I have hereditary essential tremor. I just received my M1 device. Since my condition originates in my thalamus, which is dead-center in the middle of my brain, what power level should I use to reach this deep area with pemf, and how should the coils be configured on my skull for best effect?
Well, the most important thing to realize about this, or anything like it, is that the use of ICES-PEMF or any other form of PEMF for this type of application is 100% experimental, and it is probably not a stretch to say that no one really knows anything about it. The best you could possibly hope for is an honest and slightly-educated guess. If that does not instill enough confidence in you, and you are not cheerfully willing to self-experiment with all of the attendant risks and unknowns, then I would advise not trying this on yourself.
That being said, as a scientist, not a clinician, I would guess the following:
- You might benefit from inducing neuro-adaptation, but I am not sure.
- In any case, you should start LOW and SLOW, using low intensity and short durations of use until you are confident that the device will not cause any harm to you and you tolerate it well.
- Coils on opposite sides of the head, bumpy sides outward, with the target area located between the coils is probably going to be most effective for this.
- You might initially try a “comfortable” pulse pattern, such as alpha-wave.
- If you tolerate that well, you might try to gradually work up to using gamma wave, which causes some discomfort for some people, but has been shown by experiments at MIT to induce some amount of neuro-adaptation and plasticity.
Now you are entering extreme unknown territory…
You should consider doing exercises or challenges where your brain needs to try to not allow or overcome the essential tremor. I do not know what those might be, maybe mindful posture or fine motor control exercises. Visual feedback from a mirror might be very useful, for example. This is all very experimental, so please do not expect a guru to pop out of the misty mountain tops with a firm answer.
It is important to realize that by inducing neuro-adaptation you are inducing your brain to rise to the challenges at hand and re-wire accordingly, so the worst thing you could do is to just lie there and expect the device to “rewire your brain and fix it”. To make something like this work you have to be exercising and challenging your brain to rewire, with a task-appropriate challenge, which will be difficult, during the time that you are trying to induce neuro-adaptation. Please re-read this paragraph several times until you have fully internalized the meaning and implications of it.
This is one of the most uncomfortable and difficult things you can do as an adult. Please give this a lot of thought before you attempt it, and please do not enter into this half-way.
If you decide to try this, please keep us informed. This is exactly what I am planning to do some time in early 2023 to help re-start my stroke recovery, to see if I can induce another period of neuro-adaptation to recover or even improve some of my neural deficits after my second stroke about 4.5 years ago. I have already accepted the risk that I may fail at this endeavor and cause myself irreparable harm. I have carefully weighed the potential risks and benefits before I finally decided to try this for myself.
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Hi Bob, thank you so much for your generous advice, which I will follow. Would you suggest starting at a power level lower than the M1’s default power setting of 9 (say 5 or something else)? I will commence with the alpha wave protocol (as you suggest), and go from there. I have been using my M1 for the last few days for some numbness in my feet, and I believe I am seeing some improvement already (using the default protocol, Omni 8, power 9). I certainly hope and pray you have great success healing from your strokes, which I know will be a challenge for you. Again, thank you for your kind reply.
Definitely, on your head, I would start at an intensity of 3 or 4 and build up as you feel you can tolerate it.
On your body/hands/feet of course, I think the default setting of intensity = 9 is a good place to start.