Long-term treatment with transcranial pulsed electromagnetic fields improves movement speed and elevates cerebrospinal erythropoietin in Parkinson’s disease ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Background
Parkinson’s disease is characterized by motor dysfunctions including bradykinesia. In a recent study, eight weeks of daily transcranial stimulation with bipolar pulsed electromagnetic fields improved functional rate of force development and decreased inter-hand tremor coherence in patients with mild Parkinson’s disease.
Objective
To investigate the effect of long-term treatment with transcranial bipolar pulsed electromagnetic fields on motor performance in terms of movement speed and on neurotrophic and angiogenic factors.
Methods
Patients diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease had either daily 30-min treatment with bipolar (±50 V) transcranial pulsed electromagnetic stimulation (squared pulses, 3ms duration) for three eight-week periods separated by one-week pauses (T-PEMF group) (n = 16) or were included in a PD-control group (n = 8). Movement speed was assessed in a six-cycle sit-to-stand task performed on a force plate. Cerebrospinal fluid and venous blood were collected and analyzed for erythropoietin and vascular endothelial growth factor.
Results
Major significant improvement of movement speed compared to the natural development of the disease was found (p = 0.001). Thus, task completion time decreased gradually during the treatment period from 10.10s to 8.23s (p<0.001). The untreated PD-control group did not change (p = 0.458). The treated group did not differ statistically from that of a healthy age matched reference group at completion of treatment. Erythropoietin concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid also increased significantly in the treated group (p = 0.012).
Conclusion
Long-term treatment with transcranial bipolar pulsed electromagnetic fields increased movement speed markedly and elevated erythropoietin levels. We hypothesize that treatment with transcranial bipolar pulsed electromagnetic fields improved functional performance by increasing dopamine levels in the brain, possibly through erythropoietin induced neural repair and/or protection of dopaminergic neurons.
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Effects of Long-Term Treatment with T-PEMF on Forearm Muscle Activation and Motor Function in Parkinson’s Disease 20218karger.com/article/fulltext...
"Bipolar pulsed electromagnetic stimulation applied to the brain (T-PEMF) is a non-pharmacological treatment which has been shown to stimulate nerve growth, attenuate nerve abnormalities, and improve microcirculation. We report on a 62-year-old, medically well-treated man with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. He was treated with T-PEMF, 30 min per day for three 8-week periods separated by two 1-week breaks. The disease made his handwriting impossible to read mainly due to small letters and lack of fluency. Forearm EMG measured during standardized conditions showed an involuntary spiky EMG pattern with regular burst activity (on his left side) at baseline. The intervention normalized the handwriting and forearm EMG. The UPDRS-motor score decreased from 25 to 17, and UPDRS-II-handwriting decreased from a pre-intervention value of 3 to 0 after the intervention. Finally, the patient reported improved fine motor function, less muscle stiffness, less muscle cramps and tingling, and less fatigue during the day in response to the T-PEMF treatment. The improved handwriting lasted for approximately 3 months after the treatment. Our results should be considered as preliminary, and large-scale, controlled studies are recommended to elucidate the therapeutic potential of long-term treatment with T-PEMF."
Is that available in the United States? What do you need to qualify? Is it covered by insurance? What's the cost? Are you using that therapy? Thank you for your help!
I can tell you T-PEMF is available in the states. They use it to treat depression. It is kind of pricey. I don't know about insurance covering it. I don't really know if it works. Just finding articles. I am not using it.
Thanks for sharing the article. I live in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. UPMC and Carnegie Mellon are pretty active with the Parkinson's treatment. Carnegie Mellon is working on the focused ultrasound. I'm really struggling at this point and I'm interested in all the information that's out there. Again thanks for sharing and appreciate any updates. Do you have to use this long-term meaning for the rest of your life? I guess if that's the case it could be pretty costly but if it works I guess it's worth it.
I think you would need to use it periodically forever. If insurance covers it, then it would not be expensive at all. You can also buy units, but you would want to make sure you got equipment with the same specs as what was used in a successful trial.
TREATMENT WITH AC PULSED ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS IMPROVES OLFACTORY FUNCTION IN PARKINSON'S DISEASE 1998 sci-hub.ru/10.3109/00207459...
