Good intentions and the initial actions with which we begin a new year are often noble but not always sustainable or more accurately…strategic!
We bound into hard graft with positive goals and the energy to support them, yet how many of us subscribe to a formula for achieving our lofty fitness aims? The mind is willing but the body needs time to adapt! As we feel the after effects of physical exercise—when stiff, sore, under-used bits begin to ache—most of us fall off the workout-wagon. Science suggests this abandonment of goals relates to a lack of habit-forming strategies and contingencies. In other words we need to prepare for DOMS and other torturous retaliation from our newly recruited limbs.
So, if soreness is a given when starting a fitness routine, and starting a fitness routine is what humans like to do at this time of the year. How can we minimise the inevitable onslaught of pain so we continue to train and give our fitness goals a chance to turn into a habit?
EMPLOY A RECOVERY STRATEGY
Athletes have been exposing themselves to various theraputic strategies for centuries, though methods have changed somewhat in recent times (from acupuncture to ice baths). Amongst the more scientific approaches comes a new breed of biotech which effectively blocks pain and stimulates cellular recovery.
Before hitting the opiates, the 19th Century migraine sufferer and Les Miserables scribe may well have turned to another painkilling idea in vogue at the time—an idea that’s been around for millennia but that’s now fomenting a healthcare revolution. Electricity.
With world pain endemic and the risks of painkilling drugs becoming increasingly acute, PainPod biotechnology engineers are switching on the power of our natural bioelectrical systems, not just to kill pain, but to precisely target a widening range of health conditions.
On average, 2 in 5 have daily aches or pain, 1 in 5 chronic pain and 9 in 10 of us can expect to suffer back pain. It’s not only the pain that impairs us – constant pain causes anxiety, depression, de-conditioning, social isolation, low self-esteem and relationship breakdown. Pain’s costs are incalculable and many of us are realising that the pills simply aren’t working. A fresh study recently published in the British Medical Journal suggests links between taking high doses of anti-inflammatory painkillers—such as ibuprofen—and heart attacks. In sport painkiller addiction is endemic, opiates are the biggest cause of accidental suicide in Australia and opiate addiction is killing 175 Americans a day. Demands for effective natural alternatives to NSAIDs, analgesics and opiates are growing.
A new generation of ultra wearable devices that harness the body’s own bioelectrical system are providing an answer. By putting the power of advanced bioelectrical technology directly in the hands of medical professionals and everyday people alike, the evidence shows that not only are they blocking all types of chronic and acute pain, they’re revolutionising health self management by giving individuals the means themselves to address conditions untouched by drugs THE POWER OF AN IDEA.
Ever since ancient Egyptians discovered the shocking effects of electric fish on the body, low level electrotherapy has been used to manage pain by stimulating nerves, tissues and muscles. The classical Greeks were galvanised by electro-therapeutic healing—the root of narcotic derives from “narka,” the greek word for electric fish meaning—pain relief. As long ago as 63 A.D. Romans were easing migraines with electric rays, Scribonius Largus, personal physician to Emperor Claudius, was an electric advocate:
“To immediately remove and permanently cure a headache, however long-lasting and intolerable, a live black torpedo is put on the place which is in pain, until the pain ceases and the part grows numb”
Throughout centuries since, devices utilising electrical impulses have been improving health and saving lives—in modern medicine most commonly pacemakers and defibrillators. In the past 50 years, commercial interest in the field has been dimmed mainly due to the rise of pharmaceuticals and the debunking of electrotherapy as lacking meaningful evidence. But times they are a changing. Innovators are now harnessing latest medical evidence with the most modern understanding of neurophysiology and molecular mechanisms, leading to a new generation of devices working in natural harmony with the body’s peripheral nervous system, the muscular-skeletal and biocellular systems.
