Until now, we have concentrated on the ways in which a wide variety of man-made energy fields may be harmful to us. Now let us look at some of the ways in which carefully chosen electromagnetic fields and electrical impulses are used with the intention of benefitting people.

        In both orthodox and complementary medicine such electrical effects are used widely in diagnosis as well as treatment. While it is important to be aware of possible adverse side effects when using electrical interventions on the body, the general opinion is that in most cases the risk/benefit equation comes down firmly in favour of the benefits. It is very interesting to observe these positive uses of electromagnetic radiations if only because they provide yet more support for our proposition that the body is sensitive to the influence of even very weak fields.
 

Some relatively well known uses of directly applied electricity which benefit patients are:
TENS devices, in which a directly applied pulsed current is passed through an area of the body. These are used regularly in physiotherapy and by many dentists. The right sort of pulse will block pain signals from the nerves in the area of application. It is an effective and useful technique for the relief of pain, especially while the patient is recovering from an acute injury, although it is also used to control some chronic pains.

        A similar device may be used to send a current through muscles causing them to contract and relax. This improves muscle tone without the need for exercise and has been used commercially for so-called slimming machines. It is unlikely to cause any weight loss but can improve the appearance by taking up the slack in surface muscles. A similar device was developed several years ago to help control involuntary urination in women. It can aid muscle tone in the pelvic floor.
A more violent, but very valuable use of the direct application of an electrical stimulus, is in defibrillators, used in hospitals and by the emergency services to restart the arrested heartbeat of a patient. At the other end of the scale, some acupuncturists use needle stimulators to heighten and accelerate the effects of their treatment, passing small pulsed currents between pairs of acupuncture needles that have been inserted into the patient.

All the techniques mentioned so far are deemed on balance to benefit patients. However, some of the apparently healthy methods used in health care contain a hidden menace. We have already considered X-rays. Many people wonder whether a similar pattern is likely to develop in the case of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). This highly sophisticated, if expensive, diagnostic tool has become widespread in hospitals over the last few years. It involves passing the patient through a very high intensity magnetic field of a particular type, so designed to change temporarily the alignment of the nuclei of the cells. When they return to their normal state the consequent energy release enables an image of the whole of the internal structure of the body to be obtained. This technique has considerable diagnostic advantages. Unlike X-rays, it makes it easy for the physician to examine soft tissue and in particular the brain and spinal column in detail.

        The fields used are massive, indeed metal objects in near-by rooms can move when the machine is turned on. Although the length of exposure is relatively short, one has to wonder about the long term effects of so radical a disruption of the body's normal electromagnetic state. Of course we are assured that there are no possible harmful effects or, at worst, that any slight risk of disruption is greatly outweighed by the benefits of an accurate diagnosis. All this sounds reminiscent of what was said about X-rays 50 or more years ago and it is undoubtedly an area that needs to be watched with some care. There are certainly some doubts even in conventional medical circles about the possible ill effects of using MRI, the more so because patients are likely to be already unwell and in a weakened state when such scans are undertaken.

        However, the potential risks of MRI are probably minor compared to those posed by CAT scans. This newer technique produces impressively detailed pictures of the interior of the body, but only by using X-ray doses some 30 times higher than a typical conventional X-ray. As even the latter (generally accepted as 'safe'} are calculated by radiological experts to give rise in the long-term to around 1000 cases of cancer a year, the implications of CAT scans are of great concern.

        Staying with the idea of relatively strong magnetic fields (though considerably weaker than in MRI) we come to the many forms of magnetic field therapy that are used, particularly by osteopaths, chiropractors and physiotherapists. The technical details of these devices vary greatly with little apparent agreement of the ideal frequency, strength and pulse pattern to be used. Nevertheless there is much clinical evidence that pulsed or alternating magnetic fields can have beneficial effects, including relaxation of tense muscles, stimulation of blood flow in affected parts of the body, reduction of inflammation and swelling, acceleration of wound healing and dispersal of bruises. Fields have been used with reported success to accelerate knitting of broken bones. Some even claim they stimulate underactive internal organs.

        The size and cost of these units vary as widely as the fields they produce, ranging from large, clinic based machines to small hand held units designed for home use. On balance they seem to be safe, particularly when magnetic field therapy is used only over short periods for acute injury or pain. However, because of the wide variety of field patterns and strengths employed it is impossible to generalise with any certainty and this is undoubtedly an area that would benefit from further investigation.

        For some reason the Scandinavian countries seem to have been particularly active in the development of a variety of rather more sophisticated magnetic therapy devices and Germany has also been involved. In these countries the beneficial effects of magnetic field therapies are claimed for a huge range of ailments, covering almost every aspect of human disease. There has been particular, if controversial, interest in the use of magnetic fields to treat a variety of different forms of cancer. In some cases dramatic cures are claimed, but although the anecdotal evidence sounds convincing, I can find no trace of any controlled studies.

