For many people battling neuropathy, traditional Pain management does not yield sustained pain relief or fails to reduce pain at all. Unpleasant medication side effects debilitate others. Parents often choose not to give their children prescription pain medications designed for adults. When traditional medical care fails these pain sufferers and their loved ones, they face a difficult dilemma—what now?
As a pain management practitioner, I faced the same challenge with a growing segment of my patients. In 2010, after a two-year search for a drug-free Therapy that didn’t cause my patients added pain, I discovered Calmare scrambler therapy.
How does scrambler therapy treat nerve pain?
The Calmare MC-5A medical device creates a low-energy electrical impulse that delivers a “no-pain” signal to the brain through 16 distinct algorithms. The goal of this painless process, performed only by clinically trained healthcare professionals, is to “scramble” the brain’s pain signal, eventually breaking it and relieving pain.
Let me explain it another way--When someone is injured, the brain sets up a process to heal the injury. For example, cells carry away dead tissue or it increases blood flow to the area. Eventually, the brain realizes the injury has healed and stops sending the pain message.
But for some people, the brain fails to send the all-important message,
“there’s no more injury here--we’re healed--so you can stop that pain signal.”
How does scrambler therapy and a TENS device differ?
The difference between these two electrical stimulation devices is as different as driving on a newly paved,16-lane super-highway versus bumping along a single-lane, gravel-covered back road. I’ve cited four key technical differences below:
- A hand-held, single algorithm TENS device is designed to treat acute muscular pain--as opposed to chronic nerve pain--by relaxing, exercising or moving fluid (swelling) from the pain region.
- The scrambler MC-5A device uses 16 different algorithms with the goal of achieving permanent (or prolonged) pain relief. A TENS device relieves acute (short-term) nerve pain by relying on only one high-energy electrical impulse to block pain signals.
- Scrambler therapy is only administered by a clinically trained pain management expert; TENS is self-administered by the patient or a non-professional.
- A TENS device relies on more electricity (30 to 150 milliamps) than a scrambler device (5.5 milliamps).
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) cleared scrambler machine has also been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which identifies the device as a unique entity, unlike anything else in the market (i.e., a TENS device). The U.S. Patent number is
8,380,317.
How do scrambler therapy and a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) differ?
The most obvious difference between these two pain management devices is the SCS is a surgically implanted device embedded into the spinal cord and scrambler therapy is performed externally, with no needles, drugs, sedation or painful procedures.
The reported SCS complication rate was reported to be 31.9 to 43 percent, according to a 2023 report by the National Library of Medicine. Pain News Network reported a 2018 study that found the SCS had some of the worst safety records of medical devices tracked by the FDA. A more recent study found patients with the spinal cord stimulator did not reduce their use of opioids and continued undergoing additional pain management procedures, including epidurals, corticosteroid injections and radiofrequency ablation.
The surgical expense and ongoing healthcare maintenance required to maintain an SCS can also be prohibitively expensive.
The standard scrambler therapy protocol is a 10-treatment series (one 35-minute session daily) and occasional single or multiple booster treatments months or years after the series, should pain increase.
Is Calmare Therapy safe?
Scrambler therapy has no side effects, is painless to undergo and requires no drugs, needles, sedation or clinical procedures, also making it ideal for children and seniors. Several positive clinical trials have been performed at high-profile research facilities in the United States. We update these studies on our Clinical Trials page so people with specific neuropathic pain conditions can refer to it for reference.
Calmare is currently used by:
- US Military hospitals
- MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Mayo Clinic
- Johns Hopkins University
Watch: "Pain Secrets – The Science of Everyday Pain (PBS),” featuring Dr. Cooney, Dr. Thomas J. Smith of Johns Hopkins University and one of Dr. Cooney’s patients.
Find a Calmare Provider near you
Why now is the time for scrambler therapy
As many pain warriors know all too well, medication is not always the best treatment option for neuropathy. In fact, the majority of our patients arrive at our clinic frustrated and exhausted after enduring months and years of unsuccessful pain mitigation efforts.
Scrambler therapy is a unique approach to retraining the brain by correcting the misfiring pain message. As I tell everyone who prepares to undergo the therapy, the only risk of this therapy is that it’s not successful for everyone, unfortunately.
In the past 12 years since I have been providing Calmare, 75 percent of our patients have achieved significant and sustained pain relief. Successful patients with CRPS and other conditions also causing physical symptoms—swelling, skin discoloration, blisters—also experienced a marked reduction in these symptoms.
Choose your Calmare provider with care
Should you decide to consult with a Calmare provider, ensure they have successfully used the technology to treat your specific pain condition and achieved significant and consistently positive outcomes.
Watch: Meet pain warriors who have undergone Calmare Therapy.
Also, ask the provider to put you in touch with another patient with your condition who had the treatment (we offer this service through our Calmare NJ Patient-2-Patient program).
I encourage people with treatment-resistant neuropathy and their families to consider less invasive, alternative solutions to combat chronic pain. While the cost of scrambler therapy (CPT Code 0278T) may not be covered by your medical insurance, it can be significantly less expensive than lifelong prescription medications or co-pays for more expensive and invasive procedures.
I consult by phone, video chat or in person with any potential patient, as Calmare is only right for some. This therapy has been such a powerful opportunity for people living in pain. I hope you will consider it.
Read more about scrambler therapy: The New England Journal of Medicine - “Cutaneous Electroanalgesia for Relief of Chronic and Neuropathic Pain.”
Dr. Michael Cooney is a globally recognized scrambler therapy expert. A provider since 2011, he specializes in treating CRPS, Shingles nerve pain (PHN), post-surgical pain, fibromyalgia, CIPN, arachnoiditis and other neuropathic pain conditions in children, adults and seniors. He can be reached at (201) 933-4440 or [email protected]. To learn more, visit calmaretherapynj.com.
Related articles:
Peripheral Neuropathy: Understanding Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
Overview of Alternative Therapies for Chronic Pain Relief
Neurofeedback Treatment of Chronic Pain
Calmare Scrambler Therapy Is an Effective Therapy for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
Light Therapy for Neuropathy
The Five Best Supplements for Peripheral Neuropathy Pain
Study Finds Neuropathy Drugs Help Less Than 25% + Better Alternatives
This post first appeared on Alternative Pain Treatment Directory, please read the originial post: here
