It's Only Natural
Chapter XXIV
A Few Gracious Comments On Some Old Friends
We are all too often drawn to that which is new, different, or unique and tend to ignore that which is common, old and familiar, even though these old friends may have served us well, without flinching, for many years. In this chapter, I want to say a few kind words about some old methods of therapy that have served us well over the years, but with which most patients may be unfamiliar.
Short-Wave Diathermy
To the patient, the short-wave diathermy is a "heat machine." The diathermy however, is not a heating pad. The heating pad heats because of a heat-producing coil within its inner substance. As the electricity passes through this coil, heat is produced by friction of the electrons and the pad itself becomes hot. This heat is then transferred to the patient's skin by conduction. The blood vessels under this heating pad dilate, bringing more blood to the area to carry the heat to other parts of the body so that the affected area doesn't become overheated. The heat from a heating pad rarely penetrates more than a few millimeters because the circulation rapidly carries it off. Because this surface heat stimulates certain reflexes, it is useful in many instances.
The diathermy functions on the principle of electromagnetic wave energy and, in essence, it is a small radio transmitter that produces heat by passing radio waves through various tissues of the body. As the wave passes through the body structures, heat is generated deep within the muscles and bone; if sufficient radio energy is given, temperatures up to 107° F may be produced for a few minutes in these parts.
It is thus possible to produce a selected area of fever in the body to treat certain diseases by a method similar to that which the body itself uses when it produces a temperature to overcome infective disorders.
In our Centers, the diathermy is used most commonly for relaxing the muscles of the back and other areas that may be tense. Diathermy is an excellent preliminary therapy for most of our manipulative work. Also, we find that ultrasound and other specific therapies are more effective if diathermy is used first to increase the circulation and tissue activity in the treated area.
In many muscular conditions, diathermy alone is an adequate treatment; and in these cases, diathermy produces a quicker and more satisfactory cure than the newer, more expensive modalities.
Diathermy may also be used for a variety of chronic and acute infections. One must be careful, however, not to use diathermy when the body is making a completely adequate inflammatory response on its own. Used in this instance, diathermy may interfere with the body's attempts at overcoming disorders by causing an over dilation of the involved vessels, causing stagnation instead of the desired increased circulation.
Chest congestions due to colds and flu, bronchitis and the many disorders in which mucous builds up in the bronchial tubes respond well to short-wave diathermy treatments. In fact, diathermy is almost specific for these conditions and good results are usually to be expected. The patients are usually all too eager to tell you how much better they feel after the first diathermy treatment.
Many low-grade chronic infections can also be helped by using short-wave diathermy. Discretion must be used in these cases, however, for the objective is to use just enough heat to stimulate the circulation of the organ involved. If one overstimulates, one may aggravate the disorder, though this should never occur in competent hands because it takes a considerable degree of over treatment to cause trouble.
Sine Wave Therapy
Sine wave has been used therapeutically even longer than diathermy. While simple in make-up and low in cost, it is nevertheless invaluable in natural healing.
Sine wave is an alternating electrical current used to produce muscle contractions. The current that comes from your house receptacle is a 60-cycle sine wave and although it is too low in frequency and too great in amplitude to be useful medically, it also acts as a muscle stimulant. Anyone who has ever gotten a good jolt from a house outlet won't forget the way the muscles contracted.
This muscle stimulation is the only known effect of most sine wave machines on the body. Therefore in order to make sine wave therapeutically useful, it is necessary to vary the character of this contractibility so that this energy can be used for a variety of physical therapeutic purposes.
If we turn the sine wave current on and off, we produce surging sine, the muscle will contract, then relax, contract, relax, and so on. A muscle treated in this fashion will strengthen and grow in physical size. Such therapy can prove useful in rehabilitating victims of polio, stroke and diseases in which muscle atrophy plays a part. In pulsed sine wave, the alternating off and on periods are very rapid (three to four a second), acting less to strengthen the muscle than to eliminate toxic substances from the muscle and allied tissues by the constant milking effect produced by the pulsing wave.
