Which Wave is Better?
BY BEN PHILIPSON
Pulse Forms
The actual pulsing rate (the frequency) is very important for pulsed electromagnetic field therapy.
In addition to the frequency, the actual pulse width for each individual pulse is crucial in order to obtain sufficient energy transfer into the body.
Let us first look at the basic different waveforms used in PEMF devices.
The red waveform is a sine wave.
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The green waveform is a square wave.
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The blue waveform is a triangle wave.
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The magenta waveform at the bottom is a sawtooth wave.
All PEMF devices utilize one or more of these waveforms or a combination of them, in order to transfer the pulsed electromagnetic energy into the body.
The mathematician Joseph Fourier discovered that Sinusoidal waves are the actual basic “building blocks” that makeup nearly all other periodic waveforms, including square waves, triangle waves and sawtooth waves!
Even the irregular sound waves of human speech are made up of sine waves. The human ear is able to recognize single sine waves because these sine wave sounds are pure. Other examples of clean sine wave sounds are the vibrations of a crystal glass or a tuning fork.
The human ear will hear “noisy” sounds if the sound contains more than one sine wave, also called “harmonics”.
The simplest way of using any one of the above waves in the picture is to apply either one of them directly as pulsing frequency for the pulsed magnetic field device, which is commonly done in battery-powered and other low-intensity devices. For example, by using any one of these waves, there is no need to apply any other technology other than simply changing the amount of waves applied during each second, and this directly corresponds with the pulsing frequency!
This method almost guarantees the non-efficient application of PEMF.
Let us now take a closer look at the differences between the basic waveforms and the way the pulse repetition rate is utilized in order to create the actual pulsing frequency as a basis for the frequency specifications.
Let us start with an example: if we want to open the tap and fill our kettle with water, the time we need to fill the kettle depends directly upon the water pressure and the time we keep the tap open. If we open the tap just a little bit, it takes much longer to fill the kettle, right? We are actually looking at two completely different things (time and pressure), which both together account for the final result.
Correctly designed PEMFT devices do exactly the same: during the time the pulse is applied (opening the tap), the magnetic energy is emitted. Depending on the basic waveform used (the water pressure), this results directly in the quantity of the magnetic energy applied and is one of the critical issues for the efficacy of the device.
In short: The amount of times we open the water tap each second is similar to the pulsing frequency, and the water pressure is similar to the amount of energy emitted.
But sorry, we are not there yet. The efficacy of the device not only depends on the amount of energy transferred into the body but also on the waveform applied during the individual pulses. The waveform reflects the ability to absorb the energy inside the body and efficacy of the device is highly dependent on which waveforms are used in combination with the pulsing frequencies.
Take for example, the Bemer signal, which is a simple series of sine wave signals (at least they use the sinusoidal waveform) increasing in frequency during the pulse and applied inside a triangle pulse form! This guarantees the suppression of the most effective lower frequencies while at the same time letting only the higher frequencies through, which are known to be the least effective! And to make it even worse: they have a fixed pulsing frequency of 30 Hz, and the sine wave frequencies used go up to ~ 1000 Hz!
Curatron's Rectified Sine Wave
We designed the Curatron systems to use the best possible “building blocks” during each individual pulse (remember this is not the pulsing frequency!), and this is of course, the sinusoidal waveform
We designed the Curatron systems to use the best possible “building blocks” during each individual pulse (remember this is not the pulsing frequency!), and this is of course, the sinusoidal waveform.
At the left side of this picture, we see a basic sine wave signal form. Since we want to utilize the signal to the full extent, we “rectify” the negative part of the signal and obtain a so-called rectified sine wave signal, as can be seen on the right side of the picture.
We now use “packages” of the rectified sine wave signals during each individual pulse. We “pack” specific quantities of these rectified sine wave signals inside each pulse and exploit this technology to change the energy transferred during each pulse (see the Intensity page). Of course, this technology requires extensive knowledge not only in electronics hardware but also in software, which is, of course, extensively available at our company.
Field Polarity
It is nonsense to claim that PEMF pulsing magnetic fields have a positive or negative field. The same is true for stating that there is a North or South pole magnetic field for pulsing electromagnetic fields because the pulsing field changes polarity the whole time.
When you move a compass from the outside towards the inside and move it again towards the other outside of a coil, you can see that the field changes directions. E.g. from North to South, from South to North, and again from North to South etc.
This is also the reason why you do not need to use a specific side of the PEMF coil applicator because the same field extends at both sides of the coil and the reason why you can use with the Curatron one ‘Very high energy coil’ for treatment of, e.g. osteoarthritis in both knees at the same time by placing the coil between the knees.
Only static magnets have a North and South pole, also called positive and negative by static magnet sellers. By the way: what side is called the ‘North Pole’? Is the side attracted to the real North Pole or attracted to the South Pole? Think about this! Most distributors have no clue what they are selling!
In a compass, the ‘South’ pole of the arrow points to the globe’s north, but funny enough is called the ‘North’ pole! I hope I did not confuse you too much.
Ben Philipson is the chief engineer, CEO and President of Curatron