SCENAR Treatment with Terminal Illness

(Note: Jim Freedman bought a Scenar from us in 2006. He has worked with it on his wife and himself over the years, and when in Asheville, would call us up to connect. While here last November, he mentioned his friend Martin, and that he wanted to try treating him with Scenar. I told him of my only experience in seeing Scenar’s effects with another terminally ill individual, which I’m now writing up as a future post, where I witnessed a dramatic improvement in the quality of life during the last months. I told him, it could do no harm, and could possibly improve the quality of his friend’s remaining time. Below are the emails and his thoughts about his experiences in working with Martin.)

I have a good friend Martin who was diagnosed this past summer with multiple myeloma. This is a cancer of the plasma cells located in the bone marrow. There is no cure for this. He was on vacation and experienced excruciating back pain. He was hospitalized and diagnosed. He has numerous tumors growing throughout his body. The myeloma weakened his bones so much he had to have a rod surgically implanted in his leg.

Once back home in Florida he has undergone extensive radiation as well as drug therapies and an operation to infuse spinal cement to help stabilize his lower spine.

I told him I wanted to try and treat him with the scenar. I wondered how much good it might do for someone with this severe a problem.

Martin had become wracked with extreme pain and spent most of his time in bed.

Here are the emails that I sent Penny as I was treating Martin:

Jan 12, 2012  Thursday   1^st Scenar Treatment

The worst problem is the huge amount of pain that he is in. He is on morphine and other pain meds. Today was the first chance that I have had to treat him. I called him and he was reluctant because he was having such a bad pain day. When I assured him there would be no side affects he agreed.

He can only walk with the aid of a walker and of late he has to rely on his arms for support as his legs buckle if he puts weight on them. Most of his pain in his is back and buttocks.

When I saw Martin I was somewhat aghast at seeing him in such bad shape. It took him almost 3-4 minutes to roll over from laying on his back to his side. I treated him with the Scenar for about 30-40 minutes and I really did not expect to see immediate results.

Martin rolled back over with a lot less effort and got out of bed into his walker and was able to walk around (with the walker) but put his weight on his legs and not his arms. He had much less pain after the treatment.

Jan 14 Saturday  2^nd Scenar Treatment

I treated my friend Martin on Thursday and he has had less pain and somewhat better movement since. This afternoon I gave him his second treatment. Read more »

I’m Back With Another SCENAR Story!

This spring has been on steroids. With all the graduations, weddings, putting out a vegetable garden, etc., I’ve been short on time to think about writing, much less had the opportunity to sit down to write. It has felt like being on the receiving end of a fire hose in the face! I have a notebook page full of possible posts that have revealed themselves to me in the melee, without the moments to develop them. Except for a new grandbaby to arrive the end of July, things are now looking like they will mellow just a bit, and I will be able to resume this effort that I have such passion about.

I had a personal experience with the SCENAR that impressed me. After discovering a sizable ants nest in the garden, I boiled a large pot of water to encourage them to take their endeavors elsewhere. In carrying it out to the nest, I accidentally sloshed a wave of the boiling hot water on to the underside of my right forearm and wrist. It was excruciatingly painful. I put the pot down, ran back into the house, and immediately poured cold tap water on it. Even after that, it was so painful that I could barely stand it. Knew I had to get the SCENAR on it, but the idea of anything touching it was appalling.

I decided to turn the sensation level down to low and see if I could stand it. I turned the frequency up as high as it would go (the recommendation for acute injury) and held my breath as I placed it on the worst area (around my wrist where my superheated glove rim had kept the hot water against my skin). Within a couple of seconds, the pain began to ease. Encouraged, I did the same thing over the whole area, picking the SCENAR up and gently putting it down in a grid over the wounded area. After about 20 minutes, the pain and tenderness had been relieved completely, and I went back out to continue with the job. I didn’t think much more about it for the rest of the afternoon. That night, there was still no pain or even tenderness, and some of the redness had gone away. I treated it again, more thoroughly this time. By the next day the deep redness had paled, and much of it was gone. I treated it the second night, and haven’t treated it since. Surprisingly, it never blistered. Now, two weeks later, the skin on my wrist has a pale brown “bracelet” where the wound was the worst . When I think what the experience of healing that kind of burn would have been without SCENAR I’m more convinced than ever that everyone should have one in their home first aid kit.

