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Healing Pain with ETPS Therapy Bruce Hocking A new technique that combines the principles of acupuncture, massage, physical therapy and micro-current stimulation is successfully helping many patients with chronic pain live normal lives again. | Chronic pain affects an estimated 80 million Americans. It also causes many unpleasant side effects, including marital and family problems, sleeping difficulties, depression, fatigue and weight gain. As a result, allopathic and alternative treatments for pain—including acupuncture, chiropractic, massage and pain clinics—have spawned the evolution of a huge industry. In the United States
alone, conventional medical treatments for pain constitute a multibillion-dollar industry. Despite the size of this industry, and the expertise involved, patient results are often unsatisfactory.
This is one of the reasons why I developed an electrotherapeutic point stimulation therapy (more easily called ETPS) in 1992. The treatment uses a device called the ETPS 1000 to help combine the principles of acupuncture, massage, electrotherapy and physical therapy with what an increasing number of pain therapists consider remarkable success. In fact, we often have dramatic results with ETPS after only one or two 10-minute office sessions. In addition, the device is relatively inexpensive so that patients can buy one and use it at home themselves. How does it work? ETPS Therapy is based on the belief that pain usually has several different sources and, therefore, requires a multi-system approach to produce long-term effects on patients. In my experience, a seven-step approach can usually treat almost any pain condition, provided the points are treated in order: First, deregulating or calming the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is an important step for relieving pain with chronic patients. Specific parasympathetic acupuncture points, which have an effect on the body’s nervous system, are treated with ETPS to reduce sensitivity and to calm the patient’s ANS. Second, we manually stretch the piriformis muscle to balance the sacrum and allow the spine to symmetrically restack, thereby relieving pressure on the nerve roots, further calming the ANS and structurally realigning the entire skeletal system.
Third, injuries are traced back to the nerve root(s) where paraspinal tissue changes are identified through palpation that relates to radiculopathy (nerve root entrapment). ETPS stimulation is applied to muscles on each side of the entrapped nerve to relax muscle contractions responsible for radiculopathy, and relieve the patient’s pain. Fourth, ETPS is applied to muscles above and below distal joint injuries, relaxing local muscles and significantly increasing range of motion and overall joint strength.
Fifth, ETPS stimulation is applied to scars (called neural therapy) intersecting dermatomes and meridians, in order to re-polarize and soften them. Emotions and energy blockages are often “locked” into scars and this technique can often provide enormous relief to patients. The next step is treating the emotional (limbic) system, often ignored by many pain therapists. Applying ETPS stimulation to key acupuncture points relating to fear, anxiety, anger, worry, grief can often “unlock” old gates and provide enormous relief to a patient suffering from chronic pain. Finally, balancing the meridian systems by applying ETPS to key distal acupuncture points allows energy to flow freely once the above physical and emotional blockages are cleared up. With each step, ETPS stimulation is applied to acupuncture and trigger points, which isolate specific tissues/organs involved with that step. Using a process of elimination, a therapist can isolate “root” causes of pain, providing a more efficient therapy with much stronger outcomes. What does the ETPS device do? The ETPS 1000, an electrode wand similar in appearance to a digital thermometer, produces a stimulation that relaxes muscles and calms the nervous system. In addition, it relaxes contracted muscles to relieve pressed nerves, and also releases endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers This multi-pronged effect on the body’s nervous and muscle system is the reason why ETPS works so effectively. “Much of chronic pain is musculoskeletal in nature, and much of that is muscular,” says Jay Shah, M.D., a physiatrist in the Clinical
Center of the National Institutes of Health. “The theory is that by stimulating acupuncture [and trigger] points, you can significantly relax muscles and improve pain relief.”
Can patients really do this at home? All of my patients have found the ETPS 1000 easy to use and safe to apply at home. The unit is designed to detect acupuncture and trigger points, and emits a beep when one is found. When the user pushes a button, the device then applies a low-level electrical current to open the blockage and relax the muscle. No needles are involved! Because the signal helps the patient to quickly find the acupuncture points and indicates when the block has opened up, patients can easily address chronic pain whenever it strikes.
While pain medications often treat only the symptoms, ETPS allows patients to treat the immediate pain symptom as well as address its source if it is muscular in nature. For this reason, a good stretching program is often added to keep muscles and other soft tissues loose and pain-free, thus allowing patients to better function. What’s the medical/scientific view on this? Physicians have conducted clinical studies to test both magnetic and electrotherapeutic practices, with some encouraging results. For example, an independent study performed at
Florida
Hospital strongly supports the efficacy of ETPS Therapy. Patients were placed into two groups, one group receiving Physical Therapy, and the other group receiving Physical Therapy along with ETPS. Results showed that the ETPS group had significantly greater reduction in pain (79%) as compared to the Physical Therapy group (48%). The study concluded, “ETPS is an effective modality when combined with traditional physical therapy.”
