11
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 insomnia began in Russia during the 1950s and first came to the
USA in the 1960s.
In 1965 Drs. Ronald Melzack of Canada and Patrick Wall of the United
Kingdom published a paper explaining a new comprehensive theory of how
pain is processed by the nervous system. Their Gate Control theory also
explained how electrical stimulation can influence the physiology of pain
pathways. By 1967 electrical devices were surgically implanted to control severe
low back pain. Surface electrical stimulation devices were used to test the
person's response as a means of screening surgical candidates and to
determine the most effective electrode site for implantation. It was soon
discovered that electromedical treatment through the skin (transcutaneous)
was equally effective and could be used for pain relief alone, avoiding surgery.
Since then, these devices, known as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulators
(TENS), have become widely accepted by health care practitioners to control
many forms of pain.
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.
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