Current increases ATP energy

Current flowing through the body fuels all biological process. Gnok Cheng (Cheng et al 1982) and his associates demonstrated that applying additional current to a biological system could increase both protein synthesis and energy production dramatically as long as the current was small enough. Direct current levels of 50 to 1000μamps applied across rat skin increased glycine (amino acid) transport by 75% compared with untreated controls and current levels of 500μamps increased aminoisobutyric acid (amino acid) uptake by 90% indicating a dramatic increase in protein synthesis. But current levels above 1000μamps decreased protein synthesis by as much as 50%.

ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the chemical energy molecule that fuels every biological process. Direct current levels between 100 and 500μamps applied to rat skin increased ATP levels by three to five times (300% to 500%). Current exceeding 1000μamps caused ATP production to level off and currents above 5000μamps reduced ATP levels as compared to untreated controls. Once the external current was discontinued the ATP production and amino acid transport levels returned to baseline; there was no residual effect in rat skin.

Cheng and his colleagues hypothesized that the increased number of electrons from the DC current flowing along the mitochondrial membranes increased the proton gradient across the membrane thereby increasing ATP production. Oschman (2009) has proposed that the electron transport chain in mitochondria can become electron-deficient, and that microcurrent provides more electrons that are semiconducted through the living matrix to the mitochondrial membranes. In either case, the additional ATP available is probably responsible for the increase in protein synthesis. There have been no studies that demonstrate increased ATP production in a living system but the increases in healing seen with microamperage current are usually attributed to this increase in ATP production and protein synthesis. Cheng and colleagues did not attempt to explain why current levels over 1000μamps reduced ATP production and protein synthesis. It is worth noting that all electrical stimulation devices except microcurrent use current levels above 1000μamps and may be decreasing ATP production, although that has not been demonstrated.

It has been proposed that Voltage Gated Ion Channels (VGICs) may also be affected by the current flow along or across the membrane but no one has measured changes in these transport proteins in response to externally applied microamperage current. VGICs transport ions such as sodium, potassium, calcium and others across the cell membrane and control virtually all cellular processes. VGICs require ATP activation to change configuration allowing them to transport their ion across the cell membrane. There has been some suggestion that microcurrent and the voltage pushing it along or across membranes has a direct affect on the VGICs but there is no data to support this hypothesis. The current could be altering VGIC function simply because it increases ATP production.

Current has a clinical effect

Whatever the mechanism, current clearly has an influence on treatment. Clinical trial and error has determined that the current must be polarized positive with the positive leads at the spine and the negative leads at the distal end of the nerve for the successful treatment of nerve pain. The treatment for fibromyalgia associated with spine trauma and for post-stroke central pain is most successful when the current is polarized positive with the positive leads at the neck and the negative leads at the feet. Some patients respond better to polarized positive current for all applications and some patients do better with pulsed alternating DC current. In any FSM course, roughly half of the students being treated during a practicum session respond better to polarized current and the other half respond better to alternating DC current. No explanation is offered for this observation but any model for the biological effects of pulsed DC current must be able to explain the observations.

Figure 2.1 • ATP is produced when electrons, stripped off of food substrate, flow through an electron transport cascade and also flow along the cell membrane creating a difference in charge between one side of the membrane and the other. The charge gradient pulls protons across a membrane and ATP is produced. Increased current flow up to 500μamps increases ATP production. Current flow above 1000μamps overwhelms the system and decreases ATP production.

Current levels must be appropriate to the patient’s size and muscle mass for successful treatment of muscle pain and scar tissue. A larger or more muscular person requires higher current levels than a smaller, deconditioned or frail person. If the current levels are too low, response to treatment is slow or equivocal. There is almost no detectable response when 100μamps are used to treat a 250 pound professional football player but increasing the current to 400μamps creates an immediate positive response to the same frequencies. A small frail deconditioned patient will respond well to 100μamps and will find 400μamps irritating and bothersome. A very ill patient may find anything more than 20μamps irritating or too stimulating.

These observations dictate the treatment parameters discussed in this text but there is nothing specific in microcurrent theory or research to explain these phenomena.

Resonance

The frequencies create tissue changes by resonance. Resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at larger amplitudes in response to some frequencies and not others. Every mechanical system and every chemical bond has a resonant frequency. At the resonant frequency even small driving forces can produce very large amplitude vibrations. These large amplitude vibrations can cause the system to oscillate so violently that it comes apart. Mechanical resonance destroyed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge when the resonant frequency of the bridge was matched by the frequency of oscillations in the bridge caused by the wind during a rain storm. The resulting violent pendulum effect tore the bridge apart and created a most memorable visual example of the power of resonance.

