Can Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy Help With Pain?

Can Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy Help With Pain?

by | 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?

Should You Fear the Novel Coronavirus?

by | 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.

Coronavirus in the media

Ok, those are the facts.  Now, let’s talk about the way the virus is being reported on television and internet.

News stations across the country, and world, vary greatly in the way they report news.  Typically, they draw information from a central source and press releases from authority centers.  In the U.S., the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) is the official hub responsible for disease control.  In the U.K. the responsibility goes to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).  If news reporters are doing their job properly, they just report the official statements coming out from these authority centers, and perhaps bring in local experts (having advanced education and training in infectious disease) for commentary.  Regular news reporters should refrain from injecting their own analysis, opinions and predictions about the virus, but this is not always the case, and it often leads to conflicting and confusing messages to the public.

In the age of the internet and social media, practically anyone can spread misinformation.  Some websites come across as official-looking news sites when in fact they are opinion outlets pushing an either left or right wing political agenda.  Unfortunately, the traditional norms of proper, respectable journalism have been blurred, and these days some news reporters, or "talking heads" are taking liberties with their reporting, inserting their opinions instead of focusing on the facts and statements coming from the authorities—the scientists--who, also unfortunately, are being pressured by their government to report their findings a certain way, taking into consideration political calculations.  This may compromise public safety, or cause undue panic depending on the intent of the public message.

Lastly, there is the issue of TV ratings.  In the U.S., viewership translates to more money (advertisers buying commercial air time, or for the internet, view time).  Journalists/ news reporters are being told by their bosses to make their reporting interesting so that people won’t change the channel or switch to another news website.   Since it is well-known in advertising that people respond more strongly to messages that invoke emotion rather than those that appeal to reason, the tendency is to over-dramatize the narrative.  This is OK when trying to sell things like cars and life insurance, but when it comes to serious things like infectious disease, it would be much better if reporters would just report the facts and advice put out by the experts.  I believe that having 24/7 coverage on the coronavirus is not only unnecessary, it promotes hysteria, which creates secondary, harmful repercussions such as racism (prejudice against Asian people), hording food and supplies, and avoiding restaurants which hurts the local economy.

So what am I getting at?  Here is the question I think everyone is wondering:

“How serious is the novel coronavirus, and should I be worried?”

My advice is to seek out the facts and filter out the drama as best you can.  Take necessary precautions; the same ones you take during flu season which we are still in:

  • Wash your hands thoroughly under running water, for at least 20 seconds, periodically throughout the day.
  • Avoid touching your face: don’t give the virus a clear path to your respiratory system.  Also, don’t touch your eyes, as viruses can enter the bloodstream through your eyes.
  • When in public, avoid direct contact with handles and objects meant to be touched/grasped: door knobs, toilet stall handles, backs of chairs, controls on machines, etc.  Use a paper towel to cover it if you need to grasp/ touch it.  As far as handshakes, use an alternative form of greeting such as fist or elbow bumps.
  • Cover your nose/mouth when sneezing: do it in your elbow; use a handkerchief.
  • Stay a good distance from people who are exhibiting symptoms. Think in terms of not breathing in air close to them (use a scarf; hold your breath if you need to pass near them, etc.).

Basically, be mindful of your surroundings and be diligent about these things, and go about your normal day.   Remember, your risk of contracting the flu is much greater than contracting the coronavirus.  CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 22 million flu illnesses, 210,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths from the flu.  Chances are, anyone reading this wasn't aware of these figures.  This puts things into perspective.

By all accounts, if you do contract Covid-19 you will recover, as many already have, as long as you do not have any underlying disease/ health conditions that make you more susceptible.  It will be very unpleasant, but the chances are excellent that you will recover. The coronavirus will fade, as all past viral outbreaks have, in the coming weeks and life will be back to normal.

In the meantime, check out this video I made a few years ago about avoiding the flu, because it is relevant to today:

*World Health Organization website.  URL: https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

How Sleep Quality Affects Healing and Pain

How Sleep Quality Affects Healing and Pain

by | Feb 18, 2020 | Uncategorized

Can Poor Sleep Make Pain Worse?

