The Physiologic Basis for the ReBuilder^TM

A monograph by David B. Phillips, Ph.D.

Neuropathy, a problem for many older patients, is characterized by pain, numbness, loss of tactile feedback, and poor tissue perfusion.  These symptoms indicate that blood is not getting to all the cells and thus these cells suffer.   Decreasing the quality of life, these results are often devastating.  Pain medication does not treat the condition; it only helps manage it and, eventually, leads to complications and adverse side effects such as confused thinking and intestinal problems.  In addition to doing nothing for the numbness some individuals experience, these chemicals not only depress the nerves and reduce the sensation of pain, they can actually cause the neuropathy to worsen .

As a result of conducting our own research and reviewing published studies from around the world, we have been led to new models concerning the causes of neuropathy.  We have concluded that it is not reasonable to label neuropathy symptoms as just diabetic or "idiopathic" (cause unknown).   What neuropathy patients deserve is a more complete understanding of what is really happening at the cellular level where pain, numbness, and loss of tactile feedback  affect an individual's balance.
 

We believe neuropathy has the following fundamental causes:

Diabetes
Chemo-therapy
Cardio-vascular disease
Trauma
High blood pressure medications
Psychoactive drug therapy

Diabetes can trigger neuropathy by affecting the levels of glucose and/or insulin in the blood stream.  When this occurs minerals are driven out of the synaptic junctions between the nerve cells thereby reducing the conductivity and making nerve impulse transmission across the synaptic junction (the gap between the cells) difficult.

Atrophy occurs when any part of the body becomes inactive.  As nerve cells atrophy, they shrink like  rubber bands resulting in a greater distance between the cells.  Thus nerve signals must now try to jump a larger gap through a less conductive medium.  This loss of nerve transmission is first perceived as tingling, then burning, and finally as pain as the demineralization and gap widening process progresses.  Then, after the nerve signals can no longer be transmitted, numbness is the primary complaint.  This secondary effect of neuropathy reduces the strength of the calf muscles which in turn reduce the blood flow to the lower extremities.  This condition often results in insecure gait, balance problems, and other mobility issues.

Chemo-therapy has a similar effect of demineralizing the synaptic fluid, damaging the integrity of the nerve cells, and making it difficult for the ionization of the cell membranes to propagate the signal along the surface of the nerve.  Ionization means the outer membrane of the nerve cells change from positive to negative in a wave like motion taking a positive charge from one end of the nerve all the way to the other end. 

Chemotherapeutic agents are prescribed for cancer precisely because they inhibit fast growing or fast acting cells.  Though nerve cells do not reproduce themselves like a cancer cell does, they do change electrical states quickly and are thus particularly susceptible to the damaging effects of chemotherapeutic drugs. 

Cardio-vascular disease can cause neuropathy by reducing the amount of blood that can perfuse the tissue of the lower legs and feet.  When the arteries and veins become blocked, blood flow is reduced.  One of the first symptoms is intermittent claudication (a sudden closing down of the blood supply causing pain and weakness in the legs).  This claudication results in a reduction in the distance a patient can walk before the onset of localized leg pain due to reduced oxygen availability.  Therefore, the muscle cells switch from using oxygen to operate (aerobic metabolism) to using sugar to operate (anaerobic metabolism) thereby creating greater than normal amounts of lactic acid, the by-product of muscle metabolism.  The increased lactic acid collects in the cells causing inflammation and pain.

Trauma to the lumbar area of the back can be another cause of neuropathy.  This trauma can be as slight as lifting a bag of groceries out of the trunk, picking up a grandchild, or bending down to tie a shoe.  Our studies show a 60% correlation between an injury to the lower back and subsequent development of neuropathy symptoms.  During the acute phase of localized trauma, inflammation develops reducing arterial and venous blood to the lumbar synaptic junctions.  Nerves in the region suffer due to the reduction in activity.  Since the body tends to conserve resources, the affected nerves begin to atrophy, the synaptic junction gap begins to widen, and synaptic minerals are leeched away making it much harder for the signal transmission. 

Signals of normal strength can no longer cross synapses that are affected by the reduction in blood flow. The loss of signals across the synapses compounds the process of deterioration.  Muscle atrophy and a whole host of problems follow.  Fortunately, we know that a signal delivered at the body's natural electro-magnetic resonant frequency (7.83 cycles per second) and at an amplitude approximately 10 times that originally required, will cross these enlarged synapses.

High blood pressure medications  not only lower blood pressure, they also reduce the ability of the arterial blood to refill the veins.  This vacancy results as the venous muscle pumps the blood back to the heart.  When this occurs the blood has a tendency to pool in the lower extremities; the nerves and synaptic junctions do not have enough of the necessary food and oxygen to maintain their health resulting in nerve cell atrophy, loss of mineralization, and conductivity of the synaptic junctions as explained above.

Psychoactive drug therapy, used to reduce anxiety or seizures, has the effect of reducing the intensity/frequency of nerve signals.  This, too, can result in loss of motor and sensory nerve function.  These conditions can result in impaired mobility and balance issues due to the loss of muscle strength.  Whenever overactive nerves that might be causing psychological problems are depressed, they also depress poorly functioning nerves.

Other probable causes of neuropathy include:

•  hypoglycemia
•   exposure to industrial toxins
•  exposure to Agent Orange
•  back, knee, and leg surgery
•   anesthesia from operations
•  poorly administered intra-muscular injections in the sciatic
     nerve area
 

The ReBuilder™ addresses all these conditions in a simple to use home care system that is not only effective in helping relieve many of the symptoms of neuropathy but also the progression of neuropathy. In some cases pain, burning, and numbness are actually reversed.

