What makes a SCENAR conference great? The people!

The best thing about every type of conference I ever attend is the like-minded people who also attend.  This was true again this past weekend when we headed over to Las Vegas to participate in some of the activities of the International SCENAR Conference sponsored by RITMSCENAR OKB, Inc. and RITM OKB ZAO.  While Peter participated in the special advanced seminar "SCENAR Expertise and SCENAR Prognosis - an Improved and Effective Approach to Create an Individual Therapeutic Strategy and Modality" facilitated by Dr. Iosif Semikatov as well as the meetings for trainers I, (Kay) attended the newly revised Level One Training on SCENAR.

Level One SCENAR Training

This course was superbly facilitated by Dr. Irina Ershova.  It was my second pass through Level One training having been first taught by Dr. Irina Kossovskaia in 2008 in a class I attended with Peter.  This time was different as I was participating as one who now wanted to use the information and build my skills with the SCENAR instrument.  The course was a great blend of principles and practice.  

We saw glimpses of that which Yu.V. Gorfinkel said, "We must help the body help itself" when Dr. Irina demonstrated protocols on students or when we worked on each other.  

It is powerful to search for the zones of optimum stimulation while in the subjective dose mode, experiencing the asymmetries through "stickiness", changes in skin color, sounds made by the device, and the increased sensitivity the client experiences to the strength of the current.  The class was a thorough "back to basics" experience that was invaluable.  Some times we must return to the basics and further hardwire them.  For me, it will help me be an even more effective assistant trainer working with Peter to help our clients as they incorporate SCENAR into their practice and life.  PLUS, we are going to incorporate a couple of protocols into our own daily health practices in a new way.  I am excited by this idea!

People attracted to SCENAR

Back to the best  part, the people who participated with me.  The course was attended by people rich with life experience at all levels.  We were blessed to spend time with an Los Angeles couple (originally from Russia) who came to the course in order to help their son with his health.  We met practitioners from around the world who's life work it is to help people heal.  We reconnected with several friends and colleagues we hadn't seen in several years like Dr. Don Snow and Dr. Irina Kossovskaia.  I made a new friend from the Bay area who we will collaborate with here in California.  And of course we deepened our connections with the team at RITM OKB ZAO, wonderful people like Yuri Starovoytov and Marina GDalevich.

Lastly, RITMSCENAR OKB, Inc. has a new "chief" on the team and we look forward to partnering with him and the staff to help them achieve their goals (and our goals) of everyone in the U.S. knowing about SCENAR and incorporating it into their health practices for accelerated healing.

To our combined success!

Read More

SCENAR Case Study: Chronic Cervical/Thoracic Strain

Client Presentation

Client presented complaining of chronic pain in his neck, shoulder, and shoulder blade area on the left side at a level 8 on a pain scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is minimal and 10 is severe. He also complained of pain and parathesia in his left arm. He indicated movement made his pain worse and lying down, being still, decreased the pain. He reported having considerable pain for nearly two years.

The pain was significantly affecting his life in that he couldn't move as quickly so all tasks took longer and he said he was “always behind on assigned tasks.” It was difficult to lift and carry things, turn his neck left and right as well as it is difficult to “push things forward” away from himself.

History of the Problem
He had been experiencing pain for nearly 2 years. It began when approximately 22 months ago he was on foot and was hit by a motor vehicle reversing out of a parking lot space. Prior to impact the client considerably torqued and twisted his body in an attempt to avoid being run over. As a result of the impact the client incurred a number of symptoms including:

• Headaches
• Tinnitus in his left ear
• Left jaw pain
• Neck pain;
• Left shoulder pain
• Low back pain
• Bilateral buttock pain
• Insomnia

His initial examination right after impact documented multiple contusions with pain. Cervical and lumbar spine x-rays showed disc space narrowing at C 5-6 and C 6-7. He was given a Toradol injection and an analgesic prescription to fill. He was then referred to and completed physical therapy for recovery. He also had a series of acupuncture for the pain.

Seven months post the initial injury the client had a follow up exam. While he had some improvements from the severity of the initial symptoms he still had pain complaints on the left side of his neck and left posterior shoulder. The exam notes demonstrate that palpation produced tenderness along his left cervical paraspinous and left trapezial musculature. Nonetheless, the medical evaluator noted the client had achieved permanent and stationary status. For his symptomatic complaints, the evaluator opined that it would take 12-18 months for full resolution of his myofascial and musculoskeletal symptoms. The evaluator indicated that future physical therapy, acupuncture, or referral to an orthopedist were possible future treatments. The client engaged a personal injury attorney.

Current Findings
The client presented for examination 22 months post the original incident symptomatic as above. The examination as well as the diagnostic mode of the SCENAR pinpointed the muscle-skeletal damage at the C 5, 6, 7 level, as well as T1 along with the left arm peripheral neuropathy.

