Frequency-Specific Microcurrent
a specialized healing modality

Medical and osteopathic physicians in the U.S. and the U.K. began experimenting with electrical therapies and frequencies in the late 1800’s.  By 1922 there were thousands of physicians using frequency devices to treat a great number of conditions.  The research and methods were recorded in books and journals such as the Electromedical Digest and physicians shared their research, results, and findings at meetings of groups such as the Pathometric and Electromedical Societies.

The FDA was founded in 1906 as a part of the Pure Food and Drugs Act, and pharmaceutical medicine had grown to become politically powerful by 1920.  The Flexner Report was funded in 1910 by powerful pharma interests and declared that there should be fewer medical schools, attended primarily by white males, and medicine should use pharmaceutical therapies as the standard of care.  Electromagnetic therapies, homeopathy, herbs and nutritional therapies were declared fraudulent and the practicing physicians were persecuted and jailed.

The devices were covered up with sheets or boxed away into the back rooms of clinics.  Some equipment was simply tossed onto the trash heap.  When the generation who developed the frequencies and devices died out, the memories of this therapy and all of the development, research and outcomes ended.  Frequency-specific healing was extinguished for over 20 years.

In 1946, a British osteopath named Harry Van Gelder bought a medical practice in Vancouver, B.C.  In the back room, he uncovered one of these devices built in 1922 and found the list of frequencies that had been used to treat patients.  He began treating people with the device and became well-known across Canada and the U.S. because of his success in treating very difficult illnesses.

In 1983, Dr. George Douglas, D.C., worked with Van Gelder for three months and brought the list of frequencies home to Portland, Oregon, hand-written on pieces of binder paper and put them in a desk drawer.

Dr. Douglas joined Carolyn McMakin, D.C. in her first year of practice in 1995 and found the list when he moved his desk into their office.  They began using the frequencies on chronic pain patients by applying them with an FDA-approved two-channel microcurrent device.  The treatments were remarkably successful and Dr. McMakin taught the first FSM course in January 1997 to see if the results were repeatable.

Once it was clear that the frequencies produced reliable, reproducible results, the courses continued to be taught, consistent protocols were developed and the conditions being treated expanded.  After that first course, the basic FSM course evolved from two days to five days and there are now 5,000 FSM practitioners from every clinical license allowed to use electrical stimulation on patients in 23 countries.

The resurgence began in 1946 with Harry Van Gelder when he found the old machine in the back room of the practice that he bought.  He started resurrecting the techniques after studying all the documentation that he could find.  As he worked with more and more patients, it became clear that this was indeed a viable healing modality.

As with everything, times change.  People’s thinking changes.  Today we look back with horror and disgust at how our ancestors persecuted and burned women in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.  Over time (thankfully, not too much time in this case), people came to realize that this was the folly of religious extremists and tensions in the town that had become crowded with Canadian immigrants.

Fast-forward to present time, and many people in the world have come to accept that there are many things that we do not understand that can provide benefit to society.  It wasn’t that long ago that chiropractors and energy healers were looked on with rolling eyes and total disbelief.  It was only after understanding the power of our minds and embracing belief that these modalities became accepted.

And so it is with FSM technology.  What seemed like total woo-woo magic not that long ago is now looked at with curiosity and a willingness to explore the hows and whys of what it does.  With current technological advances, we can study more carefully how this technology works and continue to explore the real scientific basis for its efficacy.

By virtue of the fact that many FSM devices are now FDA-registered is indicative of an acceptance of this technology in a formal way.  The registered devices have received a 510K certificate from the FDA meaning that it is approved for sale.  All class II microcurrent devices will have a 510k certificate allowing them to be marketed to physicians.  The FDA does not approve devices for sale the way it approves drugs for sale.  The 510K just means that it can be used in a medical setting and is substantially equivalent to other devices that have been marketed before it.

Frequency-Specific Microcurrent devices generate electronic waveforms in the low-frequency range.  If the FSM wires were connected to a speaker, you would hear tones because the frequencies used are all in the audible spectrum for humans.  Instead of hearing, however, the FSM wires are connected to a device that either applies the currents directly to the body through the skin, or by way of a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) that radiates into the body.  Finally, there is a special distance technique that can be used to send the frequencies to a person somewhere else.

