MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Magnetotherapy is an instrumental, non-drug physical therapy used to combat osteoarthritis, joint pain and osteoporosis, as well as to facilitate and speed recovery in cases of contractures, sprains and fractures. The origin of this approach dates back as far as ancient Greece, and the scientific foundations for its application were laid in the second half of the 1800s. Magnetotherapy uses electromagnetic fields that have an anti-inflammatory and analgesic action, which is useful in combating bone and muscle disorders. It acts directly on cells, increasing their exchanges and thus giving new energy, is safe, has no side effects and can be done at home and even on the go, thanks to the development of technology that has made the devices even wearable. These are some of the topics discussed by Emilio Battisti, a specialist in rheumatology and working in the department of physical, earth and environmental sciences at the University of Siena, interviewed by Marco Klinger, for Medicina Top, a TV format of the Italpress news agency.”Magnetotherapy is a physiotherapy technique that uses very low-frequency electromagnetic fields for therapeutic purposes, where the magnetic component is far more prevalent than the electrical one,” the professor began. “Unlike other physiotherapy techniques, there is no production of heat because there is no increase in temperature. Induced currents are generated inside the body that cease when the treatment ends,” added Battisti. “There are modifications inside the cell membrane and there is a particular efficacy with antalgic and anti-inflammatory effect. With further studies, starting with the one on fractures and pain, the anti-inflammatory effect has been seen, on bone, cartilage, white blood cells, and various other mechanisms such as circulation and stimulation of tissue growth,” he emphasized, speaking of the benefits of a therapy that goes back, in embryonic form, as far back as millennia. “It goes back to ancient Greece for the first treatments. In ancient times people knew about magnetite, this material attracted iron, and the active principle of magnets is having two opposite poles that attract each other,” he recalled. “Then in 1820 it was seen that an electric current can generate a magnetic field. And on the diseases that can be treated with magnetotherapy: “Diseases of bones, joints, muscles. From osteoarthritis to tendonitis, through fibromyalgia, lumbosciatica. And there is carpal tunnel syndrome, where magnetotherapy is very effective. I have treated more than 200 patients, especially in the primitive form,” Battisti recounted, “It is a disease due to compression of the median nerve, you have an alteration of sensitivity and strength, in the advanced stages you have hypertrophy under the base of the wrist, it makes it difficult even to pick up a plate or a cup. Before there was only surgery, sometimes not resolving. My experience to show efficacy is in forms that are not too advanced: we have seen that there is recovery until the nerve functionally recovers,” he claimed. “In more advanced forms, however, with magnet therapy we can also help the success of the surgery. “Studies allow us to use targeted therapies with innovative devices that can act on all people: it is necessary at this point, and we succeed, to personalize the therapy,” he acknowledged, “The magnetic fields used fixed frequency fields with a sinusoidal waveform and rather low intensity. It implies that the devices have to have so many specific programs for each type of pathology, but what happens is that they are not personalized with respect to who you are going to treat,” Battisti explained. “Having this fixed code is limiting, compared to being able to have a variable code with which you have broad-spectrum electromagnetic signals that increase the possibility of patients’ response. When there is a variety of stimuli, at that point we would go to better action and there would be a better response, both on acute and chronic pain,” he concluded, “This would also allow us to prolong the benefit of the therapy.
– photo taken from Top Medicine video -(ITALPRESS).