As this was a chronic condition without any new components and previously diagnosed specifically as muscular skeletal trauma to the lower C spine to T 1 resulting in chronic pain in that area as well as left arm neuropathy, further diagnostics didn’t appear necessary and weren’t being sought by the client.

Course of Treatment
The findings were explained the findings to the client along with information on a recommended course of therapy. Upon his consent he began regenerative electrotherapy treatments with the SCENAR three times per week in-office. The SCENAR therapy was applied to the asymmetries in the affected area.

Outcomes
Over the course of treatment the client reported decreasing pain with increasing range of motion (ROM). As he continued to progress he was able to move more and more freely without pain. The paresthesia in his left arm resolved.

He was discharged after a total of nineteen (19) treatments in a six week period. He was fully satisfied that his goal was reached with good range of motion without pain and an overall pain free-state.

Read More

Pain has a way of clipping our wings

Step into the possibility of being pain free.

What actions are you taking toward being chronic pain free in the space of possibility? Do you BELIEVE it's possible to be free of chronic pain?

A friend of ours shared a story with us that I want to share with you. Here it is:

An old man and his grandson were sitting on the front porch and the dog was howling. The boy says "Paw, how come the dog's a howlin'?" The old man says "cuz he's settin' on a nail." The boy asks "Why don't he move?" The old man says "Cuz it don't hurt enough."

We are like that. If our pain doesn't hurt "enough" to truly STOP us the activities, stresses, and pressures of daily life take precedent over taking care of ourselves. We are "comfortable" and any change in our routine or patterns is uncomfortable so really focusing on the goal "be pain free" or any other related health goal, making a plan and taking new action doesn't happen. We like to be in our comfort zone or perhaps better termed our "familiar zone." As human beings we are so conditioned this way that we stay the way we are even when we are uncomfortable with our chronic pain. It doesn't hurt enough.

Well I am here to remind you or tell you that even those low levels of chronic pain that aren't stopping you dead in your tracks and yet they are slowing you down, keeping you from doing some of the things you want in life - those levels of pain keep you from being who you are really meant to be.

One of my favorite quotes in this arena is:
Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly ... and if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place. – Wm. Paul Young

Have you forgotten you could fly? Are you stuck in your familiar zone? It's not too late to do something about it. One small action and then another.

You know, to really hold onto your goals and to make real change requires having a bigger WHY. What do you really want in your life that you don't have now, perhaps because of the chronic pain? Spend time with that question. Write it down in a journal or just on a piece of paper. Reflect. Write down what comes to mind. Pick it up and put it down until you have it all out. Let the "what I REALLY want" pull you forward. You will get off the nail.

Let us know if you need help. We believe in you.
To your best health -

Read More

How an injury is like a pebble tossed in a still lake

I have been thinking about how I explain to clients what is happening in their body when soft tissue is injured. One way I describe a new or fresh soft tissue injury is like a pebble thrown into the middle of a still lake.  Think about it - skipping pebbles at the lake. "See" what happens when it "plops".  An injury is just like this.  It often starts as just a very tiny circle. As the minutes and hours pass an injury grows like the circles in the lake from the initial "plop" of the tossed pebble.

Injuries grow immediately through involvement of cell after cell after nerve, muscle, and tendon or ligament fiber. Biochemicals gather about the injury to wall it off from the rest of the body, producing swelling and inflammation as a "warning" not to use the injured part. This process is not necessary today as we, unlike the caveman, have no need to keep fighting, surviving, or using the injured appendage. Still the injury grows, involving more and more tissue. It rapidly swells and becomes painful.

What to Do?

If you have a regenerative electrotherapy device like a SCENAR you would treat yourself immediately. Yes, home units are available. I see the day when we will all have one in our home. They are not complicated to use and they are worth it over your lifetime. Actually my experience is that most people get their return on investment with one, maybe two injuries or issues. Better a SCENAR in your home than a bottle of pills given their side effect profiles.

The sooner a regenerative electrotherapy modality like SCENAR is applied the sooner an injury can be repaired. It could be as soon as overnight if applied the same day as the injury. Really.

If you don’t have a SCENAR

Alright, so you don’t have your own SCENAR yet. Well, this is the injury that might make you say “now”. What you need to do is immediately, within minutes, sit or lie down and apply ice to try to stop the progression of the injury. Use ice for 20 minutes several times during the day of the injury. Taking an anti-inflammatory several times the first couple of days of the injury can also be useful. Rest the injury!

This approach will certainly help your body as it self repairs. It will take longer; significantly longer than if you use a SCENAR. So, pick up the phone. Order your SCENAR. You will be glad you did. 619-501-3752. Ask for Kay.