We’ve all experienced a bad night’s sleep, and know the results:  low energy in the morning, mental fog, grumpy attitude, slow reaction time, difficulty concentrating and basically feeling crappy all day.

On the contrary, we know what a good night’s sleep does for us, which is the exact opposite:  feeling energized upon waking, good attitude for the day, and mental clarity and alertness.

The way your body and mind feel communicates health information, so obviously sleep is essential to your health since you feel and function better when you get good sleep, and feel and function worse when you are denied sleep.

While the precise, biological relationship between sleep and physiology is still a mystery, we do know that sleep impacts nearly every tissue and system in the body:  brain, heart, lungs, kidneys and gut; metabolism, immune function, learning ability, memory, mood, and disease resistance.  Research shows that chronically poor quality sleep increases the risk of many disorders, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity.

But can sleep problems also interfere with your body’s ability to heal itself, and therefore affect pain levels of an injury?

It stands to reason that the answer is yes.    Let’s say you fell and broke your leg bone.  Your body’s innate healing response immediately kicks in:  a cascade of biochemicals spring to action, thanks to functional proteins present in your blood and tissues.  These proteins initiate inflammation to quarantine the injury; limit movement by generating pain; activate immune cells to kill microorganisms and remove debris; stem bleeding, regrow blood vessels and patch the injury with scar tissue.   While the exact mechanism is not known, sleep can influence the quality of this healing process at many levels.

One study evaluated the healing rate of oral ulcers in rats.  The test group of rats was denied sleep and the control group was allowed to sleep.  It found that sleep deprivation worsened oral ulcers and significantly delayed their healing, compared to the control group.  Sleep deprivation resulted in elevated levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha, a pro-inflammatory substance, and a decrease in superoxide dismutase, which cells use to neutralize oxidative stress (damage).  Together, these changes worked to interfere with tissue healing.

While chronic pain can cause poor sleep due to over-stimulation to the brain, there is interest in examining whether the reciprocal is true—if poor sleep can cause an increase in pain.   A review of independent studies analyzing the effects of sleep deprivation on pain processing found that for most of the studies, sleep deprivation produced hyperalgesic changes; i.e. made pain perception worse.

The lesson here is that if you have recent pain (acute injury or onset) or even chronic pain, it is important that you get quality sleep every day.  The research is clear that sleep is essential to optimal injury healing and minimizing pain perception.

Of equal importance is maintaining a healthy diet consisting of protein, good fats (i.e. nuts, seeds, olive oil, fish oil, avocado, egg yolks), and generous amounts of vegetables while minimizing sugar and grain carbohydrates.  Your diet provides the proteins needed for structural repair and micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals) needed for critical biological processes, many related to tissue healing.

To take it a step further, I recommend you try intermittent fasting, where you don’t eat for long stretches during a 24 hour period.  Check out this article I wrote to see how intermittent fasting can reduce inflammation and pain.   Despite the conventional wisdom of “three square meals a day” and “breakfast being the most important meal of the day,” your body is actually optimized to go without eating for long periods of time.  Lowering your caloric intake via intermittent fasting lowers oxidative stress, keeps blood sugar in check and burns excess body fat.  This can have an overall effect of lowering chronic pain.

Back to the importance of sleep:  If you have difficulty sleeping, The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIDDS) offers the following tips to improve your sleep:

  • Set a schedule – go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.
  • Exercise 20 to 30 minutes a day but no later than a few hours before going to bed.
  • Avoid caffeine and nicotine late in the day and alcoholic drinks before bed.
  • Relax before bed – try a warm bath, reading, or another relaxing routine.
  • Create a room for sleep – avoid bright lights and loud sounds, keep the room at a comfortable temperature, and don’t watch TV or have a computer in your bedroom.
  • Don’t lie in bed awake. If you can’t get to sleep, do something else, like reading or listening to music, until you feel tired.
  • See a doctor if you have a problem sleeping or if you feel unusually tired during the day. Most sleep disorders can be treated effectively.

