A Revolutionary New Treatment for Sports Injuries

Raphael J. D'Angelo, M.D.

Center for Holistic and Integrative Medicine

Aurora, Colorado

When Lance Armstrong finished his seventh Tour de France few people knew that part of his unprecedented success was due to the fast muscle recovery provided by Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) treatments given to him by his staff each evening. Although Terrell Owens was not on the winning team in the 2005 Super Bowl, his mere presence on the field running wide receiver patterns astounded his doctors who had predicted a long rehabilitation into the spring for the healing of his fractured ankle.  FSM treatment made the difference.

I was introduced to this cutting edge technology at a medical conference in 2002.  Dr. Carolyn McMakin of Portland, Oregon, the leading world authority on FSM, was demonstrating its capacity to heal injured tissues.  Her subject was a doctor who had a torn rotator cuff of the right shoulder that had been surgically repaired three months earlier.  He had been in rehabilitation and still could not get his right arm past horizontal.  She put on electrically conductive gloves attached by wires to a machine that allowed her to change the frequency and current to each glove.  Dr. McMakin then proceeded to place her gloved hands over his right shoulder directly in contact with the skin.  She worked on different muscles, tendons and nerves over twenty minutes and at the conclusion she had his right arm easily over his head without pain!  As a physician that deals with sports injuries and pain syndromes, I was convinced that this revolutionary technology needed to be offered to my patients.

An understanding of the basic principles at work was part of the FSM courses I took shortly thereafter.  It is known that all matter, including the cells of our body, are in constant vibration.  Each group of similar cell types such as liver cells, muscle cells and nerve cells, seem to have their own vibrational frequencies.  Knowledge of which frequencies resonate with different tissues was worked out by microcurrent pioneers in the early 1900s until about 1940, when pharmaceutical therapies began to take over medical treatment.  By trial and error these early microcurrent doctors worked out the basic vibrational frequencies as well as long sets of corrective (therapeutic) frequencies.  They found that by applying to the skin two simultaneous frequencies - one for the target tissue and one for the corrective action - rapid normalizing changes in tissue function and repair would occur.

In his book, Energy Medicine, James Oschman, discusses the physics of frequencies applied to a cell.  It appears that our cells are very electrically alive.  When an adverse event such as a trauma or infection injures a cell, its membrane electrical potentials are altered.  The injured cell will contain deranged electrical fields making it dysfunctional and incapable of self correction.  When specific microcurrent frequencies pass through such a cell, it is thought that the injury currents in the cell are neutralized leaving the cell able to return to more normal function and self repair.

This theory seems to be borne out by experimental research.  Dr. McMakin, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, showed that blood markers of inflammation rapidly dropped over 70% with the application of a specific frequency to stop inflammation along with the simultaneous application of the frequency for the injured tissue.  Furthermore, as injured tissue normalizes it restarts its capacity to make ATP - the energy molecule of cells.  This in turn produces a sensation of warmth that can often be felt by the doctor and patient.  Measurements have documented up to a 500% increase in ATP during microcurrent treatments. This is like filling a cell’s gas tank with fuel without it having to pay for it!

The level of current used with FSM is millionths of an amp, far lower than the threshold of sensation making it painless for the person receiving treatment.  The number of treatments to correct an injury varies with the nature of the injury, the length of time it has been active, and the general health of the person.

It goes without saying that the sooner one gets treatment for an injury the faster it resolves.  I had a personal encounter with this rule in 2004 when I sprained an ankle running to catch a plane.  Though I iced it down, I was limping on it the next day.  Using a protocol of frequencies for a fresh injury over a 30 minute treatment period, the swelling, pain and limping resolved and I was able to resume normal walking.  If microcurrent can be applied to the injured area within 24 hours of an injury, inflammation with its accompaniment of swelling and pain can be significantly reduced.  Within four hours of the injury, it may eliminate progression to inflammation altogether.  Tissue tears are a different matter.  FSM will help stop the bleeding, swelling and reduce inflammation.  But conventional treatments such as casting or surgery may still be needed.  Even so, FSM can make the recovery time dramatically shortened as was the case for Terrell Owens who received FSM along with massage and physical therapy after his ankle operation.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved FSM for the treatment of pain and inflammation whether it is acute or long-standing.  "Off label" use is permitted at the discretion of the doctor.

Since bringing FSM into my practice I have had remarkable success helping people with all kinds of injuries and those with chronic pain from old injuries and accidents.  As I am writing this article, my teacher Dr. McMakin is in Atlanta giving a course on Frequency Specific Microcurrent treatment of sports injuries to trainers from teams in the NFL, NHL and NBA.  In the years ahead, injured athletes will be back much sooner than in the years gone by.  I'm glad to be able to offer this revolutionary approach to injury treatment to myself and my patients.  This is definitely a technology whose time has come!

Dr. D’Angelo has a holistic and integrative medical practice in Centennial, Colorado. His office phone is 303-721-9984.

JOURNAL OF BODYWORK AND MOVEMENT THERAPIES (2005) 9, 169-176

Cytokine Changes with Microcurrent treatment of fibromyalgia associated with cervical spine trauma. McMakin C,  Gregory W,  Phillips, T

In a retrospective study based on analysis of VAS pain scores for 54 patients, symptoms of fibromyalgia following cervical spine trauma were successfully treated with microamperage current. In a subgroup of the same patients, subjective pain improvement scores were accompanied by substantial reduction in serum levels of the inflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6, and Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha and the neuropeptide substance P. Beta-endorphin release and increases in serum cortisol were also observed in these patients during the same treatment period.