Acoustic resonance shatters a lead crystal glass when the musical note being played matches the resonant frequency that binds the lead atoms together in the crystal matrix. The resonance causes the atomic bonds to oscillate, like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the glass comes apart. Resonant phenomena occur with every type of vibration or wave and every type of bond and structure.

If every chemical bond and every physical structure has a binding energy that holds it together and has a resonant frequency that will cause it to oscillate, then it is possible to imagine that a resonant frequency exists for every bond that will cause oscillations sufficiently violent to weaken or break the bonds that hold the structure together.

As the bonds began to vibrate, the fluids in the surrounding area would become warm from the friction of the vibration much as your hands become warm when you rub them together on a cold night. This warming response to vibration could explain why the tissue being treated feels warm when the frequency is correct and appropriate.

Think of scar tissue as a physical structure made of collagen that is wound up tight and coiled in on itself like a rubber band that has been twisted to operate the propeller of a toy airplane. The coiled scar tissue is held together in this configuration by cross linked bonds that keep it shortened and tight. Think of the collagen coil cross-links as the bonds in the lead crystal glass. When the frequencies are used that seem to dissolve scar tissue, the scarring begins to soften almost immediately and over the next few minutes the tissue elongates and continues to soften until it feels almost normal and the range of motion has increased. Once the bonds break that hold the coils tight, the collagen unwinds and as it elongates the cross-link binding sites are separated and cannot reconnect. In general, once scar tissue dissolves it doesn’t return.

When scar tissue dissolved in one particular burn patient, this meant that he could bend his fingers enough to hold a coffee cup for the first time in the three years since his injury. Patients who have been burned develop severe scar tissue that limits range of motion and activity and is resistant to every other type of therapy. Range of motion was measured in seven patients by occupational therapists at Mercy St. John’s Medical Center in Springfield Missouri on a Monday in 2003. The patients were treated with FSM for one hour each day for the next three days and measured again on Friday. Every patient treated had statistically significant increases in range of motion that lasted through the four weeks of follow-up and were assumed to be permanent (Huckfeldt et al 2003).

Figure 2.6 • The collagen in scar tissue is wound tight in coils that are cross linked to hold them in place. It is possible that the frequencies resonate with the bonds holding the cross links in place and break them allowing the collagen to elongate and the scar tissue to soften and lengthen. Once the scar tissue elongates the binding sites don’t match up and the scar tissue doesn’t reform. This model attempts to demonstrate one possible mechanism by which the observed effects could be created.

Think of Interleukin 1 and the other inflammatory cytokines as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The frequency may resonate with one or more crucial bonds that hold inflammatory peptides together in the crystalline structure that makes them act as a mediator of inflammation. The resonant vibration and oscillations from the frequency could weaken and eventually change or break the bond that holds the cytokine in its shape causing the peptide to change configuration. The changed conformation means that the peptide no longer fits into the receptors in the cell membrane that create the effects of inflammation. The de-configured peptide would not be recognized as a cytokine by immunochromatography and the levels would drop dramatically as they did in the fibromyalgia study.

This would account for the rate and degree of reductions in cytokine levels. Any other mechanism that has been considered doesn’t explain the rate of reductions in measurements of cytokine levels in blood or in mean ear swelling in mice. The time required to shatter the bonds could account for the time dependent nature of the response seen in the mouse research. The vibration of the bonds during the oscillation phase could account for the warmth felt as the frequency begins to create an effect.

All that is required for resonant phenomenon to operate in a biological system is bonds that resonate and a conducting medium to convey specific frequency patterns. We are immersed in a sea of electromagnetic signals that form environmental electronic white noise from television and cell phone signals to light bulbs and 60 cycle wall current. While Becker makes a good case for their general negative effects on the immune and autonomic nervous system they don’t appear to have immediate specific effects on specific conditions (Becker 1990).

But coherent frequency patterns delivered in conjunction with current that increases cellular energy production could reasonably be expected to create a resonant effect. “Living matter is highly organized and exceedingly sensitive to the information conveyed by coherent signals” (Oschman 2000). There are protein receptors in the cell membrane that mediate all of the functions of the cell. Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton points out that even when the nucleus is removed cells can still perform their normal functions perfectly for up to 30 days through the actions of the membrane proteins embedded in the cell wall operating in a co-ordinated self-directed fashion in response to environmental signals. These membrane proteins are sensitive to electromagnetic signals, as well as neurotransmitters, hormones, nutrients, toxins and oxidative stress and even emotions or thoughts (Lipton 2008). Drugs and nutrients act like a key in a lock to change the configuration of cell membrane proteins and thereby change cell functions. A coherent frequency pattern could change cell membrane protein configuration and cellular function like the key beeper that opens your car door lock from 20 feet away.