Read More

What is the best SCENAR device?

We frequently get asked “what is the best SCENAR device?

It you are asking this question you are intrigued and interested in the technology and see where it could help you solve problems.  There are a few variables we look at when determining the answer and yet the primary one is “who is the person asking the question, what is their background? In broad strokes, are they a medical or non-medical person?”

The SCENAR can be used effectively by both of course. Some devices are more suitable for a medical professional with diagnostic/assessment modes and manual override modes. Other models are almost fully automatic so that almost anyone could figure out how to use it.

As has happened with other technologies, as you search for SCENAR in the digital online world you will see that there are original devices from the inventors and the companies they are connected with and there are reversed engineered or copy-cat products. Thus there is a lot of competition, confusion and “energy” in the online forums.

As well, as a practitioner or lay person in the United States it must matter to you if a device is registered here and if it has regulatory clearance.  For example, a practitioner can not use the COSMODIC device on their patients here in the U.S. as it is not registered in Russia or America.

Given it is difficult to tell whether the reverse-engineered devices really deliver at the same level as the “original” ones we stick to the original. It delivers. 

Peter Lathrop, Ph.D, our expert, has been in the field of electromedicine and its evolution into regenerative electromedicine since 1979. With his Ph.D in neurophysiology as well as his post doctorates he helped develop the first commercial TENS unit at Medtronic, Inc. in 1979. He moved on to evolve the field of electrical stimulation and laser with other innovators with accelerating the body’s self-healing mechanisms in mind. He didn’t ever “knock something off.”

The original SCENAR devices and treatment protocols were invented and designed by Professor Alexander. Revenko and Dr. Alexander Karasev and were produced by ZAO OKB RITM. Today Prof. Revenko is associated still with ZAO OKB RITM and Dr. Karasev with LET Medical.   LET Medical has introduced COSMODIC as a technology of “restoration” after if to imply it is superior to other devices in this way.  This is just marketing.  There have been no studies complete.  And in fact, in our experience, especially with conditions like spinal cord injury, the RITM SCENAR assists the body in its self-healing/self-repair "restoration" very well. 

So for this time we use the RITM SCENAR series.  As innovators ourselves we remain open.  We know the results though we get with RITM SCENAR.  They far surpass what any type of pain management, pain treatment, physical therapy provider offers. We prevent surgery time and again because of how it helps the body's self repair mechanisms kick in.  And of course the results we get with RITM SCENAR do so much more than any "pain pill."  That goes without saying.  And if $$ is an issue for you we find most people tell us RITM SCENAR is more affordable.

In terms of which model device in a series or line to use let’s talk. It is easy to answer that question.

Read More

RITM SCENAR activates self-healing resources

So many people have a “map” or existing wiring in their brain for “electrical stimulation” that as soon as they hear SCENAR is in the electrical stimulation category they believe they know what it is and they switch off their curiosity and openness to see what’s new.

We encourage you to set aside what you believe you know for just a while to discover why SCENAR is nothing like anything you have experienced in rehabilitation or physical therapy e-stim therapy.

What’s the bottom line distinction?

Most electrical stimulation devices operate in a “one way street” fashion – i.e. sending signals into the body.

In contrast, RITM SCENAR activates the self-healing resources of the human body through the biofeedback “dialogue” it has with the body. It generates every new stimulating pulse it delivers according to the body’s response to the previous one.

SCENAR is a two way street technology.

In doing its job, RITM SCENAR technology relies on the body’s mechanism of adaptation that ensures homeostasis, or a stable internal environment in the body.

Before you can understand the technology you need to remember a few basics about you as an organism. You know that all your body’s organs and systems are a single whole – right? No organ or system is acting alone. And that your skin developed from the same embryological layer as your nervous system. (Some of you might need to go back to high school biology or science to re-connect to that fact. Hey, that’s ok. When did you ever think you were going to use it – right?)

The skin remains linked throughout life to the nervous system. Your nervous system, both the central (your brain and spinal cord) and peripheral components direct the show.

So when the RITM SCENAR is placed directly on the skin with its own electrode or through lead wires and electrodes (pads) and nerve endings within the skin are stimulated at particular points processes are affected throughout the body.

As well, stimulating active points on the skin with electric impulses that follow the pattern of your nervous system are believed to stimulate and optimize the regulatory functions of the nervous system. This aids in the body’s self-repair program and restoration of health. This is why RITM SCENAR devices are called energy-neuro-adaptive regulators of the body’s systems.  

