Magnatherm
The Magnatherm technology used by Dr. Steenblock belongs to an old and venerable medical treatment method called “Diathermy” or “dialectric heating” which involves using high frequency energy to heat tissues and produce a therapeutic or healing response.
It was first used by a German physician named Nagelschmidt in 1907 and rapidly spread across Europe and then here to the USA. A study doing in 1923 showed that diathermy helped significantly reduce the mortality rate in pneumonia patients (42.9% mortality rate among patients that did not get diathermy vs. 19.4% among those who did.
With the discovery of antibiotics and other medical treatments for infections and other things diathermy had been used it fell into disuse. However, with rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and side-effects connected with other therapies diathermy has made a come-back.
The Magnatherm device used by Dr. Steenblock has a wide range of settings that allow him to generate heat in target tissues that ranges from mild to intense, as well as to treat two parts of the body simultaneously or treat one area of the body from two directions or treat an area both directly and remotely at the same time.
The heating of deep muscles, for example, results in many beneficial physiologic effects such as:
- An increase in blood flow due to blood vessel dilation
- Boosts capillary pressure and increases cell membrane permeability
- Increases the flow of metabolites into cells
- Bolsters white blood cell count and antibodies
- Improves tissue oxygenation
- Reduces inflammation
- Increase the range of motion in joints
- Produces pain relief and reductions in swelling due to edema
Given these effects it come as no surprise that the Magnatherm is of particular benefit in the medical treatment of arthritis, bursitis, back pain, muscle spasms, tendonitis, and neuritis.
