The Biological Action of Physical Medicine

Controlling the Human Body's Information System

Jan Zbigniew Szopinski

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780128004845
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Pharmacology

The Biological Action of Physical Medicine: Controlling the Human Body's Information System challenges the contemporary way of thinking of diagnostics and therapy "from the outside." Drawing on 30 years of independent comprehensive research, this reference provides a universal and scientifically acceptable physiological theory, explaining the mode of action of methods of physical medicine as well as the underlying physiological mechanisms.

Scientific research described in this book explains the universal neurophysiological foundation of all the respective methods, including organ electrodermal diagnostics (OED), thermotherapy (heat, cryostimulation), phototherapy (infrared, ultraviolet, laser), ultrasound therapy, electrotherapy (from transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation to electromagnetic field therapies), magnetotherapy, and mechanical nerve stimulation (acupuncture, reflexive massage, cupping, high-pressure hydrotherapy). A better understanding of physical medicine's modes of action not only insures better clinical results, but also illuminates pain mechanisms and our understanding of the functioning of the nervous system.

• Fully explains the important therapeutic modalities of genuine physical medicine as well as the underlying physiological mechanisms
• Shows how to access and control the diagnostic information circulating in the sensory nervous system

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

Things of nature, including the human body, are a mixture of chemical reactions and physical phenomena. In practice, this means that medicine should explore equally both ways, i.e. chemical one and physical one, for diagnostic penetration and therapeutic intervention. However, when it comes to therapy, a strong trend is observed in contemporary medicine to treat everything in the chemical way, ignoring the fact that, for example, the nervous system’s mode of action can be explained much better by physical sciences than by chemical reactions. A gap has been created between what we have now and what we could achieve, taking into account vast progress in technique and physical sciences. Physical medicine uses various forms of physical energy for the medical management of diseases and disorders; but what really constitutes the difference between the specialty of physical medicine and other medical disciplines, which also use certain physical treatments, are the so-called reflexive therapies that stimulate and control a body’s own self-defense mechanisms and systems. Typical reflexive therapies are: thermotherapy (heat or cryostimulation), phototherapy (infrared, ultraviolet, or laser), ultrasoundtherapy, electrotherapy (direct or via electromagnetic energy), magnetotherapy, and mechanical nerve stimulation (acupuncture, reflexive massage, cupping, or high-pressure hydrotherapy). Therefore, the term “physical medicine” should be used with regard to these therapies, rather than, for example, medical rehabilitation.

Keywords

physical medicine; reflexive therapies; reflexive physical medicine; physiotherapy; balneotherapy; krenotherapy; climatotherapy; heliotherapy

Outline

1.1 Physical Medicine: General and Historical Background 3

1.2 Physical Medicine: Controversy About Definitions 5

1.1. Physical Medicine: General and Historical Background

Things of nature, including the human body, are a mixture of chemical reactions and physical phenomena. In practice, this means that medicine should explore equally both ways, i.e. chemical one and physical one, for diagnostic penetration and therapeutic intervention. On the diagnostic side, proportions are still preserved: physical methods, including basic physical examination, X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound and nuclear diagnostics, electrocardiogram (ECG), electroencephalogram (EEG), electromyogram (EMG), etc., are in use along with various chemical laboratory tests, but when it comes to therapy, a strong trend is observed in contemporary medicine to treat everything in the chemical way. This is mainly due to spectacular pharmacological achievements in the 1940s and 1950s: since then, medical students have been trained predominantly in biochemistry and very little in biophysics. This has resulted in a situation in which medical doctors in general do not speak the same language as engineers, despite the fantastic achievements of technical sciences in more recent years. Currently most medical practitioners seek to see pathology exclusively in chemical aspects, ignoring the fact that, for example, the nervous system’s mode of action can be explained much better by physical sciences than by chemical reactions. A gap has been created in contemporary medicine between what we have now and what we could achieve, taking into account vast progress in technique and physical sciences.

Historically, physical therapies are as old as humankind. At a very early stage, people discovered the therapeutic effects of heat, cold, solar radiation (heliotherapy), and water application (hydrotherapy). Descriptions of early heliotherapy and hydrotherapy can be found in the writings of two famous ancient doctors: Hippocrates of Cos (460–380 B.C.) and Asclepiades of Bitinia (120–56 B.C.). In China, cold baths were used for fevers as early as 180 B.C. Ancient Romans created foundations for spa treatments, and some of their famous spas are still in use today. In their famous “terms,” in addition to certain forms of hydrotherapy, therapeutic massage was also practiced. An auto-massage of painful body parts comes almost as a reflex after any injury; but in ancient Greece and Rome, massage was in use not only as a therapy but also for “sports medicine” purposes. There is also evidence that ancient Greeks applied electric fishes to painful areas of their bodies, creating in this way the first form of electrotherapy. In the Middle East, “Turkish steam baths” were introduced, combining elements of both thermotherapy and mechanical stimulation.

