By: Dr. Terry Weyman
I am known on the Sports circuit as the “Doc with all the cool toys”. However, it’s not about the quantity of “toys”, it’s about picking the right “tool” for the right job. My job is not only to improve athletic performance but also to get the body to recover faster than it can by itself. Ask the Top Amateur Motocrosser how important tissue recovery is when he is laying in the hospital the day before the National Championships with a back injury, or a Pro Golfer the day before the Masters down with a knee injury, or a 20 year old football player the day before the Combine down with a hamstring pull. How important is tissue recovery? VERY.
So, one of my tools is the H-Wave electric stimulation machine. No, this is not your typical E-Stim or Tens unit. This is much more and its part of my regular treatment protocol for getting our athletes back to the field as fast as possible. The H-wave was established for treatment of dental related issues from TMJ to providing anesthesia for those not wanting to take medication. Doing a paradigm shift, we now use it for much more than pain control or overall healing. Now, it is looked at as a machine that can speed up the bodies ability to heal itself and the surrounding tissue to get the athlete back on the field faster than expected. H-wave is unique in that it has the ability to stimulate on both low and high frequencies, at the same time! Now you can aid in pain control to reduce muscle guarding while you work on tissue effusion to maximize healing. What a concept. Once your Doctor or therapist grasps these concepts, the treatment combinations and results are limitless. This is the only machine I know of that can either heal an injury or allow the body to naturally recover faster for next day competition. How do each frequencies work and why do you need both? Well let’s look at each form of stimulation and explain why each form is important.
Ultra Low Frequency Stimulation
Development and protocols for H-Wave were based on the well-established facts that fluid shifts and pressures are essential for tissues to heal and to create homeostasis in an injured area. The H-Wave device was specifically designed to improve circulation and enhance fluid shifts; thereby, addressing the inflammation that is so often the causative factor in pain and disabilities. The goal of H-Wave is never to mask symptoms, but rather to speed recovery and/or manage chronic symptoms to allow the body to increase in normal cellular production and integration. Published research has shown that the specific technology of H-Wave represents a paradigm shift in electro-therapeutic treatment and produces the optimal non-fatiguing stimulation for fluid shifts.
High Frequency Stimulation
Some conditions require additional pain relief that fluid shifts don’t entirely address. This is why H-Wave has a secondary mode that is focused entirely on shutting down pain and breaking the pain cycle similar to TENS, however, with a longer lasting effect. Again, in this setting H-Wave is not intending to mask pain while the device is on, but rather create a strong anesthetic affect with significant and lasting relief after a 30 minute treatment. The H-Wave device is so unique and capable of shutting down pain that we have FDA clearance for electrical anesthesia in the field of dentistry. If it can take away the pain from oral surgery, how do you think it will work in the world of athletics when used right?
As I have said, the H-wave is a tool, when used in the correct settings and for the correct purposes, can change the athletes recovery rate and increase their chances for success.
Dr. Terry Weyman is the owner of Chiropractic Sports Institute and travels the world caring for top athletes. He also works for Pepperdine University in their Athletic Training room and for The Factory, a high level training facility. He can be reached at www.gotcsi.com