And let me share you a tip that helps me sleep when I’m having trouble sleeping:  keep your eyes open as you lie in bed in the dark.  It may sound counter-intuitive, but it works for me.  After all, you can’t get drowsy if you are forcing your eyes closed when trying to sleep.  Leaving your eyes open will eventually lead to the “drowsiness reflex,” which will transition you to sleep.

One more personal tip– use blackout blinds in your bedroom (not venetian blinds).  These block 100% of light outside your room.  Make sure to get the exact width to minimize light leaks around the perimeter.  Even trace light that enters your eye can inhibit your pineal gland from producing melatonin, the substance that initiates sleep.

The Holistic Sleep Summit

If you have trouble falling asleep, or feel that you are not getting enough quality sleep and wish to do something about it, you might want to consider attending the Holistic Sleep Summit this coming March 5-8.  It’s a live webinar featuring 27+ leading experts in the science of sleep.  You do not have to drive anywhere, just have a computer and internet connection, and make sure your speakers are on.

  • Discover Simple Ways To Sleep Quickly And Soundly
  • Learn How To Be More Alert And Feel Well-Rested
  • Sleep Soundly All Night Long, The Easy Way
  • How to Sleep On Demand

This online event is free.  It is structured like a professional course, with each expert speaking on a topic related to sleep.  There are no sales pitches, just pure content.   If you have pain, or don’t feel your best, quality sleep will help you feel and function better–mentally, emotionally and physically.

If you do attend, as I will as I am a big advocate of telehealth, please do me a favor and comment below to let me know what you thought of it.  The mission of this site is to bring together the best minds in self-management of common ailments, and the Holistic Sleep Summit is just another form of telehealth that has the potential to improve the lives of many people via online health education and guidance.  If you are plagued by insomnia, restless sleep, sleep apnea or simply have bad habits or addictions that interfere with your sleep, I hope you check it out because you just might find the solution to your problem.

Quick Exercises to Prevent Neck and Back Pain if You Sit Often

Quick Exercises to Prevent Neck and Back Pain if You Sit Often

by | Feb 10, 2020 | Uncategorized

Did you know that by natural design, the human body is optimized for STANDING and WALKING, not sitting and lying down?

The evidence is longer and stronger legs for standing and walking compared to the arms.  Your femur, tibia and fibula (leg bones) are longer and thicker than their counterparts; respectively the humerus, ulna and radius bones of the arm.  Millions of years of evolution made our species homo sapiens develop this bi-pedal frame in order to survive and thrive.  No other animal as far as we know has a frame like ours.

But there’s a problem:  the bipedal design of man evolved during a time when there were no desks, computers and automobiles whose operation is better suited for sitting.  Back then, there was only rough terrain to walk for miles in order to seek shelter and food.  There was fast prey to subdue by foot in order to not starve.

Fast forward to today:  just about all occupations these days involve using a laptop.  White collar jobs, and increasingly blue collar jobs require sitting at a desk.  Sitting is required for operating airplanes, trucks, and cars.   To add to the problem, food is plentiful; overall less nutritious and higher in calories — no need to walk that much (expend calories) to get it while it packs on the pounds.  Humans are much heavier than they were millions of years ago, on average, and it’s not due to muscle.  This makes standing less tolerable, and makes sitting feel better on our feet.

ape to human

So the combination of frequent sitting and weight gain, which places more pressure on your joints, is a harmful combination that leads to pain and injury, affecting tens of millions of people.  Osteoarthritis is the gradual degeneration of the joints, particularly the weight-bearing joints (hips, knees, feet, lumbar spine) and it is hastened with obesity and sedentary living.

Here are the detrimental things that happen in your body when you sit for prolonged periods throughout the day:

  • The pressure to your lumbar discs increases.  Sitting removes back support from your legs, pelvis and abdominal muscles, which contract less when you sit.
  • Your postural muscles turn off somewhat, and as a result you burn less calories.  Some studies connect this to a rise in bad cholesterol levels in the blood.
  • When you bend your neck to look at a monitor screen while sitting, it creates forward head posture.  This strains the neck and upper shoulder muscles, and compresses the neck vertebrae; hastening osteoarthritis in the cervical spine.  It can even cause tension headaches.

