So, it would seem to me that you could rig up an equivalent “full body” ICES PEMF experience using 6 C5s connected to 6 large pads. That would allow for about the same amount of coil coverage that I am guesstimating for the parmeds pad that I analyzed. Obviously, that would be an extremely expensive undertaking, which circles us back around to the question of whether it is really worth it.
Clearly, there are a lot of people who swear by the “full body” experience and there seems to be a general consensus that includes reports that Bob has received over the years that a combination of periodic full body PEMF in a clinic with regular use of local low intensity treatment at home is better than either alone. Given the periodicity of the clinical component of this protocol, one does have to suspect a significant placebo effect. The doctor patient encounter alone can confer a lot of “healing.” I also suspect that the intense sensation experienced in products like the pulse center units would also lend itself to a significant placebo effect. I’m not saying that high intensity machines like the pulse center products only work by placebo. I am suggesting that the perception of additional benefit from periodic high intensity treatment may be a placebo effect.
I doubt there are any clinicians who have done a truly controlled experiment to determine whether at home use of low intensity local devices without periodic in clinic high intensity treatment would be more or less effective. I also don’t think it would be in any clinicians financial interest to make that determination. That being said, for those who don’t have the time or interest in at home treatment and/or who may just be using PEMF for general health benefits rather than specific complaints, there may be a certain efficiency in laying on one of these pads for 15 to 30 minutes 2 to 3 times per week even if it is not a true full body experience. Arguably, this generalized treatment covering multiple areas of the body at once may address problems in the body before they progressed to the point of noticeable symptoms.
The reason that I asked this question yesterday was because a colleague of mine is opening up a wellness center in Kauai, Hawaii. He plans to offer a wide range of self service machines, including cold immersion, hyperbaric, infrared sauna, photobiomodulation, and PEMF. He reached out to me for a recommendation for a full body PEMF system that would be a good fit for his plan. I spent some time explaining to him that I was skeptical of the true benefit of the really expensive full body systems. However, for his plan, he needs some thing that a person can just go into a room lay down on and flip a switch not something that would require a technician to apply a protocol or required of the customer to be fiddling around with a smaller device with local applicators. I also told him that it greatly concerned me that the companies producing most of these high-end products won’t disclose critical information like waveform.
I told him that I would look into whether there was a “full body” ICE system in development. @Bob would you be interested in meeting my colleague to possibly consult on the development of a custom “full body” pad based upon ICES technology. He’s a very smart guy and will have no trouble understanding your perspective on this.