"Olfactory dysfunction is a common symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). It may manifest in the early stages of the disease and infrequently may even antedate the onset of motor symptoms. The cause of olfactory dysfunction in PD remains unknown. Pathological changes characteristic of PD (i.e., Lewy bodies) have been demonstrated in the olfactory bulb which contains a large population of dopaminergic neurons involved in olfactory information processing. Since dopaminergic drugs do not affect olfactory threshold in PD patients, it has been suggested that olfactory dysfunction in these patients is not dependent on dopamine deficiency. I present two fully medicated Parkinsonian patients with long standing history of olfactory dysfunction in whom recovery of smell occurred during therapeutic transcranial application of AC pulsed electromagnetic fields (EMFs) in the picotesla flux density. In both patients improvement of smell during administration of EMFs occurred in conjunction with recurrent episodes of yawning. The temporal association between recovery of smell and yawning behavior is remarkable since yawning is mediated by activation of a subpopulation of striatal and limbic postsynaptic dopamine D2 receptors induced by increased synaptic dopamine release. A high density of dopamine D2 receptors is present in the olfactory bulb and tract. Degeneration of olfactory dopaminergic neurons may lead to upregulation (i.e., supersensitivity) of postsynaptic dopamine D2 receptors. Presumably, small amounts of dopamine released into the synapses of the olfactory bulb during magnetic stimulation may cause activation of these supersensitive receptors resulting in enhanced sense of smell. Interestingly, in both patients enhancement of smell perception occurred only during administration of EMFs of 7 Hz frequency implying that the release of dopamine and activation of dopamine D2 receptors in the olfactory bulb was partly frequency dependent. In fact, weak magnetic fields have been found to cause interaction with biological systems only within narrow frequency ranges (i.e., frequency windows) and the existence of such frequency ranges has been explained on the basis of the cyclotron resonance model."
Speech impairment in parkinson's disease is improved by trancranial application of electromagnetic fields 1997 tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10....
"A 52 year old fully medicated physician with juvenile onset Parkinsonism experienced 4 years ago severe “on-off” fluctuations in motor disability and debilitating speech impairment with severe stuttering which occurred predominantly during “on-off” periods. His speech impairment improved 20%-30% when sertraline (75 mg/day), a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, was added to his dopaminergic medications which included levodopa, amantadine, selegiline and pergolide mesylate. A more dramatic and consistent improvement in his speech occurred over the past 4 years during which time the patient received, on a fairly regular basis, weekly transcranial treatments with AC pulsed electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of picotesla flux density. Recurrence of speech impairment was observed on several occasions when regular treatments with EMFs were temporarily discontinued. These findings demonstrate that AC pulsed applications of picotesla flux density EMFs may offer a nonpharmaco-logic approach to the management of speech disturbances in Parkinsonism. Furthermore, this case implicates cerebral serotonergic deficiency in the pathogenesis of Parkinsonian speech impairment which affects more than 50% of patients. It is believed that pulsed applications of EMFs improved this patient's speech impairment through the facilitation of serotonergic transmission which may have occured in part through a synergistic interaction with sertraline."
A drug naive parkinsonian patient successfully treated with weak electromagnetic fields 2009sci-hub.ru/10.3109/00207459...
This case is amazing.
"Brief cerebral application of picotesla (pT) electromagnetic fields (EMF) has been demonstrated an efficacious, revolutionary treatment modality for the therapy of Parkinson's disease (PD) with clinical benefits being evident in all motor aspects of the disease as well as in nonmotor symptoms such as mood, sleep, pain, sexual dysfunction, autonomic regulation and cognitive functions. Since treatment with pT EMF has involved PD patients who were treated with dopaminergic agents at the time they received EMF there may have been a synergistic interaction between dopaminergic drugs and EMF. The present communication concerns a 49-year-old male Parkinsonian patient with stage 3 disability on the Hoehn and Yahr scale (1967) who, in response to brief extracranial applications of pT EMF, demonstrated a marked improvement in motor, depressive symptomatology and cognitive functions and was classified as stage 1 several weeks later. This case is remarkable in that the patient did not receive treatment with dopaminergic drugs prior to or during the course of EMF therapy. It suggests that (a) pT range EMF may be efficacious as a monotherapy for PD and should be considered also as a treatment modality for de novo diagnosed patients, and (b) application of these EMF improves Parkinsonism by a mechanism which involves, among others, augmentation of dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmission."
