12
The application of electromedical currents is not a new concept. Ancients
recognized the therapeutic value of naturally occurring electrical phenomena
long before William Gilbert defined electricity in 1600. Both Aristotle and Plato
referred to the Black Torpedo (electric ray fish) prescribed in 46 AD by the
physician Scribonius Largus for the relief of a variety of medical conditions from
headaches to gout (head to foot). In the 1800s dentists reported pain reduction
using early and somewhat crude electromedical devices.
By the late 1800s electrical devices were in widespread use to manage pain
and claimed to cure a variety of medical disorders. The exuberant claims of early
electrical technologies facilitated by the political clout of the pharmaceutical
lobbies caused this form of therapy to fall into disrepute by the medical
profession in the early part of the 20th century. As a result, medical colleges
stopped teaching electrotherapeutics. Biophysics was virtually eliminated from
medical practice leaving chemistry as the master science and with it the burden
of responsibility for curing all disease. Now, in the 21st century, it is clear that
chemistry as the sole therapeutic model for medicine has not lived up to its
promise, causing modern medicine to re-examine the potential of biophysics.
Experimentation with low intensity electrical stimulation of the brain was
first reported by Drs. Leduc and Rouxeau of France in 1902. Initially, this method
was called electrosleep as it was thought to be able to induce sleep. Research
on using what is now referred to as Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES) for
treatment of anxiety, insomnia and depression began in Russia during the 1950s
and first came to the USA in the 1960s.
All life is of an electrochemical nature. There are extensive electrical fields
at work throughout the universe and the body. The nervous system, for example,
has long been known to work through both electrochemical and purely electrical
signals. In fact, all molecules are held together by electrical bonding at the
atomic level. Basic science research into the nature of bioelectrical control
systems in humans and animals led medical scientists such as Dr. Robert O.
Becker of the USA
1
and Dr. Björn Nordenström of Sweden
2
(who served as
Chairman of the Nobel Assembly) to propose completely new theories of
physiology based on our latest understanding of biophysics.
1
Becker, Robert O. The Body Electric. New York: William Morrow and Co. 1985.
2
Nordenström, Bjorn E.W. Biologically Closed Electric Circuits. Stockholm: Nordic Medical
Publications, 1983.
ELECTROMEDICAL THERAPEUTICS
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