Effect of Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (PEMFs) on Muscular Activation during Cycling: A Single-Blind Controlled Pilot Study

PURPOSE

PEMF stimulation results in a higher O₂ muscle supply during exercise through increased O₂ release and uptake. Given the importance of oxygen uptake in sport activity, especially in aerobic disciplines such as cycling, we sought to investigate the influence of PEMF on muscle activity when subjects cycled at an intensity between low and severe.

METHODS

Twenty semi-professional cyclists performed a constant-load exercise with randomized active (ON) or inactive (OFF) PEMF stimulation. Each subject started the recording session with 1 min of cycling without load (warm-up), followed by an instantaneous increase in power, as the individualized workload (constant-load physical effort). PEMF loops were applied on the vastus medialis and biceps femoris of the right leg. We recorded the electromyographic activity from each muscle and measured blood lactate prior the exercise and during the constant-load physical effort.

RESULTS

PEMF stimulation caused a significant increase in muscle activity in the warm-up condition when subjects cycled without load (p < 0.001). The blood lactate concentration was higher during PEMF stimulation (p < 0.001), a possible consequence of PEMF's influence on glycolytic metabolism.

CONCLUSION

PEMF stimulation augmented the activity and the metabolism of muscular fibers during the execution of physical exercise. PEMF stimulation could be used to raise the amplitude of muscular responses to physical activity, especially during low-intensity exercise.

Biofield Science and Healing: History, Terminology, and Concepts

Biofield science is an emerging field of study that aims to provide a scientific foundation for understanding the complex homeodynamic regulation of living systems. By furthering our scientific knowledge of the biofield, we arrive at a better understanding of the foundations of biology as well as the phenomena that have been described as "energy medicine." Energy medicine, the application of extremely low-level signals to the body, including energy healer interventions and bio-electromagnetic device-based therapies, is incomprehensible from the dominant biomedical paradigm of "life as chemistry." The biofield or biological field, a complex organizing energy field engaged in the generation, maintenance, and regulation of biological homeodynamics, is a useful concept that provides the rudiments of a scientific foundation for energy medicine and thereby advances the research and practice of it. An overview on the biofield is presented in this paper, with a focus on the history of the concept, related terminology, key scientific concepts, and the value of the biofield perspective for informing future research.

Indo-Tibetan Philosophical and Medical Systems: Perspectives on the Biofield

The word biofield is a term that Western scientists have used to describe various aspects of energy and information fields that guide health processes. Similar concepts and descriptions of energy and information patterns exist in various cultures and have guided whole systems of medicine such as Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine. This article describes Vedic, Jain, and Tibetan philosophical and medical systems' concepts of consciousness and subtle energy and their relationships to health processes in order to foster deeper crosscultural dialogue on the nature of the biofield. Similarities and differences within the 3 traditions are noted, and suggestions for considering these concepts to extend current biofield research are discussed.

An Overview of Biofield Devices

Advances in biophysics, biology, functional genomics, neuroscience, psychology, psychoneuroimmunology, and other fields suggest the existence of a subtle system of "biofield" interactions that organize biological processes from the subatomic, atomic, molecular, cellular, and organismic to the interpersonal and cosmic levels. Biofield interactions may bring about regulation of biochemical, cellular, and neurological processes through means related to electromagnetism, quantum fields, and perhaps other means of modulating biological activity and information flow. The biofield paradigm, in contrast to a reductionist, chemistry-centered viewpoint, emphasizes the informational content of biological processes; biofield interactions are thought to operate in part via low-energy or "subtle" processes such as weak, nonthermal electromagnetic fields (EMFs) or processes potentially related to consciousness and nonlocality. Biofield interactions may also operate through or be reflected in more well-understood informational processes found in electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrocardiographic (ECG) data. Recent advances have led to the development of a wide variety of therapeutic and diagnostic biofield devices, defined as physical instruments best understood from the viewpoint of a biofield paradigm. Here, we provide a broad overview of biofield devices, with emphasis on those devices for which solid, peer-reviewed evidence exists. A subset of these devices, such as those based upon EEG- and ECG-based heart rate variability, function via mechanisms that are well understood and are widely employed in clinical settings. Other device modalities, such a gas discharge visualization and biophoton emission, appear to operate through incompletely understood mechanisms and have unclear clinical significance. Device modes of operation include EMF-light, EMF-heat, EMF-nonthermal, electrical current, vibration and sound, physical and mechanical, intentionality and nonlocality, gas and plasma, and other (mode of operation not well-understood). Methodological issues in device development and interfaces for future interdisciplinary research are discussed. Devices play prominent cultural and scientific roles in our society, and it is likely that device technologies will be one of the most influential access points for the furthering of biofield research and the dissemination of biofield concepts. This developing field of study presents new areas of research that have many important implications for both basic science and clinical medicine.

