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Using Electricity to Heal

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the frankenstein-approach-to-healing dept.

ganjadude writes to tell us that while the idea of using electricity to heal wounds was first reported 150 years ago by Emil Du Bois-Reymond, modern scientists may have found a way to practically apply this idea. From the article: "The researchers grew layers of mouse cells and larger tissues, such as corneas, in the lab. After 'wounding' these tissues, they applied varying electric fields to them, and found they could accelerate or completely halt the healing process depending on the orientation and strength of the field."

4 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Coming soon to an inbox near you... by Null+Nihils · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While I am fascinated by genuine scientific research into such effects, and interested by the insights into cellular and genetic mechanics described in the article, I shiver to think of how news like this might reverberate across the large communities of pseudo-science loons and snake-oil salesmen that lurk in the dark corners of the Internet.

    " Electr1city curez, as seen |n New Scienti5t m4gazine. G3t electr|cal d3vice, cur3s all d1sease including ere
    Zap.

  2. Sick of 'science' reporting by bananaendian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    No doubt this report will be hyped by the new-age weirdos that are always looking for miracles cures or reasons for paranoia. Why do these articles never EVER tell anything meaningful - like for example the strenght and orientation of the field they used with some simple data tables and statistics? Who has access to some weird specialist journal with a 1000USD subscrition to get the raw data? New Scientist no.1 Science Magazine, yeah right! - science isn't about wild speculation and hype - its about rigorous examination and critical thinking. I wouldn't be suprised ones other labs try to reproduce the effect it gets debunked.

    --
    www.tribalnetworks.org - helping tribal people around the world to own their own means of high-tech communications
  3. Re:Magnets by aditi · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ... "And since everything is relative, Wearing a magnet on your wrist makes it stationary in comparison to your wrist, thus wearing magnets is pointless. QED. "

    Actually, no. While it is true that the magnet is stationary w.r.t your wrist (or whichever part of your body), it is not stationary with respect to the moving ions that make up the electric current within the cells. The presence of the magnetic field will deflect the charges according to a force F = Charge * Field x Velocity. Charges coming in from further away might get deflected away from their original destination, allegedly altering the healing process.

    So wearing magnets might not be pointless.

  4. Implementation or Understanding by buckhead_buddy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've heard stories about how the medical profession was so enamored with radioactive tools for healing. Xrays to look inside the body. The way radiation exposure could kill unwanted bacteria. The cool soothing greenish glow of radioactive clocks and other tools. They came up with implementations of using radiation before understanding what it was doing. Today, looking back at the lack of understanding seems crazy; we'd never do something like that again. Would we?

    Are we in fact going to do the same thing with electricity here? Are we really understanding why these mice are being cured or are we just satisfied to have a technique that appears to work? I don't mean to be cynical. Curing the impossible seems like a great thing. But will we be reading about how a quick emag arthritis treatment today resulted in the creation of Alzheimer's v2.0 tomorrow?

    IMHO, a workable implementation is great, but full understanding would be better.