        In particular, devices using pulsed DC fields developed by Ivan Troeng of Sweden were claimed to have produced positive results in many cases and the evidence certainly sounded convincing. However, I know of at least one doctor in England who acquired some ofTroeng's treatment coils and confessed to obtaining no consistent or particularly encouraging results with any of the patients he attempted to treat with them. In view of the epidemiological evidence linking some magnetic fields with tumours (discussed earlier) it would seem that this is an area to be approached with extreme caution. It would be prudent for anyone to avoid treating known cancer patients with any electromagnetic field therapies, at least without a full medical consultation and very rigorous monitoring.
 

Although a' little outside the remit of this book it is worth adding a note about the specialised use of static magnetic fields, if only to support the idea that the body is indeed sensitive to very small magnetic influences. One particular form of acupuncture developed in Japan uses small magnets attached to the ends of the acupuncture needles or else applied separately to acupuncture points on the skin. I have seen this demonstrated and have no doubt that at the muscular level one or more tiny magnets with a field strength of only a few gauss can, when applied to the correct locations on the body, produce quite remarkable and instantaneous realignments of the skeletal system. I have seen a pelvis (tilted so that one leg appeared shorter than the other) immediately realigned once the magnets were applied. It is claimed by practitioners using this technique that the results can persist over a long period, even after the magnets have been removed.

        Similarly, a colleague and I carried out some experiments several years ago in which we applied a rubber based magnetic strip with a field strength averaging only around 15 gauss to the necks of patients and used thermography to monitor the temperature distribution of their hands and feet. In every case circulation and temperatures improved within 10 to 15 minutes of application of the magnetic strip. Although the temperature would soon return to the starting value if the strip was then removed, there were indications that after the magnetic collar had been worn for a week or two the effect would persist for some time after removal. This suggested the possibility of achieving a more permanent physiological change. Clearly the remoteness of the point of application (the neck) to the point of measurement {hands and feet) ruled out any effect due simply to local insulation.

        In what was probably our most spectacular case a patient with a severe congestive heart condition experienced a temperature rise in his toes of around 10°C within 15 minutes of the magnetic strip being applied to his neck. When he was checked again some two weeks later he reported not only much more comfortable extremities, but also that he had noticed an ability to take more exercise without breath-lessness and discomfort, indicating a general improvement in his circulation. These examples, being concerned with static magnets rather than electromagnetic fields are somewhat of a side issue, but they do give an excellent example of just how sensitive we are to what we would normally consider to be insignificant magnetic field effects. However, if we remember Einstein's discovery that all matter is in constant vibration, then perhaps even to talk of the concept of a static fie'ci is inaccurate.
 

There are many diagnostic and therapeutic devices used today which in one way or another owe their existence to the research and inventiveness of Dr.Reinhard Voll working in Germany in the 1940s and '50s. He took as his starting point acupuncture diagnosis which has been used for several thousand years in China, but which is now practised in most countries. In this technique the trained acupuncturist reads the pulse in the various acupuncture meridians. (This is not a pulse in the conventional Western sense). The meridians are energetic pathways through the body whose nature and purpose is as yet imperfectly understood and Dr.Voll reasoned that they must have electrical characteristics.

        With the newly emerging electronic technology, one of the positive outcomes of the Second World War, he was able to develop measuring devices which could for the first time give some indication of the more subtle electrical fields of the body. There is not space here to go into the full development of the technique now commonly known as EAV (Electro-Acupuncture according to Voll). Suffice to say that he developed protocols which enabled someone trained in his techniques to determine the state of health of internal organs by taking electrical readings at the acupuncture points located at intervals along the acupuncture meridians.

        This was impressive enough, but his second and perhaps most important breakthrough was the concept of remedy testing. When a homeopathic remedy appropriate to the patient's condition is brought near to the patient (without the patient actually taking it), a response can be measured in the form of altered readings on the relevant acupuncture points. Remarkable though this seems, it has been used clinically with great success for around 40 years now and has indeed been extended to testing a patient's sensitivity to allergens and other irritants.

        The stock response from those who reject the technique has been to suggest that all readings must be the result of conscious or subconscious manipulation of the probe used by the doctor. This objection now appears to be overturned by some recent, but as yet unpublished experimental work. Means have been found of applying the probe to the acupuncture points in a totally standard way and also of avoiding any local damage of the skin at the acupuncture point. Trials have shown that not only is a consistent reading produced on any one point, but that a reproducible response to the same remedy is also obtained.

        The only plausible explanation of this effect is that the body must indeed be responding to some extremely minute electromagnetic fields, far smaller than anything we have previously been considering in the book. These fields must result from some characteristic of the vibration of the molecules in the homeopathic preparation and are certainly well below the level at which any conventional scientific apparatus would be able to detect them. Experiments conducted by Dr.Jean Monro with severely allergic patients are described in the book Electromagnetic Man.' In the most extreme cases nothing more than the introduction of a vial containing a homeopathic-1 ike preparation into the same room as the patient was needed for the production of a clear reaction. To rule out psychosomatic effects Monro experimented with randomly bringing in vials of remedy and vials of pure water. The latter produced no reaction. In this area it appears we are truly working at the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

        Homeopathy itself is a subject that still arouses strong feelings and the mechanism of which has still not been conclusively proven. However a report in The Lancet a few years ago surveyed over 200 experimental studies reported in the literature and concluded that on balance the case for the validity of homoeopathy was made.

