27/07/2006 - Electric Fields used to heal or slow healing to wounds

Using electric fields, researchers have managed to accelerate and halt the healing process of wounded tissue by applying electric fields to the affected area. Not only this, but the work has also identified a gene which is responsible for triggering the healing process and another which is responsible for blocking it. By identifying these they were able to target the genes specifically, and showed that electric fields control gene activation and expression and thus influence the healing process.

Using very small electric fields the team, lead by Professor Min Zhao of Aberdeen University and Josef M Penninger of the Austrian Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Vienna, have shown that disruption of the PI(3)Kγ gene reduces the natural healing response to electric signals, and removal of the PTEN gene enhances such responses. By showing this there is not only confirming evidence that electrical fields affect biological processes, but also helps with a mechanistic understanding of how such signals alter cell behaviour.

Whilst it is not possible to extrapolate any of this to indicate an effect at a.c. electric field levels such as those found in homes and at work and school, this does show that electric fields affect biological systems and responses at a fundamental level. This in turn gives rise to the possibility that conditions such as Electrical Hypersensitivity may well be gene-related physical responses to external electric field stimuli.

Dr Robert Becker reported and discussed the effects of low levels of electric fields on bone and tissue growth and healing in the period from 1960. He published numerous papers and some books for the public, notably "The Body Electric" and "Cross Currents". He became very disillusioned with the "anti-EMF effects" hassle he received from the scientific and medical establishment.

Links

- New Scientist article by Andy Coghlan
- Reuters Science article by Patricia Reaney
- Paper abstract on the Nature website

Also in the news

WiFi network forced employee out of their job

Ryan Warne, a former furniture worker has told how he has had to give up his job because a wireless computer network installed by his boss started making him sick. He became electro-sensitive in 2004, when a wireless computer network was installed in the furniture showroom where he worked.

Mr Warne, of Elmstead Market, near Colchester, started suffering from burning sensations in his head and dizziness, which he put down to the radio waves in the wireless network. After taking time off sick, he eventually had to give up his job and is currently unemployed.

- Full coverage in Omega News by Juliette Maxam