Whole Body Vibration

Everything we see and touch in our world is held together through electromagnetic forces. All molecules are held together through these forces; even every cell in our bodies are held together through “nature’s superglue.” When we walk and weight bear on our bones, a very small electromagnetic field is released. This is called a piezoelectric field, which our bones and joints emit in a weak, yet detectable way.

Our bodies emit healthy fields when they are working correctly, and unhealthy fields when they are diseased or have an injury. The normal fields emitted by a health knee joint is approximately 30 Hz. The symbol after this number, “Hz”, is called a hertz, named after the person who first discovered electromagnetic fields named Rudolf Hertz. It stands for cycles of the electromagnetic field per second. These fields can be generated by your joint through normal weight bearing and walking; however, if your joint has arthritis or even a minor injury, the normal healthy fields are disrupted. The theory of whole body vibration is the restoration or recreation of these healthy fields though cycles per second, or hertz.

One of the first physicians to use vibration therapy to treat disease was Jean-Martin Charcot (1825- 1893) who was one of the most famous neurologist in modern medicine. He observed and carefully documented over 5,000 patients housed at the Salpetiere Hospital in Paris, France according to the characteristics of their disease.

Upon carefully listening to Parkinson’s patients who reported relief of their tremors and pains after taking a train ride to his hospital, he developed a chair which mimicked the train ride and noticed some symptom improvement. John H. Kellogg (1852-1943) of Corn Flakes fame patented a similar chair vibrating at 20 Hz, and proposed this helped with circulation and muscle growth.

Russian elite athletes and cosmonauts were later trained on vibrating pulley systems developed by Dr. Vladimir Nazarov to increase core strength and prevent bone loss during long space flights. World class athletes using vibration therapy lead to the development of the Nazarov Institute, and it’s training principles were quickly adapted by other world class athletes such as Lance Armstrong and entertainers such as Madonna.

The basic principles of vibration therapy lead to a patent by a German company on pivotal whole body vibration through a device called the Galileo™. This was the first device to receive FDA approval for increasing bone density as well as reducing urinary incontinence.  

Today, we have two major camps of theory for the use of whole body vibration pivotal and linear. The first, call the pivotal method, uses a teeter-totter type of design to rapidly move the feet up and down over a central pivotal point to create a cycle of movement, as well as a gravitational force through the very small, but rapid change in height of the platform. The second method, the linear method, also produces a rapid change in height by moving up and down a few millimeters - but does this as a flat surface. The problem with the linear movement is that it does not reproduce the oscillating motion of normal gait, and some of the reciprocal movements causing muscle contracture and relaxation are lost.

Today, we use whole body vibration to treat common orthopedic conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, loss of balance, and for faster recovery after surgery. However, we also use this interesting therapy to help stem cells proliferate after cell based treatments.

Whole body vibration (WBV) is an FDA approved treatment. Even so, it is not covered by any insurance carrier. The team at Cellular Healing is very sensitive and concerned about our patient’s out of pocket costs, and its for this reason that we offer programs starting at $700 for nine treatments.  

If the WBV is combined with traditional physical therapy supervised by a physical therapist, traditional insurance programs may cover portions of WBV therapy. Most health sharing plans are affiliated with a religious organization and you must choose this rather than Affordable Care Act (ACA) sanctioned plan. Also, if you have a health spending account, the expenses associated with this procedure may be offset by these accounts.   

With a glance at the previously mentioned peer reviewed and published articles, one could reasonably conclude whole body vibration may prove helpful for the following conditions and types of patients:

• Older patients with the following issues:
  • Osteoporosis (weak bones)
  • Muscle weakness
  • Balance problems or frequent falling
  • Poor lymphatic drainage
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Urinary incontinence
  • COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
• Younger patients with the following issues:
  • Muscle injuries
  • Recent surgeries (pending surgeon approval)
  • Obesity
  • Chronic Inflammatory diseases (Rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis )
• Recent stem cell procedures
• Athletes looking to improve performance