[Interview] with Ben Pearl about Electromagnetic Therapy.

um, Hello, and welcome to Podiatry. Practice Mastery Don Paltrow here and I have dr. Ben Pearl here. Welcome then, hey, nice to sorry, I'm done. Good good. And today, we are going to chat a little bit about electromagnetic therapy. It kind of seems like Voodoo to me. Everyone's have these new therapies and I kind of say, tell me a little bit, how you got interested in this and kind of what your, what it's been doing for your practice first. Let me jump off the voodoo

syrupy. Because I think that is very accurate to what people's impression limitations are. Yeah. Magnetism, you know, when they came out with those, magnetic insoles, I think in the late 80s, early 90s the Gauss, which is the the energy unit is maybe like half a Gauss if that in and one of those insoles. So you have to have some energy to effect a change. So like we jump up To an MRI unit, which has several thousand

gals. And there's a huge jump between, you know, what is basically an ineffective in Seoul, because there's just not enough charge there to do much versus an office-based unit where you're actually hearing a ping just like you would win an MRI unit of the cycle of the magnetic amplitude, up and down, and you hear that. It's very interesting. And you'll, I'm gonna And as we're talking ecstatic, feeling I'm going to share my screen.

So this is an example of the machine that we're talking about here. And once again we're not going to try to write selling this one. We're just kind of talking about it because I think it's I like to bring in new technology. This is kind of the machine.

You kind of put your foot in here and kind of how it works and if you want I'll put a link underneath this show if you guys want to look more about this machine and this is kind of some of the advantages and things like that and some some videos and Ben's practice. But so tell us a little bit more about it than kind of how you got. Sit in it, how it's affected your practice hauling. You've been using it things like that.

Well, there's some been some major manufacturers that have been using these for a while and some of my colleagues have been using some of the units and I looked around at some different Technologies. And I found one that fit my practice profile and, you know, there's a lot of different things price point, efficacy, things that you need to kind of feel out and I started using the unit, and let's just start with

the basic principle, the base. Asic principle is that with all these regenerative energies, your priming the the breakdown of ATP to ADP. And in the case of electromagnetism, it's a hydrolysis situation. And once that ATP goes to ADP, a packet of energy is released and the cells that are deficient use that energy to heal. Now, in addition with things that are charged related like nerd, Earth and Bone, which has a piece of genic effect.

So even when we're walking were affecting a charge, very low mind you. But that has been talked about with one of the essential elements with the ions that are necessary for bone healing. When we have fracture healing, just mechanical pressure can create a small electric charge feel and we have these ions in our body, our bodies that are basically analogous to batteries that respond to charge.

And so not only do we get that packet of energy release but we get buildup of priming, the circuit of nerve conduction which which also can be primed by electric energy, electromagnetic, energy, and electromagnetic energy is different than like traditional galvanic. Stim in that the magnetism goes at a deeper level that level penetrates at something related to Newton's inverse Square law. So the depth of penetration is much greater than like a

superficial TENS unit. That's where you get the Deep charge. That helps with bone healing. That helps with sprains that helps with wound healing, that helps with neuropathy. These are all things that I've been using it for good. So let's let's bring it really down. Literally far down, let's say I'm a patient and you, if you just said that to me, I wouldn't understand. And I still don't understand anything you said, so I come in with An ankle sprain, I come in

with plantar fasciitis. You know, how do you use this on those things and how do you explain it to the patient in conjunction with all the other stuff that we could offer? Like cortisone, Shockwave, all these other types of things? I absolutely do. And the reason I do is that it is a touchless therapy, so even when considering a night I still love Shockwave for plantar fasciitis and achilles

tendinosis. However, I like this in that if Somebody is super sensitive and I'm worried about beating him up with like, let's say a radio shock way, which many of us have in our offices because I think it's a great tool. I don't want to knock that at all. I think it's still a Workhorse of a tool. The electromagnetism offers me, not as much pain for the patient while the rendering the treatment.

So it's in effect, it almost feels like static, like you're taking your laundry out of the dryer and it just has that little Kind of prickly feeling that's it. Now occasionally you'll get a little bit of a highlighting. Let's say I used it on my iliopsoas, you know that front flexor muscle that really gets tight when we're sitting down. So I just use it and it really caused this oscillation. I thought it was like what am I hit my femoral artery?

Or some because it was really pumping and I really felt the deep penetration of the metal of the magnetic field. Right after the treatment several hours later, you know, it felt a little irritated but then the next day it loosened up now with things. It's interesting because that was like a, just a very sensitive area with things like plantar, fasciitis. However, I find that there's almost an immediate. Wow, that that is like, interrupting that throbbing pain signal.

So there's also on pain gate Theory, which you know, about where we inhibit the signals of Pain by offering another signal. Hmm. Not only that but it has different frequency waves, so it's not just one continuous cycle. It's going 15 Hertz, it's going 7 Hertz. So in effect, it's sort of quote tricking the body so that the body isn't habituating to one pattern, it's throwing different stimuli at it.