Physical therapies played a particularly positive role when early “pharmacotherapy” often brought more harm than good (e.g., an overuse of mercury and blood-letting in medieval Europe). In the 16th century, Paracelsus (real name: T.B. von Hohenheim, 1493–1541) displayed a great deal of interest in magnetotherapy. In 1776, the American doctor E. Perkins built a magnetic field-based device for pain relief. Also in the 18th century, the first electrophysiological experiments by Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) and the creation of the first electric cell by Alessandro Volta (1745–1827) prompted immediate experiments with electrotherapy. In 1831, M. Faraday (1791–1861) discovered the phenomenon of the electromagnetic induction and in this way made possible wide use of “faradic current” in electrotherapy. At the end of the 19th century, J.A. d’Arsonval (1851–1940) and N. Tesla (1856–1943) discovered high-frequency currents, which are of utmost importance in contemporary electrotherapy. In the 20th century, high-frequency electrical and magnetic fields were introduced to medicine (shortwave and microwave diathermy).

Discoveries of infrared (F.W. Herschl, 1800) and ultraviolet radiation (J. Ritter and W.H. Wollaston, 1801) are the milestones in phototherapy. In 1895, Danish doctor N.R. Finsen (1860–1904) used ultraviolet emitted by a self-constructed lamp for treatment of skin TB. Albert Einstein’s (1879–1955) quantum theory created a basis for the development of the laser technique. Low-power lasers were introduced to physical medicine in the 1960s.

In 1880, the Curie brothers discovered a piezoelectric phenomenon, leading to the possibility of the use of ultrasounds in medicine. Since 1951, ultrasoundtherapy has become one of the most popular methods of physical medicine.

Observations made by the Silesian farmer V. Priessnitz (1799–1851), followed by the scientific research of W. Winternitz (1835–1917), created foundations for modern hydrotherapy. German priest S. Kneipp (1821–1897) went even further, recommending various forms of hydrotherapy combined with a hygienic lifestyle, diet, and exercises for almost any disease, including syphilis and other infectious conditions.

The early 20th century still belonged to physical medicine, with the proliferation of famous Swiss and other European spas—for example, Baden-Baden, Karlovy Vary, and many others—in which various diseases including arthritis, peptic ulcers, coronary heart disease, asthma, and even TB were treated with physical therapies. Hot wrappings were widely applied for poliomyelitis.

However, the most amazing development in physical medicine came from the Far East. It seems that ancient Chinese doctors discovered that certain, sometimes remote, skin spots become tender in the case of a disease of a particular internal organ. This tenderness disappears after the organ is cured. The doctors must have presumed that a connection exists between these spots and the related organs, so they started to stimulate these skin areas therapeutically not only with deep point massage (Tien-An/Shiatsu) but also with needles (acupuncture) and heat (moxibustion). Observing the good clinical effects of these procedures, they developed a fundamental principle: “all the tender skin areas should be stimulated.” Over time, precise acupuncture maps were created, and the points corresponding to the same organs were connected with the artificial lines called meridians. Having no physiological and very little anatomical knowledge, Eastern practitioners adapted their general dualistic cosmic theory of the antagonistic vital energies “yang” and “yin,” which apparently circulate in the human body along the meridians, in order to explain how acupuncture works.

More recently, the French doctor P.M.F. Nogier, working in North Africa, observed locals treating their domestic animals, including horses and camels, by cauterizing particular zones on the animals’ ears. He examined human ear auricles and concluded that a particular area would become tender when a related internal organ is diseased. In this way, he created the first maps of auricular organ projection areas and originated the concept of the auricular homunculus with the shape and position generally similar to the early fetus. He also employed this discovery for therapeutic purposes by inserting small acupuncture needles or applying laser radiation at these points.

Interestingly, traditional Southern African healers who have never heard of acupuncture perform therapeutic procedures of so-called scarifications by making superficial incisions at particular skin areas close to a diseased organ. For example, small cuts are made on the chest to alleviate bronchial asthma and around the stomach or the knee to reduce persistent pain in these areas.

There must be something special about acupuncture; after six thousand years, it is still in use for a number of conditions. Hundreds of research articles published in various peer-review scientific journals indicate the high clinical effectiveness of this oldest system of physical medicine. Among the international journals dedicated specifically to medical acupuncture are: the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Medical Acupuncture, and Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Akupunktur.