Figure 2.7 • Cell membrane proteins carry out all basic cellular activities and can be influenced by medications or nutrients acting like keys in a lock to change protein configuration and function. The membrane proteins can also be influenced by frequencies acting like the “key beeper” that opens the lock at a distance with an electromagnetic signal.

Limitations

This model doesn’t explain why the reductions in inflammation stop when the levels get into the normal range. It doesn’t account for why the patients with spinal cord inflammation only responded to 40Hz (reduce inflammation) and 10Hz (spinal cord) but did not respond to the frequencies to reduce inflammation (40Hz) in the immune system (116Hz) that reduced inflammation in the mice. But it is a start and provides something that can be tested when the research opportunity presents itself.

These two frequencies “reduce inflammation” and “reduce scarring” are easy to conceptualize and it is relatively easy to measure scar tissue and inflammation and changes created by treatment. But there are other frequencies presented in this text that are less amenable to measurement and may be difficult for some to even conceptualize. How does one measure the “fact of trauma”, or “toxicity” or “allergy reaction” or the “emotional component” of a patient’s condition? There are frequencies in this text for each of these pathologies or conditions that might affect any given tissue.

There may never be objective evidence that these frequencies are doing what they are alleged to do but that doesn’t prevent us from employing, enjoying and documenting the clinical effects. Does the patient feel warmth when the frequency is used? Does the tissue soften when the frequency is used? Does the condition, range of motion or the pain change when the frequency is used? These clinical effects in response to a correct frequency have been observed consistently in different settings and until objective evidence is available these observations form a basis for future research.

Precautions

When a frequency is applied it either has a positive effect or it has no effect at all. If there is nothing for it to resonate with the frequency appears to pass on through the tissue with no discernible effect. The analogy of unlocking your car door with your electronic key beeper illustrates this phenomenon. When your car is parked in a crowded parking lot, it is only your car door that unlocks when you press the button that sends the electronic signal from your key fob to open the lock. The frequency from your car key resonates with your car only, and not with any others. In a similar fashion, the frequency chosen to treat a particular condition in a particular tissue appears to do that and nothing else. So, in general, there is no harm in trying a frequency for a particular condition / tissue combination.

But the response to certain frequency effects has been sufficiently powerful that the entire process must be approached with both humility and respect. For all of the disclaimers and caveats included in this text the author has learned through experience that the frequencies actually do what they are alleged to do (in a hydrated patient).

For example the body uses inflammation to control infection. The frequency to “reduce inflammation” does indeed reduce inflammation and when this frequency is used in a patient who has an infection that the doctor does not suspect, the infection will become more symptomatic in a very short time when the frequency is used. The bad news is that the infection becomes precipitously worse; the good news is that this predictable response is diagnostic and leads to appropriate treatment of an infection that was previously occult.

And good intentions will not prevent a frequency from having its effect. When Dr. Hawks left the clinic in 1997 and started her practice in Minnesota, it was thought that the frequency 81Hz described on Van Gelder’s list as “secretions” would normalize secretions. Dr. Hawkes spent an hour treating a young girl for the lung congestion of cystic fibrosis and at the end of the hour the patient’s lungs were completely clear. Thinking that 81Hz would “normalize” the lung secretions Dr. Hughes used it at the end of the treatment. The lungs became re-congested in less than 10 seconds. Knowing that they needed to explore this affect, they took a short break, repeated the original treatment and cleared the lungs again. At the end of this treatment the frequency 81Hz was not used and the child’s lungs stayed clear for about two weeks. Dr. Hughes’ called the clinic immediately to report this new understanding; 81Hz was found to increase secretions rather than normalize secretions.

It is worth noting that the intention to normalize secretions did not prevent the frequency from increasing secretions. Experiences such as these have created profound respect for the effect of the frequencies. It is safest to assume that the frequencies will do what they are alleged to do and think ahead to what will happen when the effect occurs.

Science starts with observation

All science starts with observation. This is what we observe. The condition changes; the glove gets warm; the pain is reduced. Then science has to ask, “Is it reproducible or just a coincidence?” In any hydrated patient with the same symptoms and physical examination, treated by any practitioner with knowledge, skill and the correct diagnosis will the treatment produce the same response? So far experience suggests that the affects are reproducible. Then science asks if the response is predictable. If you know the appropriate diagnosis and the treatment can you predict the patient’s response? If you use the treatment response as a diagnostic indicator will the patient response to treatment help clarify the diagnosis? Once again experience suggests that the response is predictable.

