History of High-Frequency Therapy
2. The Beginnings of High-Frequency Therapy
From our series: High-Frequency Therapy
The history of high-frequency therapy goes back to the universal genius Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and Jacques-Arsène d’Arsonval (1851-1940), who invented countless technical innovations up into the 1940s. Above all, Nikola Tesla’s ideas and developments were far ahead of their time. Unfortunately, many of his ingenious technologies and technical devices were not made available to people because economic interests (profit greed) of a group of bankers stood in the way of their dissemination. At that time, Georges Lakhovsky developed and sold his own frequency devices (multi-wave oscillator) in collaboration with Nikola Tesla, whereby the originator of these ideas was very probably Nikola Tesla.
1891 was a decisive year for today’s well-known HF therapy/high-frequency therapy. Tesla presented for the first time the high-frequency transformer he had developed, which generated high-frequency alternating currents with low amperage but high voltage. A short time later he found that these generated high-frequency fields led to warming of deep-lying tissues and organs – the birth of high-frequency therapy. The basis of today’s applications is a Tesla coil that generates high-frequency alternating currents with varying intensity – depending on the area of application.
Nikola Tesla and Jacques-Arsène d’Arsonval: Pioneers of High-Frequency Therapy
The two researchers Tesla and d’Arsonval concluded that the high-frequency currents achieved good results in metabolism. The work led to a better understanding of the processes in cellular metabolism, regeneration, excretion and chemical conversion of metabolic waste products in the extracellular space (matrix). This gave rise to further interest in better understanding physiological processes in diabetes mellitus, adiposity, gout, rickets, neurological complaints, vascular diseases and other illnesses. The effects of these high-frequency currents later also became known as Arsonval currents. More precise mechanisms of action could not be explained at that time because the analytical and measuring instruments were not yet sufficiently developed.
High Frequency: More Effective and Less Irritating than Low Frequency
After extensive experiments in the following years, it was found that the side effects of the low-frequency currents (low frequency) used until then did not occur with the high-frequency currents (high frequency) and that these were better tolerated. According to the physicist and chemist (and Nobel laureate) Walther Nernst, high-frequency currents exert no irritant effect in body tissue, whereas low-frequency currents irritate nerves and muscles (electrifying tingling).
The Triumphal March from the 1920s Onward
From 1920 onward, the triumphal march of high-frequency therapy began in Europe, where hundreds of thousands to millions of devices were built and sold. About 100 years ago, almost every household had a case with this device; the treatment was absolutely in demand and highly effective. But after the Second World War and the takeover of conventional medicine, science, university education and medical-scientific publishing by a small profit-oriented group of bankers and corporate executives, such efficient methods as high-frequency therapy no longer had a chance and led only a shadowy existence. This fate also befell, for example, the previously widespread and non-patentable colloidal silver as an effective and natural antibiotic. Physicians and therapists who continued to use such methods were defamed, discredited and regarded as dubious charlatans.
Present and Future of High-Frequency Therapy
Coming soon