Flux Health Forum

PEMF and frequencies

Just found this incredible practical forum and ICES site.

Read very interesting article of Bob Dennis here https://www.micro-pulse.com/blogs/news/12-things-you-need-to-know-about-pemf-and-ices-technology

The information about frequencies, however, differes with my experience. The influence of frequencies on brain, mood, sleep is great. There is a clear brainwave entrainment, and there is a big difference between 4Hz or 10Hz for example. There are several devices on the market which promote sleep or consciosness change (like more focus) with PEMF. Personally I tried EcoSleep https://www.sleepneurotech.com/en/ - was not very much happy with it, but frequencies matter for sure. I could feel them.

Perhaps I don’t understand. Could anybody explain me why Bob says that frequencies don’t matter?

Thanks

Yes, of course. Brainwave entrainment is very different from the physiological effects of PEMF on basically all other tissues. Brainwave entrainment can also be done with direct current electricity, light, sound, even tactile stimulus.

PEMF can also elicit brainwave entrainment, but as a secondary effect. The primary effects of PEMF arise from an entirely different biophysics and have entirely different physiologic effects and clinical applications. They do not depend on precise or narrow ranges of frequency. For the primary effects of PEMF on all tissues, not including brainwave entrainment, the claims of precise frequencies are baseless pseudoscience and marketing fraud.

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Bob, thanks for your answer.

However, if we consider the device like a PEMF mat (big enough) or a small but powerful PEMF device which will “reach” the brain - then it will automatically produce brainwave entrainment, won’t it?

And as our brain is like a CPU for our whole body so it will influence physiologic effects, won’t it?

I mean that brainwave entrainment shall not be neglected - and then frequency choice may influence the whole thing.

They are separate effects, but if you apply PEMF in such a way that you will influence both, by wearing PEMF coils on your head or placing your head on a PEMF mat, for example, then you would expect to see both effects.

But that does not mean that they are necessarily “the same thing”, or that everything in the body is connected, so they are always somehow coupled together. Physiologically, the effects are quite distinct, and I have written about this, posted it on YouTube, and given scientific talks on this basic reality as it relates to PEMF.

The bottom line is: if you are using PEMF in a way that it directly impacts your CNS, you should also consider the potential effects of brainwave entrainment. In this case, it is helpful to select a frequency range that your brain finds to be pleasant, while your tissues respond to the entirely different effects of electro-magnetic induction.

This strategy works well principally because your other tissues do not require a precise frequency to get benefits from PEMF, and therefore you are at liberty to select a frequency range that is beneficial for both effects: brainwave entrainment and PEMF inductive tissue stimulation.

I have written about this in many other locations. And because ICES-PEMF is not really primarily designed to promote sleep, though many people use it for that purpose, it is necessary for each individual to find which brainwave entrainment frequency band works best for them, individually, to enhance sleep. I have watched people argue very strongly that the best wave form for sleep is:
Delta
Theta
Alpha
(and a few others)
Who is correct: everyone, and no one. Individuals clearly respond differently, and contrary to much of the published science, this phenomenon is quite diverse among individuals.

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this seems like a good place to share definitions of brainwaves:
The raw EEG has usually been described in terms of frequency bands: Gamma greater than 30(Hz) BETA (13-30Hz), ALPHA (8-12 Hz), THETA (4-8 Hz), and DELTA(less than 4 Hz). For example: Our brain uses 13Hz (high alpha or low beta) for “active” intelligence.

source: https://nhahealth.com/brainwaves-the-language/

I’ve only begun experimenting with these and have found theta has already helped with sleep and dreaming (i never dream)… only 2 days but so far I’ve noticed it help!


perhaps it’s expectations and placebo, but my 10yo fell asleep on this faster than melatonin according to him… i have fallen asleep faster than expected as well 2 times that I’ve used and will test my teen.

Hi, my daughter Has a terminal disease with no known cure, I have recently received the b5 ices device to help with her condition, it is too soon to determine if it has been beneficial, but I am optimistic, when I got the device I thought I can apply any frequency to the b5 protocol, unfortunately I realized that i can only change the time
Is it possible to reprogram the device so that I am able to change the b5 protocol, for example instead of 5,100 pps, I could change it to 10,46,136 pps, also I would like the list of frequencies to contain all of the numbers, but Not the dismal numbers, for example not 1.1,1.2…pps but to include numbers like 46,47 …101,102…298,299,300pps
I am not interested in changing the time, nor in the ADVANCED SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS ( the last level ) , they can be deleted if necessary to make more space, is this possible?
My daughters disease is on a intracellular level ,and i know this device works mostly on an extra cellular level, so l want to try different frequencies
Thank you

Hi @Bissan, I am very sorry to hear of your daughters condition.