The current thinking on SCENAR

• When placed on the body the SCENAR detects areas of inflammation and areas of adaptation and degeneration.  
• It delivers through the skin biocompatible energy to provide the energy resources the body needs to initiate and manage repair.
• Through its signaling it is thought that it reconnects the brain to the injury so nutrients and healing can be directed to the area.
• It reverses the polarity of adapted injured tissue from negative to positive so resources for cellular repair are attracted and the electropositive current of injury is restored.
• It provides signals that stimulate the release of neuropeptides from the pharmacy of chemicals in your body to augment the ingredients needed for cellular repair.
• It provides a sequenced series of nerve-like impulses that alternate with pauses to prevent habituation to the signals. It dynamically changes the signal characteristics in accordance with the feedback received from the body.

As a result, healing is accelerated, pain is reduced or eliminated and injuries are repaired.

Bottom line, RITM SCENAR is an advanced form of regenerative electrotherapy functioning on two physiological principles:

• that your body has its own healing capabilities and,
• that it is continually employing processes of self-regulation to maintain or achieve health.

For more information about the RITM SCENAR visit www.askascenarexpert.com or complete our contact form to set up a conversation.

Our mission is to accelerate the rate of your healing from pain and soft tissue injury

.

Read More

As a practitioner why haven't I heard about SCENAR?

I get this question a lot and the simple answer is it hasn't been available and around that long in the U.S.  As well, the manner in which it was introduced and marketed initially has also had an effect of keeping it under a bushel basket if you will.

I for one believe it is long past time for every practitioner who helps stop pain and accelerate the healing of the human body's soft tissue (muscles, ligaments, tendons, and nerves) to know about it and to incorporate it into their practice.

It is a tool that I have used to repair labral tears of the shoulder, reduce bulging discs, render R.I.C.E nearly obsolete by rapidly healing sprains, strains and whiplash, remove scar tissue, program out chronic pain from failed back surgery syndrome patients and even restore nerve function.

I use the diffusion of innovation theory to help people understand how and at what rate a new technology like SCENAR takes hold in a market.  It is well worth reviewing as it holds true for most if not all innovations.

The theory states that there are four main elements that influence the spread of a new idea:

• the innovation, 
• communication channels, 
• time and, 
• the social system.  

These elements work in conjunction with one another. So, diffusion is the process by which an innovation like SCENAR is communicated through certain channels (marketing/distribution) over time among members of a system - in this case the members of a system being health practitioners in the U.S.

So, let's look at SCENAR in the U.S. market.

RITM OKB ZAO received their 510(k) FDA clearance in 2010.  The SCENAR is thus a Class II Medical Device in the U.S.  This was just three years ago.  The U.S. market then is still in early stages of adoption of the SCENAR.  In Russia, where the SCENAR was developed, it has been in use for 20 years and is widely accepted.

Rogers, who produced the theory, says there are 5 stages in the adoption process of accepting a new innovation:

1. knowledge, 
2. persuasion, 
3. decision, 
4. implementation and 
5. confirmation.  

Makes sense doesn't it?  I bet if you think about your buying decision making process for other tools, processes, gadgets, instruments, in your practice or your life you can see how you have gone through these stages.

So each of us who might use an innovation like SCENAR in our medical practice, chiropractic practice, rehab practice etc. go through these stages.   Available clinical evidence may come into play as a part of the process for you.

Then, Rogers also suggests that there are 5 categories of adopters and that adoption of an innovation follows an S curve when plotted over time.  The categories of adopters are:

1. innovators
2. early adopters
3. early majority,
4. late majority and
5. laggards

Of course there are also gatekeepers and opinion leaders in communities as well.  A bit complicated huh?

So, which of the 5 categories of adopters do you fall into? 

I am an innovator and early adopter.

I have developed new technologies in collaboration with others.  You can find my patents at www.uspto.gov.  I am also an early adoptor in my chosen professional field and to a great extent with my primary hobby as well which is music, composing and sound engineering.  In terms of pain treatment and injury repair I want to know what's new and discover if it is effective for my clients.  I am always seeking alliances and referral partners in order to help my clients.  It is key.   If you are a practitioner reading this do you do the same?

If you haven't adopted a regenerative electromedicine tool like SCENAR into your practice yet you are likely in the early majority or later category of adoptors. 

Now, I mentioned how an innovation is introduced and marketed has an effect on all of this as well.  So, consider that RITM OKB ZAO didn't initially have a strategy for market introduction and penetration of the U.S. from their Russian HQ.  It was entrepreneurial practitioners who first introduced the innovation to the market.  That is how I learned about it in 2006.

Over the past two years RITM OKB ZAO's approach is becoming more strategic and coordinated and there is even now in 2013 a more focused approach coming about in terms of distribution.  They are "growing up" as an organization and we are experiencing that more and more in terms of them being truly "global" in nature and handling the needs of a the global marketplace.

I say "patience" with entrepreneurial, innovative ventures especially when the product they have produced really produces like the SCENAR does.

Read More