In several threads, people mention how PEMF seemed to enhance the effect of a medication. Some have talked about using ICES/PEMF with another therapy. Has the ICES/PEMF led to reducing medication? Has it enhanced nutrition or absorption of foods or supplements? Do other therapies seem to benefit from the ICES/PEMF or do their combined use seem to effect better or faster healing or other beneficial effects (less pain when using both. For instance, many people have found acupuncture or Barometric Oxygen Therapy or Infrared therapy helpful for healing or relief of pain…
My experience is that there are individualistic responses to every treatment. I have been unable to get local pain relief for fibromyalgia with ICES; being a body wide disorder it’s tough to tackle and no amount of various brain area exposure wearing a PEMF cap has helped either. Neither has hundreds of acupuncture sticks, though others have found them helpful. The bottom line for me is that if you are in significant intractable pain but have some financial resources, you might as well buy and try everything you can get that won’t kill you.
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Generally the answer to all of your questions taken together often appears to be YES. Especially for one specific question that we have studied repeatedly: does PEMF reduce the use of prescription pain meds? The answer was an overwhelming YES.
This was published in a doctoral dissertation from the Florida Atlantic University School of Nursing, summarized here:
https://www.josam.org/josam/article/view/14
This dissertation (above) has general questions as well as highly specific questions about the effects of PEMF on medication use. In several cases, respondents offered the personal additional information to the effect that they had easily discontinued the use of illegal drugs, since their pain was finally gone and they no longer had any use for the drugs, which they had been using for pain control, not recreation. When I read the dissertation after the study was completed, this finding was stunning and unexpected (and of course wonderful!), and it shows the power of including spontaneous and unscripted input from study participants.
Note: this dissertation studied a random sampling of Micro-Pulse ICES users after several months of use of our devices. I was not involved in the execution of this study in any way, in order to eliminate that source of potential bias.
For a much wider sampling of positive effects of PEMF in a broad population, I conducted a lengthy survey several years ago at an ACIM meeting, and asked several health and wellness professionals similar questions about synergistic effects with other “modalities”.
The survey results are published here:
https://www.josam.org/josam/article/view/69
Your questions will have generalized answers for questions 6, 7, 8, and 14
Summarizing the survey and the answers to questions 6, 7, 8, and 14:
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Survey was conducted at the annual meeting for the Academy of Comprehensive Integrative Medicine (ACIM) in November 2019 in Orlando Florida.
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Total number of respondents: 421 Health care and wellness professionals.
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(Q#6) Vast majority of respondents use PEMF with supplements and other.
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(Q#7) Very long list of additional things that these professionals use along with PEMF as an adjunct.
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(Q#8) The use of PEMF simultaneously with other things of all types from a long list resulted in:
- less than 1% reported reduced effectiveness when used with PEMF.
- 6% saw no change in effectiveness of the other modality when used with PEMF.
- 31% reported no synergistic effects when used with PEMF.
- 30% reported some noticeable synergistic effects when used with PEMF.
- 32% reported very strong synergistic beneficial effects when used with PEMF. -
(Q#14) Asks what conditions PEMF appears to be most effective for, the result is summarized in this pie chart:
Finally, I can offer the observation, based on detailed discussions with more than 150 clinicians over the past decade or so (NOTE: consider my inherent bias in these observations), that when a condition is helped by the use of PEMF, it generally also tends to reduce or eliminate the need for medications. Several clinicians, who run a clinic with significant revenue from drug and supplement sales, have remarked to me their concern that PEMF would reduce their business revenue, and a few have even told me (!) that they would destroy their business by introducing their clients (notice, they did not use the word “patients”) to PEMF, especially if the technology were made available at a reasonable price so that individual people could own and use PEMF at home.
Just typing that last paragraph makes me furious. One thing I have learned is that both sides of the medical profession, mainstream and alternative, are more interested in your money than in your health. There are a few exceptions, but these few prove the rule.