Amongst the many devices that have followed on from Voll's work is the 'Mora'. In addition to using Voll-like techniques to diagnose the patient's condition, the Mora has a specialised form of biofeedback device. This reads energetic information from the patient's body through electrodes and then analyses it electronically. Those parts of the signal that are considered to be beneficial are amplified and those parts that are harmful and produced by disease processes in the body are electronically inverted. This modified signal is then broadcast back into the patient through a special electrode. The theory is that the net effect will be to amplify the healthy processes in the patient's body and to counteract the disease processes. Hundreds of these devices are in daily use in Germany and elsewhere and the results certainly seem to indicate an effect. We are again dealing with quite small fields, well below those produced by domestic and industrial equipment.

        Remedy testing is used in a number of devices including the Vega and Mora and has now been developed to the point where the remedy need not even be brought close to the patient. A vial containing the preparation is simply inserted into a hole in a metal block connected into the lead for the probe that is applied to the patient's acupuncture points. Despite the remoteness of the remedy from the patient the effect is similar and the technique is (as with Dr.Voll's work) successful.

        This principle has been taken even further in a number of systems developed mainly in America, such as the Eclosion, the Listen, the Interro, the Discovery and the Quantamed. In these, the energetic 'signatures' (read electronically from samples or even actual specimens of hundreds or thousands of substances) are held within the apparatus. During testing the devices are apparently able to access the unique information for each separate sample and test the patient's response to it, as judged by galvanic skin resistance or other electrical characteristics of the body such as capacitance, inductance, current and voltage. All of these systems are computer based and can record and mathematically process the information gathered to give a detailed analysis of the patient's health. One or two of them also have an automated test procedure using fixed electrodes and so are apparently not subject to physical manipulation by the practitioner.

        All of these diagnostic techniques have been used successfully to determine whether the patient is suffering an adverse response to geopathic or electro-stress.
 

A remarkable system originating in England and based on a principle quite different from EAV is 'the Empulse'. Developed originally as a way of giving relief from migraine attacks, the Empulse has proved to have a far wider range of applications and indeed has apparent potential for tackling a great many symptoms.

        In brief, the process starts with scanning the brainwave pattern of the patient using a novel electrode-less system. The purpose is to measure the strength of output from the patient's brain over a range of brainwave frequencies up to approximately 25Hz, at intervals of 0.1 Hz, producing what is called a power spectrum analysis. Clinical work has shown that patients suffering from a given ailment tend to have a pattern of under powered brainwaves in particular, very specific areas of the frequency spectrum. These are not standard from patient to patient but do tend to occur in broadly similar areas for a particular ailment.

        It has long been known, for instance, that someone in a relaxed state will produce far more Alpha waves (7-1 ZHz} than someone who is tense. By means of biofeedback, hypnosis, meditation or other forms of training it is possible for a patient to learn how to produce more Alpha waves and hence suffer less stress. The other major bands known as Delta, Theta and Beta have their own specific roles.

        The Empulse analysis takes this concept further, recognising that individual frequencies or narrow bands of frequencies within each of the broader bands will have very specific effects on the body. They may, for instance, affect the output of certain hormones, stimulate the body's natural pain response, influence how relaxed the individual's muscles tend to be and so on.

        Through computer analysis, the weaker parts of the patient's brainwave spectrum are identified and selected 'low' frequencies are programmed into a computer chip in the battery powered Empulse device. This then broadcasts the necessary fields to the patient in turn for a few seconds each, the cycle being repeated 24 hours a day. Depending on the patient's progress some resetting may be necessary as the body responds to the treatment. Results with the Empulse are very impressive with success rates {as judged by total relief from or significant relief of symptoms) rising to as high as 80% or more of those treated.

        The message that emerges from consideration of the sorts of apparatus described above is simple, but seems fundamental. Namely, if the body responds demonstrably to such a variety of 'good1 electromagnetic signals, many of which are relatively weak and spread over a fairly large frequency band, it lends considerable support to the thesis of this book, that the body is indeed sensitive to external electrical and magnetic influences. It must also surely underline the need to be aware of and concerned about the potential for uncontrolled and unwarranted effects on the body when it is exposed to fields of particular strengths, wave forms and intensities.

        It has to be admitted that over large parts of the electromagnetic spectrum we are unsure of exactly what potential for harm exists. As you have learned, there is a body of evidence concerning extra low frequency fields in and around the mains frequency band and also for very high frequencies such as microwaves, but there is rather less certainty when considering much of the radio frequency spectrum.

        However, I hope that what you have read in the preceding pages will at the very least have convinced you that the potential for hazard is something that we simply cannot afford to ignore. On the one hand, we should take such precautions ourselves as seem sensible and possible, while at the same time pressing for necessary safeguards to be developed by power providers, equipment manufacturers and indeed government. On the other hand, we should be doing everything we can to encourage that the necessary research is funded, not by those with a vested interest, but by neutral and scientifically credible bodies to discover the real truth about the implications of our modern electromagnetic world.