Robert O.
Becker, MD; 1923
-
2008 a research bibliography.
A lifetime of
brilliant medical research by a man that was
far ahead of his time. The father of electromedicine and
electrochemically induced cellular
regeneration.
In the 1970's Becker warned that power frequency and radio wave
fields were damaging to health. He lost his research funding and was
forced out of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Syracuse
University subsequent to this 60 minutes
interview. Little did he
know that EMF's were going to destroy the sleep patterns of all
planetary inhabitants.
We
are
happy to announce that a deal has been formed between his
original silver-nylon bandage manufacturer and our Indian associates,
and
low-cost silver nylon material should be available
world-wide by Spring 2010. The manufacturing facility is
being completed as this is written.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Upstate Medical Center, State
University of New York, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
Induction
of local tissue regeneration in the human would best be accomplished if
the patient's own cells at the desired site could be caused to
dedifferentiate into the required embryonic stem cells. A system
involving the electrical iontophoretic introduction of free silver ions
into human wounds for their antibiotic effect has been in clinical use
since 1975. In addition to a major antibiotic effect, the technique was
found to produce the regeneration of all local tissues, apparently by
stimulating dedifferentiation of mature human cells. More recently the
use of a newly developed silvered nylon fabric has been found to have
similar results without the need for electrical parameters. The results
of a preliminary laboratory and clinical study of this material are
presented.
Department
of Orthopaedic Surgery State University of New York Health Science
Center at Syracuse 550 Harrison Street Syracuse New York 13202 USA.
A
study of the use of free silver ions as an antibacterial and antifungal
agent administered to infected local wounds has been conducted over the
past two decades. A variety of iontophoretic techniques has been
employed utilizing either pure silver wires or several types of
silvered nylon fabrics as anodes in a direct current electrical
circuit. A new type of silver nylon has recently been evaluated for the
same use without iontophoretic current. In vitro studies of both
techniques have demonstrated an effective, broad spectrum antibiotic
effect including most silver-resistant strains. Over 100 cases of
recalcitrant osteomyelitis have been treated with an overall success
rate of approximately 65% and no evidence of argyria.
Twenty-five
patients with active, chronic osteomyelitis, resistant to conventional
management, were treated with surgical debridement and daily
application of electrically activated silver dressings. Sixteen (64%)
cases resulted in closed, stable, pain-free wounds, with the remainder
resulting in persistent drainage or amputation. Nine of 12 cases
complicated by nonunion achieved union. In 13 patients an open-bone
graft was performed and silver treatment continued: these tended to
remain free of purulent drainage but fared no better than average in
the long-term follow-up. The silver anode dressing seems to be an
effective aid in the treatment of chronic bone infection when combined
with adequate surgical debridement, thereby reducing the need for
prolonged systemic antibiotics.
The
action of a 60-Hz, 5 kV/m electric field on erythrocyte parameters in
mice was determined. No effects attributable to the magnitude of the
field were found, but a transition either from or to an environment
containing the field caused decreased red blood cell concentrations and
decreased hematocrits. The failure of others to observe effects on
erythrocyte parameters following exposure to low-frequency electric
fields may have been due to an inappropriate choice of duration of
exposure.
Tissue
collagen exhibits several levels of structural organization, and this
complicates efforts to determine the origin of its piezoelectricity. We
made collagen films-by evaporation and electrodeposition from
solution-and examined the relation between collagen's piezoelectricity
and its electron microscopic appearance. We found that the
electrodeposited films were more organized and exhibited higher
piezoelectric coefficients than the evaporated films. Despite this, the
evaporated films were piezoelectric, thereby suggesting that the effect
originates either at the level of the tropocollagen molecule or, at
most, with aggregated structures no larger than 50 A in diameter.
Fibular
osteotomies in rats were exposed to an extremely low frequency field
for 14 days. By histologic evaluation it was found that the healing
rate was retarded by the field. The effect (which was replicated)
occurred at much lower power levels than are presently employed in
electircal osteogenesis.
An
improved antibacterial bone cement was sought based on the addition of
low concentrations of inorganic silver compounds to polymethyl
methacrylate. Composites with AgCl, Ag-AgCl, Ag2O, Ag2SO4 and Ag3PO4 in
concentrations of 0.05% to 1% by weight, were tested in vitro against
bacterial cultures. All were effective, but Ag2SO4 was especially so,
even after 7 weeks of incubation in normal saline. Compressive strength
of the cement was not affected by these additions, except in the case
of Ag2O. Biocompabibility tests in rabbit muscle for up to 12 weeks
showed no significant difference between the Ag -PMM and plain PMM in
tissue reactivity, both being minimal. These features, coupled with the
broad spectrum of antibacterial activity and low allergic potential of
silver, make Ag-PMM an attractive alternative to conventional organic
antibiotic/bone cement composites.
