Common steps and sub-activities
Vibrotherapy
Introduction
Vibrotherapy is a technique used principally in healing. Its origins are steeped in the research work done in the USSR and which now is seeing fruition in the new eastern bloc countries such as the Ukraine where research continues and countries such as China where there is recognition of the existence of resonance. The Vibrotherapy equipment used in medicine often generates both audible as well as infrasound frequencies. At least three hand-held vibrotherapy devices are currently advertised to the public, there may be many more by the time you read this, but they serve as good examples. Only two are suitable for use with trigger points.
- The Infratronic QGM Quantum device, developed out of scientific research in Beijing, China, is said to “focus chi or life energy into patients' bodies and stimulate[s] relaxation and healing”. It operates at 8 to 14 Hz, 70 dB, - so very low frequency but moderately high intensity - and is said to be "recognized by the FDA as a 510k Therapeutic Massager”.
- The second device is the Nostrafon Infrasound Wave Massager from Novafon, which is said to provide a 2.25-in. deep massage using mixed-frequency waves.
Rather intriguingly, both these vibrotherapy devices are used for treating horses and athletes. The Chi infrasound device is said to calm race horses by “stimulating production of alpha brain waves”.
- The HydroSonic Relaxation System delivers low-frequency vibrations to the body by water conduction through a heated water mattress. Typical treatments last about 30 minutes. The frequencies are generated by a compact disc and amplified. Users are said to include physicians, trainers, physical therapists, chiropractors, and spas. This is not targeted so is not suitable for use with trigger points.
The treatments can be applied through clothing and casts and the low-frequency waves can be programmed to penetrate surface muscles and internal organs to massage deep tissue..
The devices have been used to treat a wide range of complaints - in some cases very effectively [se the observations].
Here they experimented on rabbits…………..
Electrophysiological study of reticulo-limbic interrelationships during prolonged action of vibration - Minasyan SM, Baklavadzhyan OG - Department of Human and Animal Physiology, State University, Erevan.
Phasic changes in the bioelectrical activity of the dorsal hippocampus (field CA3), the mesencephalic reticular formation, and several regions of the neocortex and the reticulo-cortical evoked potentials were measured under conditions of the action of prolonged vibration (3 months) in electrophysiological experiments with rabbits.
Daily three-hour vibration during the first month of the experiment evoked an activation reaction in the EEG, characterized by a desynchronization effect in the neocortex and hippocampus and by the stabilization of the v rhythm in the mesencephalic reticular formation. Noted against this background was a certain facilitation in the reticulo-cortical evoked potentials, more pronounced in the neocortex, and a decline in the ascending activational influence of the mesencephalic reticular formation.
The three-month action of vibration exerted an inhibitory influence on reticulo-cortical interrelationships, expressed in a decline in the compound bioelectrical activity of the cortex and subcortical formations, the excitability of the mesencephalic reticular formation, and the suppression of reticulo-cortical evoked potentials. At the same time an elongation of the latent periods of the positive phases of the evoked potentials, a decline in their amplitude, and a reduction of the negative phase in limbic structures was noted. The question of the physiological mechanism of development of vibrational pathology is discussed.
PMID: 3441286