The steady or unaltered sine wave is called a tetanizing current; it is used to reduce pain and to detect hidden inflammatory areas in certain circumstances. These three forms of sine wave enable one to produce a variety of effects in the tissues for therapeutic purposes. For instance, the tetanizing sine wave tends to reduce pain in the area because of its nature to overstimulate, thereby exhausting the pain-producing components, causing them to relax and rest. In this way a particularly painful spastic muscular problem can be reduced almost instantly.
For conditions of muscular weakness, common in many low back problems and in some upper-back difficulties, we usually use surging sine wave. This strengthens the muscle and ligamentous structures in the treated area better than exercise, because a specific area can be treated so that no adverse strain is placed on the patient. Often patients with low-back problems also have other disorders that might be endangered by exercise. Here surging sine wave treatments are of great help.
Pulsed sine wave is most useful when there is a congested area we want to de-stagnate so that the blood and lymphatic fluids once again may flow freely.
In many patients, the three aforementioned conditions can occur simultaneously-that is, a muscle spasm with pain and tissue fluid stagnation. In these chronic problems, all three forms of current-tetanizing, surging and pulse-may be useful at various periods in the treatment. One of the manufacturers of sine wave equipment has produced what they call an automatic model, which alternates at minute intervals between these three forms of therapy. We use this sine wave machine exclusively at our Healing Research Center, and though the machine is expensive, we find that nothing else can take its place, and the therapy is frequently requested.
The Myoflex
The Myoflex is a form of sine wave but differs from most in that it is designed produce an electrical wave that is supposed to be similar if not identical to that produced by the human never itself. In this way it is able (so says its inventor) to send constructive nerve impulses to affected body parts to aid in there healing or regeneration. Does it work? Thousands of our patients declare it does. Who am I to say no?
Galvanic Current
With the exception of static electricity, galvanic current (direct current) is the most ancient of all electrical forms of therapy. This current is the same type produced by a flashlight or an auto battery. It differs from sine wave in that it has polarity-one pad is positive and the other pad is negative. Because of the polarity, galvanic current has a chemical effect on the body rather than a muscle-stimulating quality.
Galvanic current produces a variety of chemical effects at its poles, which are distinctly opposite one from the other. For instance, one pole releases oxygen; the other releases hydrogen. One pole tends to soften tissue, the other tends to harden tissue. One subdues pain; the other stimulates. In general, the positive pole is used more for acute conditions, and the negative for chronic problems. For the acute state, the positive pole tends to subdue pain, reduce congestion, and stimulate the resolution of inflammatory reactions. On the other hand, the negative pole tends to soften tissue, stimulate inflammatory reactions, and dissolve calcium deposits.
You may ask why would we ever want to increase inflammation or cause inflammation? In chronic joint ailments, such as an arthritic knee of calcified shoulder bursa, we have what is known as a "cold" condition. There is little inflammation left in the area, the tissues have been inundated with calcium and the joint is stiff but not overly painful unless we try to move it beyond what the mineral deposits will allow. To heal this area, we must first dissolve the calcium, and then stimulate an inflammatory state so that the dissolved calcium will be removed and the tissues enabled to return to as normal a condition as possible. Remember it is by the process of inflammation that the body heals itself. No inflammation, no healing.
While positive galvanism is very useful in acute conditions, the negative form of galvanism can do some things that no other known form of therapy can do as well. In many chronic calcium disorders, it is a sovereign remedy in the true sense of the word, which is unfortunately little used today and almost completely ignored by orthodox medical practitioners.
Ionophoresis
Owing to the polarity of the galvanic current, it can also be used to "drive" various forms of medicinal substances into the tissues under treatment. This therapy-ionophoresis-is always used in conjunction with the basic positive or negative effects of the current.
It isn't practical here to mention the various substances that can be used with galvanic current in ionophoresis. The selection must be left up to each natural healer. I do hope, however, by this discussion of galvanism to reawaken an interest in this great remedy, which is not only effective and harmless, but is also inexpensive. This combination is very rare in medical equipment today and has never been common at any time in medical history.
Ultra-Violet Therapy
Another form of therapy once very popular and now seldom used even by natural practitioners is ultraviolet light. It has suffered somewhat the same fate as galvanic therapy and, like it, should be rediscovered.