For patients who have tried other approaches to no avail, success with ETPS therapy sometimes seems miraculous. For example, a woman who was in a series of car accidents 17 years ago that left her with headaches, a frozen shoulder and chronic pain, felt she “walked like an 85-year-old woman.” After a therapist introduced her to ETPS, the woman changed dramatically: “Only half an hour after the ETPS therapist did my neck, I was able to get up and bend down. Before treatment, I couldn’t take my foot and put it on top of my other foot; after treatment, I could put that same foot on my knee!” Although the woman claimed not to know why ETPS worked, she has continued with it: “Once something works, you can’t question it.”
Acupuncturist Bruce Hocking will lead an ETPS Acupuncture Seminar in Anchorage
from June 3 to 4. For more information call: 1-800-567-7246 (PAIN), visit www.acumedmedical.com, or e-mail info@acumedmedical.com
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ETPS: New Help for Acute and Chronic Pain
by Russell Manuel, MD
After an eleven-minute treatment … the change in her
posture and smile on her face was a joy to behold! |
Electro Therapeutic Point Stimulation (ETPS) is a new therapy for chronic and acute pain. It is a non-invasive therapy applying low frequency microcurrent stimulation to the skin at ancient acupuncture points, motor/trigger points and contracted motor bands. ETPS is based upon the premise that ancient philosophies combined with modern electrotherapy technology can provide synergistic therapeutic results to suffering patients. Although motor, trigger and acupuncture points have been used in therapy for many years, when they are combined in special ETPS patterns, they greatly increase the therapeutic outcome of the treatment.
I have been a medical acupuncturist since 1981 and have taught microcurrent stimulation throughout North America since1996. Two years ago, I met Dr. Bruce Hocking, a doctor of acupuncture who created ETPS. I was amazed at the results he was getting with a unique microcurrent stimulator from Australia. After observing Bruce in action and experimenting with ETPS on myself and others, I am convinced that anyone can learn to employ highly effective protocols for the treatment of specific pain problems. In fact, with this little hand-held instrument and the ETPS protocols, anyone can accomplish about 80% of what I am able to do with needles. This was a humbling experience because it took me over two years of formal acupuncture training and practice (in Hong Kong, China and at UCLA) to become an effective acupuncturist. Now, in just one day, people can learn how to alleviate and often eliminate their own pain.
Acupuncturists find this hard to believe and you may too. But more and more acupuncturists are taking a serious look at this new therapy because much of the population will not submit to needles. These acupuncturists know that they could help many more people if ETPS is so effective.
Here are some examples of how ETPS can benefit:
1. Acute myofascial pain syndromes
This includes sports injuries (ankles, knees, shoulders, etc.) and sudden onset of low back pain. These conditions are characterized by painful muscle spasms with consequent shortening of muscles. If you can reduce or eliminate the spasms, the pain goes and function returns. A five- or 10-minute ETPS treatment quickly does just that for most acute conditions. A few follow-up ETPS treatments, along with traditional management, will consolidate these gains and commonly eliminate the pain and restore normal function. Some athletic trainers keep a microcurrent stimulator in their pocket to deal with these acute problems on the spot.
I carry two of the stimulators with me at all times. Recently, while on vacation at beautiful Ross Lake in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, we planned to take a scenic boat ride with two other couples. One of the ladies, who suffers from intermittent severe low back pain, awoke with excruciating back pain. She could hardly walk and certainly couldn't sit. The boat ride was not possible for her until I did a 9-minute ETPS treatment, which gave her complete relief.
2. Chronic pain.
As part of my mission to spread the word on the value of this simple therapy, I do in-service training at chiropractic, physical therapy and pain clinics. I ask the clinics to invite patients with the most difficult pain problems to attend. Over 75% of these patients receive at least 50% symptomatic relief after the first ETPS treatment, which takes only 5 to 15 minutes. I'm continually amazed when I see such results because I've been involved with pain management for over 25 years and have never seen anything like this.
One woman in her late sixties had undergone several back surgeries. Despite this, she still had chronic, disabling back pain. She hobbled into the clinic using a walker for support. I could see she held an attitude that nothing further could help. She was fed up with doctors and pain clinics. After an eleven-minute treatment with ETPS, however, she reported that her pain level had decreased from 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 down to 4. The change in her posture and smile on her face was a joy to behold! This treatment was not a cure for her back pain because the structural abnormalities, including scar tissue from her operations, still remained. However, she did experience immediate pain relief because the associated muscle spasm and shortening of muscles was partially alleviated. Many patients like this will experience complete relief after additional treatments and can be maintained pain free with periodic repeat treatments.
In Alaska, several clinics provide ETPS treatment as part of their pain management program. Most insurance companies cover this treatment. Furthermore, after a person has been shown to respond to ETPS, a microcurrent unit may be prescribed for home use. Some fibromyalgia sufferers have found this to be a useful adjunct to other therapies.
Dr. Russell Manuel, M.D., practiced medicine and acupuncture in Anchorage for 14 years. He is a certified ETPS instructor and provides workshops several times a year in Alaska. He can be reached by voice mail: 1-888-WHOLE44 (946-5344), e-mail: whole44@email.com, or snail mail: POB 1202 Anacortes,WA, 98221.