Still, it must be said that the descriptions for the frequency effects are just a model for what the frequency is thought to do and appears to do. Until there is more research to document that the observed change corresponds to removal of the pathology specified by the frequency and that it happens in the tissue specified by the frequency, any claims must be approached with caution. This caveat should not deter the thoughtful practitioner from taking advantage of the apparent effects. Medicine used aspirin as an anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic for hundreds of years before its mechanism of action and effects on prostaglandin chemistry were known.

Types of current

Direct or DC current

Direct or DC current is a unidirectional steady flow of current (electrons) that travels from the source through a conductor or semiconductor to the load and back again to the source forming a DC circuit. Direct current is used to charge batteries and in nearly all electronic systems as the power supply because it is simple and direct.

Figure 2.8 • The sodium potassium pump that maintains cell membrane potential is an example of an ionic current. Three sodium ions are pumped to the outside of the membrane and two potassium ions are pumped to the inside of the membrane where they combine with the more negatively charged intracellular proteins to make the inside of the membrane −70mV more negative than the outside. This charge differential drives many cellular processes.

Practical applications of DC current and the living semiconductor

In his 1985 book, The Body Electric, Robert Becker described his experiments on limb regeneration in salamanders. He concluded that the perineureum or glial membrane covering nerves serves as a primitive analog, direct current semiconducting information system that facilitates tissue repair and regeneration.

The normal difference between the more positively charged salamander’s head (think of the brain as a battery) and his front leg is −10mV; the leg has more electrons than the head and is more negatively charged. When the salamander loses the limb to a predator (or to an orthopedic surgeon researcher such as Becker), the injured limb immediately becomes more positive, the current changes direction and electrons flow away from the injured site making it +20 mV more positive than the salamander’s head. This reversal of current was called the “current of injury”. Within a few days the current flow changes direction again and gradually becomes more negative as electrons flow into the injured area, presumably from the brain as battery, until it reaches −30mV. By the time the limb is completely regenerated at 25 days the charges are back to their baseline difference of −10mV between the head and the leg.

Figure 2.9 • Robert Becker demonstrated that the salamander and the human body are charged DC current systems. Humans and salamanders are more positively charged at the head and along the spine and more negatively charged distally at the ends of the arms and legs

(adapted with permission from Becker & Seldon 1985).

Frogs and mammals do not regenerate severed limbs in their normal state and Becker discovered that they do not show the same changes in current flow and polarity as the salamander. In frogs and mammals, the site of injury remains positively charged, and electron deficient, until scarring and healing have been completed. Becker was able to create limb regeneration in frogs and rats by using a battery attached to the head to artificially induce the same pattern of electron flow in these animals that exists in the salamander. The DC current flow was the key to limb regeneration as long as the perineureum was intact. If the perineureum was removed regeneration would not occur.

He was also able to facilitate repair of experimentally induced spinal cord injuries in cats by using direct current to keep the electrical potential negative, electron rich, in the injured spinal cord. The untreated cord goes into “spinal shock”, becomes electron deficient and electropositive and the normal course leads to a paraplegic outcome.

Through various ingenious experiments Becker eliminated every tissue except the analog direct current semiconducting perineural system as the source of information that directs regeneration and healthy tissue repair. The analog semiconductor properties of the perineureum are thought to be responsible for the remarkable results achieved when FSM is used to treat the nervous system.

The semiconductor nature of biological tissue creates some advantages and disadvantages for FSM treatments.

A head injury patient became dizzy in response to the frequency combination for “removing trauma” (94) from “the medulla” (94) when the contacts were placed at her neck (see Chapter 10). The dizziness resolved in a few minutes and when she felt normal again, she was asked to participate in an experiment. The contacts were placed at her knees and she was treated while sitting with the machine turned away so she could not tell what frequencies were being used. Four different combinations were tried for one minute each and each time the patient was asked how she felt. Each time she said she felt fine. As soon as the frequency combination 94Hz/94Hz was used, with the contacts at her knees, she became immediately dizzy and her eyes began to oscillate in a saccadic movement.

This response was interpreted to mean that the frequency for “removing trauma” from the “medulla” made this patient dizzy no matter where the contacts were placed but more importantly it meant that the frequency for “removing trauma” from “the medulla” would resonate with the medulla no matter where it was applied in the semiconductor matrix. The reaction to this frequency combination only occurs in a small percentage of patients who have a certain type of vestibular injury and its mechanism is not understood, but the reaction is so specific and characteristic that it is diagnostic. The implications of this discovery made it possible to treat the brain, through the semi-conductor matrix, by placing the contacts at the abdomen and back.

