February 16, 2001 – According to several American urologists, the use of a special device that generates pulsed electromagnetic fields greatly improves the control of people with urinary incontinence.
To date, more than 10,000 people have tried the system and the majority have had positive results. The device called “NeoControl Pelvic Floor Therapy System” comes in the form of a normal-looking chair that creates a powerful pulsating magnetic field. This magnetic field stimulates the pelvic nerves, resulting in stimulation of the muscles that control urinary function and increase blood circulation. The process has been dubbed “extracorporeal magnetic innervation”
The treatment simply consists of sitting in the chair for about 20 minutes. Patients receive a variable number of sessions (at least ten) and some report an improvement in symptoms from the fourth session.
According to doctors, the NeoControl chair can be particularly useful for people with mild or moderate urinary incontinence problems. The best results are obtained by people who do Kegel exercises (contraction of the muscles of the perineum) at the same time. On the other hand, some patients with advanced urinary incontinence do not get improvements.
Research in which a group of patients was followed for six months after treatment showed that 28% of the group had no more urine loss. It is not yet clear whether the positive effect is sustainable in the long term, whether the treatment must be repeated at regular intervals to maintain the improvement, or whether the effect of the sessions wanes over time. But for those patients whose situation has been improved, there is no doubt that the device is producing results despite the skepticism with which one can welcome the idea of sitting in a chair to treat a problem.
HealthPassport.net
References
Associated Press, January 24, 2001
Galloway NT, El-Galley RE, Sand PK, Appell RA, Russell HW, Carlin SJ. Update on extracorporeal magnetic innervation (EXMI) therapy for stress urinary incontinenceUrology. 2000 Dec 4; 56 (6 Suppl 1): 82-6.
