Revolutionizing Healing: The Benefits of Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy

When your doctor is eager to prescribe medications or recommend surgery for what ails you, you may first want to consider PEMF.

PEMF therapy mimics the electromagnetic frequencies of the earth, with healing effects. GaudiLab/Shutterstock

Conditions such as chronic pain, inflammatory diseases, and mood disorders, including depression and anxiety, are currently on the rise.

In 2021, an estimated 20.9 percent of U.S. adults experienced chronic pain—representing a staggering 51.6 million people. An additional 6.9 percent, or 17.1 million people, experienced high-impact chronic pain, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 125 million people in the United States are living with a chronic inflammatory disease, and depression now affects more than 18 million adults.

While conventional medicine’s answer for many of these conditions is medication, surgery, or both, a little-publicized treatment has been shown to help the body heal without invasive treatments.

Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) is a therapy that has been around for more than a century and is increasingly being used in clinics and hospitals to treat a wide variety of ailments, including pain, inflammation, wound healing, and bone repair, as well as psychological conditions such as depression. PEMF is a potential option for those seeking an alternative to medications and surgery or anyone who hasn’t found relief with conventional treatments.

PEMF Therapy and How It Works

PEMF is a type of energy medicine that directs pulsed magnetic fields toward the body to optimize cellular function and stimulate the body’s innate healing capabilities.

PEMF is often used to improve immune system functioning, circulation, and bone healing, as well as to accelerate healing after an injury. It’s also used to boost energy, improve sleep, and relieve stress.

In the book “PEMF—The Fifth Element of Health,” author Bryant A. Myers, a former physics professor and leading expert in the field of energy medicine, described PEMF therapy as a “whole body battery recharger.”

“By using a PEMF therapy mat just 2 times a day for 8 minutes, you recharge your 100 trillion cells, improving ATP [adenosine triphosphate] production, increasing oxygenation, enhancing circulation, promoting hydration, facilitating detoxification, and gaining a better overall absorption of nutrients,” he said. “It’s like putting little ‘tiny jumper cables’ on all your cells and ‘jump-starting’ them back to health.’”

The pulses used in PEMF therapy occur at very low frequencies that can penetrate the skin, getting deep into our tissues at the cellular level. This activates our cells and stimulates our body’s natural healing and repair mechanisms.

PEMF was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1979 for use in healing nonunion fractures—fractures that don’t completely heal due to a variety of factors that include decreased blood flow. PEMF has since been approved for a variety of conditions, including reducing post-operative swelling and pain, as an adjunct to cervical fusion surgery, for treatment-resistant depression, and for treating certain types of cancer (specifically, recurrent glioblastoma and metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma).

Studied and Used by NASA

Mr. Myers explains in his book that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been researching PEMFs for some time because of their importance to human health and the impact astronauts could face while being deprived of these fields while in space.

Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock

Studies conducted by NASA explored the effects of PEMF on human physiology, and scientists at the NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a device able to stimulate cartilage regeneration by promoting the growth of new cartilage in synovial joints using PEMFs.

PEMF Studies

PEMF therapy is well-researched, and a search for it in the PubMed database yields nearly 1,500 results. The following are some studies demonstrating the effectiveness of PEMF therapy for a variety of conditions.

Perhaps one of the most common uses of PEMF therapy is for pain relief.

• A pilot, double-blind, randomized trial demonstrated that one month of PEMF treatment decreased pain and improved functional performance in patients with osteoarthritis.
• A review published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal found that PEMF significantly reduced pain and swelling after plastic surgery. The authors concluded that PEMF is “a powerful tool with no known side effects for the adjunctive, noninvasive, nonpharmacologic management of postoperative pain and edema.”
• In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, targeted PEMF was used on patients who underwent breast reconstruction surgery. The targeted PEMF reduced pain by 50 percent, edema by more than 40 percent, interleukin-1beta (a marker of inflammation) by 40 percent, and the use of pain medication was reduced by 50 percent after the surgeries. The researchers concluded that “adjunctive pulsed electromagnetic field therapy could impact the speed and quality of wound repair in many surgical procedures.”

Studies also show that PEMF therapy is beneficial for those suffering from depression.

• Transcranial PEMF, or T-PEMF therapy, was found to be a beneficial augmentation treatment to ongoing pharmacotherapy in patients with treatment-resistant depression, according to a multicenter study published in 2020 in the journal European Psychiatry.

Studies have even shown that PEMF therapy can affect organ regeneration.

• Two different studies involving rats found that using extremely low-frequency, or ELF-PEMFs, helped regenerate the liver more quickly in rats who had part of their livers removed.

PEMF Therapy in the Clinic

Chianni Lin, who holds a doctorate in acupuncture and Oriental medicine and is the founder of the Center for Acupuncture & Anti-Aging Medicine in Santa Monica, California, incorporates PEMF therapy into all her acupuncture and integrative medicine treatments and says all the therapy beds in her center include PEMF mats.

“These integrated treatments have led to accelerated improvements in pain management, stress reduction, improved sleep and relaxation, and reduced inflammation,” she told The Epoch Times.

Dini Rucker, owner of Florida PEMF in Bradenton, Florida, told The Epoch Times that most of his clients are dealing with pain from age or surgical procedures and that 80 to 90 percent report feeling better—either better mood or less pain—after the PEMF treatment. He also noted that, although his clients are mostly humans, animals respond even faster to PEMF therapy.

As a side note—PEMF therapy is also used in veterinary medicine—and has been for decades, including on horses recovering from leg injuries and dogs recovering from spinal injuries and surgery.

In addition to being beneficial for a variety of specific conditions, Dr. Lin noted that PEMF can also be used for overall health and well-being.

“One aspect often overlooked is PEMF therapy’s role in enhancing overall wellness, not just treating specific conditions,“ she said. ”It can improve sleep quality, reduce stress, and enhance energy levels, contributing to a better quality of life. We believe when combined with acupuncture, herbal medicine, and integrative therapies, PEMF can lead to meaningful improvements in our patients’ health.”

PEMF therapy is delivered via devices that include full-body mats that you lie down on, smaller mats, and more localized devices such as wands or bands that can target a specific area and direct the pulsed electromagnetic fields to the site of an injury or wound that is slow to heal. PEMF devices can also be purchased to use at home. Devices come in a variety of types, and the price varies depending on multiple factors such as the intensity and frequency it delivers as well as portability, so be sure to do your research to ensure that you are getting the best device for your specific needs.

Final Thoughts

In an age in which our ailments are increasingly treated using invasive therapies such as medications and surgery, PEMF therapy demonstrates that we can harness the healing power inherent within all of us by simply replicating the same frequencies provided by the life-giving planet we call home.

Dr. Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel Prize winner said this of PEMF therapy: “PEMF is a benefit for mankind from infant to the geriatric. PEMF will lead to a change in the paradigm of medicine.”

With more and more people embracing natural alternatives for healing their bodies, minds, and spirits, perhaps that paradigm shift is closer than we think.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the extent of NASA’s use of PEMF technology.