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) Therapy in Parkinson Disease: A Meta-Analysis 2015 sci-hub.ru/10.1016/j.pmrj.2...
Objective
Several studies have reported repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) therapy as an effective treatment for the control of motor symptoms in Parkinson disease. The objective of the study is to quantify the overall efficacy of this treatment.
Types
Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Literature survey
We reviewed the literature on clinical rTMS trials in Parkinson disease since the technique was introduced in 1980. We used the following databases: MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane, and CINAHL.
Methodology
Patients and setting: Patients with Parkinson disease who were participating in prospective clinical trials that included an active arm and a control arm and change in motor scores on Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale as the primary outcome. We pooled data from 21 studies that met these criteria. We then analyzed separately the effects of low- and high-frequency rTMS on clinical motor improvements.
Synthesis
The overall pooled mean difference between treatment and control groups in the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor score was significant (4.0 points, 95% confidence interval, 1.5, 6.7; P = .005). rTMS therapy was effective when low-frequency stimulation (≤1 Hz) was used with a pooled mean difference of 3.3 points (95% confidence interval 1.6, 5.0; P = .005). There was a trend for significance when high-frequency stimulation (≥5 Hz) studies were evaluated with a pooled mean difference of 3.9 points (95% confidence interval, −0.7, 8.5; P = .08). rTMS therapy demonstrated benefits at short-term follow-up (immediately after a treatment protocol) with a pooled mean difference of 3.4 points (95% confidence interval, 0.3, 6.6; P = .03) as well as at long-term follow-up (average follow-up 6 weeks) with mean difference of 4.1 points (95% confidence interval, −0.15, 8.4; P = .05). There were insufficient data to statistically analyze the effects of rTMS when we specifically examined bradykinesia, gait, and levodopa-induced dyskinesia using quantitative methods.
Conclusion
rTMS therapy in patients with Parkinson disease results in mild-to-moderate motor improvements and has the potential to be used as an adjunct therapy for the treatment of Parkinson disease. Future large, sample studies should be designed to isolate the specific clinical features of Parkinson disease that respond well to rTMS therapy.
Thank you Bolt, I'll check if we can get it in the UK. Non invasive ways of assisting in quality of life are always great. I wonder why it's not widely administered if it shows great improvements in many symptoms of pd, including smell. Could it be big pharma getting in the way?
It is likely that each study mentioned used unique equipment, which is never well enough specified to be able to reproduce - diameter and number of windings of the coils typically missing.
It's not hard at all. The issue is to accurately reproduce what was in the study. Without complete specifications it's like saying to take a supplement without specifying dosage.
In the case of the Danish equipment and study it is even more complicated because they specify an applied voltage rather than current, meaning, operation is based upon electric field rather than magnetic field. If so, the innards of those depicted discs would be simple plates rather than coils. Also, in a voltage based system a ground reference is needed. Where is the ground reference located? Is it simply assumed the patient is grounded?
I'm not sure what you mean by voltage based or current based. Any electrical circuit will have both. I am familiar with voltage amplifiers and current (power) amplifiers, but again they have both voltage and current present in the circuit. Even transconductance amplifiers, which are tricky. (my hifi pre-amp is a rare transconductance design) As for ground it is simply a common reference. It has nothing to do with the ground we stand on. The electronics on aircraft and even spacecraft are grounded and not by a very long trailing wire!
“Patients diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease had either daily 30-min treatment with bipolar (±50 V) transcranial pulsed electromagnetic stimulation (squared pulses, 3ms duration)”
It appears from the image of the device that the electrodes are insulated from the body. There will be some current flow due to the capacitance of the system but that will be minimal.
By comparison a system using coils to create a magnetic field will have a much larger current.
Next, voltage is a difference in potential between two different points. Across which points In the vicinity of the patient does the ±50 V potential exist? Is it between electrodes or between the electrodes and ground? The study does not say.
Let's not fall out over it. Your main point was the key one. Namely the electromechanical design is not the tricky bit. It's the software that is key. You be fair I didn't read the study. It was a knee-jerk response to hifi forums full of loonies burying iron bedsteads in the soil outside their house, and watering it, in the quest for the silent ground
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