The Benefits of PEMF

William Pawluk, M.D.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. While there seems to be a, an emphasis on pain. There’s a lot more to PEMS, I think, as you said, as well, than just pain management. So, and that’s why we’re here.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Yeah, and even in the case of dementias, so many of our elderly folks or loved ones, who have gotten up into their 70s and 80s and 90s, they do experience some bit of pain and that pain can be sort of a chronic stressor, a chronic cortisol, a chronic sort of irritant that can contribute to dementia. Not to mention if there’s medications involved like narcotics certainly can contribute to cognitive decline, but even things that we think of as more benign, like incense, Tylenol might affect the gut or the detox pathways, in ways that really do directly affect cognitive function. So, I think treating pain is part of that comprehensive approach to treating dementia, and that’s why I’m so excited to dive into this conversation around PEMF, not only in the context of pain, but also just generally in terms of cognitive function.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, thank you. And I think, you did mention that one of the things about PEMF is they have so many actions, and it’s because of those actions that all the other benefits of PEMFs happen. So the, in a sense, I mean, there’s a direct pain killing effect of PEMF, but, killing pain is, you might as well put a bandaid on and take ibuprofen. If all you’re gonna do is, as you said, numbing and dumbing, if all you’re gonna do is basically just try to eliminate the pain, but it doesn’t heal the pain. It doesn’t, you still have to keep using your painkillers if you can’t heal the cause, or if you can’t heal the problem. And so all the things that help with healing the cause of the pain, are the same kinds of benefits and actions that you get to heal the brain.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

I love it.

William Pawluk, M.D.

And most of the people who have Alzheimer’s disease, except for the very young, like for example, with, those with genetic disorders, like mon, “mongolism,” who develop PEMFs early on in life, they develop AD early on in life. They have a genetic defect that causes that problem. So we’re not dealing with most, mostly we’re not dealing with those kinds of individuals. So most of the time we’re dealing with the gradual development of AD, as we see people getting, and you, I’m sure talk about this all the time. As you start with memory loss, age-related memory decline, and then it gets worse. And then, but that you also end up having cerebrovascular issues. What happens to ATP as we get older?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

It’s kinda it’s much harder to make, there’s so, I love that you’re kind of going through this. There are so many contributing factors to cognitive decline and PEMF really hits a lot of those, in terms of circulation and ATP productions for that energy.

William Pawluk, M.D.

But even also to our reactions in the brain. So actually you can wake the brain up and make the brain much more alert, facilitate memory, production, development, memory development and retention, memory retention with PEMFs. So they have so many actions and the thing about those actions is that, you and I, the clinician, or even the PEMF device, doesn’t control that.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

What does?

William Pawluk, M.D.

What does? Good question, the body. So let’s talk about PEMFs, so PEMFs, we could distinguish between PEMFs and the bad EMFs. And even interestingly, in Alzheimer’s, we also have evidence that shows that, cell phones stimulation to brains of mice decreases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. And we think of EMFs as being bad for us, but EMFs are still a form of electromagnetic stimulation. We may not like them, but yeah, they may have other harm to the body, but they are a form of electromagnetic stimulation, so they can wait, they can wake things up. That’s why I light therapy can wake things up. 

It can also have benefits too, that’s all part of the electromagnetic spectrum. But let’s go back to PEMFs, Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields. Basically are like the wind in the trees. And you don’t know there’s a wind there until a leaf starts moving. But there’s wind there, and the wind doesn’t stay in the trees. So as it’s passing through, it creates action in the leaves, and it creates action in the limbs of the trees, the branches, and that action in the leaves and the branches creates movement. Piezoelectric electric movement, that causes sap to flow and wakes things up. The electromagnetic fields in the trees caused by the wind blowing through them, wakes things up.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Okay, now this is making me a little nervous, ’cause I’m thinking tornadoes and hurricanes. So you can get too much wind?

William Pawluk, M.D.

There’s that calm, which is no breeze at all. Well, there’s air there, it’s just not moving. And then you have the breeze, you have a wind, then have a strong wind, and then you have a tornado. So yes, anything in life has a spectrum, has a relationship to how much is good and how much is not so good. So, milder forms of stimulation the magnetic fields are still going through the body. There’s more power behind them when there’s a hurricane going on, and that power may be strong enough to break things and tear things. Well, obviously we don’t wanna be using magnetic fields like that. So, but to give you an example, magnetic fields like that are being used to treat treatment resistant depression, and they’re FDA approved.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

This is like TMS.

William Pawluk, M.D.

High powered magnetic fields to the brain.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation.

William Pawluk, M.D.