Now dubbed “Electroceuticals”, an increasing volume of pharmacological research is proving the central roles of the peripheral nervous system and neuromuscular system in organ function, immune responses and the body’s respiratory, cardiovascular and inflammatory systems—developments which would have been inconceivable only 10 years ago. The last 5 years have seen an explosion of BioElectronics ventures being set up, with billions in funding being put to developing miniaturised electronic devices and electrical stimulation therapies—market analysts predict the electroceutical industry will be worth $ 25.20 Billion by 2021 up from $ 17.20 Billion in 2016. What’s got investors attention is the potential for electroceuticals to address medical conditions currently untouched or underserved by commercial pharmaceuticals and without the side effects.
The signs are that electrotherapy is powering out of the twilight and into the sun light.
TAKING THE POWER IN OUR OWN HANDS
What may prove different this time around, isn’t the promise of more power to big pharma or to the markets, it’s that we can take the power of bioelectricity into our own hands. In the same way that self-monitoring has transformed health—people using smart ultra-wearable sensors and apps to process a wealth of data to help them manage their personal health—this new generation of personal bioelectric devices is democratising healthcare, fomenting a revolution in self-management that’s improving personal health. PainPod have not only developed devices that empower people with the means to manage their pain and help recovery by stimulating the muscular and nervous systems, they’ve produced easy to use ultrawearables that mimic the body’s natural microcurrent, promoting cellular normalisation and healing from injury or disease.
CEO Rick Rowan says the vision is to change lives “by making these advanced Biotechnologies accessible for everyone from the young to the elderly” PainPod deliver on that promise by programming the devices with specific frequency formulations, advanced waveforms and protocols formed by the results of the best available current medical evidence—so, whether you’re an elite athlete, an arthritis sufferer, a diabetic patient, a parent or truck driver with a musculoskeletal problem, the positive impact on your personal health is likely to be profound. Evidence based, easy to understand and, above all, empowering, these small, lifestyle biomedical devices hold the power to change lives.
Extensive, qualitative evidence and systematic reviews show the formulations and modalities in the devices to be effective for pain relief including chronic, acute, post-surgical and neuropathic pain. Proprietary, embedded neuro-electrical muscular stimulation formulations can stimulate the body systems to produce the hormones essential for body functions and that have been shown to positively impact conditions ranging from muscle atrophy and osteoarthritis through to improved function of Hematopoietic Stem Cells in diabetic patients—a potential regenerative tool for treating human vascular disease. The same modalities that an athlete can use to increase exercise intensity for muscle mass and strength gains can be used to improve muscular and cardiovascular conditions in the elderly, obese and diabetics.
Further still, the imperceptible power of Microcurrent has shown beneficial effects in cutaneous wound healing with extensive evidence for different applications to promote healing, reduce inflammation and participate in tissue repair.
With the ever-growing understanding of the power of our own biosystems and the evolution of devices to harness it, along with the growing power of social evidence to influence change, Rick sees a time fast-approaching where our first choice will be to reach for the devices not the drugs. Putting the power in people’s hands, driven by a proposition of mass participation and accessibility “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” And, this time, it most certainly has.
IN A NUTSHELL
PainPod is a drug-free, pocket-sized device which harnesses the body’s bioelectrical system to moderate and manage pain levels. It works by delivering bio-electrical nerve stimulation pulses through the skin to the nerve endings in the affected area, blocking pain signals from travelling to the brain. PainPod has a range of devices for different applications, including some specifically designed for hands and feet, but top of its bestseller list are the PainPod 3 and PainPod Mi. PainPod 3 has 12 treatments to choose from and 20 intensity settings; it’s also a 3-in-1 device, not only blocking pain, but also accelerating recovery and increasing performance levels. PainPod Mi is a tiny, ultra lightweight smaller version which is wearable all day, offering a 10 hour micro-current painless treatment, and with a touch of a button the device gives a 15 minute booster massage for immediate pain relief.
What Is It: A small, drug-free pain relief device.
Why Buy It: It’s wearable and portable, so it can be used on the go.
The Details: The PainPod 3 is rrp $479, and the PainPod Mi is rrp $99, available from www.thepainpod.com, pharmacies, physiotherapists and chiropractors nationally.