These days, “Western” and “Far Eastern” methods of physical medicine work together; specific skin areas are stimulated not only mechanically with needles, stitches, cupping, or point massage, but also chemically (injections, plasters, or creams), with ultrasound, laser, and other forms of phototherapy, with cold/heat (thermotherapy), and with magnetic fields and various forms of electrostimulation—from the transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to the shortwave/microwave diathermy. Most of these therapies have gained acceptance from mainstream medicine, but their mode of action is still not fully elucidated.

1.2. Physical Medicine: Controversy About Definitions

Physical medicine means the medical management of diseases and disorders using various forms of physical energy. Many medical disciplines use physical methods in their daily practice. For instance, surgeons in general use electrocoagulation, laser knives, and cryosurgery; neurosurgeons in particular use radiofrequency rhizotomy; psychiatrists use electro-convulsive therapy; cardiologists use defibrillation; and dermatologists use lasers. Medical rehabilitation uses electrostimulation for paralyzed muscles, and chiropractors use manual manipulation for spinal problems. Certain physical treatments have even become official medical specialties on their own: for example, oncological radiotherapy. However, there is a group of so-called reflexive therapies, which use various forms of physical energy to stimulate and control the body’s own self-defense mechanisms and systems. Because of their very specific mode of action, these therapies emerge as a separate discipline of clinical medicine: reflexive physical medicine. Typical reflexive therapies include: thermotherapy (heat or cryostimulation), phototherapy (infrared, ultraviolet, or laser), ultrasoundtherapy, electrotherapy (direct or via electromagnetic energy), magnetotherapy and mechanical nerve stimulation (acupuncture, reflexive massage, cupping, or high-pressure hydrotherapy). Chemical stimulation of the skin’s nervous receptors by the use of various injections (even bee stings), plasters, compresses, and creams also belongs to the same category, because respective chemical substances are utilized in this case as nervous stimuli and not as medications of their own. We must always remember that, for example, in the case of electrotherapy it is not the electrode and in the case of acupuncture it is not the needle which cure the problem; these are just tools to stimulate and control the body’s own powerful self-defense mechanisms and systems. After all, the human body is, in fact, the best possible “pharmaceutical factory,” which under nonpathological circumstances is able to synthesize any needed substance.

Certain traditional indications for reflexive physical medicine—for example, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, peptic ulcer disease, diarrhea, urinary tract infection, impotence, etc.—are no longer indications for reflexive physical medicine due to tremendous progress in contemporary pharmacology. However, there is a wide range of pathological conditions for which reflexive therapies should be still the first choice. For instance, these therapies are particularly well suited to treating severe back pains, even after multiple failed spinal surgeries. They are known to be very successful when it comes to treatment of persistent headaches, neuralgias (intercostal, trigeminal, or postherpetic), neuropathies (for example, diabetic), phantom pains, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, Reynaud syndrome, chronic rhinitis/sinusitis, Meniere syndrome, tinnitus, hearing loss due to acoustic nerve damage, Bell’s palsy, glaucoma, macular degeneration, atonic urinary bladder. They can be visibly effective as a supportive treatment of Parkinsonism. Reflexive physical medicine is traditionally used for various kinds of arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, acute gout, and sports injuries; it can be very useful in the case of chronic respiratory tract diseases. Those more radical reflexive therapies, especially electroacupuncture and cryostimulation (−70 to −160 degrees Celsius), can be successfully used even in acute problems: for example, status asthmaticus, atonic uterus, renal colic, esophagospasm, severe migraine, or postoperative pains. Electroacupuncture can be also by far the most successful treatment for nicotine addiction.

Of course, it is good in practice that physiatrists (specialists of physical medicine) know various physical therapies useful in rehabilitation—for example, traction, spinal manipulation (“manual medicine”/chiropractice), electrostimulation of muscles, or radiofrequency rhizotomy. However, these treatments belong to the medical rehabilitation specialty (or even neurosurgery), and nerve blockades and intra-articular injections are respectively the domains of anaesthesiology and orthopedic surgery. What really constitutes the difference between the specialty of physical medicine and other medical disciplines, which also use certain physical treatments, are reflexive therapies. Therefore the term “physical medicine” should be used with regard to reflexive physical medicine rather than, for example, medical rehabilitation.

It is also important to distinguish between the terms physical medicine and physiotherapy. Physical medicine comes from physics, in contrary to the term physiotherapy, which originates from the Greek “physis”—nature—and should be reserved mainly for “physiological” therapies such as exercises (kinesitherapy, bio...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. Investigations of the Physiological and Morphological Foundations of Reflexive Physical Medicine
• Chapter 3. Neurophysiological Foundations of Reflexive Physical Medicine
• Chapter 4. Organ Electrodermal Diagnostics
• Chapter 5. Reflexive Physical Therapies
• Chapter 6. Final Considerations
• References
• Index