Sitting is an  inescapable part of life.  The key is to compensate for it by standing and walking when you can.  Neutralize its effects.  There are many ways to do this while living a modern lifestyle:  walk to work, walk during lunch breaks, take the stairs instead of escalator, and do 15-minute workouts right in your office or work area, to name a few.

Drs. Brent and Tiffany Caplan, integrative medicine practitioners based in Ventura, California recommend the following simple stretches to do to counteract sitting:

Let’s talk about creep. No, I am not talking about a person unwelcomely staring at you all night from across the bar. I am talking about a constant load of stress applied to soft tissues (muscles, ligaments, fascia, discs) over an extended period of time resulting in a progressive deformation of those soft tissues. This can lead to muscles or ligaments changing their functional resting length and adaptively shorten or lengthen. These imbalances will lead to degeneration of your spine and will also set you up for future injuries. Creep to your intervertebral discs, the cushion between each spinal segment, may cause them to deform eventually leading to a herniated disc.

A common position that we are constantly in, as working professionals or students, is sitting. The sitting position, especially if in a poor slouched posture, puts an overload of strain in your neck, mid back, and lower back. It may also affect how well you are breathing. Poor respiration will lead to a decrease in oxygen supply to your body and brain!

So now that we know about creep and sitting how do we prevent it? The answer is simple. You should not sit for more than 20 minutes without taking a micro-break. These include Brügger’s relief position and the standing overhead arm reach. No pain should be felt during these movements. These movements are beneficial if you have any back or neck pain or want to support your spine and prevent any degeneration or future injury.

Bruggers exercise

Brügger’s relief position:

  • Do while standing or sitting on the edge of your seat.
  • Relax arms at side and turn palms outward, spread fingers, bring shoulders down and back, tuck your chin (attempting to make a double chin, not looking down but straight ahead).
  • Now exhale repeatedly as if trying to make a candle flame flicker but not go out. Be aware to make sure you are stomach breathing and not chest breathing. (To test this put one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. You should feel your stomach rising up and down as your inhale and exhale but your chest should remain still).

Do this for 10 seconds every 20 minutes.

standing overhead arm stretch

Standing overhead arm reach:

Stand up and gently raise both arms above your head with palms facing forward and elbows slightly bent.

  • Take a deep breath in through your nose and hold the breath while reaching up as high as you comfortably can (a stretch should be felt in your lower back).
  • Hold for a couple seconds then release the breath through your mouth and go back to the starting position.

Do 10 repetitions every 20 minutes.

Now you’re done and your micro-break only lasted 30 seconds, totaling a mere 1.5 minutes per hour, to maintain your health and prevent spinal injuries.

Dr. Brent Caplan & Dr. Tiffany Caplan
Central Coast Center for Integrative Health
1730 S Victoria Avenue, Ste 230
Ventura CA 93003

What Is Scar Tissue, and How Do I Get Rid of It?

What Is Scar Tissue, and How Do I Get Rid of It?

by | Feb 5, 2020 | Uncategorized

The human body has magnificent intelligence to monitor, maintain, and repair itself 24/7.  These complex, biological functions are the result of millions of years of evolution and of course play a major role in the survival and thriving of our species.

But even nature has its faults.  When it comes to injury repair, the body’s repair mechanisms can inadvertently create a new set of problems.

When you sustain tissue damage, whether from sudden trauma such as spraining your ankle or gradual trauma such as a cumulative/repetitive tendinous strain or joint wear and tear, your body initiates a cascade of events to heal the injured tissue.

First, clotting factors appear and thicken the blood to stop any bleeding (hemostasis).  This is a complex chain reaction that involves many types of substances, each with a specific role.  Some clotting factors make blood vessel walls more permeable, allowing fluids to exit around the area and accumulate into the extracellular (outside the cells) spaces.   This is why edema, or swelling occurs following an injury.  The purpose of swelling to quarantine the injury site by creating a wall of pressure around it.  The swelling also contains noxious substances (“the inflammatory soup”) such as substance p and arachidonic acid that produce pain and therefore discourage movement, protecting against further damage.

