Frequency Specific
Microcurrent

FSM was developed by Dr. Carolyn McMakin in 1995 using frequencies passed on from an osteopath in Canada who had a practice that came with a machine made in the 1920s. Dr. McMakin developed protocols for the treatment of myofascial pain in 1996 and presented her clinical data at the American Back Society national meeting in December 1997. In 1998, she published the paper on the “Treatment of chronic resistant myofascial pain in the head, neck, and face” in Topics in Clinical Chiropractic,  in addition to other papers on Frequency Specific Microcurrent.

Our brain uses electric signals to communicate with our bodies. The brain can send signals such as “activate this muscle” and receive messages from the spinal cord, such as “pain.” FSM uses the same type of electric current to affect change within the body. Different frequencies can help eliminate pain or reactivate cells that have shut down due to injury, allowing them to receive nutrients to enable healing. FSM treatment has been known to increase the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by 500 percent. ATP is what cells use for energy.

Frequencies are pulses per second measured in hertz. They can be sound waves or electronic pulses. The frequencies used in FSM are electromagnetic pulses used on two channels firing at the same time. The frequencies are delivered using a ramped square wave that includes high frequency harmonics to create the square wave. The makes the frequencies more accurately pulses rather than the pure frequencies achieved with a sine wave generator. Most microcurrent devices use square wave pulses because they have been observed to be more effective clinically.

The frequency thought to address or neutralize the condition is put on channel A. The frequency thought to address the tissue is put on channel B. The frequencies used in FSM are all less than 1000 Hz. There are frequencies from the list alleged to address over 200 conditions from very common conditions like “inflammation”, “scar tissue”, “mineral deposits” and “toxicity” to very unusual and hard to document conditions like “polio virus”, “trauma” and congestion. There can be no claims made for the effects of the frequencies until research has documented their effects. All that can be said is that use of this or that frequency had this observed effect in this patient with a certain condition.

There are a few frequencies that are used as A/B pairs. A is not a condition, B is not a tissue but the combination of the two frequencies appears to have a therapeutic effect. There is one such frequency combination that takes away shingles pain. When this combination is used before the blisters break out for an hour a day for three days the pain is gone in 20 minutes and the blisters never break out. When this combination is used for two hours on active shingles, after the blisters appear, it eliminates the pain and shortens the course from the normal 6 weeks to four to five days. The pain never returns. Shingles is the only thing this frequency combination is good for and, so far, there has not been a patient who did not respond in an expected way.

Dr. McMakin didn’t develop the frequencies. The frequencies were developed between 1910 and 1934 by medical and osteopathic physicians using an entirely different machine and system of treatment. The frequencies are used clinically; the effects are documented in chart notes and serve as a basis for the development of protocols that appear to be effective for different clinical conditions. The protocols are taught during FSM seminars and then it is determined if the effects are reproducible based on feedback from practitioners. There are four peer-reviewed published papers documenting the effects in the treatment of myofascial pain from trigger points, neuropathic pain from fibromyalgia associated with spine trauma and delayed onset muscle soreness.

The session may take 30 to 60 minutes depending on conditions. You must be well hydrated for the FSM to be effective. During a FSM session, you rest comfortably while the microcurrent is delivered through electrodes placed on the area of treatment. Because the current is the same as what your body produces, there is no unpleasant sensation. This subtle stimulation of cells reduces inflammation, breaks up scar tissue, eases pain sensations, and accelerates post-surgery or post-injury recovery. It has even been known to elevate mood, help shrink fat cells, and tighten skin! That’s pain relief with an added bonus.

In 1982 Ngok Cheng published, “The Effect of Electric Currents on ATP Generation, Protein Synthesis and Membrane Transport in Rat Skin in Clinical Orthopedics” (volume 171: pages 264-272). This study showed that microcurrent increased ATP production in rat skin by 500%. ATP is the chemical that the body uses for energy. The current also increased amino acid transport into the cell by 70% and waste product removal. The implications for human healing and repair are obvious. ATP production was increased as long as the current was below 500 microamps. When the authors increased the current to 1000 micro amps, or one milliamp, a current range delivered by TENS devices and other types of electrical stimulation therapies, the ATP production was actually reduced.

TENS devices deliver milliamp current and block pain messages that are trying to get up the spine to the brain. FSM works on a cellular level, delivering subsensory microamperage current, 1,000 times less than milli-amperage current, which has been shown in published studies to increase ATP production in tissues.

A lot of people have heard about Royal Raymond rife who used frequencies to treat cancer in the early 1900s. I think it was in the 1930s or so. He used a light microscope and his frequencies were light frequencies and they were between 8000 and 16,000 Hertz. He could tune the light on this microscope and watch it. When he got to a certain light frequency, it would literally cause this bacteria, or cancer cell, or virus to just blow up.

So his frequencies are all in the light frequency range. 8000 to 16,000 Hertz. He had hundreds of cancer terminal cancer patients that he had cured with his frequency therapy using these light frequencies. And unfortunately for us, the FDA and the American Medical Association decided they needed to shut him down. They raided his lab one morning, destroyed his equipment, confiscated all his records, and that was the end of that.