Changing firmware on any product is a very big deal. If you have never developed a product before, this would be very difficult to understand. But likely you have not, so I can assure you, changing software on a product for a single user is exceedingly difficult, costly, and time consuming, and takes months to check, calibrate, and verify the changes.

Therefore, we need to think this through before doing anything that could end up being a waste of time. People panic and waste huge amounts of time and energy chasing after phantoms unless they slow down and think clearly.

First: this is FACT: If it can be demonstrated that changing the firmware will definitely benefit your daughter, I will do it for you free of charge. But you will find that this is an exceedingly challenging reality to prove. More than likely, you would end up chasing your tail, following wisps of rumors of some secret or mystical frequency, clinging to baseless hopes, but ultimately accomplishing nothing. This would be harmful to your daughter, by not using the available time and resources in an intelligent and productive way.

As for myself, I am responsible to many thousands of people. I work all day, every day, every holiday, in service of humanity in general, so I can not afford to spend weeks and months chasing mirages down rabbit holes.

You would need to prove, scientifically, that you know exactly what you need, however, your description:

“My daughters disease is on a intracellular level ,and i know this device works mostly on an extra cellular level, so l want to try different frequencies”

This suggests to me that you have gotten a lot of unreliable information from some external source. Seriously though, I will help if I possibly can, so let’s think this through carefully. We begin by pointing out at least one error of fact, and one error of logic:

Error of fact: your statement “… and i know this device works mostly on an extra cellular level, …” is incorrect. We do not know that at all. Several very plausible mechanisms of action, and everything known about PEMF biophysically, clearly indicate at least some amount of intracellular electro-magnetic energy transduction.

Error of logic: Your deduction “… so l want to try different frequencies”, this conclusion does not follow from your earlier assertions, even if both were correct, when we already know that one is clearly false.

Further, I use the B5 as currently programmed using the available frequencies for a lot of my current PEMF research, and I can assure you that the frequency resolution, accuracy, and range is easily enough to more than sufficiently cover all relevant ranges of frequencies of biological importance within the scope of this specific technology. If you want higher frequencies, for example, you need something entirely different, not one of our devices.

To fully understand and appreciate this, you need to know how electronic devices are calibrated and toleranced. For example, electronic resistors are only available in a few specific resistance values, yet they cover the full range of resistances that any electronic device would ever need for any application, ever. How is this? It is because of the real tolerances of real devices. This is a rather involved engineering topic, but I can assure you, if this were not true, we would not be communicating electronically, now or ever. We would be hunting mammoths with rocks.

Finally, I would need scientific proof that different frequencies with differences of the tolerances you are requesting (1 Hz change in 300, for example) have any detectable biological effects. I am familiar with the entire, global, PEMF scientific literature, and I can assure you that no such evidence exists. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you and endangering your daughter by filling your head with counter-productive mis-information.

If I am mistaken, and you have strong (or any) evidence that what you are requesting would have any possibility of having any benefit for your daughter, please let me know, and I will immediately change my opinion on the matter and render you all possible assistance beginning immediately.

However, I think no such evidence or information exists. So, rather than chasing mirages, how do we actually help your daughter?

Based on almost three decades of research, I feel confident to say that PEMF effectiveness is a result of the waveform shape, not frequency. It is also not hyper narrow and specific, but rather broadly effective biologically. These essential, effective waveform shapes are programmed into our ICES-PEMF devices. They are produced with every pulse that you get, at every “frequency”.

So, it is my scientific opinion that you would get the best benefits from using the devices as designed, as programmed, and selecting pulse patterns that have other specific, meaningful value, such as brainwave entrainment in certain bands, or sensory tolerance (something that feels right, not irritating).

This way you will have the chance to determine whether or not ICES-PEMF technology will be helpful or not for your daughter, and you can do so relatively quickly, without wasting weeks and months chasing after technical modifications that by themselves will never have any effect.

