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“Energy medicine is believed by many to be at the forefront
of healthcare technology in the 21st
Century.”
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One of the most
exciting and far-reaching developments in the area of modern musculoskeletal
medicine is the use of micro-electronics to activate the beneficial cellular
growth effects of exercise without the associated trauma and mechanical
stresses.
The ability to
stimulate these growth factors, in the absence of the cellular breakdown usually
associated with physical loading, creates a new tool in the treatment of many
common musculo-skeletal disorders.
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Over the past decade refinements have been made to
a number of electronic Energy Medicine " prescriptions" that have resulted in superior
clinical outcomes, improved recovery times and reductions in historic
re-injury. What is Energy Medicine? (See also
'Biomimetics')
Energy Medicine is a term that describes the use of various forms of
non-invasive electromagnetic fields to induce electrical stimuli in tissues similar to that
produced naturally in response to dynamic loading during exercise.
The ability to mimic these important pro-growth stimuli have provided
us with the ability to activate and modulate several important growth factors without the physical
trauma usually associated with physical loading.
The concept of inducing an exercise physiological response through
the use of non-invasive exogenous energy fields dates back to the 1970's when Professor Bassett of
Columbia University gained FDA approval for the first inductive field (EMF) bone growth stimulation
system.
Synthetic Exercise Physiology:
We usually think of our response to exercise in terms of metabolism,
increased heart rate, oxygen consumption and perspiration. While these are highly visible
responses, there are actually hundreds and possibly thousands of far more subtle responses that
play an important role in our overall health.
Our musculo-skeletal system is in a constant state of remodelling.
Virtually all collagen based biomaterials, such as bone, tendon, ligament and cartridge have a high
turnover rate. The rate of tissue breakdown or absorption should be dictated entirely by mechanical
loads, but other factors such as genetics, age and hormonal factors do interfere with
this.
New tissue formation rates, on the other hand, have a direct link to
our exercise levels. Tiny electrical signals, known as Strain Generated Potentials (SGP's),
produced by mechanical compression of GAG proteins, directly stimulate biosynthesis rates and
therefore control the rates of new tissue formation.
When injury, age, pain or immobility reduce our physical activity
levels, the stimulation mechanisms needed to repair an injury are reduced.
Energy Medicine simply "mimics" these stimulation signals and in
doing so can promote new new tissue formation without the level of physical activity usually
needed and sometimes causing more pain and associated breakdown.
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Evolution of Energy
Medicine
1953 Yasuda & Fukada -
electro-osteogenesis.
1957 Yasuda &
Fukada - chondrogenesis.
1962 Bassett &
Becker invasive bone growth stimulation.
1964 Inductive bone growth
stimulation.
1967 Bassett & Pawluk - inductive bone growth
redifined.
1967 Formation of
Electro-Bio-Energetics.
1967 FDA approves first non-invasive Bone Growth
System.
1975 Various
commercial and scientific bodies validate
clinical results, safety and
efficacy.
1990 Over 100
published clinical trials.
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The History and
Technology Development of e-cell
1993 Coded first complex
therapies using FDA approved parameters.
1994 Created first Smart Card
Control system.
1994 Created first
multi-functional Smart Card Control systems.
1996 Refined clinical
protocols.
1998 Developed world first automated Sequential Therapy
Protocol.
1999 CreatedSynthetic
Exercise protocol - Energy Medicine.
2000 First on-line Therapy
Card generation and management
system
2001 New biomimetic systems
trailed clinically for the first time.
2002 In vitro cell
proliferation experiments in Singapore commence.
2003 Clinical trials of new
GEM processes at Health Central, a
large musculoskeletal clinic
in Australia.
2004 Global Energy
Medicine is formed to commercialise new
technologies.
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