The
AC impedance of a length of the H meridian not containing any
acupuncture points was studied by means of Laplace plane analysis of
the time domain response to an input voltage pulse. The ensuing
frequency domain data were compared to the results of an identical
analysis for two anatomically similar controls on either side of the
meridian. The resistance of the meridian was significantly lower than
either control.
The
present technique of electrical osteogenesis represents the rediscovery
of a method in clinical use over 100 years ago. That technique while
reported to have excellent clinical results, was empirically applied
and was totally discredited as having no scientific basis. Modern
techniques report similarly useful clinical results, but similarly lack
an accepted scientific basis. The techniques in present use differ so
greatly among themselves that a common mechanism of action seems highly
unlikely. Yet all report excellent clinical results. Serious questions
are raised concerning the validity of the claims, the mechanism of
action and the possibility of long-term undesirable side effects. These
questions are not insoluble and the newer physical science disciplines
seem well suited to reveal the mechanism of action. Appropriate
research projects must be mounted and answers to these questions
obtained before the technique is made available for wide application.
The importance of this procedure far transcends orthopedic surgery and
bone growth stimulation and if properly pursued, it may lead to
revolutionary changes, not only in basic biology, but in the practice
of clinical medicine in general.
Loss
of body calcium during spaceflight is a potential problem in long
voyages. This loss does not appear to be caused by a deficiency in diet
or exercise. The idea is advanced that the altered electromagnetic
environment experienced in space may be at least partially responsible.
We show that the electric field induced inside astronauts because of
their motion in the geomagnetic field is greater than that which has
produced a wide variety of biological effects in earth-bound
experiments.
Laboratory
studies have shown that electromagnetic fields similar to those from
high-voltage transmission lines can produce biological effects. Surveys
of the actual effects of such lines on exposed individuals usually have
been hampered by complicating factors tending to blur the data. By
means of a new approach, however, correlation has been established
between the presence of transmission-line fields and the occurrence of
suicides in part of the Midlands of England.
Electrically
generated silver ions have been shown previously to be a potent
antibacterial agent with an exceptionally broad spectrum as indicated
by in vitro testing. The present study reports on clinical experience
using electrically generated silver ions as adjunctive treatment in the
management of chronic osteomyelitis. Fourteen patients had fifteen
treatment attempts: thirteen for chronic osteomyelitis of the tibia,
one for acute and chronic pyarthrosis and osteomyelitis of the knee,
and one for a chronically draining sinus after total hip replacement.
Wound débridement, silver ion iontophoresis, and subsequent
wound care
(usually provided by the patient) resulted in control of the infection
in twelve of the fifteen treatment attempts and in healing of the
non-union after follow-up ranging from three to thirty-six months. The
other three attempts led to two partial and one complete failure.
Recent
studies reporting significant physiological effects associated with
electrical and manual stimulation at several traditional Chinese
acupuncture loci are reviewed. Other reports on the anatomy and
electrical properties (DC resistance and potential, AC impedance) of
these sites indicate that many are significant local skin resistance
minima and may also be points of locally more positive DC potential.
Further investigation of the basic properties of the acupuncture system
and its mode of action is fully warranted by these preliminary findings.
Bilateral
third degree burns were created on the flanks of eight miniature swine.
Each animal had one side treated daily with low intensity direct (LIDC)
of 400 microamperes (muA) by contact electrode for 2 hours morning and
afternoon until healing occurred. The polarity of the electrode was
negative in 4 pigs and positive in 4 pigs. One group of 4 pigs had the
eschar surgically removed 24 hours post burn. Weekly biopsies and
cultures were taken of treated and control wounds. Results indicated:
local treatment of 400 muA LIDC did not hasten or delay healing of
thermal third degree burns; escharectomy hastened wound healing by 10
days, and superficial proteus infection occurred in 80% of all wounds.
An
effect of electrostatic fields on the chromosomes of Ehrlich ascites
tumor cells exposed in vivo has been demonstrated. Cells exposed to
horizontal electrostatic fields for two weeks had almost a threefold
increase in the percentage of abnormal chromosomes when compared to
control cells or cells exposed to vertical electrostatic fields for the
same period. Extended exposure times of 4--15 weeks resulted in the
disappearance of the aberrant chromosomes. It is suggested that the
effected cells were incapable of cellular replication resulting
eventually in their disappearance via cell death.
The
frequency dependence of the skin impedance between two acupuncture
points (H-3 and H-4) was determined by Laplace plane analysis of the
time domain response to an input voltage perturbation. Both the
resistance and capacitance between the acupuncture points differed
significantly from the corresponding controls, thus supporting the
interpretation of the acupuncture system as an information transfer
network.