It’s transcranial, high-intensity transcranial magnetic stimulation. And that’s been found to be extremely safe, even with that, and I would consider those to be a very strong wind.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Got it, a very strong signal. And then what about an MRI? Just kind of where we’re talking about different magnetic interventions that are used in healthcare, where does an MRI fit on the spectrum?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, MRI has got two components. It’s got a radio-frequency component, which is like your cell phone levels of megahertz stimulation, high, very high frequency. And then it’s got a static magnetic field component. So the high frequency component, jiggles things like a lot, and all of a sudden they snap with the high intensity static magnetic field. The high intensity static magnetic field is Tesla level. What we call Tesla. So most magnetic fields that I use, are going to be under 10,000 gauss. MRIs are 20,000 gauss, all the way up to as high as five or 6,000. Five Tesla, 50,000, 60,000 gauss. 

So we’re talking about much lower intensity magnetic fields than MRIs. And they have been found to be very safe in children and even at pregnant women and women who work in MRI environments who are pregnant, still keep working in those MRI environments, and they’re considered safe. However, obviously we know that you shouldn’t wear jewelry while you’re having an MRI. You shouldn’t probably not have a gun on you. You should probably not have metal inside your body. 

So there are risks, and that was risks, most of those risks have to do with the high powered magnetic field, but they also have to do with the high frequency magnetic fields. So we combining high frequency and high power, that creates the risk. But if you avoid, going into that environment with those potential risks, then you don’t have to worry. Most people don’t have to worry at all.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Great, so those are some of the risks. What about the benefit? What benefit is our cells getting when we’re exposed to these magnetic fields?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, that’s where the 25 different mechanisms come in. And there are more than that even. So now we also know that they have a endocannabinoid effect.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Oh, wow.

William Pawluk, M.D.

That was basically, cannabis. And I have a blog on my website, how are PMEFs like marijuana. So we stimulate the nervous system, and that activates the endocannabinoid system, which, we’re just beginning to discover all the different things that that does in the body. But that’s like taking CBD. It’s not like taking THC, but it is like taking CBD ’cause that affects that system. There are other effects on inflammation. 

So we know there are very strong and you need very high intensity magnetic fields to reach deep into the brain and deep into the body to decrease inflammation. So what percentage of AD, is caused by inflammation? What percentage of memory loss with age is caused by chronic inflammation?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

I would say probably almost all of it, but then that begs the question, what’s causing the inflammation?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, there you go. And so, life, exposure to toxins and environmental molds, and also EMFs to some extent, but viruses. What percentage of the population has EBV in their body? Epstein-Barr virus.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Most of us have been exposed in some way.

William Pawluk, M.D.

85% or more of the population has EBV antibodies. An EBV like shingles virus, is in the body, it’s there. Once you’ve been exposed to it, it’s in your body for the rest of your life. Now, is it active? Is shingles’ active all the time? No, it stays there doing nothing. Until it gets activated until the immune system becomes inefficient and doesn’t control it. Usually it , EB, sort of shingles happens when people have been under a lot of stress. Well, I’ll tell you, I had a woman who had fibromyalgia. She was a nurse, very smart lady. And she was told she had Lyme disease, to talk about a cause of brain dysfunction. 

So Lyme disease, and she had EBV, but she had a bunch of other virus antibodies as well. And she was convinced that she had her memory loss, her brain fog, her pain, fibromyalgia pain was caused by her Lyme disease. ‘Cause that’s what everybody she saw was, who was Lyme literate, said that she had. So I said, well, your antibody levels for Lyme are not that high or not that bad. I’m not convinced that that’s all that’s going on. It didn’t mean that that was not what was going on. But as we, as it turns out the antibodies for EBV, the particularly, the main antibodies, the Epstein-Barr antibodies, cross-react with EBV. So if you’ve got EBV in your body, and you have weekly positive Epstein-Barr antibodies, do you have EBV or do you have Lyme? So what I did, so she wanted to have a prescription, for me to give her a month’s worth of IV antibiotics. And I wasn’t convinced. 

So we did a lumbar puncture. How many people do that on purpose? So we did a lumbar puncture and lo and behold, zero Lyme, zero EBV. And we found HHV-6, human herpesvirus 6 in her spinal fluid. She had antibodies, that was most likely the cause of her problem.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

And did she respond to antivirals?

William Pawluk, M.D.

