetic fields occur together in nature. When electricity flows it induces a magnetic field perpendicular to its direction of flow. Likewise, moving magnetic fields cause movement of charges (electricity flow) in a conductor.

We learned way back when we were kids that magnetic fields attract metals (ever played with one of those horse shoe magnets as a kid?). When we think of metals we usually think steel and iron. But did you know that sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) are also metals? Check the Periodic Table of Elements if you don’t believe me. As metals, they respond to magnetic fields. These of course are very important elements your body needs in order to function properly. The metals copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) are also needed by your body in trace amounts, often to catalzye numerous biochemical processes. Referred to as micronutrients, we get them from the food we eat (plants and animals), which get them from the earth’s soil. When these elements lose or gain an electron, they exist as ions and now have an electrical charge, which enables them to create voltage in your cells and drive tiny electrical currents to move things.

It is not known when humans first realized a connection between the electrical nature of the human body and health. Some say the use of magnetic therapy with natural magnets, or lodestones, goes back to 2000 BC when it was used by Aztec Indians and ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Chinese. In the late-18th century, German physician Samuel Hahnemann, widely known as the father of alternative medicine’s homeopathy, was reputed to use magnets in his treatment programs. In the mid-19th century D.D. Palmer, the father of chiropractic was a “magnetic healer” before he turned his attention to spine and nervous system.

If you’ve ever been to an acupuncturist, you probably know about ear magnets– tiny magnetic beads taped to various acupuncture points, usually in the outer ear. Acupuncture is based on the theory that disease in the body is related to blockages in the flow of energy along meridians mapped on the body’s surface, and that those blockages can be removed with needles inserted in certain acupuncture points along the affected meridian. While this might have sounded skeptical and quirky in the past, the fact that the human body relies on tiny electrical currents to function properly, and that electrical currents generate magnetic fields lends validity to acupuncture (a branch of traditional Chinese medicine). Could it be that the “energy flow” in acupuncture is actually the flow of the body’s magnetic fields, much like the magnetic fields of the Earth?

This brings us to the topic Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy, or Pulsed EMF or just PEMF. This technology was first used in the 1960s (back when a visit to the doctor’s office or hospital wasn’t so money and insurance driven) to help non-union fractures heal faster, which they did with the help of PEMF. It’s making a comeback, because recent research shows multiple health benefits of pulsed EMF such as decreased pain, decreased inflammation, improved wound healing, improved sleep, and improved energy levels. We’ve identified the low magnetic frequencies naturally emanated by the body, such as by the brain, heart, muscles and skin, and how they can be helped/ augmented by PEMF which duplicates these magnetic field frequencies.

With the surge of mobile device use, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth the typical person is constantly bombarded with unnatural, high frequency magnetic fields which can disrupt or weaken the body’s own magnetic fields. This puts the body at a disadvantage especially when it is trying to heal from an injury or fight a disease.

Since the thousands of biological processes that occur every second in the body involve the movement of tiny electrical charges, these processes can be positively influenced by pulsed magnetic fields of a certain frequency, generated externally:

• Proper blood circulation
• Instructions from the nervous system
• Production of energy
• Transfer of nutrients
• Elimination of waste, toxins and dead cells
• Reduction of inflammation
• Defense through the immune system
• Repair and regeneration
• Need for mobility
• Operation of the senses
• Production and use of hormones
• Protection from the environment

Pulsed EMF devices are generally safe to use as they are low frequency and relatively low energy. They are so safe that you do not have to be a doctor to acquire one for personal use.

Note: higher frequency electromagnetic energy such as those produced by cell phones and power lines are the ones that are potentially harmful. PEMF puts out much lower frequencies (1-100 Hz) that match the human body’s and are therapeutic in nature.

When you apply PEMF, you are essentially giving your body’s cells and tissues an energy boost by providing magnetic field strength to augment the fields that drive various cell activities which are weakened or abnormally functioning during injury, pain and disease. The result is more efficient cell processes, which leads to positive biomarkers such as reduced inflammation, reduced pain signals, improved protein synthesis, improved cell waste disposal, and improved membrane transport. The noticeable signs following PEMF therapy are not due to pain blocking, but rather improved biomarkers. This is basically true healing.

Today, many people use Pulsed EMF for chronic pain from arthritis and other degenerative conditions; heart and cardiovascular disease, stress, insomnia and a host of other problems. However, it is improper to state that PEMF can be used to “cure” or even “treat” a disease; rather, PEMF is used to boost the body’s natural maintenance and reparative processes on the cellular level so that it can overcome the disease and return the body to a healthier state. It’s like how regular exercise doesn’t cure heart disease but can nevertheless improve cardiovascular health by burning excess fat, lowering cholesterol and strengthening the heart muscles.

If you are experiencing chronic pain; have low energy, get sick often and find yourself having to see the doctor often, look into getting a Pulsed EMF device. It’s a great investment in your health and may actually save you a lot in annual health expenses (doctor visits, therapy, medications, sick days and so on). More importantly, it may improve your quality of life. Stay tuned for more ways Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy can be used to reduce or eliminate pain, and help with other health conditions.

In the meantime, watch this YouTube video where I explain PEMF.

Credits to:

Biography. Nikola Tesla. 2015.

https://www.biography.com/inventor/nikola-tesla

A Brief History of Magnets and Medicine. The Journal Times. 2002.

https://journaltimes.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/a-brief-history-of-magnets-and-medicine/article_ab4d6c8e-095c-5620-9f15-23bf52aea767.html

Pawluk, William MD. Power Tools for Health: How Pulsed Magnetic Fields (PEMFs) Help You. Friesen Press, 2017.

Should You Fear the Novel Coronavirus?

by Pain Doc | Mar 2, 2020 | Uncategorized

Whatever country you live in, you likely are seeing daily news on the novel (new) Coronavirus. Should you be concerned?

Here are the facts:

Coronaviruses (corona means crown which is what the virus looks like under electron microscope) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people.*

The novel coronavirus (nCoV) that first appeared in December last year in Wuhan, China is a new strain, designated Covid-19, that has not been previously identified in humans. We are still learning about its life cycle; i.e. where it originates; ways it can be transmitted; its incubation period (the time it takes from acquiring it to noticing symptoms); specific effects on the human body, and recurrence (can you get re-infected after symptoms disappear?).

Common signs of infection include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death. Like with most infectious diseases the elderly, very young, and individuals with underlying disease (lung disease, HIV+, advanced diabetes, etc.) are the most susceptible to getting infected and experiencing severe reactions to the virus.

The mortality rate (death rate) of the novel coronavirus is much higher than the flu (influenza) virus. This is likely because of the lack of a vaccinated population, and people not having the antibodies (immune system defense) to the new virus. It does not necessarily mean that the virus is more dangerous/ potent than the influenza virus.

The novel coronavirus can be transmitted by touch and inhaling into the lungs. It’s not clear yet if it can be transmitted via contaminated food/ eating utensils.

There are cases of community spread, which means the virus is able to spread from person to person within a set community; meaning you don’t have to come into contact with someone who got the disease in another country in order to get the disease; you can get it from someone who is already in your community who did not travel outside the country but got it from someone who did or from a person several downlines from that original carrier.