Penny

A Mother’s Day Gift

Mother’s Day is May 8th! What would be nicer to receive for Mother’s Day than a gift of pain relief? Wouldn’t that be more meaningful than flowers to give to someone you love as much as your mother? In honor of Mothers on their special day, we are offering a gift certificate for two pain relief sessions for the price of one. Call us (828-337-6854) or email us (healinginnovationsnc@gmail.com) by May 4th  for a gift certificate that we will immediately send to you by mail. The treatment sessions will be scheduled as soon as payment is received.

Show your mother you love her by providing her the opportunity to relieve her physical pain and improve her well being!

SCENAR Research in Peer Reviewed Journal

Although there is a great deal of Russian research on the SCENAR, there have been few blinded, randomized, controlled studies in the West. One such study, published in 2007, was carried out by a research team at Macquarie University in Australia. The device studied is called the ENAR which is the same device as the SCENAR. The condition chosen to study was chronic neck pain.

Twenty-four people, who had not received therapy for three months prior, were divided into three groups. The first group was treated with Transcutaneous Nerve Stimulation (TENS) therapy, another group received ENAR therapy, and the control group unknowingly received a sham treatment. The sham treatment was set up by telling all participants that they may or may not feel any sensations during the treatment. In the sham group, the device was turned off. The study was therefore a single blinded study, as the researchers knew who was receiving the sham treatment.

Results showed that people who received the TENS therapy were no better off than if they received no therapy at all, whereas people who received the ENAR therapy found that not only had their pain levels improved, so had their functional capabilities and quality of life.

You can find the full study at Chiropractic and Osteopathy. It is also listed in PubMed.

Spring Opportunities

This is a glorious spring! So wonderful after the hibernation of winter. Seems like there is “eye candy” everywhere!

In keeping with the parasympathetic plethora of enthusiastic blossoming, we at Healing Innovations are offering a new opportunity to experience the SCENAR in a way that is more affordable and efficient. Heretofore, we have offered hour long sessions only, but have found because of our work in other practitioner settings, that half hour sessions are as effective and considerably more affordable for our clients.

So, beginning April 15th we will be offering our clients half hour sessions for $45 per session. If you are a new client, the first evaluation session would need to be an hour at our usual charge of $65. Thereafter, the treatment sessions would be half an hour. If you pay in advance for four sessions you receive a 10% discount which would make the total cost for the four only $162. Usually, within 5 sessions (the total including the initial visit) our clients are experiencing noticeable pain relief.

Mention that you read about this offer on the blog and get the initial evaluation at half price!

Watch your well being blossom this spring and experience how SCENAR can help you stay pain free and active all summer long!

Call 828-337-6854 today to schedule an appointment!

A New Kind of Biofeedback

Organic Growers School

The event that heralds spring in these mountains will happen again this weekend at UNCA in the Alumni Hall in the Highsmith Union Building. This is always a wonderful opportunity to gather the latest information about growing organic and hanging out with interesting folks.

Healing Innovations will be there to provide free demonstrations of the remarkable biofeedback pain relieving technology called SCENAR. If you have been interested in trying the SCENAR, here’s your chance. If you mention you read about it on the blog, we will be happy to provide you with a free full session at our office (a $65 value). Drop by our table and meet the three highly trained and experienced SCENAR therapists now in Asheville. Besides giving you a chance to experience the SCENAR itself, we will be happy to answer your questions, provide information, and let you see what all the excitement over this technology is about.

The Organic Grower’s School is one of the greatest events of the year. Don’t miss it. See you there!

The Benefit of SCENAR in Traumatic Injury – Christina’s Story

I am a Scenar practitioner, and have used this wonderful technology on myself, my family, and hundreds of clients over the past 8 years.  I never had the opportunity to test its capabilities in a situation involving a serious injury with a great deal of pain, however, until I broke my wrist this past December. I knew that Russian practitioners treat injuries with Scenar at athletic events all the time, but I had not experienced this myself.

