Flux Health Forum

PEMF makes me very tired?

I was wondering if anyone else had this issue? Using my A9, and especially my M 1, leave me very tired. Any idea why that is? Any way to combat it? Unfortunately it’s enough of an obstacle that I can’t use the device all the time and my pain comes back

Where are you using it (knee, neck, gut, etc)? How long are you using it and when do you notice you are tired (eg. concurrent to using it, 1 hour after using it, 1 day after using it)? For my family, I have noticed that it can lower inflammation systemically that allows our body to go into a restorative state which can feel as tiredness. If on the neck it can stimulate vagus nerve and make me feel tired as body shifts to parasympathetic state. If on the gut for too long, it can cause die off which can make me have malaise and fatigue. Curious to know the conditions of use and when the tiredness sets in for you.

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i would also like to add that without knowing details nor even how pemf works for various health conditions in the body, sometimes what you are experiencing initially can be part of the healing cycle. one guess could be that your body may be expending energy to heal and you are feeling that cost. :thinking::man_shrugging:t4:

I would first try reducing the intensity.
I also notice that if I am using ICES-PEMF on a new injury, it does make me a bit tired, which I attribute to the additional systemic metabolic load of accelerated healing.

But a few people do just get drowsy when using ICES-PEMF. I strongly recommend that they not drive or operate dangerous machinery, and consider using the device primarily while you sleep. These people also notice that ICES-PEMF really helps them relax much more than they normally can. For these people, it should actually help them sleep.

In these latter cases, I think the relaxation and drowsiness might be because ICES-PEMF reduces general inflammatory stress, so it is easier to slip into a state of deep relaxation. This can really be a good thing, so long as you use it at the right times.

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i would LOVE for this to be the consistent result for my attempt to improve sleep quality! alas, i remind myself that this is yet a tool in the world of health that can assist what the body is trying to do all the time: heal and repair

on a tangential/related note, I’ve had mixed results of relaxed/very low stress levels when applying ices for improved quality of sleep per my Garmin watch and actual experience/feeling

I can share some insight from this perspective of Chinese medicine that may or may not be helpful. In acupuncture, the intensity and duration of treatment are very important factors that need to be personalized for each patient. Intensity refers to the amount of stimulation applied to the acupuncture needle. Duration refers to how long each session is. The theory is that all pain is due to Qi and blood stagnation. Strong stimulation will break up the qi and blood stagnation, temporarily relieving the pain. However, if the patient has an underlying deficiency condition, too aggressive or too long a treatment will overly disperse the qi and leave the patient feeling fatigued. This is because the Chinese concept of qi is at least partially related to the generation of physiological energy.

When a patient is older, has a chronic problem, and/or fatigues easily from exertion, acupuncture theory generally recommends a less intense form of stimulation. My own observation when using PEMF is that the intensity setting on the device corresponds well to the degree of stimulation applied to a needle. So, a lower setting on the PEMF device may provide pain relief without inducing the fatigue. You’ll have to experiment to find a sweet spot. Similarly, the duration of each acupuncture treatment would generally be shorter in this scenario. So, rather than wearing the device continuously, you might try periods of stimulation interspersed with periods when you are not using the device. So, you could try one cycle of a low intensity session, then see how long a break you can take before the pain begins to recur.

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This makes a lot of good sense, and I agree with the line of thinking.

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Individuals definitely respond differently. And individual responses vary with coil placement, duration, and especially intensity. If I use ICES-PEMF at too high intensity for too long, it makes me irritated and shaky.

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Ideally I would use it 24 hours a day, but because of the fatigue I try to only use it in the evenings for like four hours. I do occasionally use it on my neck but I primarily use it on my hands and arms

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Possibly but it’s just so intense I unfortunately can’t use the devices as much as I would like

It is definitely useful for sleep and I’ll try lowering the intensity because that makes sense! I just wish I could use it all day to cope with the pain, hard to do when I’m so tired though

During the day, try using it for short periods of time. PEMF tends to have persistent effects (not like crude “pain blockers” such as TENS), and it can last several hours.

So, you might try using it on a medium setting for 10 minutes or so, or maybe a bit more. Then discontinue for a few hours. The pain will creep back in, then use it again.

This type of intermittent use is not less convenient than any other available treatment or device, so it is just a matter of developing a habit to use it in brief pulses.

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Yeah I think that’s what I’ll end up doing experimenting and probably lowering the intensity

I’ll do that thanks! Part of the problem is sometimes the pain is so intense a milder setting doesn’t cut it

I understand. I am in the same situation. So, my thinking is that maybe you should try short, intense bursts, maybe 10-15 minutes, of medium to high intensity throughout the day, as needed.

I suspect that you will eventually accommodate to the PEMF, so that it does not make you so drowsy. I think that process is more about an adjustment to your metabolism rather than to an inflammatory mechanism. Buy you should never habituate to the PEMF, so it should continue to work every time you use it without loss of effectiveness for pain for decades, maybe longer.

So, I am pretty confident that you will eventually be able to use PEMF with all the benefits for pain and inflammation but without the drowsiness.

Could you be electrically hypersensitive?

Me personally or in general can one be electrically hypersensitive? As for myself, I have found I am more sensitive to a lot of inputs, so I think yes this is possible.

I don’t think I am hypersensitive. With real genuine working biologically-active PEMF, too much is simply too much in my case. Probably true for everyone to some extent or another. After all, you don’t need to be hypersensitive to water to drown. For all things: too much is too much.

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One would be generally electrically hypersensitive if this was the issue with a PEMF device. It wouldn’t be the case for you to be fine with everything other than the device. Personally, I have a problem with a few wifi devices (dizzy, brain fog), but never had any problems using my M1.

Before getting the M1, I had a Sedona mat to address my pain, which was so intense, I had tried a higher setting, but the side effect was fatigue and irritability. Not sure if it was due to the pain itself or the PEMF, but when I told the manufacturer, he suggested reducing the intensity and not run it overnight (which was what I was doing). He said doing it overnight with the high intensity could be too much for my body to take. When I reduced the intensity and laid on it for only an hour at a time broken up throughout the day, those symptoms gradually disappeared.

Now I use the M1 all night long, and then on other parts of the body for the rest of my waking periods — no problem.