We didn’t know, antivirals don’t work that well because they have a hard time getting into the blood brain barrier. Plus what do anti-virals do? They don’t kill the virus. There are a lot of bac, there are a lot of antibiotics that don’t kill the bacteria. They keep it from growing more. So when you have shingles, you get antivirals, what do they do? Do they kill the virus? They stop it from growing, and therefore they quiet down the attack, but they don’t ever get rid of the virus. So most antivirals are what we call viral static. They stop the growth, but they don’t kill it. So anti-virus is not gonna help her. What we did is we did a program that you would do for dementia as well. IV, vitamin C, IV glutathione, IV alpha-lipoic acid and Myers’ cocktail, so minerals. And she did, she got, she had a port, we did that every day and in a month she was like, her brain was clear.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Wow, so just really supporting the immune system, which is exactly what I think with a lot of these more ubiquitous viruses, bacteria like EBV or Lyme, it’s the more we can support the immune function, then the less we have to worry about those things. But as we add stressors and toxins and other things that suppress our immune function, then they become a bigger and bigger issue.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Not only that, well Myers’ cocktail supports this basic function of the cells. So it gives you the minerals that your cells need to function better.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Plenty of nutrients.

William Pawluk, M.D.

And I routinely say, magnetic field therapy can’t cure you if you are starving. If you’re protein deficient, if you’re mineral deficient, magnetic fields won’t work. So you need to supply the nutrients that the body needs to be able to do the repair work that the magnetic fields are now stimulating the body to do. So basically magnetic field therapy is passing through the body. The body does not exist to a magnetic field, a magnetic field does exist to a body. So when the magnetic field is passing through, it’s stimulating the tissues to do all sorts of things. So it’s 25 things, 27 things that we’ve mentioned.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Would you mind listing the 25 things? I’m so curious what the mechanisms are here?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, I would recommend my book. So let’s go over some of them, ’cause I, to go over all of it would take the whole hour. We talked about a reduction of swelling, acupuncture stimulation, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral effects. So we’re gonna simulate the immune system to take care of the infections that are inside you, including the mono virus or the shingles virus. And has an anticoagulant effect. So, if you talk about rouleau formation, you talk about infection and inflammation of the body, thickening of the blood. Well, magnetic field therapy actually breaks down clots, and at the same time, it makes your platelets less sticky. So it has a natural anticoagulant effect, equivalent at least to the aspirin, taking aspirin at least that.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

But not so much so that you might have a risk of bleeding.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Correct, however, if you are on aspirin or you’re on an anticoagulant, one plus one doesn’t necessarily equal two. So magnetic field therapy can augment what other anticoagulant things you’re doing. So it’s possible that with CoQ10 or vitamin E or other things that tend to thin the platelets or decrease the stickiness of platelets, those two together may be more likely to cause you to have a bit more bruising. Generally speaking, magnetic field therapy is extraordinarily safe. 

So you reduce the edema, you reduce inflammation, you decrease the spasm of blood vessels and muscles. So you open things up, and that’s one of the mechanisms for increasing circulation. So improving circulation is clearly a big mechanism for PEMFs, whether it’s the brain or the heart or the muscle or the gut, wherever. ATP, big time, you can have a hundred to 600% increase production of ATP. So which organs in the body use the most ATP?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

The brain and the heart. Am I getting that right?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Brain and the heart, exactly. So when you’re stimulating the brain for a short period of time at least, you’re increasing the amount of ATP production. Now, your brain’s got more energy to do the work that it needs to do. But what’s the problem with simulating ATP production? It’s not a rock that you can throw off the top of a hill and it will roll all the way to the bottom. And depending on how long that hill is, it can go for a long, long time. We recycle ATP about 200 to five, every single molecule ATP in our bodies is recycled 200 to 500 times per day. 

We create our body weight in ATP every day, but it’s constantly being used. And what magnetic fields do, is while they’re being, while the magnetic fields are working in the body, they increase the cycle of production of ATP from ADP, ATP by itself does nothing, it’s having a cake in front of you. But what does a cake in front of you do, unless you eat it? Does nothing, it just looks like a cake. Well, if you get close enough, you might smell the cake. But beyond that, you have to eat it. So magnetic field therapy makes the ATP from ADP, and then it causes the body to strip off the enzymes in the body, to strip off one of the phosphate molecules, which then releases the energy. And then, the ADP that’s created by the ATP hydrolysis is recycled. 

So it constantly recycled ATP. Makes it, uses it, makes it, uses it, constantly. So while you’re doing the stimulation, your brain is gonna wake up for awhile, but that will die down. So your body has to make, your body has to continue to support you and make the ATP on its own. But you can temporarily at least really wake things up. So ATP is big. And as, as a result the mitochondria. It helps recycle cells, cells that are old, leaking, clean their stuff. You have to clean your house now and then, get rid of the old stuff. Well, the brain does that to the muscles of the whole body. All the cells in the body have to go through a process called autophagic. Autophagy or autophagic. And so it’s cleaning house. And if you don’t clean house, you’ve got dead cells mucking up the works. 