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Thank you so mush for responding
From what I’ve read you are a wise man a true scientist
My daughter has a genetic disorder that causes inflammation within the neural, muscle,liver, cells.
I wanted to use b5 protocol but with 10,32pps instead of 5, 100pps on my daughter’s brain ,it would be easer for me, instead of using the hold-1 protocol and changing it every ten minutes from 10 to 32pps, because I have read that you shouldn’t use the same frequency ,then your brain will get used to it
I thought that changing the framework was an easy task, that was ignorant of me , I will continue to use the hold-1 protocol, if there is any improvement I will update you.
Thank you once again

in dealing with inflammation, have you tried the default omni protocol (assuming that’s available on the b-5)? is there specific advice you are getting to use a specific frequency? do you have the reference to share? it’d be interesting to read what and why they recommend or is this a person’s verbal recommendation w/o any specific support/citations?

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I think the Omni-1 protocol has the frequency of 100pps , I am afraid to use that frequency on my daughter’s brain, because she suffers from tonic clonic seizures , so I am using the hold-1 protocol and constantly changing the frequency, until hopefully this device is updated to make my own chain of frequencies to use and experiment
Thankful the device has helped with my daughters headaches which is great

OK, so that is very good, clear thinking. I agree scientifically that it is important to change the pulse rate. I have actually engineered this into our ICES-PEMF devices, so there should be no need to consider modifying the firmware. The functionality you need is already built-in.

This gives you three easy options:

1 - Just pick one (or experiment with a few) of our pre-made brainwave entrainment protocols. All of these sweep across a pre-set range of frequencies.

You can see the available frequency sweep ranges on the Quick Start card for our more advanced products (C5, B5, M1):

Here is a direct link to the card:

2 - The second frequency set you should consider is the Schumann Series:

These are listed on the same Quick Start card linked above (look at page 2)

For the range of pulse rates (frequencies) you want to use, you might consider Schumann 4 or Schumann 5.

Of course, keep in mind, there is nothing secret or magical about “Schumann Frequencies”. These just happen to be pulse frequencies in the range you are interested in, and they seem to be helpful physiologically for a wide range of applications of ICES-PEMF.

3 - Your third option: using the B5, you could set it up to do a “WAVE” function. You can read about this in the B5 User Manual:

Click on the link “WAVE” in the Table of Contents, or just scroll down to page 58 of the manual.

This allows you to set a wave sweep between any two available frequencies. The list of available frequencies is on page 83 of the same B5 User Manual. This list includes 10 and 32 pps, which are the frequencies you want.

(NOTE: “pps” = “pulses per second”, which for all practical purposes is the same as “Hz” which is Hertz, or frequency)

Then you select the ramp time from 1 to 255 seconds, so this way you set the speed of the sweep. You might want to start with 240, which means the frequency will ramp up (or down) over a time period of 240 seconds (4 minutes). But this definitely does not need to be precise, just something at a reasonable rate of change.

This third option (available only on the B5) is pretty advanced, but it will allow you to do something that is at least as good or better than what you want to try (using a smoother change rather than just switching between two frequencies). This can be difficult for users to figure out, but keep in mind: the B5 is designed for PEMF researchers, and I think the B5 it is the most sophisticated PEMF device that is available anywhere.

The B5 should remember these settings for you for the next time you use the device. So you should only need to do this once.

When you run it, the B5 will then continuously sweep the output frequency from 10 to 32 to 10 to 32 to 10 … in 10 steps of frequency in that range, ramping up-and-down-and-up-and-down-and-up-… forever.


A bit more technical detail for UberNerds…

In more detail, this is what the B5 will do when you program it this way:

You set the upper and lower frequency limits: as an example, lets use 10 and 32

The internal microprocessor then calculates the step size, which is (MAX - MIN) / 9

We want 10 steps, so we divide by 9 to determine the size of the nine spaces between the 10 different frequencies.

This results in a table of frequencies:

image

This table shows the ten different frequency steps the B5 uses when it sets the output parameters for the WAVE function in ten small steps from 10 pps to 32 pps. The microprocessor then calculates the time delay between switching frequency steps, so that the ramp goes up (and down) at the speed you want it to.

Finally, the microprocessor stores all of these results in non-volatile RAM memory so that it can quickly access these parameters the next time you turn the device ON.

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The c5 also has this feature? @bob

No, the C5 has a simplified user interface. Therefore, the C5 has fewer features available. This is the ubiquitous engineering design tradeoff: complexity versus usability.

The B5 is much more complicated to use than the C5 precisely because it has access to these features, which is way too much for the casual user, and really is unnecessary for people who just want easy, reliable, portable PEMF for health.

I don’t even use a B5 for myself, I use a C5. I only use a B5 for its intended function: as a PEMF research device.

thanks @Bob I have ordered a C5 and I think that is the right thing for me.

Excellent, OK, I am confident that the model C5 will be more than enough for what you need in terms of firmware features.

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