Ultraviolet light is similar to sunlight but only in a narrow band of light energy. The ultraviolet rays are tanning rays and they also are strongly bactericidal-they kill bacteria. They also cause vitamin D to develop in the skin. When there is no sunlight, as during winter, rickets can be prevented in children with ultraviolet therapy. Nowadays, of course, we use a vitamin D tablet and the same results are accomplished with less effort. I believe, however, that there are beneficial effects on young children from ultraviolet light, in addition to its ability to produce vitamin D. As the years pass, I use whole-body ultraviolet radiation more and more on my young patients who exhibit low resistance during the winter months, and I find most of them benefit greatly.
Besides the general body regenerative effects of ultraviolet radiation, it is a specific for several skin disorders-so much so that it rapidly cures many disorders that resist the best efforts of some dermatologists. In days past most dermatologists used variations of ultraviolet therapy in their practices, but it seems the siren call of the drug houses has reduced this use by the younger practitioner.
Full body irradiation if done with the hot quartz UV lamp but a cold quartz UV lamp can also be used for certain other conditions. Skin conditions frequently respond better to the cold quartz. We also use in our Centers a small cold quartz applicator that can treat many areas of the body, with these healing rays of the sun, where otherwise the sun doesn't shine.
Sunlight, even in this artificial form, apparently is a tremendous healing agent and although anything can be overdone, surely ultraviolet therapy, carefully and properly administered, deserves a place high on our list of time-honored natural methods.
Infrared Radiation
Infrared radiation probably has less effect on the physiology than any of the methods we have heretofore described. Basically, infrared radiation is produced by a long-wave heating unit. There are no chemical or electromagnetic effects known from its energy. The unit should be considered mainly as a heat lamp. As such, it serves its purpose day in, day out, relaxing patients, soothing their bodies, and preparing them for more specific therapies. It is like a servant who has only a relatively small task to perform but who performs it with skill, dedication and never failing allegiance. What more can be asked of any servant or therapy?
Interestingly, the light energy given off by that new wonder, the Low Level Laser, is in the infra red spectrum. Maybe this faithful servant had a few tricks up his sleeve that we did not know about.
Joint Manipulation
Various forms of manipulation of the bony frame have been used since earliest times. At various periods in history, man has systematized such manipulations and given the procedures titles and names. At present in this country, the most familiar methods are called osteopathy and chiropractic.
For many years after the inception of these two therapies, their practice was belittled by the more orthodox physicians. In recent years, however, the effectiveness of manipulation has so proven itself that the tone of the medical world has changed and today these therapies are gaining more and more adherents.
In our Clinic, we find that most patients have some form of mechanical bony malalignment in conjunction with whatever other condition may exist. If this mechanical condition isn't corrected, their cure is always prolonged and may be incomplete. This structural component is usually corrected by manipulation in the early stages of treatment. In this way all our other forms of therapy function better than if such corrections weren't made.
Manipulation is such an integral part of patient treatment at our Centers that we almost take it for granted. Yet, in patient after patient referred to us by other physicians we find that a cure is often obtained by using his treatment, but with manipulative therapy added. In other words, we often find that manipulation is the catalyst that enables our other therapeutic methods to function to their best advantage.
A Few Parting Words
In this chapter you have met some of our old friends. When patients come to our Centers, and see the vast array of equipment at our disposal, they often stand in awe, and perhaps sometimes wonder if all this is really necessary to get people well. The answer surprisingly is "no." All you really need to get people well is a knowledgeable physician with the skill and desire to heal. All the equipment and devices are simply aids and tools that enable us to work more speedily and efficiently. This isn't to disparage any of our instruments; they serve a purpose. A good carpenter tries to have the best tools, but he could still build a house with poor tools. It would take him longer, and the results might not be quite as good, but it could be done.
Healing comes from within. All our instruments are simply extensions of our hands and eyes to speed the curing procedure. Although we have great admiration and faith in all our new fascinating instruments, the old tools still fit well in the hand and rarely, if ever, fail us.
Patients also ask us don't the new drugs make all these things obsolete? My answer is this: Man has built a chemical house of cards for himself and his progeny. These chemical compounds, not occurring in nature, will eventually cause the body to so rebel that they will have to be abandoned. At that time the world will be very thankful for the these and other natural forms of healing to help relieve them of their suffering.