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Every
Body Needs A Good Mechanic!
by Mike Macy
For most
of us, life is already too short.
If your body isn't up to par, don't wait.
Get help now. |
If someone you know suffers from chronic pain, tension or some
other non-responsive complaint, perhaps the culprit is a mechanical
restriction. Typically, these restrictions result from physical
trauma, such as falls, blows and whiplash. Mechanical restrictions may
also result from pregancy, birth and emotional trauma, past infection,
or surgery. The good news is that if the underlying problem is
mechanical, it may be easy to find and release.
Inherent Motions
The cranial bones, sacrum, and internal organs all have their own
inherent motions (motilities) around their own unique axes. For
example, the heart's ideal motility is akin to a pendulum in a
grandfather clock, swinging easily and symmetrically across the
thorax. This motion can be palpated through the sternum and ribs, and
is key to optimal function. Imaging techniques show that gentle,
specific manipulations can restore and enhance motility.
Of all the organs, the heart is, arguably, the most critical. The
heart's importance as the seat of life, the seat of the soul, a major
part of our emotional brain, and pump are well known. But most of us
give little thought to the implications of the heart as a pump. To
pump effectively, the heart needs easy access to oxygenated blood and
unobstructed arteries.
However, life involves gravity, velocity, and interpersonal
history. We fall. We collide. We wound--and are wounded by--family,
friends, and foes. We have infections and surgeries. These experiences
can put restrictions on internal organs, including the heart and blood
vessels. For example, the acceleration and deceleration associated
with a vehicular collision (whiplash) is likely to leave lesions and
spasms in the vascular walls, perhaps in the abdominal aorta or one of
the carotid or vertebral arteries. These spasms put a drag on the
heart's motility and typically persist until manually released.
Similarly, if our history includes abiding guilt or a broken heart
from the loss of a parent, pet, or a lifelong dream, this injury may
manifest as a mechanical restriction in the heart. If it does, the
heart will develop a pathological affinity for a neighboring organ or
structure, such as the liver, stomach, lung or nearby blood vessel.
Over time, this affinity can become an adhesion and, if not released,
a fixation as our body reorganizes pathologically around our history.
Damage Control
Initially, the body responds to mechanical and emotional trauma by
trying to dissipate it. However, when the trauma exceeds the body's
dissipation abilities, the next strategy is to concentrate the trauma
as much as possible. And there it lies, in some cases undiscovered for
decades.
In its infinite wisdom, the body has a well-developed sense of
which structures are most critical -- primarily the circulatory
system, nervous system, lungs, and kidneys. When residual trauma
threatens a critical organ or structure, the body will recruit
whatever it can, including muscles and the skeletal system, to
minimize the consequences.
Symptoms typically arise when the ability to compensate has been
exhausted, can present far from the location of the restriction, and
are often mistaken for pathology. For example, the symptom could be
chronic shoulder tension or a bulging disc. In such cases, we often
mistakenly assume that the body has somehow failed (failed to heal,
failed to respond to massage, chiropractic, injections, muscle
relaxants, etc.) when, in fact, the body is functioning perfectly,
recruiting less critical structures to protect something more
critical.
What's a Body To Do?
Mechanical restrictions put unnecessary wear and tear on vital
structures like the heart. Untreated, these restrictions can
drastically--and needlessly--reduce the effectiveness and service life
of affected organs. For most of us, life is already too short as it
is. If your body isn't up to par, don't wait. Get help now. If you are
considering surgery, at least talk to someone trained in manual
therapy first.
We can't change your history. What's done is done. However,
mechanical restrictions are often relatively easy to find and
release-which means we can restore our body's ability to compensate.
Typically, no matter how mysterious the cause, once prolapses, twists,
adhesions, or fixations are found and released, vitality and a sense
of well-being improve--often dramatically-while symptoms depart or
moderate significantly.
Energy work, nutritional therapy, personal growth, prayer,
meditation, and other approaches may work well, but, generally
speaking, physical restrictions respond best to mechanical approaches.
This is why manual therapies like CranioSacral and Visceral
Manipulation are so exciting and rewarding. We may catch problems long
before symptoms arise. That's true prevention. We may resolve
conditions long after others have given up. Some clients are able to
avoid surgery. Prevention, again. For those who've had surgery, we may
minimize the likelihood or effects of complications, if any. Finally,
these therapies are safe, gentle, effective, and nearly always
pleasant.
Myofascial, massage, acupressure, and physical therapists and
rolfers are among those most likely to offer CranioSacral and Visceral
Manipulation in Alaska. If you have questions, please call. If some
faraway friend needs this work, one of the 50,000 colleagues in my
global directory may be just down their street.
Mike Macy, MA, AT, CST, is a Nationally Certified Therapeutic
Bodyworker with a practice in Anchorage. To contact Mike, call (907)
272-5534 or e-mail mmacy@acsalaska.net
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