So you have to clean house periodically, and magnetic field therapy helps with that. Circadian rhythms are important. So your magnetic field therapy can restore circadian rhythms they rebalance and poor sleep causes Alzheimer’s, is a risk for Alzheimer’s isn’t it? So magnetic field therapy helps with sleep. So which then helps with your circadian rhythms as well. And so on back and forth. Collagen production. So in other words, it approves the skin, but it also improves the basic cellular structure. So it helps to build cellular structure. Detoxification, growth factors, healing of tissues. It helps scars to heal themselves. Brain injuries are a major cause, concussions. How many people do you know, have had at least one concussion?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

I vast majority of people I ask, have you hit your head, say yes.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Yes, they don’t, nobody tells them it’s a concussion. Because you got better, that means it’s gone. Well, it’s not, if you do MRI studies on people who had a bang to the head, they didn’t lose consciousness, they may have gotten a little woozy for a second and then they’re fine. But you, how many of those can you take before you end up having a pretty significant amount of brain effect? So magnetic field therapy helps to restore and recover brain function in people who have had concussions. I actually did a study with people with concussion and magnetic field therapy and they all improved significantly.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Great.

William Pawluk, M.D.

So healing and regeneration, the heart, the immune system, nerves and conductivity, oxygen supply is increased. The tissues of the body are able to use the oxygen that you provide the body, better with PEMF therapy. We talked about pain and where does pain go? Where’s the sensation of pain?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

To the brain.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Pain’s in the brain. And so when you have chronic pain or you have severe pain, the brain automatically resets itself as a result of that pain. So people with chronic pain syndromes are more prone to developing dementia and AD as well. You’ve talked about that at the very beginning. So pain, managing pain is an important part of the process, because that will definitely cause the progression and the development of AD. Psychological function, we can treat anxiety, we can treat depression, all of those lead to AD and vice versa. So PEMFs help to restore brain function significantly. 

Red blood cells, stem cells, stress, water, the water, water in our bodies is affected by PEMF. The water in our bodies is made to be used by the body better, ’cause it changes the bond angles of the water molecules, making them slipperier and more accessible to the cell. That’s all that magnetic fields do.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

That’s it? There’s no more?

William Pawluk, M.D.

That’s all.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

So, wow. There’s a lot there. And we can see, you, I’m a naturopathic doctor, I was trained and so, whenever there’s something that helps benefit cell health, no matter it’s in the brain or the heart, or the big toe, if there’s something that can safely deliver an increase in function, either at the mitochondria or the cell generally, then I’m gonna get excited. And certainly PEMF was one of these things. I’ve personally been on PEMF mats and noticed a detox response from it a little bit. 

I feel a little, I felt a little shaky, a little headachy, maybe a little sore afterwards, and I didn’t take it as a terrible sign. I was like, actually, I need to probably do a little bit more of this. And I’d probably also wasn’t hydrated enough at that point. I was training for a marathon when I had done it and so I think I was being a little hard on my body, but what was impressive to me, wasn’t, that I didn’t feel great, but that I felt a difference. I felt a real difference after being on the mat and then getting off of it and so many of my patients have really similar experiences. So I’m curious, which, in this context context, talking about not marathon training, but more for the marathon of dealing with cognitive decline, what PEMF devices do you recommend specifically to help with brain health?

William Pawluk, M.D.

So, and that’s complicated. Magnetic field therapy, as I mentioned, is approved by the government for the FDA, for treating the brain. And now we’re discovering that it’s useful for MS and Parkinson’s and degenerative brain disorders. So, one of the reasons that they’re using this, the primary mechanism that they’re looking to do is to increase charge in the body. And they’re increasing electrical charge in the brain itself. So, every time magnetic field passes through a cell, through the tissues, it’s generating, we talked about ATP, but it’s actually generating electrical charges in the tissues. And those electrical charges are then used by the body to accelerate or do whatever the body does. 

Now, what’s aging? It’s called entropy. I describe aging as being death by a thousand cuts. All the little insults that we have throughout our lives, and that’s why as we get older, those insults accumulate, straws on the camel’s back. So magnetic therapy by increasing charge in the tissues, now has the tissue, have more energy to do the work it needs to do. So, for example, if you have a fracture, can I heal a fracture like that? If I have a head injury, can I heal the brain like that? No, the body has to do the work. All we’re doing is providing the stimulus to the body to do the work. 