The ReBuilder  works on four separate but simultaneous levels:

1.      Warm water footbath

a.   The footbath utilizes ReBuilder Medical’s Electrolyte Solution which the patient adds to the footbath. This electrolyte solution contains the active ingredients of tea tree oil and colloidal silver. These two ingredients provide an antiseptic environment to help combat the localized infections that are endemic in diabetic neuropathy and often lead to gangrene and amputation. The combination of Epsom salts (added when necessary) and the ReBuilder Electrolyte Solution conditions the water in the foot bath to a conductivity level that matches the impedance  (electrical properties) of the ReBuilder ™.

b.  In addition to the colloidal silver and tea tree oil for antiseptic functions, the ReBuilder Electrolyte Solution also contains a full complement of minerals including potassium, calcium, and other trace minerals in exactly the proper proportions necessary to support the nerves while the ReBuilder stimulates them.

d.   This electrically supportive medium is used to deliver the minute electrical signals to the patient.  When the conductive rubber electrodes are in the water, the current path is directed through the water to the patient thereby ensuring a large surface area (the entire surface of the foot rather than just under the electrodes) and ensuring the comfort and safety of the patient. The water actually becomes the electrodes. 

e.   As a result of the warm water, this highly mineralized water is available for absorption into the skin via vasodilation.  This means that the warm water opens up the blood vessels in the skin (that is why your skin turns a bit red in a bathtub) and allows the essential minerals to be absorbed into the blood and taken to the muscles and nerves.

f.    When the ReBuilder’s electrical signals stimulate the leg muscles to contract, this "venous muscle pump" moves the mineral rich blood to the nerves and muscles providing an opportunity for osmotic pressure to put these minerals into the synaptic junctions between the nerve cells. This infusion of necessary minerals helps to restore the conductivity that is characteristically lost due to the high glucose or insulin levels from diabetic induced neuropathy, from inactivity of these junctions due to other causes of neuropathy such as localized trauma, or from high blood concentrations of chemo-therapeutic elements of cancer patients.

2.       Electro stimulation of nerves

      The ReBuilder’s electrical signal is a compilation of two signals transmitted simultaneously.  One signal is specifically designed to stimulate the nerves themselves and has a very narrow waveform with a small amount of current under the curve and a relatively high transient voltage (characteristically 40 to 90 volts ac.).  The resulting current is miniscule and much below what is commonly found with traditional TENS devices. Due to the widening gap between the nerve cells and the loss of much of the conductivity in the synaptic junction fluid due to demineralization, a larger than normal signal must be used.  The ReBuilder’s nerve stimulation signal is many times stronger than the normal afferent and efferent signals so it can effectively complete the circuit.  This stimulates the nerves and causes them to begin their normal metabolic function.  This signal, crossing the synaptic junctions, also re-polarizes the junctions causing them to be receptive to reabsorb minerals thus improving the conductivity.

3.       Electro stimulation of muscles

      The ReBuilder’s second signal, which overlays the nerve stimulation signal, is designed to stimulate the muscles.  This signal has a different, wider waveform with a larger amount of current under the curve but a much smaller voltage (5 to 20vac).  Muscles are most responsive to this waveform.  This signal causes the muscles of the feet, calves, thighs, and buttocks to contract and relax timed in harmony with the ReBuilder’s signal.  The ReBuilder’s proprietary signal also has specific characteristics that cause a complete relaxation of the muscles' fast and slow twitch cells overcoming any residual inflammatory resistance to blood flow.  In order for the venous pressure to move the blood through the muscles bringing oxygen and nutrients and taking away accumulated lactic acid, the muscle fibers cannot be in spasm.  Adequate blood flow can only occur in a flaccid muscle.  This is an important consideration.

If the frequency of the muscle stimulation signal is too high, it does not give the muscle the appropriate time necessary to fully relax.  If the signal’s frequency is too slow, the muscle cannot entrain and recruit enough fibers for a sustained contraction. By causing the muscles to contract in this manner in response to the ReBuyilder's signal,, the venous muscle pump is used to propel blood, against gravity, back up towards the heart.  This blood, rich in minerals, comes from the local blood in the feet.  The effect is to flush out toxins in the nerves and the muscles now stimulated with fresh oxygenated and mineralized blood.  This not only guarantees relief from pain from the build up of excessive lactic acid, but it also guarantees the creation of new muscle mass.  The synaptic junctions, bathed with mineral rich blood, are now able to conduct the nerves signals more effectively and efficiently.

4.       Pulsing the combined signals at 7.83 Hz:

      This twin electrical signal, one to stimulate the nerve cells and the other to trigger muscle cells, is pulsed on and off at the frequency of 7.83 cycles per second.  We have found that the body is particularly sensitive to this frequency.  One postulation for this sensitivity is that the electrical potential between the earth's atmosphere and the earth’s surface is also 7.83 Hz. Using this signal frequency, we have found that the body not only responds favorably but the brain is induced to release large amounts of endorphins.  Endorphins are internal analgesics, as powerful as and chemically related to morphine, but without any negative side effects since they are created and modulated by the body’s own chemistry.  The effect of this endorphin release is a generalized sense of well-being, a reduction in pain levels elsewhere in the body, and even a reduction in emotional pain.  This ensures a very high level of patient compliance not only because the patient feels good physically during the massage-like treatment period but because he/she feels better emotionally afterward with a reduction in global pain for a period of 4 to 6 hours.

Designed specifically for the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, The ReBuilder ™ represents the cutting edge of electro-medicine.  It carries a 1-year warranty, is fully registered with the FDA and is covered by most insurance companies with a DME code of E0745.