The disadvantages of this phenomenon dictate some of the precautions recommended in treatments discussed in the following chapters. The frequencies for removing scar tissue cannot be used any place in the body for six weeks after a new injury even if the current does not flow through the newly injured area. The body requires scar tissue to form in order to heal a new soft tissue injury. But, if the frequency to “remove scar tissue” will cause collagen cross links to vibrate and weaken by resonance, they will do so no matter where they are applied in the semiconductor matrix that is the body.

Two stable state cases

Two patients presented to the clinic in the same week and their stories are the perfect illustration of the power of the stable state.

The first patient was a 54-year-old woman who worked as an executive secretary in a very high pressure company who presented with neck, shoulder and upper back pain of six years duration. She was a smoker of normal weight and height, eating a varied “normal” diet and did not enjoy exercise. She seemed tense, had a negative attitude about most things but did not consider herself to be depressed and was not being treated for depression. She presented with reduced cervical spine range of motion, multiple myofascial trigger points in all of the neck and shoulder muscles and pain of a 6–7/10 on a visual analog scale.

She was treated with FSM twice a week for six weeks. At the end of each treatment her pain was reduced from a 6/10 down to a 2/10. At the end of each treatment she was encouraged to drink more water to support tissue health and detoxification. She refused saying that she didn’t like water and preferred coffee or tea. She was encouraged to change her posture at work and take hourly brief breaks to do shoulder shrugs and upper body stretches. She refused saying that she did not have time to stretch in her high pressure job and no time or attention to spare for such frivolous things. She was asked to purchase a magnesium supplement either from the clinic or a nutrition center to help the muscles relax. She replied that she knew for sure that supplements were a useless waste and only helped the manufacturers and retailers make money.

For six weeks she left every treatment session with her pain reduced from a 6/10 to a 2/10 and every post-treatment conversation was a repeat of the last one and her pain always returned within two days. FSM could change the muscles and reduce the pain but when she left the treatment room there was nothing in her body or emotions to maintain the changes. The ice that melted during treatment and became liquid was plunged back into the frigid environment of her life style and turned back into ice within two days.

The contrast between this patient and a 48-year-old man who came in for treatment at about the same time was striking. The man was a student at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, a very demanding medical training program in Portland, who presented with pelvic and hip pain of 30 years duration acquired when he ran hurdles in high school track competitions. He meditated daily and did Tai Chi and Qi gong regularly in spite of his sedentary student lifestyle, had a vegetarian macrobiotic diet, took supplements regularly and drank at least two quarts of filtered water per day. He glistened with health and seemed happy and content. He presented with reduced range of motion in the right hip, multiple myofascial trigger points in the hip and pelvic floor muscles and pain of a 5–6/10 on a visual analog scale.

His pain was reduced from 6/10 to 0/10 at the end of the first treatment. He returned for the second treatment with pain of a 2/10 and was again pain free at the end of the treatment. He canceled his third appointment because he had no remaining symptoms. We happened to meet in a grocery store one year later and he reported that his pain had never returned. His pain and muscle injury were more chronic than the secretary’s but he responded more quickly because of his overall health, attitude and life style. The ice in his muscles melted and remained permanently liquid in the balmy environment of his life.

Figure 2.10 • Water is used as an analogy for a human “stable state”. Water is completely stable as ice as long as the surrounding temperature is 0°C. It is stable as a liquid as long as the environment is between 0 and 100°C and stable as steam at 100°C and above. If the surrounding atmosphere doesn’t support the state then the water molecules will drop back into the energy state that the system supports. People are the same way; it’s just more complicated.

The stable state is the fourth component of any FSM treatment. The treatments described in this text predictably create remarkable changes in tissue, pain and function. But those changes have to be supported by the lifestyle, mental, physical, emotional and even spiritual milieu that is the patient’s life if they are to become permanent.

The rapid improvement in symptoms and function create not only pain reduction but hope and can encourage patient compliance because the exercises, lifestyle and diet modifications that seemed futile before now seem worth the effort.

The practitioner is encouraged to pursue any training in nutrition, biomechanics, exercise, reconditioning, emotional support, motivation, detoxification strategies and allergy management that seems useful and interesting. This information will bear fruit in creating a stable state that allow changes produced by FSM treatments to persist.

In every treatment each of these factors operates simultaneously and must be taken into consideration to some degree depending on the situation and the patient. The current increases ATP and changes protein synthesis and membrane protein function. The frequencies resonate with pathologies and tissues to create very specific predictable changes. The semiconductor matrix that conveys information throughout the body allows the effects of the frequencies to travel throughout the system. The stable state allows the changes to happen and helps them to persist and become permanent.