That’s why magnetic fields don’t do the work, the body does the work. But the magnetic fields are the stimulus for the body to be able to do what it hasn’t been able to do, or it can allow the body to do it better for some period of time, like the ATP production. So you’re, again, all these mechanisms are happening at the same time. The body decides what it’s going to do with it.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

I also just love that concept of providing what the body needs, and then allowing that inherent wisdom in this complex system that we sort of pretend to fully understand, but I have so much reverence for how the body often knows. If we just show up and give it the things that needs and take the things out of the way that it doesn’t, that harm it, then so much of this happens naturally. And PEMF feels like it really supports that process.

William Pawluk, M.D.

In so many ways, I mentioned stem cells. We now know that adults grow brain, grow stem cells. They don’t grow stem cells as well as children do, but they still have, you still have the capacity in your brain with the appropriate stimulation to end, to produce stem cells, to help, to heal and repair the tissues of the brain, the neurons. But I think the most important aspect of what magnetic field function does in the brain, is to increase the energy of the brain by waking cells up, by giving them more ATP, by improving the circulation, by helping them to detox. And the brain is the most difficult organ in the body to detox, because of the blood-brain barrier. 

But magnetic fields, nothing stands in the way of a magnetic field, nothing. The body, nothing in the body, whether it’s skin or muscle or bone, brain, nothing stops a magnetic field. If you have a body here, and I have a magnetic field here, and I have a measuring tool on the other side, great. If I stimulate the body and I remove the body, the magnetometer does not change at all. The magnetic field just goes right on through, as if it wasn’t even there.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Fascinating. So you mentioned voltage, we’re doing a clinical trial on our integrative individualized approach to cognitive, reversal of cognitive decline. And in that we are using the Wabby, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the EEG device called the Wabby. And one of the things that it measures is voltage. So if we were to use a PEMF, I’m just curious, because we were measuring people all the time here. If we were to use a PEMF mat or device on someone, and then measure voltage through an EEG before and after, would we see a change?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Depends, so that goes back to the question you asked before, which is which device do you recommend? So if I’m gonna be treating treatment resistant depression, I’m gonna be using an RTMS, Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation machine, which is going to be about 8,000 gauss. And that producers charge right there within the brain. But then we know now that that charge doesn’t stay there. It goes through the entire brain. It’s going everywhere. And the same thing with oscillatory patterns. 

If I stimulate the brain with 10 Hertz right here, then right there’s gonna have a higher concentration of 10 Hertz and the amplitude of those EEG waves right there. But then they cascade through the rest of the brain. So on the other side of the brain, you’re gonna have an amplitude change, but it won’t be anywhere near as high as it will be near the stimulus. So, how much stimulus do you need to get the biggest increases in amplitude? That depends on a lot of things, but, and treatment it is one of those things. 

So if you, like a radio signal, if you have an analog dial on a radio, the airwaves are full of EMS, they’re full of radio signals, and they’re all these different stations are broadcasting 98.7, 21.2 your 110.6, they’re all out there. And what our tuners do, our radio tuners do, is you change the dial and the frequency within the tuner. And when you hit a frequency that’s out in the air that you start to, you start to engage that frequency, it’s called phase locking or frequency following. As you come into the station, the frequency gets louder and louder and less, less fuzz. And then bang, you got the radio station. And then once it’s locked in, that’s called phase locking. Once it’s locked in, it’s louder ’cause now it’s fully in sync with the environment. It’s like people dancing, people are dancing at different rates and rhythms. If they they’re all dancing in sync, it’s a lot more fun than everybody dancing their own dance. The brain does the same thing. 

So we’re causing the brain itself to oscillate in frequency. And the more you’ll lock in the, the greater the amplitude. So you can either create more of that phase locking or the amplitude by increasing the intensity, or better yet, you increase the phase locking. So you don’t need as much power then if you’re gonna phase lock, frequency follow, and train. Than you will, if you’re not in training.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Is this more like a neurofeedback, I’m curious about the training. What does that mean? How do you pick the right frequency?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, we know for example that, we, you and I, right now, we’re in beta. We’ll probably have some amount of gamma going on, maybe a little part of our brain it wants to rest, and it’s an alpha.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

And these are brain waves.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Pardon me?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

We’re talking about brain waves. Can we do just a quick reminder for everyone listening and watching, beta is going to be kind of more engaged.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Alert consciousness. Learning, thinking, judging, processing.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Okay, so that’s beta, you mentioned theta.

William Pawluk, M.D.

So below beta.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

It’s going lower.