Low
intensity direct current stimulation of bone growth involves the
continuous application of cathodic currents in the nanoampere range.
The technique has been applied to 13 patients with a variety of
non-unions and pseudarthroses with a success rate of 77 per cent.
Preliminary data indicate that a range of total energy, from 0.6 to 2.5
Joules, is maximally effective. The technique has been combined with
anodic control of local bacterial infection with promising results.
Both the osteogenic stimulation and the bacterial suppression
techniques as described in this paper, appear to be safe and effective.
One
hundred seventy-four 21- to 24-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were
continuously exposed to a 60 Hz electric field of 150 V/cm for one
month in ten separate experiments. Biological effects observed included
depressed body weights, serum corticoids, and water consumption. The
findings are tentatively in terpreted as indicating that a power
frequency electric field is a biological stressor. The observed effects
cannot be a consequence of Joule heating and therefore indicate that
electric fields can influence biological systems either at the systemic
level, or at the cellular level via electrochemical alteration of the
microenvironment.
A
qualitative and quantitative investigation was undertaken to study the
susceptibility of unicellular eucaryotic organisms (yeasts) to metallic
cations generated by low levels of direct current. Results were
characteristic of effects obtained previously using clinical and
standard bacteria test organisms. The present study demonstrated that
anodic silver (Ag(+)) at low direct currents had inhibitory and
fungicidal properties. Broth dilution susceptibility tests were made on
several species of Candida and one species of Torulopsis. Growth in all
isolates was inhibited by concentrations of electrically generated
silver ions between 0.5 and 4.7 mug/ml, and silver exhibited fungicidal
properties at concentrations as low as 1.9 mug/ml. The inhibitory and
fungicidal concentrations of electrically generated silver ions are
lower than those reported for other silver compounds.
Ultraviolet
light can be used to stimulate electrical current flow in bone and
tendon. This stimulated photocurrent is directional. In tendon the
photocurrent parallel to the fibrils is greater than the photocurrent
perpendicular to the fibrils. In bone, the longitudinal photocurrent is
less than the transverse photocurrent.
Mice
were allowed to mate, gestate, deliver and rear their offspring for 3
successive generations while being continuously exposed to 60 Hz
electric fields. Mice exposed to vertical electric fields exhibited
decreased body weights at 35 days postpartum and increased mortality
rates for 3 successive generations. Mice exposed to horizontal electric
fields exhibited decreased body weights for 2 successive generations.
Skin
conductance was measured in 10 subjects with a DC Wheatstone bridge in
10 areas purportedly containing acupuncture loci on the Triple Burner
(TB) and Lung (Lu) meridians. When the results were compared to those
from anatomically similar locations devoid of acupuncture loci, local
conductance variation was found to be significantly different (p less
than 0.05) in most acupuncture locus locations.
The
inhibitory and bactericidal concentrations of electrically generated
silver ions were 10 to 100 times lower than for silver sulfadiazine.
Effects on normal mammalian cells were minimal.
Silver,
platinum, gold, stainless-steel, and copper electrodes were used with
low currents (0.02 to 20 muA/mm(2)) to explore their electrochemical
effects on the growth of four bacterial species. In the higher current
ranges, all electrodes inhibited growth at both poles, usually in
conjunction with electrolytic break-down of the medium and severe
corrosion of the metal. Silver, however, was extremely bacteriostatic,
even at the lowest current, when used as the anode. Quantitative
studies showed that most of this inhibition takes place in a few hours
and is not accompanied by changes in pH. Electrochemically injected
silver from the anode is probably the instrumental agent, being
effective in concentrations of about 5 mug/ml. This is the equivalent
concentration of silver sulfadiazine that has been shown to give
complete inhibition of bacteria, but without the sulfonamide moiety.
The
amplitude of electrical potentials generated in stressed bone is
dependent upon the rate and magnitude of bony deformation, while
polarity is determined by the direction of bending. Areas under
compression develop negative potentials with respect to other areas.
Similar results were obtained both in living and dead bone. Removal of
the inorganic fraction from bone abolishes its ability to generate
stress potentials. It is probable that these potentials influence the
activity of osseous cells directly. Furthermore, it is conceivable that
they may direct, in some manner, the aggregation pattern of the
macromolecules of the extracellular matrix.
The
demonstrated association of the d-c bioelectric field with central
nervous system elements implies the longitudinal flow of charge
carriers within that system. Transverse d-c voltages, attributed to the
Hall effect, have been obtained from the extremities of intact
salamanders under circumstances suggesting such electric current. These
voltages disappeared after nerve section, and their magnitude was
related to the depth of anesthesia.
PMID: 17807392 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]