The meetings of the International College of Integrative Medicine always provide new and interesting information about advances in holistic health care. Regular readers of this blog will remember my previous posting about my Adventures in Mesotherapy, when I sought a way to improve my hearing. Although I had not expected another opportunity to improve my hearing acuity at the October 2013 ICIM meeting in Columbus, Ohio (“INNOVATION: Meeting Today’s Medical Challenges”), that’s what happened.
Debra and I were attending the ICIM meeting to conduct two sessions on meditation and hypnosis. In addition to our own presentations, we also do our best to take advantage of learning opportunities as they occur, and ICIM meetings provide wonderful opportunities for that. For those of us without much in the way of formal medical training, even hallway conversations can be enlightening.
We drove to Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, 10 October. After checking in (Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel), we took a quick walk before attending a preconference meeting on Diagnostic Face Reading. See Debra’s audio commentary and an interactive interactive Face Map for more information. For those who know what to look for, the state of a person’s health is stamped on his or her face. This is not the sort of information you’d typically find in an Internet news health posting.
At some point,* Debra and I will provide more information about what we learned. For now it’s enough to say that several of the workshops focused on the degree to which human health problems are caused by heavy metals in our environment and bad diet. Regular readers of this blog and the SCS website already know that, of course, but seeing the supporting statistics and having the extent of the problem described by physicians, certainly amplifies awareness—to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, the “prospect of death concentrates the mind wonderfully.” We clearly need to do more to reduce our (human) exposure to heavy metals and, if we’ve been exposed, to eliminate heavy metals from our bodies. That is not the focus of this blog, however.
My focus here is on my experience with one of the exhibitors at the ICIM conference: Pulsed Power Technologies. Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMFT or PEMF), is a way to restore cell health. Although the equipment is not intended to be used as a diagnostic tool, it can reveal where the body has tissue and/or organ damage that is often disguised by physical compensations. When the body can’t repair an injury quickly and easily on its own, it develops a “work around” to compensate for the problem. Most medical doctors treat the symptom and have not been trained to look for physical compensations. My experience with the PEMF equipment during the ICIM conference quickly reminded me of several old injuries. You can find out more about the process of “Pulsed Magnetic Cellular Exercise” at these websites:
The equipment is not cheap. Although it is not designed to be a medical device, it is intended for serious use by trained professionals, often in a gym or professional sports environment. Not all PEMF machines are created equal. I had tried similar equipment at the ICIM conference in Lexington, Kentucky, (where I had received the mesotherapy) and was not impressed. This time it was different. I don’t know for sure whether it was a difference in the equipment or the personnel who were demonstrating the product. This time, I was definitely impressed.
The three vendor representatives at the conference; Scott Fenton (scott@pulsedpowertech.com), Alexandra Riccio, and Margaret Bowlander; all worked with me, usually taking turns but sometimes working together, depending on traffic at their display. In addition to understanding their products and knowing how to use them, Scott, Alexandra, and Margaret know human physiology and the relationships among parts and the whole. One of the things I appreciate the most about the ICIM membership—and the vendors who exhibit products and services for them—is that they recognize that the body is an integrated whole: what happens to one part influences the whole.
I started with one session. Using my reactions to the PEMF application, the individuals who worked with me discovered my old high school football injuries. After that first application, I attended one of the conference sessions but felt so good about my experience with the PEMF MagnaCharger, I went back to ask for more. This time, I asked about my hearing and got more than an earful. I ended up receiving PEMF pretty much from head to foot. If the PEMF machine is correct, and I think it is, a lot of my hearing loss stems from old (high school) injuries to my liver and kidney. The body is, after all, an integrated system, so that didn’t come as a surprise to me. It doesn’t fit currently accepted medical views, but at one time mainstream medical practitioners rejected the germ-theory of disease. Some physicians are simply ahead of the curve and more willing to consider new evidence.
By the time I was “finished,” I was sufficiently wiped out by the treatment that I needed to go take a nap. What’s remarkable is that the Pulsed Power representatives knew from the start that I was not going to purchase one of the machines. They spent the time with me because they, like the doctors and others who form their target market, genuinely care about the health and well-being of others. They wanted to help me. As exhibitors at a medical convention, their purpose in being there is, of course, to sell their product to those intending to put the devices in their offices to facilitate the health and well-being of their patients.
I was glad for the gift of time and energy. I received about 90 minutes of treatment and felt much better for it. While it is hard to say how much the single treatment will have influenced me in the long run, the effects of the PEMF therapy on my larger physical symptoms are obvious. My low back pain, for example, is gone. My initial impression was that my hearing had improved. Hearing acuity, however, is hard to track. When your vision needs attention, you are aware of it because things are out of focus. Hearing is different. Hearing loss has to be fairly significant before you are aware that you’re missing things others can hear. I have not been back to the audiologist since the test I had before receiving the mesotherapy. I still intend to go back, but my sense is that other things have been and will continue to be a higher priority. As long as my hearing continues to improve, I will wait for a return visit to the audiologist.
One of the doctors at the ICIM conference is from SW Michigan, and she has one of the PEMF machines in her clinic. The adventure will continue….
* For more about what we learned at the October ICIM conference, see our November “Beyond Mastery” newsletter. If you’re not already signed up, you may do so at the SCS Website.
