Electricity that improves the healing process? (8/01/06)
Researching new technologies is how to get a jump on new businesses. I am going to put an article out for teasing you into seeing what is being done out there and it is your job to find a profitable company that adapts this technology to make a profit. Read on and happy hunting in the future.
As long ago as 150 years ago, the German physiologist Emil Du Bois-Reymond reported that small electric currents could speed healing.
New Scientist reports that Dr. Josef Penninger of the Austrian Institute of Molecular Biotechnology and Min Zhao of the University of Aberdeen, UK, have shown that electric fields in tissue play a vital role in the wound-healing
process. They attract cells to damaged areas responsible for repair.
According to Penninger, "It's not homeopathy, it's biophysics." They have identified the responsible genes.
All cells and tissues function as chemical batteries, based on positively charged potassium ions and negatively charged chloride ions. When tissue is wounded this is a kind of short-circuit. This unusual condition attracts and
guides repair cells to the damaged area.
Using mouse cells and larger tissues such as corneas, Penninger and Zhao found
they could speed up or stop the healing process by modifying electrical fields.
Essentially, they confirmed that the electric fields can control the healing process at the cellular level. They identified specific genes involved in the process. Interfering with migration "promoter" genes slowed the healing process.
On the other hand, when the migration "blocker" gene received electrical interference then healing was faster.
Subsequent research will focus on optimizing the phenomenon to accelerate healing.
According to Mark Ferguson, a wound expert at the University of Manchester,
"For many years there have been anecdotal reports of the effects of electrical
currents on wound healing. This paper not only demonstrates the effects of
electrical currents on cellular migration to wound defects, it also provides a
mechanistic understanding of how such signals alter cell behavior."
I am aware of some other interesting work being done in bioelectric healing.
I am currently exploring several devices, including the Perkl-Lite and a device
based on the Archimedean spiral.
A device patented by Albert Einstein College of Medicine removes blood from the
body. It then passes a 50 microvolt current through the blood and returns the
blood to the body. According to the researchers, a variety of pathogens including
viruses were killed by the current without harming the blood itself.
There are quite a variety of devices being marketed that purportedly use electromagnetic energy for healing purposes. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible for the layman to distinguish quackery from valid discoveries.
Regrettably, the absurdly expensive FDA approval process prohibits even companies with effective technologies from seeking regulatory approval.
For more details, I recommend the book “Bioelectromagnetic Healing: by a biophysicist and former US Patent
Examiner. The author has studied a variety of these devices and covers the published research in his book.
In a groundbreaking book, "The Biology Of Belief", noted cell biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton explains the basic problem. Nearly all of the contemporary work in biology and medicine is still rooted in mechanistic Newtonian physics.
Nearly everything else we do in science and technology is rooted in modern quantum physics.
As research such as this continues to be published, it presages a paradigm shift. This shift will affect every area of our lives profoundly, including investment opportunities.
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