Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2000] found that microcurrent stimulators do no better than placebo in treating depression,
anxiety, and insomnia. When confronted, microcurrent stimulator manufacturers quickly
tell you all about conspiracies against them and cite their own studies [Kirsch, 1999]. The
debate for their e
ectiveness continues. We remain among the skeptics.
All other forms of energy therapy are either untested or unveri
ff
ed. Electroacupuncture
and auricular acupuncture (acupuncture limited to the ear) claim to deliver currents to
various “acupuncture points” to relieve pain and cure disease by correcting “imbalances”
in the
fi
flow of “life energy.” MORA units purportedly select, amplify, and reintroduce into
the body the patient's own “good electromagnetic oscillations”
fl
filtering out the “patho-
logical oscillations.” Other unproven contraptions (e.g., Bioresonance, Rife, Zapper, and
Radionic devices) claim to use sound and radio waves supposedly “tuned to the resonant
frequency” of various pathogens to kill cancer cells, viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Again,
we are skeptics.
fi
REFERENCES
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Man, Digest of the 6th International Conference on Medical Electronics and Biological
Engineering (Tokyo), Abstract 7-6, 1965.
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Stimulated Bone Cells, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery , 83-A, 1514-1523, 2001.
Burkhoff, D., I. Shemer, B. Felzen, J. Shimizu, Y. Mika, M. Dickstein, D. Prutchi, N. Darvish, and
S. Ben-Haim, Electric Currents Applied during the Refractory Period Can Modulate Cardiac
Contractility In Vitro and In Vivo, Heart Failure Review , 6(1), 27-34, 2001.
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trochemotherapy, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology , 62-66, January-February 1999.
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(rTMS) of the Prefrontal Cortex, Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience ,8,
172-180, 1996.
George, M. S., E. Wassermann, T. Kimbrell, J. Little, W. Williams, and A. Danielson, Mood
Improvement Following Daily Left Prefrontal Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in
Patients with Depression: A Placebo-Controlled Crossover Trial, American Journal of Psychia-
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