William Pawluk, M.D.

In terms of lower, So beta is gonna be 10 to 30 Hertz approximately cycles per second. Then we have alpha, which is just below beta. So that’s gonna be between 10, about 13 cycles per second, or Hertz. And then below alpha is theta. And that’s gonna be between five to eight Hertz. And then below that is going to be delta, under five Hertz, approximately. So there are different scales that people use, and there are lower and higher eight alpha and beta and theta and so on. So, delta is where we are in deep sleep at the, in, during the night, probably about an hour, an hour and a half in to sleep. That’s when we were in deepest sleep. It’s hard to wake up out of the delta. 

When we fall asleep, were in theta. Most of our nights, 75 to 80% of our nighttime is in theta. While we’re relaxing, when we’re sort of dozzy, but not asleep, then we are in alpha. When we’re sort of watching the, I call it the observer state, then we’re in alpha. 14 Hertz is called a sensory motor rhythm. That’s also an idling rhythm of the brain. You’re not processing, you’re not thinking, you’re not judging, you’re just there. Once you start processing what you’re thinking, you start learning, then you go into beta and there’s another level above that called gamma. 

Gamma is important actually in Alzheimer’s as well. So you can pick magnetic systems that are going to give you those individual frequencies. And then by presenting the brain with an individual frequency, your brain is gonna lock in. I’ll give you an example. So if I’m doing, it’s hard to pay attention to that. But if you go. Loud and consistent, it becomes hard to ignore it. And so part of your brain, your auditory cortex, and part of your other parts of the brain are now starting to pay attention to that pattern. That’s called entrainment. So when we, again, when we give the brain these frequencies, the stronger the frequency, the more the entrainments got, the stronger the entrainment is going to be. But if we’re trying to go to the auditory cortex, and right now the auditory cortex might decide that it’s going to be in 23 Hertz. 

If I give the brain 23 Hertz, bingo, my brain is alert. I use that principle, I have a magnetic device that I use. I had to go pick up my daughter at the airport, in the Baltimore area at two o’clock in the morning, she was supposed to get up at 7:30 at night, and I didn’t wanna take more coffee ’cause then it wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep when I got home. How do I stay awake? Well, I have to know about magnetic field therapy. So I have a machine called the FlexPulse. So the FlexPulse, that is a, I can present that frequency 23 Hertz with a coil put on the back of my neck. So that’s what i did. You get the buzz, I mean, you get the lift, the uplifting and get the awakening, but no buzz. Put it in the back of their head, and I, it was amazing. I was like alert and I picked her up and drove home. And as soon as I took it off, went to bed.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Oh, so did you wear it the whole ride to the airport?

William Pawluk, M.D.

The whole ride. Because what happens is once you stop, the brain wants to do what it wants to do. And you’re trying to force the brain to do something that it’s not wanting to do at that moment.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

So, if you take away the stimuli, it’s gonna go back into its pattern.

William Pawluk, M.D.

It will go back into whatever pattern it wanted to be in and usually at two o’clock in the morning, we’re asleep. So the brain wants to be asleep.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

And that a delta.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Exactly.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Got it. Well, so, and these devices, I was curious about the practicality. Does it, you mentioned taking it into the car with you, so it doesn’t always need to be plugged in, there are mobile devices.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Sure, so again, there are many types of devices. You ask, which device would you use? So in this case, I was using the FlexPulse because it’s battery operated, it’s portable. It’s easy to put on the back of my neck. So where’s the center of the brain that controls other consciousness or consciousness in fact. The reticular activating system is at the top of the brain, it’s the bottom of the brain stem, the top of the neck. So that’s where I put the coil, ’cause right next to that brainstem. And it’s gonna, and train that brainstem to be at that higher frequency, even though the rest of the brain wants to be asleep. At that point, I’m telling the brain and the brainstem stay alert, gotta drive. And the way I drive, you gotta really stay alert.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

And so if somebody wanted to entrain better memory making and retrieval of memories, what would they use?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well memory, where does memory, what frequencies is memory happen in?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

That’s a good thing we have the expert here, ’cause I do not know.

William Pawluk, M.D.

All right so, theta is in a sense, more con, is in a sense, more conceptual, emotional memory. Children are in theta until they’re about seven or eight years of age. That’s why we don’t remember very well before age five or six, unless it’s very powerful memory. Very emotional memory. So what happens is theta learning and has shown us that people who learn in theta, they’re stimulating the brain while they’re learning. They can’t remember detail, but they remember the concepts. So if you question them about how to apply a formula, how to apply an idea to a problem, they will have, they’ll have a solution like that because it’s coming from a theta level, which is again, more vague, more generalized.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

That sounds very useful.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Pardon me.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

That sound very useful.