While this is happening, cells called fibroblasts start laying down a net of protein fibers called fibrin around the damaged tissue, which could be skin, muscle, bone or organ.

hemostasis

This fibrous net catches red blood cells, which stack up and form a fibrous blood clot, plugging damaged blood vessels and filling in the space formed by the injury.  The fibrous clot gradually contracts, hardens and pulls damaged tissues together.  The blood clot material eventually thins out, falls off, and may even be picked off by the person.  Underneath, the reparative collagen fibers remain, forming what we call scar tissue.

stages of wound healing

You can observe this process if the injury is superficial such as a gash in the skin, but this process also happens in ligament, tendon, muscle and bone tissue injuries where there is no damage to the skin above.  If it was a paper cut, you may not see a scar, but if it was a gash/laceration, when it finally heals you will see a scar.

scar on hand

Upon close inspection, the scar is lighter in color, feels harder, and is raised.  Now imagine this scar tissue in the ligaments and tendons of a healed sprained ankle, knee or shoulder where there is movement and proximity to other structures such as bone, muscle, bursae, and nerves.

scar tissue illustration in underlying soft tissue injury, not visible from outside

Unlike the scar tissue of a skin gash, which does not take much physical stress to it, ligaments and tendons by nature are subject to frequent movement and stress (bearing a load).  They are components of all joints in your body, and the function of joints is movement and generating force.  So, excess scar tissue in deeper muscle, ligaments and tendons present potential problems, described next.

Going back to the repair process, as the fibroblasts continue to lay down strands of collagen, they do so in a random, criss-crossed pattern forming the scar tissue.  It’s tough and dense, which is good for repairing, but can also pose a problem in a couple of ways.

First, the criss-cross pattern of scar tissue makes it less elastic (stretchable).  So after it heals, and the area is later subject to substantial stress, the scar tissue will give, and you’ll have a re-injury.  This explains why boxers easily get flesh cuts after getting hit in the right spot—it’s an area of scar tissue from a previous cut that “broke” upon absorbing stress forces.  Fibrosis is a term that describes pathological scar tissue; i.e. abnormal scar tissue deposition that causes disease/dysfunction such as pain and restricted movement.

scar tissue matrix

Second, the very dense nature of scar tissue can cause pain receptors to bunch up around it, as they cannot penetrate it.  This makes the injury site sensitive after healing completes, and contributes to the pain becoming chronic (recurring).  Small, focalized areas of pain are called trigger points, as they can trigger pain in other areas when pressed.

Third, scar tissue build up constricts blood vessels, which compromises waste removal from the area and inhibit oxygen delivery to the area.  In some cases, this results in chronic, low-grade inflammation, which contributes to pain sensation.

Fourth, the body may try to stabilize scar tissue by calcifying it.  Calcium ions in the blood deposit on the scar tissue, hardening it and making it have rougher edges, which can cause restricted and painful movement.  This is common in chronic shoulder injuries.

calcific tendonitis

The bottom line is that scar tissue is essential to healing, but due to the aforementioned reasons it may also lead to pain chronicity, whether it is an acute onset sprain/strain injury; a cumulative strain such as tennis elbow; or pain from tissue degeneration such as hip osteoarthritis.

So how does one fix chronic pain caused by excess scar tissue build up?

The Ideal Approach to Ensure Proper Soft Tissue Healing, Minimize Scar Tissue and Prevent Chronicity

The best defense is a good offense:  immediately after an injury, follow the standard methods of treatment:  apply cold directly to the area; add some compression, elevate the area if possible to help prevent excessive swelling/edema, and rest the injured area for at least two days.  If the pain is unbearable, you can take over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories like Tylenol and Ibuprofen) but I recommend trying to just stick with ice if you can, and tough it out.

r.i.c.e. graphic

As the acuteness subsides, you can introduce passive movement of the injured area.  This stresses the ligaments and tendons just enough which causes the fibroblasts to lay down the scar tissue collagen fibers in a more organized fashion, which will result in better healing/ quality of healed structures.

shoulder rehab

Then, perhaps on the third day do active movements of the injured area, then a week later, active-resistance movements (weights, resistance bands, swimming pool) to stress the structures in a controlled fashion, encouraging quality remodeling of scar tissue.  You may need assistance from a rehab specialist to gauge how much resistance to use, and when.