Sorry if I’m getting too graphic, but my injury involved a whiplash to my left wrist that broke my radius (the large forearm bone) clear through and tore many ligaments.  All I knew at the time, though, was that it hurt so much I thought I would pass out and was deep breathing to keep the pain tolerable.  On a pain scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the worst imaginable), it was definitely a 10.   Fortunately, I had my Ritm Scenar with me and immediately began treating my wrist while my sister drove to the hospital.  I put the frequency on 350 Hz, turned the power up as high as I could take and held it on the most painful spots as well as stroking all around my wrist.  For the first 15 minutes, I didn’t feel much relief, but noticed the swelling was minimal and the pain wasn’t increasing, as it usually does when swelling begins.

I continued treating myself non-stop and by the time I was checked in and waiting for a doctor, amazingly enough my wrist was actually feeling better.  The whole wrist still felt mangled but the pain was really manageable.  When they asked how bad the pain was, I told them it was a 10 so they would take me seriously.  But I thought to myself: actually, now it feels more like a 4-5!  Wow. The swelling was so minimal  (only about the size of a large egg), that it looked like a minor injury. When I broke a smaller bone in my ankle years before, it had swollen to the size of a melon.

During this entire time I had not taken any kind of medication for pain or inflammation. But after 2 hours of Scenar treatment, not only was the pain way down, but I also felt more clear and relaxed because the pain wasn’t dizzying me and making me tense up anymore.  My sister couldn’t believe how calm and collected I was, and neither could I.  I had to stop using the Scenar while they took x-rays, and the pain started to return.  As soon as I could, I slapped it on again!

Having broken bones before, I knew it was broken from the minute it happened, but judging by the swelling and my composure, none of the hospital staff thought it was broken until the x-rays came back. They told me it was broken almost like they couldn’t believe it. But it was broken pretty badly and they wanted an orthopedic surgeon to set it.  Unfortunately, none were available on Saturday so they put me in a splint, gave me an Rx for pain meds and told me to call an orthopedic doctor on Monday – 2 days away!  I couldn’t believe I was going to have to wait 2 days to have my bone set.

The next 2 days were the most challenging part of the whole ordeal because I couldn’t treat my wrist with the Scenar now that it was in a splint.  I knew I could take pain meds, but I try to stay away from medications as much as possible (ok, I’m a purist).  But I also wanted to keep testing the Scenar, which had so far exceeded all my expectations for reducing pain and inflammation.   I went home, exhausted and daunted at the prospect of having to treat myself constantly for the next two days.  An hour after they put on the splint, the pain was creeping back in.  How was I going to do it?  To make myself feel better, I even thought how lucky I was compared to a pioneer with a broken wrist, with no Scenar or fancy splints bumping along in a wagon for days to find a doctor!

Fortunately, my dear friend and business partner, Penny Bond, came over that afternoon to give me a treatment.  We knew from Scenar training that treating the paired, uninjured limb was the next best thing to directly treating an injury. Our instructors said that treating an uninjured limb is 80% as effective in treating an injury as treating the injured limb.  This is because the nervous system does not distinguish between the nerves of paired limbs, and sends almost as much healing energy to the opposite limb as to the one being treated.  But honestly, I didn’t believe it would help that much.  I just couldn’t see how treating my right arm was going to relieve the intense pain in my left.  Amazingly, it did.  As soon as she started treating my right wrist, my left felt markedly better.

This experience gave me the courage to continue treating myself by laying my right wrist on the Scenar and using electrode patches on my right wrist for the next 2 days.  The pain was worst at night, when I went for hours with no treatment, but I managed to make it until Tuesday morning, when I went in for surgery, without taking any pain medication whatsoever.  I feel that this is nothing short of a miracle.  I only wish that every sports team and every hospital and doctor in our country utilized Scenar technology the way they do in Russia and much of Europe.