William Pawluk, M.D.

It can be very useful. And the Russians did a lot of this. There’s a book called “Mega Brain”. And which it talks about theta learning? So it’s hard to stay awake during theta learning. But what the Russians discovered is that, if you put speakers, plague tapes, encyclopedia Britannica under your head while you’re sleeping, since you’re sleeping in theta most of the night, then you’re gonna be learning what you’re hearing subconsciously.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

So there’s something to this. I, you can put a book under your pillow and sleep on it and maybe learn something at night.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Yep, well, you can try that. I, go ahead. I don’t think I’d wanna do that. That that could be disturbing to your sleep so.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Sounds a little uncomfortable.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Yeah, but anyway, the theory’s there. So, basically you could use different frequencies to make the brain alert at different levels. And as soon as the stimulus goes away, the brain will tend to revert back to where it wanted to be. And different parts of our brain are in different frequencies all the time. Our brain is not ever in one frequency. So, if I put something under my pillow for sleep, which I do every night. If I put three Hertz under my pillow every night, a portable battery operated machine, like the FlexPulse, it’s going to help to drag me down into the lower theta levels and upper delta levels through the night. 

So it’s gonna be more likely to help you to fall asleep. And then, because I play it all night long, it helps me to stay asleep. So I’m more likely to stay in that low theta level, upper delta level through the night. So I call it, the equivalent of that is say, for example, the image, the metaphor is you try to swim on the surface of the water, and now you’ve gotta weight around your waist, so delta is the weight around your waist, trying to keep you down into the lower levels of theta. 

If you’re remembering your dreams, if you’re conscious of your dream, then you’re in upper theta, you’re just about awake. People do conscious dreaming, lucid dreaming that way. Where they’re sort of asleep, but they’re not really asleep. Well, that’s not deep sleep, it’s not restorative sleep. So what we’re doing then by ensuring deeper sleep, you’re more likely to keep yourself asleep, ’cause instead of coming up to consciousness, being aware of your fact that you’re not sleeping, then you don’t want, that’s not restful sleep. So we bring yourself down, even though your brain wants to be higher, say, no, I’m not gonna let you do that. I want a deep sleep. I want to sleep deeper until I’ve had enough sleep tonight. Thank you very much.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Yeah, so how do you turn it off? That it, doesn’t it keep you there?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Oh, I turn the machine off and the brain goes about doing his own business, again.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Wow, and then, so, could you wear a PEMF device all day long and have the stimuli all night long? Or do, at at some point don’t you want the breeze to stop?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, there, I have a friend who has, I spoke to him this morning. Who has chronic back pain. He wears his portable battery operated PMF device all day long. And if he doesn’t, he’s got significant back pain. There’s no harm, and the, what would you rather have chronic pain or chronic magnetic therapy?

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Yeah, is this, how is this different from TENS, a TENS unit.

William Pawluk, M.D.

A TENS unit is electrical stimulation. So if you, if we, if I electrocute myself, if I stabbed myself with an electrical pulse. It’s irritating, because it doesn’t penetrate deep into the body. PEMF goes all the way through, it doesn’t stop, and it doesn’t hurt. TENS hurts. So TENS, most of the time it’s used for pain management. So what does TENS do when you use it for pain management? It’s like stomping on your toe when you have a headache.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

That sounds terrible.

William Pawluk, M.D.

What you’re doing is you’re distracting the brain with another stimulus. You’re not removing the cause of the pain, you just distracting the brain. So it’s functional, it’s useful that way. It’s better than taking an opioid, but it’s still not really dealing with the cause. And it’s not dealing with helping to heal the tissues and remove the cause of the pain ’cause if we don’t heal the cause of the pain, the pain will just come back.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Got it.

William Pawluk, M.D.

So PEMFs give you the opportunity to actually heal the tissue.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

So this is just absolutely fascinating. I’m learning so much about PEMF and the potential to use this in the world of Alzheimer’s. I just feel so privileged to be having conversations with experts like you throughout this summit. And I’m really excited for our listeners to understand where they can get even more resources, because I think it’s very clear, certainly to me, that we have only scratched the surface of what’s possible here with PEMFs. 

Now I will say from personal experience and professional, I have looked on your website and you have a phenomenal amount of resources just there about how to compare different PEMFs. You also offer a consultation, where you’re willing to take people through and kind of determine which one best for them based on their story, their history, and even talk with their doctor. You’ve done that with me for a patient of mine. And it was so helpful to get your expert, just weigh in on what would be most appropriate. So I’m really excited for what you have to offer and I want our listeners to know where they can find out more.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Well, drpawluk.com, D R P A W L U K .com.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Too easy.

