A PEMF therapy buyers guide + the science

Before we get into the buyers guide, I want to touch on the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind PEMF therapy.

(If you’re not interested in the nitty gritty science of how PEMF therapy works, you can scroll to the bottom to check out the buyers guide. I’ve included this here simply for the curious reader)

PEMF therapy is something that I’ve used in my practice for about 4-5 years in various forms. First starting with lower intensity devices before eventually purchasing a high-intensity, medical grade PEMF therapy unit. I’ve used a lot of therapeutic modalities in the last 8-10 years, and PEMF therapy stands above the vast majority of them in efficacy (both quality of patient improvement as well as the relatively short amount of time necessary to see said improvement) and general utility (conditions treatable)

Most of these benefits are attributable (in my experience) primarily to HIGH intensity (not low intensity PEMF therapy. Unfortunately, high intensity PEMF therapy devices are pricey (usually in the range of 2-7K). While high-intensity devices tend to work best for promoting a quick turn around in injury healing, pain reduction and tissue tension, low intensity devices can still be useful. They’re just simply not going to work as fast and likely aren’t indicated for more serious injuries like traumatic head or spinal cord trauma. This is important to keep in mind, particularly because these injuries need to be addressed rapidity

PEMF therapy benefits

PEMF stands for pulsed electromagnetic Field therapy. It’s a non-invasive treatment that uses electromagnetic fields to promote (among other things) tissue healing predominantly.

PEMF devices emit these electromagnetic pulses that penetrate the body's cells and tissues. These pulses are though to influence the cell membrane potential, enhancing ion exchange and improving cellular metabolism. In layman’s terms, PEMF as simply augmenting or speeding up certain cellular and metabolic processes that your body already performs. When the body is injured or inflammed, some of these processes can get thrown out of wack. PEMF helps get waste out and nutrients in the cell.

Here’s some other benefits:

1. Improved circulation: The electromagnetic fields can cause blood vessels to dilate, improving blood flow and oxygen delivery to tissues. This stacks well with hyperbarics

2. Less inflammation: PEMF therapy may reduce the production of inflammatory cytokines

3. Immediate pain relief: in addition to the authentic healing PEMF stimulates, it’s also a very quick anelgesic. I’ve had some people use PEMF who had severe debilitating pain — 10 on a scale of 1-10– reduce down to a 1 or 2 after 10-20min of PEMF.

4. Bone healing/osteogenesis: PEMF therapy has been shown to stimulate bone growth and repair. It’s even FDA aproved for treating fractures

5. Stem cell mobilization, differentiation and invasion: PEMF therapy can help to mobilize stem cells from the bone marrow, as well as guiding them to specific areas of damage in the body. This is part of the reason PEMF therapy is so powerful at promoting repair in a variety of different tissues in the body

Buyers guide

Before picking a PEMF therapy device, it’s important to consider what you’ll be using the device primarily for.

One of my favorite websites for choosing a good high quality PEMF device (vetted by a trusted expert is https://www.drpawluk.com

Here you can find high quality devices ranging from low to high intensity. You can filter devices based on intensity (low, moderate, high) as well as price.

Types of devices

I like to break devices down into two primary categories

1. General health and wellness (low intensity )

2. Injury healing and pain reduction (high intensity devices)

While there’s a considerable amount of overlap here (high intensity devices can be used for wellness, and low intensity devices can be used for healing injuries and pain reduction), it’s important to consider a few things

Firstl, low intensity devices will simply take longer to work and you may have to be more consistent with them in order to see benefits for tissue healing and repair. This may be great for individuals on a budget, but it’s likely not the best option for those looking for a quick turn around in an injury or athletes on a tight ‘Return to Play’ schedule. It’s also entirely insufficient for more serious injuries like TBI’s.

While high internety devices may be great for quickly healing injuries, they may be ‘overkill’ if 1. You don’t see patients 2. You’re just looking for long term wellness benefits (general anti-inflammatory, energy levels, cognitive performance etc)

Timing, session length and dosing

Because there really aren’t a lot of published clinical guidelines on session length or how many sessions you’ll need for different injuries (at different intensities ) I can’t really provide clear cut recommendations on how the number or length of sessions required for various injuries. A lot of it’s subjective and also dependent on the health status of the patient. For example, I’ve had a client get rid of 10 years of severe SI joint pain in one, 30min high intensity PEMF session while some need 3-4 sessions a week for a few months in order to heal a degenerative condition or tear.

It’s also important for patients to have a clear diagnosis before beginning PEMF therapy as this will save them time and money. Pain that’s not related to degeneration or tissue damage may take relatively few sessions, while a partial tear or degenerative condition (cartilage loss, tendon or ligament tears, organ damage) may take 15-20 sessions.

(NOTE: im not suggesting that all issues can be fixed with PEMF therapy. But there are many instances where operable conditions like tears and cartliage loss can be managed or reversed with PEMF. For example, there’s some evidence that PEMF can regenerate cartliage. Is it going to work if you’re ‘bone on bone’ though? It’s hard to say. If it did, you’d probably have to use it for months. Maybe a year)

While it’s difficult to give clear cut recommendations on timing and session dosing, this is what I’ve personally seen in my experience with injuries related to tissue damage and trauma

1. Low to moderate intensity, 1-2 hour sessions daily on the injured area for 1-3 months before improvements are seen

2. High intensity: 2-4 sessions a week for 20-30min daily for 2-5 weeks before improvements are seen. Patients almost always notice a significant reduction in pain after their first session. So far I have 10 Anecdotal MRI findings confirming complete tissue repair in 9 cases of partial ligament and tendon tears. 1 being a full thickness MCL tear (with no retraction)! Two partial labral tears. Tendonitis and tendonosis can sometimes be entirely reversed in 3-7 total sessions in my experience as long as the patient is managing training loads properly during that time.

Bellow I’ve included 3 devices (one low intensity, one medium intensity, and one high intensity) for people looking to purchase a PEMF device with different budgets. These are just examples. All of the devices on Pawlucks website are great. So you can choose a device specifically based on what you can afford and what you’re looking to achieve with the therapy

1. Low intensity — Sota magnetic pulser

https://amzn.to/4dUCqPn

2. Medium intensity

https://www.drpawluk.com/product/flexpulse-g2/

3. High intensity (the device I have)

https://www.drpawluk.com/product/hugo-intense/

PEMF rentals

For individuals who are interested in doing high intensity PEMF therapy but can’t afford to purchase a device outright, you have a few different options. First, you can try to find someone in your area that offers high intensity PEMF therapy. Unfortunately, a lot of physical therapists charge an arm and a leg for sessions, and insurance won’t always cover the cost of the therapy.

In this case, you may want to try a rental. DR Pawlucks website has options to do rentals, and these can range from $500-1000 a month. This is a great deal because you’ll get to use the device as often as you want, for as long as you want for a full month. For most of the indicates uses for high intensity PEMF, this will be entirely sufficent to see positive results

You can find options for a rental here

https://www.drpawluk.com/product-category/rentals/