The rife devices that are out on the markets. Some of them actually have had access to his list of frequencies. But those frequencies are all between about 8,000 and 16,000 hertz because they were light frequencies when those frequencies are talked about as electrical pulses Rife didn’t use them that way. He used them as light frequencies. So the basic difference between rife and FSM is his frequencies or higher. All of the FSM frequencies are below a thousand hertz. I think 988 is the highest frequency we use. And then they run the whole range, one hertz, three hertz, two Hertz, clear up to 970 hertz to 988 hertz. And we use two channels. So when you use two channels, you have a frequency on channel A and a frequency on channel B and in the treatment area where those two frequencies cross the frequencies mix.

And so you have the frequency from Channel A and the frequency from B, you have the sum of the two frequencies, and you have the difference between the two frequencies. And quite honestly, we don’t know which part of that field has the therapeutic effect. So theoretically some of those frequency combinations; so if you’re treating 970 hertz on channel A and 783 hertz on channel B, we can get a combination beat frequency in the middle that above a thousand hertz. But the frequency’s themselves are all below a thousand hertz.

The other big difference is that we don’t treat cancer with frequency specific microcurrent for a number of reasons. Number one is that I don’t want to have happen to me what happened to Rife. That’s probably the first thing. But the second thing is that cancer serious. If I use a frequency and correctly and I make your pain worse, it’s just pain. But if we do something inadvertently through ignorance that accidentally make your cancer worse, I don’t have a way to help you get on top of it. So we don’t treat cancer. We can treat the side effects of cancer therapy. There are frequencies that take away the nausea from chemotherapy. We can treat, radiation burns from patients that are getting radiation therapy, and we treat very effectively the scar tissue from radiation therapy. So that’s the biggest difference between FSM and rife is just the range of the frequencies and what we treat with them.

Ultra sound creates ultrasonic vibrations and creates heat by vibrating the water molecules in the tissue. It does not provide current nor does it change ATP status. It provides beneficial results by these mechanisms but it is just completely different than microcurrent.

Microcurrent provides electrons and in published studies increases ATP production in cells. Lasers provide photons. I am not aware of any research suggesting that laser treatment increases ATP production. Lasers oscillate at set frequencies and provide beneficial results but usually only provide one frequency at a time instead of the dual frequencies used in FSM treatment. Lasers provide whatever benefits they provide by some other method than frequency specific resonance and ATP enhancement.

FSM are very effective with many conditions but we are specialized in : 

• Concussion
• Fibromyalgia associated with cervical spine injury
• Fractures
• Kidney stone pain
• Myofascial pain
• Neuromuscular pain and inflammation
• Osteoarthritis
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Post-surgical pain
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Sciatica
• Shingles
• Sinusitis
• Spinal Disc Pain
• Sports injuries
• Sprains/strains
• Tendon and ligament injury or pain
• Vulvodynia (Chronic Pain or discomfort around vulva) pain management
• Whiplash

For Microcurrent treatment to be effective, the patient must be hydrated. You need to drink 4-8 glasses of water in the 2 hours before and after treatment. Athletes may need more. This will also help reduce some potential side effects. Taking a good quality antioxidant supplement can also be helpful.

FSM is contraindicated for people with a pacemaker, pregnant women and children. Otherwise, there are no known risks to either the patient or the practitioner as long as the FSM unit is used correctly. Side effects, which are minimal, may occur in some patients and can be eliminated with proper hydration.

The side effects include:
Fatigue
Nausea
Drowsiness
Occasionally an increase in pain
Euphoric feeling due to the increased endorphins

They usually start 90 minutes after a treatment and may last for 4 to 24 hours.

Dr. McMakin has been using FSM since 1994 and various practitioners have been using it since 1997. There have been no permanent adverse effects attributable to the use of the microcurrent units or to the use of the frequencies. There are two effects to be considered- the effect of the current and the effect of the frequencies. The practitioner is protected from the current by wearing latex gloves and is therefore not affected by the current. The practitioner is in the field created by the frequencies and the resonance effect experienced by the patient. This field can be perceived by some practitioners and is either pleasant or bothersome depending on the practitioner’s ability to process the sensations.

The sensation is usually perceived as being “light or floaty” and lasts only as long as the practitioner is using a frequency that is producing a positive effect on the patient. In every class, there is a bell-shaped curve of sensitivity to this sensation. 10% of the class will not feel anything at all in response to the frequencies. 10% of the class will feel a strong sensation of being “floaty or light headed (not dizzy) or slightly “stoned”. The rest of the class will have perceptions someplace in between those two groups. Patients fall into roughly the same bell-shaped curve of sensitivity. The “floaty feeling” response occurs not as a result of any particular frequency but in response to any frequency that resonates with the patient’s condition.

There are no risks to the patient that we know about as long as the practitioner follows the proper contraindications and precautions associated with both FSM and the use of microcurrent. There are frequencies used to remove scar tissue that should not be used with 6 weeks of the time of a new injury. Sometimes when muscles are successfully treated the range of motion increases so much that joints and nerves can become temporarily painful until the range of motion goes back down. Practitioners are aware of these possible reactions and are advised to warn patients about them. After muscles are treated there is sometimes a detoxification reaction that occurs 90 minutes after treatment similar to that seen with massage therapy. This can be lessened by having the patient drink water and take an anti-oxidant combination supplement. The warnings and contraindications appropriate to TENS devices are taught as part of the practicum sessions and reinforced during the lecture.