Issue 14 - November 2003

It’s time to re-think electro-therapy!
New techniques will ‘energize’ your practice
By Darren Starwynn, OMD, Dipl. Ac.

Do you believe that electro-therapy (ET) is simply an adjunctive modality with limited therapeutic effectiveness? Or perhaps you think of ET as a useful way to bill additional CPT codes.

You would not be wrong — assuming you are thinking of ET as it has traditionally been taught.

But ET can be much more. When you “marry” the principles of acupuncture energetic medicine with modern electro-therapy — that is, when you combine gentle microcurrents with an energetic meridian-based approach — you achieve surprisingly effective and rapid results.

Even if you have not studied acupuncture in depth, it is quite simple to apply some of these whole-body, energy-balancing principles in your ET department, provided you have a microcurrent stimulator with a pair of probe electrodes as well as pad-electrode capability. The device you use must allow you to switch current polarity on the probes.

The key is applying electro-therapy according to the whole-body principles of energy medicine. Here are five principles that, when used, can achieve results impressive enough to make ET a major and inspiring source of new patient referrals:

1 Use a balanced treatment approach. Most electro-therapy manuals and treatment formularies recommend placing electrodes over the local area of pain or injury. This technique only achieves positive results on average about 30 percent to 50 percent of the time.

Why the poor results? Because often this treatment does not address the actual area of injury, only area of the referred pain.1 And, since the area of pain is often inflamed, directly applying electrodes on the area is equivalent to throwing gasoline on a fire — not a good way to put it out.

The solution is to use more dermatome 2 treatments and distal acu-points and body zones for a balanced treatment approach.

2 Apply microcurrents as a first approach to pain. The human body is sensitive to electrical activity in the pico-, nano- and micro-current levels. (Picoamps are measured in trillionths of an amp, nanoamps in billionths of an amp and microamps in millionths of an amp.)

Many electro-therapeutic devices deliver milliamp stimulation — which the human body can clearly feel as tingling, prickling or throbbing sensations. Milliamps are 1,000 times more intense than microamps. By the time our sensory nerves feel treatment currents, they are already at levels that can significantly disrupt subtle bio-electrical system — thus slowing down the healing process3.

The solution to overstimulation is to initiate treatment using microcurrent stimulation — only using milliamps if the patient’s pain is not relieved at that level. You will be surprised how rarely milliamp currents are needed!

It is my practice to start almost all electro-therapy sessions with microcurrent stimulation through local and distal areas and only use milliamp currents when this is not successful in reducing some acute pain cases.

3 Use modulated and multi-step protocols to treat pain. Many electro-stimulators deliver repetitive stimulation. The problem with this approach is that the body quickly accommodates to repetitive stimulation. The solution is use modulation and a multi-step protocol. Purchase a device that allows variable frequency, intensity and timing.

4 Use properly polarized treatment currents. The Law of Polarity is an all-important, all-pervading reality of our physical and energetic existence. It is also totally applicable to electro-therapy.

The healthy human body has an electrically positive orientation on the head and central spinal area, and a negative orientation at the extremities.4 If you follow this pattern with electrode placements, you are working with the body, and it is much easier to bring about pain relief, healing and homeostasis.

Many electro-therapeutic devices, including some microcurrent devices, offer most treatments only in biphasic, or alternating, polarity, and this often is not what is needed. Biphasic currents are generally more successful for treatment of the neck and trunk of the body, but are rarely very effective for problems of the extremities and radicular5 pain.

5 Apply kinetic treatments — microcurrents in motion. Electrical stimulation is more effective if it is applied while the patient is in motion.

Electrical stimulation is not usually possible nor desirable when the patient is in the acute phase of pain and injury (your goal then is to relieve pain and inflammation to reduce suffering and promote healing). Once the acute pain has been reduced, however, microcurrent stimulation applied during exercise makes the healing process easier.

Although science cannot yet explain this phenomenon, applying microcurrents in motion most likely works because:

• Studies have shown that microcurrent stimulation increases ATP concentrations in the cells6, and this can promote muscle softening.

• The meridian blockage-clearing properties of microcurrents work in a similar way as acupuncture, increasing Qi flow in the area, freeing up available energy and promoting ease of movement.

• Proprioception is the feedback system between peripheral muscles, tendons and sensory nerves and the central nervous system that adjusts muscle tone to allow smooth movement.7 It is my theory that microcurrent stimulation during movement in some way augments proprioception, accelerating the re-education process of injured muscles and joints.

• Because microcurrent stimulation often immediately reduces pain during exercise, patients can increase their range of motion with less resistance. This expanded movement helps the neuromuscular systems of the body to adapt to fuller and easier movement patterns.

These guidelines are fairly simple and easy to apply, yet it is remarkable how infrequently they are used. A lack of understanding contributes to the mediocre reputation of electric stimulation within the healthcare community. And that misunderstanding has caused, in part, cutbacks in the reimbursement for this procedure in recent years.

Take the time to retrain yourself in the principles of energy medicine. It will open a way to superior results and an increased bottom line in your practice.

Darren Starwynn, OMD, Dipl. Ac., has over 20 years of acupuncture experience. He lectures extensively throughout the United States and abroad, and has developed advanced electro-therapy devices. He is president of Microcurrent Research, Inc. and can be reached at 602-494-5626 or Darren@ eastwestmed.com.

References

1 Principles of Anatomy and Physiology by Tortura and Anagnastokos, pages 361-362

2 Dermatomes are regions of superficial tissues of the body that are each innervated by a specific spinal nerve. Dermatomes run down the arms and legs and circle the torso.

3 See study Cheng, et Al: The Effects of Electric Current on ATP Generation, Protein Synthesis, and Membrane Transport in Rat Skin Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, #171, Nov/Dec. 1982

4 The Body Electric, Chapter 4

5 Pain or numbness that radiates, usually down the arms or legs.

6 ATP- Adenosine triphosphate, the energy currency of the cell. See Cheng et al study cited earlier

7 Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, pages 361-363