Hmm. So that is at least a partial explanation that the the inhibition of pain signals, you know, at least in terms of pain, And then our blood has iron which is also reactive to charge. So you get this up regulation of circulation and I was talking to you about a patient of mine that I suspect with gout and I don't know how well and I think we talked about it I have these all these videos up on my FIT foot use side so it would be it

easier to see the videos. They're the me to try to show you the phone picture, but you literally see where the tow that was Colin and this case guard typically affects the big toe. He also had some ankle pain right at the base of the toe. It was less pink. It was almost like model like kind of skin tone and pink like mixed in because the swelling had actually lessened right? Directly after the treatment.

When he got up out of the exam chair and this is typical without any cortisone or anything, he said it was about 25% better and to me that's like a home run. Hmm. Oftentimes, I will find it later that day. Day. They'll feel even better and then the trick is, how long does it sustain? And how many treatments do we need? Typically I'm only doing a few treatments. I'm not like with some of the

laser options. Let's say for neuropathy, you're doing 10 12 treatments, sometimes I am getting nice neuropathy results, three to four treatments. I'm not saying Don that I'm getting full recovery of sensation. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about more movement in the toes. When my dad But patients have a lot of stiffness from the neuropathy that nose, his septum of gnawing or burning pain is diminished significantly.

So those are those are the things and there's been by the way, some NIH papers. I was looking at 1:00 this morning so if you if you Google the Search terms you will find some stuff that's reviewed by the NIH that particular study I'm referring to is about 800 cows. My unit I go up to about 3,300 3,000 to 3,500 gals so You're getting a quite a big bolus of energy in this technology. You told me the name again. What's the generic name for it? Okay, there's several generic names.

The one that most people are familiar with and if you Google it you're going to find all kinds of devices sold on Amazon, that are lower Gauss units. Those are home-based or wearables or mats, and the term is pimp pulsed, electromagnetic frequency, okay? And so, it's a in a pulsed fashion and electromagnet obviously refers to the energy source. Now, the units that are available for a medical office are going to be a much higher level of gals and insults and their different trade names.

And I'm not going to put, you know, which one is with which, but there's EMT t-there's p.m. St. And I'm not even going to mention any of, I don't want to get into advertising, but here's are different. Higher levels of Health than the ones that you would get. Let's say, you know, ordering off Amazon, you know, for a smaller unit interesting. So, I know there's always a lot of different types of treatments for, for example, plantar fasciitis, and other types of things.

What's your experience in terms of fitting it into your workflow. Like, for example, for Shockwave, I might three do three shock waves and then do a six-week break and Another three if I need to or do for you. Do it like in conjunction with shockwave. Are you doing it in conjunction with cortisone? Are you just doing it a standalone? How long do the treatments? Take do they sit there and you put their foot in there. You can leave and see another patient. How does it go with the with the

ones? Yeah, that's a great question. First of all, both with shockwave and with electromagnetic treatments, I do not mix and match cortisone because I feel that's doing the opposite. It's throwing the, the teeth. Cells away. And we want to bring we want to bring those cells to the area. These things up regulate, the growth hormones and upregulate the helper cells, the T helper cells coming to the area to

induce tissue repair. I was reading a study of this morning about wound healing and they were looking at zinc and how electromagnetism is used in conjunction with zinc as a no. Zion to help promote healing. So they were using both and that's the other thing that I'm going to be looking at. I was talking to you about this, like, things like warts where I do candida injections, and I'm just hitting that spot wart with this help, profuse it more. I think so.

So, I think that there would be an opportunity to maybe even get a bigger blanket effect from the candida potentially. And I've even used this done with situations, where I have a very swollen, ingrown toenail, and it's one of my You know, blue collar workers, they got to get back to the workforce. This is their day off. So I say, you know, mr. Jones, this is, this, might, this injection might be difficult for me to do, but here's here's something I can do

for you. I can do and of course, this is a cash proposition. There is no insurance code for this particular type therapy. Delayed unions nonunions. Yes, you can order the units. That would be insurance cover. Not my unit though, that doesn't fall under the same code. So I offer that to them as an option, we can lessen the swelling. And in fact, I will even after I do the injection to perfuse, the injection, put them back in the ring. Hmm, why do perfuse the

anesthetic? So that I obtain a better block and I'm not charging the same amount because this is kind of an auxiliary procedure to the main procedure. Yes, you know, the intro job sometimes, what I'll do to is, I'll say, look, we can get you some immediate relief. Message, you know, mrs. Jones. I'd rather you do thing antibiotic your your toe is swollen. It's going to be hard to drive this in. I know that, you know, pain is

difficult for you. Let's do a treatment today just to take the ebb and flow down a little bit on the swelling. And then come back and see me in 56 days. After you've been on, let's say the oral Keflex and then let's do the procedure. So I've done it both ways. Hmm. You know, I find in our Practices as we were, if you're interested in learning new treatments, I tend to find that there. It can be overwhelming and trying to explain so many treatments. You really need to kind of hone

in on like or do a package. Say like okay, we have this plantar fasciitis package, you're going to get Shockwave with this added on or just call it whatever it is. You're regenerative package versus because if you explain Shockwave then I'm going to do this electromagnetic and then you're going to do all these other things. I think it gets confusing for patients with too many options. It gets too complex. Which one do you choose?