The electrical current used to generate these waveforms is extremely low; about 1,000 times lower than the current required to run a 100-Watt incandescent light bulb.  As such, these electrical fields cannot be felt directly.  Two frequencies are generated at the same time and are run for a specific amount of time.  The device used to generate these waveforms then programmatically runs the pairs one after another, each for their specified amount of time.  This kind of grouping is referred to as a protocol for a specific condition.

As a protocol is running, each frequency causes specific cells to vibrate.  When something vibrates in response to a generated waveform, we say that the passive object is resonating.  This is known as Sympathetic Resonance, meaning that vibrations created by a generating device cause identical, or sympathetic vibrations in the passive device, in this case living cells.  This is also how over-the-air radio and television work; the generated signal is picked up by a receiver that is tuned to that specific frequency (we call them stations or channels) and the information inside the waveform is turned into sound and video that you hear and watch.

This so-called Resonance Effect occurs everywhere in nature.  One of the more common and dramatic examples of the Resonance Effect is a loud soprano vocalist hitting a note that resonates with a glass, usually crystal tableware.  The glass vibrates so violently that it eventually shatters explosively.  Resonance in human cells can have one of two effects; either to stimulate the cell in a way that more fuel is produced (known as adenosine triphosphate, or ATP), and the other disrupts cells so that they malfunction or die off.

When two frequencies are combined, their waveforms cross and combine, producing what are called harmonic frequencies.  And some of the combinatorial frequencies actually cancel all frequencies, called a node.  We’re not sure which frequencies, either fundamental or harmonic, are therapeutic and which are destructive.  Interestingly, it appears as though the destructive frequencies have no impact on healthy, working cells.

Which combinations of frequencies perform the desired resonance effect is a matter of trial and error.  Since the late 1800’s, physicians and practitioners have been experimenting with these frequencies and recording the results that we now rely on.  Research in this area continues to this day to uncover treatments for many other conditions.

Many people report a warmth or a tingling in the area targeted by the protocol.  If a practitioner is manually delivering the frequencies using graphite (conductive) gloves, he or she will also feel the warmth and also a softening of the tissues if those tissues are close enough to the skin.

In my own experience, clients report the tingling sensation mostly, and a drastic decrease in pain if the condition involves pain.  Interestingly, they report that while the pain subsides, they can still feel where the pain was or “should be”.  The sharpness of the pain is what gets removed.

Clients also report that contracted, tight muscles release and a sense of well-being comes over them, very much like aspirin or other NSAID kicking in.  The difference is that this modality is entirely drug-free and operates on correcting or healing the issue, not just dulling it or covering it up.

As with most things, it depends.  Some things can be cleared up with a single session, other conditions require multiple sessions over a period of weeks or even months.  What is notable here are the conditions that have been healed in weeks that a patient has suffered with for years, even through many different courses of drugs and other therapies.  Usually, the pain or suffering of a condition starts lessening immediately until it is fully resolved.

In a word, “No”.  FSM can complement traditional medicine, especially as a follow-on to surgery or to help amplify the effects of pharmaceuticals.  And, yes, in some cases the need for conventional treatments are either reduced or eliminated altogether.  FSM is especially good at healing or diminishing certain ailments that resist conventional treatment.

FSM Critics may attempt to discredit the groundbreaking technology behind FSM, but their opposition stems from a fear of embracing alternative healing methods.  For decades, these critics have manipulated the public perception, convincing us that surgery and pharmaceuticals are the only paths to recovery.

It’s time to challenge this outdated mindset.  The Flexner Report of 1910 hindered medical diversity and criminalized alternative therapies, leaving countless practitioners persecuted for simply helping others.  However, amid the opposition, there are champions like the esteemed Cleveland Clinic, who have embraced FSM and integrated it into their offerings.

So before giving in to the naysayers, listen to the voices and stories of those who have experienced true healing with FSM.