And finally and ideally, your injury will be 100% healed, without loss of strength or range-of-motion.

What to Try if You Did Not Rehabilitate Your Injury Properly and Have Chronic Pain and/or Stiffness

But what if you didn’t do all of this, and now your pain is chronic, a year after the injury or onset of pain?  Scar tissue could be the main culprit:  limiting mobility, getting re-injured, attracting pain-sensing nerve endings (forming trigger points), and constricting arterial, venous and lymph flow to and from the injury site causing chronic, low-grade inflammation.

infrared heat lamp for knee

Will heat do the job?  Heat such as that delivered by a hotpack vasodilates blood vessels close to the skin.  If you use an infrared heat lamp, you could treat deeper areas such as the hip.  This may help your chronic injury feel better, as more circulation means more oxygen, nutrients, proteins and other substances that benefit cells.  But heat doesn’t do much to that hard, rigid scar tissue.  Heat offers temporary relief.

TENS treatment for pain

Will electrical stim (TENS) help?  Devices like TENS that deliver an electrical current to the skin transcutaneously (through the skin) can be helpful in temporarily reducing pain perception, but they do nothing to address scar tissue.

pulsed emf

Will pulsed EMF help?  Pulsed EMF uses magnetic fields to generate pulses of electromagnetic energy.  PEMF has been used since the 1950s to help heal broken bones.  Scientists know that biological tissue reacts to electromagnetic fields.  They affect cell membrane permeability and gene expression, which can have beneficial effects such as reducing inflammation and synthesizing functional proteins.  PEMF may make chronic pain feel better, but it does not have any therapeutic effect on scar tissue itself.

therapeutic ultrasound

Will therapeutic ultrasound help scar tissue?  Ultrasound (not the kind used for imaging) is the delivery of high frequency sound waves through the body to generate heat.  Ultrasound is popular for treating deep joint structures, particularly the shoulder (glenohumeral joint), hip and knee joints.   Unlike topically-applied heat, ultrasound heats from the inside of the body.  Sound, physically, is reverberating pressure waves traveling through a medium.  When the ultrasound waves pass through the skin and strike something of higher density; i.e. tendons, ligaments or bone, it generates heat, just as rubbing your skin really hard will generate heat.  The pressure waves of the ultrasound may be strong enough to loosen some of the scar tissue fibers as well, making it a good choice for treating chronic joint pain.

active release therapy

Will massage therapy help?  It can, depending on the nature of the scar tissue.  It’s most effective in reducing fibrosis if started during the sub-acute phase, and continuing past the remodeling phase of tissue healing.   Massage is known for its soothing/relaxing effect, but it is also appropriate for soft tissue injuries, particularly myofascial release/ trigger point release, deep tissue massage, instrument-assisted soft tissue therapy, and Active Release technique.  These methods are more accurately described as “soft tissue mobilization” techniques and involve placing pressure into areas of scar tissue to break them up, stretch them as they are being laid down by fibroblasts, or to separate scar tissue adhesions—points where scar tissue binds to other structures.

There is another modality that is not well-known to most people that has a high success rate in treating chronic tendinopathies due to scar tissue fibrosis: extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT), or shockwave for short.  Shockwave uses pulsed, high energy acoustic (sound) waves delivered right through the skin to physically break apart/ thin out underlying scar tissue.  You may have heard of how doctors can dissolve kidney stones using a machine that sends waves through the skin all the way to the kidney stone, without surgery, called lithotripsy.   This is precisely extracorporeal (meaning “outside the body”) shockwave therapy.

Shockwave treatment is often described as “ultrasound on steroids” since it uses sound pressure waves, but at a lower frequency and higher energy.   Think of thunder, clapping hands, and a jet breaking the sound barrier.

shockwave treatment for plantar fasciitis

When a shockwave enters living tissue and encounters changes in tissue density or impedance (such as from fat to muscle) it will either be reflected, refracted, transmitted or dissipated just like any other wave.   According to the site Shockwave Therapy Education, energy is released at these interfaces of different impedance values, creating compression and shear loads on the surface of the material with the greater impedance (mostly scar tissue, tendons, and ligaments), like very tiny explosions.

