Abstract
Author: Carolyn McMakin, MA, DC
Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2010, 256 pages,
ISBN-10: 044306976X, ISBN-13: 978-044306976, $69.95.
While in chiropractic school, McMakin had been given a list of frequencies targeting specific tissues and disease states, along with the idea of using microcurrent therapeutically. After graduating, she tried the microcurrent frequencies out on herself, her family, and friends, with mixed success and no reported adverse events. When she started a private practice, she bought the aforementioned skin-enhancing microcurrent device, thinking it might be a good revenue generator. She already owned a microcurrent device with electrodes.
The story has that eureka appeal, the fortunate combination of frequencies scrawled on the back of a business card with the lateral-thinking use of an esthetician's equipment. “Would you mind if I tried something new?” McMakin quotes herself as having asked her patient, the crane operator who was light-headed from neck tension. “Well,” her patient answered, “I'm going to be off work in a week if you don't, so you better figure out something.”
One may be uncomfortable with the idea of trying a new therapy on a patient without prior research, and indeed, more discussion of protections such as informed consent would be welcome. Even so, microcurrent (also known as microamperage for those to wish to search the peer-reviewed literature) has a history of safe clinical use as well as a small but robust body of evidence supporting its efficacy in tissue healing. In the United States, scope of practice laws that would allow or disallow microcurrent therapy vary from state to state, and by type of practitioner. The particular device McMakin demonstrates in the DVD that accompanies the book is classified as a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) unit, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of pain, although most TENS machines operate at the milliamperage level (10× the amperage of a microcurrent device).
The provenance of the business card McMakin was given by her mentor begins in the late 1940s when osteopath and homeopath Dr. Harry Van Gelder acquired an antiquated electrical device and a list of frequencies along with a practice in Vancouver, BC. McMakin's book suggests that Van Gelder passed the list of frequencies on to George Douglas (McMakin's teacher) in 1980.
In 1996, when clinical protocols were being developed through McMakin's practice, a naturopathic student assistant brought in a list of specific frequencies recommended in a 1927 journal by a controversial figure named Dr. Albert Abrams. Among his many professional and commercial activities, Dr. Abrams investigated the physiologic effects of electricity. Adding his recommended frequencies to those on the business card purportedly improved outcomes in McMakin's clinic.
As interesting as the history of FSM (frequency-specific microcurrent) may be, clinical relevance is what matters to most practitioners. Questions that pertain to clinical relevance are: is it safe, does it work, and if so, how does it work? For the purposes of this book review, the question of safety is fairly well satisfied. The question of whether or not FSM is effective for pain is answered in part by McMakin's rich anecdotal evidence, though she freely admits that the scientific mechanisms for the specific frequencies of FSM are not yet known. Nearly all of the supportive clinical research in the peer-reviewed literature is McMakin's or is directly associated with her. These data deserve independent corroboration.
The main strength of the book is its generosity of practical, treatment-oriented information. Chapters are organized around protocols for pain conditions that are reinforced by McMakin's personable and engaging DVD demonstrations. Although it may seem backwards to look at the DVD first, the introductory lecture gives an excellent overview of the topic, and is a good place to begin. Together the text and DVD seem like ideal postseminar reference material. As alluded to previously, FSM clinical protocols can be utilized by medical practitioners of all kinds if microcurrent therapy is within their legal scope of practice.
Frequency-Specific Microcurrent for Pain Management is a potentially useful guide for those interested in applications of safe bioelectrical therapies. (“It won't hurt and might help” is an FSM truism.) Contraindications, the instances when it really might not be safe, are well covered in the DVD and crucial for microcurrent therapists to know. This work also offers the beginnings of scientific inquiry into whether FSM may be clinically effective and why.