Non-thermal radio frequency and static magnetic fields increase rate of hemoglobin deoxygenation in a cell-free preparation

The growing body of clinical and experimental data regarding electromagnetic field (EMF) bioeffects and their therapeutic applications has contributed to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of action. This study reports that two EMF modalities currently in clinical use, a pulse-modulated radiofrequency (PRF) signal, and a static magnetic field (SMF), applied independently, increased the rate of deoxygenation of human hemoglobin (Hb) in a cell-free assay. Deoxygenation of Hb was initiated using the reducing agent dithiothreitol (DTT) in an assay that allowed the time for deoxygenation to be controlled (from several min to several hours) by adjusting the relative concentrations of DTT and Hb. The time course of Hb deoxygenation was observed using visible light spectroscopy. Exposure for 10-30 min to either PRF or SMF increased the rate of deoxygenation occurring several min to several hours after the end of EMF exposure. The sensitivity and biochemical simplicity of the assay developed here suggest a new research tool that may help to further the understanding of basic biophysical EMF transduction mechanisms. If the results of this study were to be shown to occur at the cellular and tissue level, EMF-enhanced oxygen availability would be one of the mechanisms by which clinically relevant EMF-mediated enhancement of growth and repair processes could occur.

Electromagnetic fields as first messenger in biological signaling: Application to calmodulin-dependent signaling in tissue repair

BACKGROUND

The transduction mechanism for non-thermal electromagnetic field (EMF) bioeffects has not been fully elucidated. This study proposes that an EMF can act as a first messenger in the calmodulin-dependent signaling pathways that orchestrate the release of cytokines and growth factors in normal cellular responses to physical and/or chemical insults.

METHODS

Given knowledge of Ca(2+) binding kinetics to calmodulin (CaM), an EMF signal having pulse duration or carrier period shorter than bound Ca(2+) lifetime may be configured to accelerate binding, and be detectable above thermal noise. New EMF signals were configured to modulate calmodulin-dependent signaling and assessed for efficacy in cellular studies.

RESULTS

Configured EMF signals modulated CaM-dependent enzyme kinetics, produced several-fold increases in key second messengers to include nitric oxide and cyclic guanosine monophosphate in chondrocyte and endothelial cultures and cyclic adenosine monophosphate in neuronal cultures. Calmodulin antagonists and downstream blockers annihilated these effects, providing strong support for the proposed mechanism.

CONCLUSIONS

Knowledge of the kinetics of Ca(2+) binding to CaM, or for any ion binding specific to any signaling cascade, allows the use of an electrochemical model by which the ability of any EMF signal to modulate CaM-dependent signaling can be assessed a priori or a posteriori. Results are consistent with the proposed mechanism, and strongly support the Ca/CaM/NO pathway as a primary EMF transduction pathway.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE

The predictions of the proposed model open a host of significant possibilities for configuration of non-thermal EMF signals for clinical and wellness applications that can reach far beyond fracture repair and wound healing.

Factors that shape alternative medicine: the role of the alternative medicine research community

The documented prevalence of alternative medicine practices in the United States warrants a critical evaluation of this field. Although adequate scientific evaluation is needed, it is doubtful that such research will take place unless other factors are taken into account that remain overlooked. We have previously proposed a conceptual definition of alternative medicine practices and outlined those sociological, political, economic, and regulatory factors independent of the alternative healthcare community that could potentially hamper the optimal evaluation of alternative medicine. In the present article, we discuss other relevant issues to which the alternative healthcare community contributes. These factors originate both from within biomedicine (e.g., demands for specific scientific approaches, explanatory models) and within the alternative medicine community itself (e.g., the use of jargon, insularity, a profit-minded research agenda).

Is the scientific publishing of complementary and alternative medicine objective?

Bias expressed by conventional journals against the field of "alternative," "integrative," or "complementary" medicine has been said to drive the appearance of new journals dedicated to this field. We examined two examples of recent articles on complementary and alternative medicine that appeared in two major medical journals in 1998. One is an editorial on the risks of alternative medicine, published in The New England Journal of Medicine and the other is a study on Therapeutic Touch, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. We evaluated whether information and opinions presented in this editorial and article are objective or not. We found that these examples reflect, at best, misinformation or misunderstanding of the field, or at worst, disingenuousness. We consider the possibility that this apparent bias may be due to the fact that some of the concepts implicit in alternative medicine are outside the current biomedical framework. Yet, it is only by exploring knowledge outside the boundaries of existing dogmas that real (as opposed to incremental) progress can occur.