The energy released by shockwaves causes microtrauma (tissue destruction), which triggers the reparative process:  new blood vessels form (neovascularization) and fibroblasts secrete collagen fibers in a more organized fashion, replacing the old, disorganized scar tissue.  Blood flow improves, and the old, chronic injury undergoes new healing and heals more completely the second time around.   The restructuring of collagen fibers results in less nociceptors than when fibrosis was present, and the result, after a brief soreness following the microtrauma, is less pain.

effects of eswt on scar tissue

Conditions Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy is used to treat include:

  • Plantar fascitis
  • Epicondylitis
  • Trochanteric bursitis
  • Dupruyten’s contracture
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Achilles, patellar and other tendinopathies
  • Post surgical scar tissue fibrosis

Below are video fluoroscopy images of ESWT breaking apart a calcaneous (heel) bone spur:

image of eswt breaking off heel spur

 

TYPES OF SHOCKWAVE MACHINES

There are two, main types of shockwave machines, ballistic and piezoelectric.  In a ballistic machine, a small pellet is accelerated back and forth inside a metal tube by strong electromagnets or by compressed air.  When the pellet strikes inside the end of the metal tube (strikeplate), it produces a radial shockwave.  This type of shockwave is considered low-energy, as the shockwave dissipates and expands radially as it enters and travels through tissue.

illustration of radial shockwave

A piezoelectric machine uses an array of tiny crystals at the end of a concave treatment head.  An electric current is passed through the crystals, which causes them to quickly expand and contract, generating pulsed acoustic pressure waves.  A silicone cone attachment is affixed to the treatment head to conduct, focus and direct the shockwaves produced by the tiny crystals.

piezoelectric extracorporeal shockwave treatment head

The shape of the cone attachment and the output voltage determine the depth to which the soundwave travel.  Piezoelectric machines are considered high-energy, as the acoustic wave is focused into a small area and does not dissipate much.  These machines therefore are used with more caution.

BOTTOM LINE:

Scar tissue is like biological “glue” the body uses to repair injuries to itself, but it can cause problems long after the injury heals.  Scar tissue fibrosis is a mass of hardened protein strands laid down haphazardly by fibroblasts at the injury site.   It is often a factor in chronic musculoskeletal pain.  It develops in injuries, such as shoulder and knee strains, and is worse if the injury is not properly treated/ rehabilitated.  Scar tissue perpetuates chronic pain by inhibiting proper movement of soft tissue structures– tendons, ligaments, fascia and muscles, which can cause abrasion to adjacent tissues; inhibit vascular flow to the area; and cause sensory nerve endings to bunch together.  Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) is a treatment that uses high-energy pressure waves to break down scar tissue fibrosis so that new, organized fibers can replace it; abrasion and congestion are reduced, and movement and strength are improved.  It is a highly-effective modality for tendinopathies and similar musculoskeletal diseases, with some studies finding an 80% success rate.

For more a more in-depth explanation of how extracorporeal shockwave therapy works, watch my interview with Dr. Ulyss Bidkaram, a chiropractor who uses ESWT in his practice:

REFERENCES:

Shockwave Education

http://www.shockwavetherapy.education/index.php/theory/biological-effects

Angela Notarnicola and Biagio Moretti. The biological effects of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (eswt) on tendon tissue.  Muscles Ligaments Tendons J. 2012 Jan-Mar; 2(1): 33–37.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3666498/

Semra Aktürk,1,* Arzu Kaya, et al.  Comparision of the effectiveness of ESWT and ultrasound treatments in myofascial pain syndrome: randomized, sham-controlled study, J Phys Ther Sci. 2018 Mar; 30(3): 448–453.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5857456/

Image credits:

https://www.biodermis.com/what-are-the-stages-of-wound-healing-s/221.htm

http://www.shockwavetherapy.education/index.php/theory/biological-effects

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-rice-190446

https://www.pediagenosis.com/2019/10/exercises-for-range-of-motion-and.html

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-rice-190446

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