Specifically for pain medications, chronic pain constitutes about 2/3 of all chronic disease:
In my own personal experience, when I was able to develop PEMF for personal use and then applied it to my lower back (I had crippling inoperable pain), in a few weeks I was able to hand back a nearly full bottle of prescription synthetic heroin to my physician. He stared at the bottle and at me, and blinked for a while silently. Then he noted that “no one had ever given him back a bottle of oxycodone before, ever”.
Since then, many people have told me that they also stopped their use of those terrible pain meds, which are neither safe nor effective.
For other uses of PEMF that do not involve chronic pain, I have a lot less experience, but generally almost everyone tells me that when used as an adjunct, PEMF results in the reduced need for medications, supplements, naturopathic dietary modifications, and even other devices.
That has been my experience, but keep in mind that I design and sell PEMF devices for personal use.
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Fibromyalgia is definitely the most difficult type of pain to deal with effectively. Many people have tried ICES-PEMF for fibromyalgia, but the results have been mixed, about 50%-50%. It worked well for me, twice, but each time it took very persistent daily use directly on the initially painful muscles. I had to use it almost 24/7 for two months, and I almost gave up more than once, but I kept at it ant after a couple of months it seemed almost suddenly to make the pain subside.
Another thing to note is that I began very aggressive PEMF use as soon as possible when I realized I was getting progressive fibromyalgia. Feedback from others, combined with this, indicates to me that the best effects for fibromyalgia are when you start as soon as possible and use ICES-PEMF aggressively.
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Thanks for your post, Bob, and the interesting study. At 74, with 30 years of worsening fibromyalgia and countless failed treatments, my personal resources for dealing with this disorder have diminished, as well as possible approaches. Your post will inspire me to begin to retry ICES on some possible fibro associated local nerve pain, despite the lack of response for body wide pain. Unfortunately, recent bad luck and aging has brought several other difficult to treat pain disorders that complicate things. Despite my own lack of response, I have recommended ICES as possible treatments for others as I don’t doubt the technology. I am trying AVE and exploring VR as possible treatments, with no help for pain so far. I am also working with a wholistic, cutting-edge M.D. using advanced peptide treatments, expensive stuff, via self injection and oral methods, not for pain unfortunately, but for mitochondrial deterioration that she thinks is an FM hallmark. I’m skeptical but I’m certain they have increased my energy and helped me regain half of the twenty pounds I just lost to idiopathic pancreatitis, which is still quite problematic. I did not note ICES effect on that but, admittedly, did not use it for 24/7. Maybe your post will help me retry that also.
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I do find that, for particularly tough cases, 24/7 medium-intensity daily use of ICES-PEMF works best. This is hard for me to accept too, even as the inventor of the technology, and I resist doing so until I have no other option. But time and time again I (and others) find that this strategy works when nothing else is effective.
Another thing to consider is that sometimes it is most effective to focus this sort of aggressive treatment at the location where the pain first started. This may have been years or decades ago, but it is increasingly evident to me that old injuries at one location often can be the source of a systematic inflammatory response that causes new ailments all around the body. It helps to visualize a bullet wound, at one precise location, where the bullet remains in the body and slowly, over the course of years, leaches out toxins that have damaging effects at other locations all around the body.
I call this the “inflammatory beacon theory”. Old injuries at a single location lead to body-wide inflammation, damage, and pain. The strategy that seems to work is to “quench the beacon”, aggressively treat the initial injury 24/7, not necessarily at maximum intensity, but definitely with continuous stimulation, as close to 24/7 as possible.
When people chase the secondary locations of pain around their body, it never really seems to work. But when people focus unswervingly on the original injury, the primary inflammatory beacon, and are persistent, it works a great deal of the time.
I have difficulty accepting this, but time and again this approach just seems to work when I can convince others (and myself) to adopt this strategy.
I hope this helps.