Do you do packages or do you just say, hey, you know, I'm going to try this and then we'll try the next thing. We'll try the next thing. Exactly to your point what I've been now introducing done is instead of going and and, you know, we all have our preconceived notions like oh gosh. I've been doing real shock wave for plantar fasciitis. It's been working out pretty well. What I like about this is, I can lower the price point slightly, why?

Because it's not like it's I'm not going into Check on them, I do but I can set that ring up semi unattended. Let's just call it like that. Then I can come back and say you know what, I want to take up the amplitude a little bit, I'm going to increase the Gauss, go up to 80% let's say as opposed to 60% take it up a little bit. But I'm basically working with another patient in another room. You asked about workflow.

Yeah. So it's basically adding a technical assistant that isn't a person too. That has been the Revolutionary thing. You know, the shockwaves I am doing them myself as most people do. I don't know too many states where you can have a tech do that sort of thing, but at any rate apart from that discussion, it frees up my time.

And so I am now using this as my primary go to it's become sort of my Swiss army knife in my practice and I'm not saying that things like laser and Shockwave aren't still useful. I just prefer with the management. As an intro treatment, I know it's not going to hurt him. Generally that this has just been a great tool and then if I'm not, let's say getting any Delta, any change? Then I say, you know, we'll do maybe a couple of these and then maybe let's try a radio shock wave.

So I don't have a particular formulaic because I find that my patients respond differently, even with the same clinical entity, two different things. Some people are just seem to be more Biologically receptive to electromagnetism than others but it's been, I would say. And this sounds crazy, but like 80 to 90 percent of my patients are responding in some positive way, even if it's minimal. Yeah, yes.

I haven't had too many that like, oh my gosh, it hurts them and I had that happen occasionally with laser even shock wave where they say, you know what it really hurts after in that. And then you have to explain, that's part of the healing. Ling process, we're trying to recruit. Thanks to the area. Etc, break up Scar Tissue. Cool. Been I I'm gonna, I'll put a little link underneath here of your your website where they can learn more about it and let

people search it out. That's what I like about talking about his new technology. I know in early January, you're having a something on biomechanics. That's another area. So, tell us a little bit about that as we finish up. And then any last words. Yeah, so, it's going to be really great. I'm going to have one of my new Heroes.

And I'm going to pump his book, Richard, Richard Blake, he's done now the second edition which I've previewed and Don, I call this book and he'll be one of the featured speakers on two things. One a limb length discrepancy, and then he's going to do just sort of a general, his bio mechanical approach but it's kind of like a gold key book. I mean, it's got so many pictures. It's cross-referenced. You know, he'll talk.

Talk about something on tarsal tunnel and then jump over to Morton's, neuroma and talk about, you know, ways that you can do neuro release and neural flossing as it's called, you know, I didn't even know much about neural flossing but then he describes and has pictures of the extension, flexion of the toes. And so, you know, you look at the pictures and and it's just really a good for the layperson, as well as the season practitioner.

So, he'll be there to have this. I'm embarked old is always entertaining from Australia, will be talking about Innovations in shoes. I've got, you know, from kind of more of the Barefoot Science, World golden Harper. He's one of the developers of the altar shoes. We've got Nach chocolate ham from England. So it's an international thing. He's going to be talking about things related to shearing and some other biomechanic metrics.

He's a PhD in biomechanics, so it's going to be really good at genuine 19th and you An email me at Arlington footage email and I know you'll provide the link and it's a nominal charge for everything. That's been involved in putting it together and it's virtual. So you can sit there in the comfort of your home and be in your PJs and have your hot cocoa or whatever and just enjoy and listening great. Okay, been well, thank you for all that work.

Putting that together I know whenever you try to do an event it's like hurting hurting cats. And so it's not an easy thing. It really isn't. I appreciate you, you know. In the word and I hope, you know. In fact I'll give you a comp on that just because, you know, we've been working together if you want to attend and I think it would be good even and I'll have it post-production, it'll be available will be a senior. Why? If you're watching this after you guys can check it out and

until next time, okay? Ben. Yeah, man. I wanted to leave on a comical note. It's been a serious year. So I thought I'd invoke a little Sly Stallone on what he'd maybe say about magnets and you'd say, in law, I don't know, magnets, you know, I don't think I met a good guy from South Philly. I think you had a magnet in his head, but uh, you know, I'm going to try to stick around it. This year, peace out. Thanks. Ben on the fly. All right, good to see old on Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, everybody. Thank you.