Mad-1 device: I use it and it works!

[srfrgrrl]

Hi all,
I have had RLS most of my life. I can remember in elementary school swinging my legs constantly. But until recently, the only times I really had difficulties with it was if I was in a confined place like an airplane or a car after a long day. I know it affected the quality of my sleep also but I didn't pinpoint my legs as the cause of my lack of sleep. I have begun taking Sertraline for depression and my RLS went through the roof. So I went off Sertraline, tried Lexapro, that was worse and didn't help me to feel better. Off that, began St Johns Wort, but the RLS was relentless and I never made it to the 8 week point to see if St johns wort would help my PTSD symptoms. I stopped that but the RLS didn't subside. I would have symptoms in the morning in my calves and arms that would slowly ramp up so that in the evenings I could barely sit down. Walking, hot baths would give me temporary relief only. I tried creams and oils which also gave temporary relief. I finally went to my doc and said give me something, anything to stop this. She prescribed Ropinerole. This gave me some small relief as I increased my dose but it made me drowsy and within a very short period of time I was getting symptoms early in the mornings before I had even gotten out of bed. So I started going off this drug. Then I tried acupuncture. My acupunturist used moxie sticks on the very distal point of my bladder meridian and voila, I was symptom free for 10 days. It was shortly after this that I saw the Mad-1 device mentioned on an rls forum. When I saw that it worked with acupuncture meridians, I was sold and ordered two of them. I have used it two evenings now and I have to say that it works! Instant relief from those annoying creeping crawling sensations. And it only takes about 40 minutes. And they claim that the treatments are cumulative. So, YAY! I hope this will help someone else.

[rthom]

what does the device do?

[ViewsAskew]

According to the website where the company sells it, it is a pulsed electro-magnetic field therapy unit. Also, according to the site, "The MAD-1 produces a very specific and focused form of PEMF wave (pulsed electromagnetic wave) which penetrates deep into the body. This wave type (shape, frequency and power) produces several critically important benefits for the area of the body that is being treated.

"When this type of PEMF wave passes through any conductive material, such as the tissue cells of the human body, it generates a tiny electrical 'charge' (voltage difference) between the cells that are being treated, this causes and increase in cellular communication and activity. Because the tissue salts in our body all carry an electrical charge, the PEMF wave causes an increase in the movement of these vital tissue salts, and oxygen, in and between the cells, which has the effect of increasing the performance of the cells in the treated area. The treated cells regenerate and repair quicker, up to four times faster than normal (according to a recent NASA study on PEMF).

"The type of PEMF wave that the MAD-1 produces, also causes a significant arteriole vasodilatation in the treated area, which provides an all important increase in blood supply, which helps to rapidly reduce inflammation and speeds up regeneration of damaged cells. "

The site is from New Zealand. Prices are shown in US dollars and it cost $90 for one unit,$170 for two, and $300 for 4 units.

[rthom]

Thanks, Ann, so Is it different then a tens unit?

[debbluebird]

Sounds simular to a TENS unit.

[ViewsAskew]

Thanks, Ann, so Is it different then a tens unit?

I didn't read it in detail. If you Google mad-1 device, you will find a link to the homepage and all of their explanations.

[Polar Bear]

I looked at it and thought it resembled a TENS unit.

[badnights]

Use of PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic fields, or pulsed EMF) on living tissues is also known as PEMT (pulsed electromagnetic field therapy) and MRS (magnetic resonance stimulation). It is different than TENS. A TENS delivers low-voltage electrical current to the skin and the tissues just beneath. In PEMF, low-frequency magnetic pulses are sent deeper into the tissues; these pulses induce low-frequency electrical currents in cells.

Some of the websites claim that PEMF frequencies are chosen to imitate naturally occuring EMFs that are present around us all the time, the general idea being that we are increasingly shielded from these natural resonances, and replacing them will make us healthier. I found all sorts of pseudo-scientific explanations of what goes on at the cellular level, but I suspect no one really knows. (The best I found was this: "pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF) safely induce extremely-low-frequency quasirectangular currents that can depolarize, repolarize, and hyperpolarize neurons")

Interestingly, "NASA has been testing the effect of PEMF as a countermeasure for bone loss and muscular degeneration encountered by astronauts on long space missions. NASA scientists have a patent for a device that uses square wave magnetic fields to enhance the rate of healing of mammalian body parts." (magdahavas.com)

I found studies that have shown PEMT to
help heal bone fractures, ankle spains, rotator-cuff tendonitis, & venous leg ulcers (3 hours per day on the machine!),
relieve osteoarthritis & low-back pain,
relieve pain in rheumatoid arthritis and in fibromyalgia,
* relieve neuralgia (pain from damaged nerves - this one used radio frequences, somewhat higher than the standard PEMT devices),
* relieve peripheral neuropathy of feet, and
* relieve fatigue and improve quality of life in a small sample of MS (multiple sclerosis) patients.
The asterisk'd ones are perhaps more relevant to us, because they have to do with neurons.
(from a collection of abstracts about PEMT, that appear to be from pubmed: http://www.centralcoastpaininstitute.co ... essofpemt/)

Few of the abstracts mention the intensity and frequency of the electromagnetic field used in the trials, but where I could get at the paper itself, or where the abstract mentioned it, intensities of 1000 or 2000 micro-Tesla were used. The PEMF devices said to imitate "earth resonances" use 40 micro-Tesla - much, much less. One study that applied PEMF directly to the brain used 200 micro-Tesla, the lowest mentioned, and stil 5 times as much as the home devices. I couldn't find intensity or frequency info on the MAD-1 site anywhere.

So I don't know if these machines can be effective, using such lower intensities than the ones found experimentally to be effective. The MAD-1 was designed initially to replace acupunture, since the effects of acupuncture didn't last long enough. They even outline a treatment for RLS in their booklet, and the description of the disease on their website isn't too awful. (At least they had it in the Bodies section and not the Mind section!)

So hmmmmmmmm...... I would like to know what intensities they use, and if they're aware of any studies that found treatments to be effective at those intensities.

[badnights]

Sort of an aside, but I found a meta-analysis (analysis of a gorup of studies) that compared numerous physical methods for relieving osteoarthritis knee pain. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2474/8/51
- Ineffective: manual acupuncture, static magnets, ultrasound therapy.
- Somewhat effective: PEMF
- Effective: TENS, electro-acupuncture, low-level laser therapy.
This is probably irrelevant to us, since it's about pain, not WED; the authors note the other studies have found TENS ineffective for back pain, so it appears to be very specific; and also the sample size of some of the included trials was small. But I thought it was interesting, especially since "electro-acupunture" was effective. Perhaps the PEMF would have been more effective if it had been applied at acupuncture points?