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Again, thanks for your comments, Bob. In all honesty, I am not optimistic about Pemf helping reduce my fibromyalgia pain. I would try the M1 again on my skull, where my pain started 30 years ago, but when I was hospitalized recently for another disorder, they discarded my Pemfwear hat by mistake, really annoying, but at least the M1 was not inside at the time. Unfortunately, it looks like the Pemfwear people have gone out of business so if anyone reading has a spare cap to sell me, I’d appreciate it. Using the wrap would be more of a hassle for me and I have plenty of hassles at this point.
I ended up investing in the far more expensive, full body Bemer mat (which comes with spot treament devices) because I had already been using it twice week with my brain health therapist and had managed to get off of my prescription anti-inflammatories - which I had been taking around the clock daily for far too many years. The spot treatment has also kept me from needing my regular cortisone injections for my Morton’s neuroma. I do think that the anti inflammatory supplements she recommended (quercetin, nac and glycine as well as Vitamin D) worked better in conjunction with even just twice a week sessions - and that jumped exponentially once I could treat myself daily. Since buying the mat, my husband has also been using it daily, and he is now off of his nerve pain meds and prescription anti-inflammatories as well. He has also been on the same supplements, but the effects definitely jumped once pemf was added. We are also using the David AVE device and are now weaning off of our antidepressants as well. So YES, in my experience PEMF both amplifies the success of medicines and supplements as well as other treatments and potentially leads to lowering or totally eliminating some meds. Good luck!
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that’s incredible news! thanks for sharing 
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I started this thread without realizing there was a similar category, under Categories on the Flux Health Forum opening page: https://forum.fluxhealth.co, “Adjunctive and Synergistic Effects”; its basic description: “Looking for info on PEMF & interactions between nutrition, hyperbaric oxygen, acupuncture, stem cells, implants, etc.” Nevertheless, I included “supplements and medicines” above and I appreciate Bob’s first informative and extensive reply beginning with: “Generally the answer to all of your questions taken together often appears to be YES.” Readers here may appreciate Bob’s comments on that category (Adjunctive and Synergistic Effects) as well as other comments and questions.
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That is really good to hear, thanks.
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Hi i am in the process of considering buying an ices pemf for fibromyalgia do u get any relief from it and what areas do u use it on
Hi, it’s possible that you could use the M1 or better here if you have specific pains. I have body wide pain and extensive use of PEMF on my skull areas did nothing for that. My pain also fluctuates from place to place and is just not amenable to specific placement. A different company full body mat was waste of $$$$. I’m currently experimenting with green light leds soon to be marketed by two docs who discovered the analgesic effect. Go on pubmedcentral and google “fibromyalgia green light” and you can find their article and buy same leds they used. Cutting edge, just started experimenting myself. Contact me at slj 2000@aol.com if you want further info. Good luck.
Hi i have fibromyalgia and im not sure what to buy
I’m not the poster boy for PEMF as concerted use of the M1 and A1 did not help my fibro. Nothing else has either so that may not mean anything. After spending $$$ on PEMF devices, I would suggest starting with an M1, which probably will determine if PEMF works for you. Btw, the green light therapy with a fantastic success rate also did not work for me. As a noted fibro MD said to me after ten years of treatment failures, good luck on your journey.
Thanks for your note. Yes, no luck for ULDN and LDN, tried several years apart .Everyone with fibro should try,miracle for some. Also tried five pass IV ozone, $$and no luck, might try10 pass. Just tried IV ketamine, $$$$$and no pain relief and like 60’s bad acid trip, nightmare. I’m tapped out of even crazy possible treatments, will retry visualization stuff, long shot for fibro.Tried cutting edge injectable peptides, expensive long shots, lol bad pun. Also retried cbd/thc… no luck. New, first I think, documentary on FM. coming out 5/20 on kinema.com, called Invisible, probably lots of awful stories about a disorder no one cares about except the patients.
So sorry to hear you are not finding anything that works. Seems like you have really run the gamut on all the various modalities. Infrared sauna help the pain at all? I’ll look out for the documentary - thanks for sharing that.