William Pawluk, M.D.

And my book, you mentioned my book. So “Power Tools for Health,” maybe I, if you’re gonna, some people have to invest a significant amount of money to get the best magnetic therapy system. Like the RTMS, that we talked about, they’re 25, $40,000 machines. You don’t have to spend that kinda money. But if you’ve got head injuries, if you have head injuries and you have had encephalitis, or you have had a brain surgery, you recover from all those things and higher intensity magnetic field therapy is going to be necessary. Why? Because of some something called the inverse square law. 

So magnetic fields like sound, like light, all drop off very rapidly. So this is the peak of magnetic field. And then the farther you move away from the source, it drops off extraordinarily rapidly. So for example, a 4,000 gauss magnetic field, the Earth’s magnetic field is a half a gauss. A lot of whole body magnetic systems are being sold that are less than one gauss. And people pay $5,000 for a machine that only gives you one gauss.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Can I say beamer? Is this the beamer?

William Pawluk, M.D.

So that’s not gonna go very deep into the body. If a 4,000 gauss magnetic field, 4,000 times stronger than these whole body systems. 4,000 gauss drops down to 15 gauss in four inches, four to six inches. 4,000 gauss becomes 15, 1 5 in six inches.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

And this is if it’s just six inches from your body, is that what we’re saying?

William Pawluk, M.D.

Even if it’s an air. Yeah, but your body, since your body’s air to magnetic field. So if I stimulate across the brain for Alzheimer’s, head injuries, migraines, Parkinson’s, MS you name it. If I stimulate across the brain, I want that magnetic field to go to the other side. I want to go completely through the brain so that I’m delivering a minimum of 15 gauss at the other side, the good thing is the body ignores what it doesn’t need. So if I have to start at 4,000 gauss, to give the brain 15,000 at the other side, and that’s the optimal magnetic field intensity you need to decrease inflammation.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Say that again. The optimum magnetic fields frequency to decrease inflammation is.

William Pawluk, M.D.

To decrease the intensity, to decrease inflammation 15 gauss.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

15 gauss.

William Pawluk, M.D.

1 5. So if you’re treating the skin, then you only need 15 gauss. But if you’re treating across the brain, or through the chest, into the heart, into the lungs, through the whole belly, the liver, et cetera, then you’re gonna have to calculate, and there’s a blog on my website about adenosine. So it’s called the adenosine blog. And if you go to drpawluk.com and the search page or the search box on the right side of the homepage, you type in adenosine, A D E N O S I N E.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

And this is like adenosine triphosphate or ATP, that we were discussing.

William Pawluk, M.D.

That’s what makes ATP. The body has adenosine receptors, adenosine has to dock itself to like a lock and a key to the adenosine receptor, and it turns out the adenosine receptor is critical to decrease inflammation in the body. Optimum magnetic intensity to stimulate that adenosine receptor, is 15 gauss. Because magnetic fields drop off very rapidly, you need to calculate what the intensity needs to be to start with, to deliver the 15 gauss at the target.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Interesting, so if the brain is your target tissue versus the stomach versus the heart versus the inside of your knee, you’re gonna need different.

William Pawluk, M.D.

Intensities to start with.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Got it.

William Pawluk, M.D.

And it’s not wasted, even if you have more than you need, and it’s not gonna hurt you if you have more than you need. Healthy cells ignore the magnetic field. So it’s only the cells that are out of whack, the cells that are deficient in energy, that need the magnetic field stimulation to be able to do their function, to fulfill their job.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Fascinating, fascinating stuff. Well, this is so exciting, again, to find a very safe and effective tool that we can use, a power tool for health is always fun and always a treat. And I’m so excited for more people to learn more about this so that they can be getting the benefit of PEMF. Dr. Pawluk, thank you so much for being here. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

William Pawluk, M.D.

My pleasure. I look forward to helping all of your summit listeners on how to help their brain function, their executive function, their memories, and to stay that way so that you don’t age, So that’s the key, it’s to be able to do this on a regular basis. You can’t just do a treatment, you can’t go doctor’s office and just do a treatment and be done with it. Ideally, you should own your own system, ’cause then you can help your brain and help your body every single day.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

It’s so exciting to have these tools available. Thank you again.

William Pawluk, M.D.

My pleasure. Pleasure talking to you and sharing with your tribe, your summit audience.

Heather Sandison, N.D.

Much appreciated.