The new approach to pain management
- Pain treatment with stimulating frequencies is well known from laser and electro-acupuncture
- The effectiveness of these therapies is low
- It never provided the sucess doctors and patients desired
- A new approach to pain treatment where found in the combination of:
- Stimulating pressure sensitive bodypoints with two highly-effective frequencies
- This new method has been tested by over 50 doctors on 6000 patients
Success rate
- Significant pain-relief has been achived in over 75% of cases
- Over 70% of patients needed less then 6 treatments to be pain free
- Pain-relief is reported significant by most patients even after one treatment
- Effects of pain-relief often begin within minutes sometimes even during the therapy itself
- The pain-free timespan for chronical patients lasts from weeks to months
How it works
- Pain relief is achieved by a combination of:
- silencing the local pain information itself and
- the modulation of the pain-specific signal-lines to the brain.
- This is achived by a very weak and pain free electric charge
- The pain-relieving mechanism is based on two frequencies (2.8kHz / 8kHz)
- Although the pain information is blocked by the therapy, there are no negative side-effects to perception
- The therapist is part of the electric circuit and has to touch the patient and the contact plate of the system
The ProntoGuard - System
Based on the clinical study results Prontomed developed a compact and easy-to-use system, which is CE marked as a Class IIa medical device and is brought to you in the UK by Medicotech Ltd.
The electrical impulses generated by ProntoGuard and their effect
Conduction through the nerve fibers is an electrical process in which charge carriers are moved. Unlike electrical current in a copper wire, however, here the charge carriers are not electrons, but ions (electrolytes), in particular positively charged sodium and potassium ions. ProntoGuard® influences the movement of these ions.
At rest, the cell membrane of the nerve fibers has a voltage of approx. 70 mV, its resting potential. This is the result of an unequal distribution of ions. Outside the nerve fiber, the concentration of sodium ions [Na+] is approx. 10-20 times that of the concentration inside, with the situation reversed for the potassium ions. Inside the nerve fiber, the potassium ions are bound to negatively charged residual amino acids from proteins, which neutralizes their charge; the sodium ions outside the nerve fiber are not neutralized and remain in a state of flux. The charge concentrations on the two sides of the membrane are therefore different, inducing a difference in voltage or potential of approx. 70 mV: plus outside and minus inside.
Ion-selective pores (ion channels) are built into the membrane. They connect the inside of the cell (cytosol) to the outside of the cell (extracellular matrix). The ion channels can be opened or closed. Nerve cells use ion channels to receive, pass on or transfer signals. Opening the ion channels requires a specific impulse:
- Voltage-gated channels open if the resting potential drops.
- Mechanically regulated channels open if there is a change in power.
- Ligand-gated channels open, for example, in response to binding of certain neurotransmitters.
A nerve cell or fiber is active when an action potential is triggered. Voltage-gated ion channels open for sodium ions. In line with their gradient of concentration, the sodium ions flow into the nerve fiber. The number of positive charges decreases outside and increases inside. Consequently, the difference in potential on the membrane drops (depolarization). Once it has fallen below a threshold value (50 mV) the sodium channels briefly remain open (0.1-0.5 ms). During this period so many sodium ions flow into the nerve fiber that a charge reversal takes place on the membrane (action potential): minus outside and plus inside. Immediately afterwards the resting potential is restored (repolarization). During the repolarization process the sodium channels are closed and inactive (refractory period), i.e. they do not react to stimulation. After a few milliseconds the resting potential is restored and the sodium channels switch to a closed and active state. An action potential is thus a short-term local change in electrical voltage. It causes neighboring closed and active sodium channels to open, in turn triggering another action potential. This process is repeated all along the nerve fiber, with the action potential reproducing in the form of a depolarization wave.
During treatment with ProntoGuard® the patient and the therapist form an electric circuit. The necessary connections are provided by the tip of the probe and ground closure. The skin on which the probe firmly rests contains little water in which ions can move and therefore has a high electrical resistance (its electrical properties are similar to those of a condenser). In the subcutaneous tissue the water content is far higher. Here the square pulses sent by ProntoGuard® trigger ion movements in the extracellular matrix, changing the potential on the nerve fiber membrane. A rise in potential from 70 to 90 mV, for example, leads to hyperpolarization and the stimulus threshold of the nerve fiber is raised. A drop in potential from 70 to 50 mV, on the other hand, leads to hypopolarization and the stimulus threshold is lowered. If during hypopolarization the potential falls below the threshold value, an action potential is triggered, resulting in conduction. In this way ProntoGuard® is able to modulate the stimulus threshold of pain fibers.