Christina Morrison recently joined our Healing Innovations team. She is a certified Scenar practitioner who introduced Penny to the Scenar back in 2004.   She has also practiced massage, energy balancing and movement therapies for over 20 years.  An NC native, she returned last summer from Austin, TX, and is very happy to be back in her beloved mountains. She can be reached at 828-273-7131. (See her interview with Penny, posted below.)

An Interview with Scenar Therapist Christina Morrison

Nearly six and a half years ago, Christina Morrison and her work with Scenar changed my life. Below is an interview with her about her journey as a healer using this remarkable healing tool.

Penny: What is your background that you think led you to Scenar?

Christina: I’ve been on a healing path my whole life…. always involved with healing arts in some way.  I was a licensed massage therapist in Texas for the past 10 years.  I’m certified in polarity, rebirthing, and cranial-sacral therapy.  I worked in two destination wellness spas for years, practicing massage, Thai massage, aromatherapy, Ayurveda, hydrotherapy, and chakra balancing. Prior to that, I studied movement therapy and taught dance. All those modalities were wonderful, but I wanted to help people heal and change in even deeper and more lasting ways.

Penny: What gifts, experiences, or interests drew you toward alternative healing?

Christina: I’ve always loved touch.  I love receiving massage and also sharing that experience with others.  I lost my brother to cancer when he was only 16…. and he spent a lot of time in hospitals.   That was a very painful experience that inspired me to pursue alternative healing.   I’ve also had some chronic conditions that kept me searching for relief.  I’ve experienced all kinds of healing art forms… and everything that’s helped me, I’ve shared with others.

Penny:  How did you encounter the Scenar?

Christina:  I took a workshop in 2003 from a Scenar practitioner who was also an acupuncturist.  He said it was one of those rare tools that could “raise the dead!”  That was a bit of an exaggeration but it definitely got my attention.  He found that Scenar treated his clients faster and more effectively than acupuncture.  It was not like anything I’d encountered before.  Here I was using a mechanical tool… a very different experience for a “naturalist” like me!   I was leery at first, but when I started seeing amazing results, I was convinced.

Penny:  What are some of the more dramatic results you’ve seen in working with the Scenar?

Christina: A client came to me with extreme fatigue and brain fog to the point of having brain scans. She was having trouble putting sentences together and no one could figure out what was wrong.  I’d just been trained on Denas Scenar and wasn’t sure I could help her.  Fortunately, Scenar shows where the dysfunction is, so I worked on the areas revealed: her neck and the back of her head. She came in hardly able to get up the stairs and left feeling great!  After eight sessions she had her full energy and cognition back. That amazed us both. I also saw a client who’d had a stroke that left her numb on one side of her body. After fourteen sessions she regained full sensation and her balance also improved. And then, of course, there was you.

Penny: Yes, you worked with me twice and I was so impressed with my improvement, I decided to buy one in order to continue to work on myself. My story can be found on the About page of this blog.

Christina: I’ve only had one person who experienced no results. They had neuropathy, which is when nerves die.  Everyone else I’ve worked with has had good results. I’ve worked with several hundred people and have seen it over and over relieve pain, restore function, improve energy levels, and enhance mood and a sense of well being.  Scenar causes the release of neuropeptides which the body uses to heal itself, including endorphins, which relieve pain and improve mood.  But it’s worth owning a device if all you ever did was neutralize insect bites and stings!  Living in Texas, I really appreciated that.  I’ve completely eliminated all effects of stings, including scorpions, in minutes.

Read more »

SCENAR and Complementarity

One of the most wonderful things about SCENAR is how it complements any other modalities that are available in the treatment of pain. There is one exception to this, which is important for those who are considering using SCENAR to know. If  narcotic pain killing pharmaceuticals are being used on a schedule of more than once a day, the receptor sites for the body’s own opiate substances (endorphins) are taken up by the synthetic narcotic drug and prevent the body from using its own internal pharmacy to address pain.

The SCENAR’s main action is to help the body regulate and heal itself. Pain relief is the most obvious of the effects, however, much more is being activated within the body to reestablish homeostasis. In my experience over the last 6 years, I have noticed that clients who are using other modalities as well as SCENAR find that they make better progress toward healing. I have worked closely with chiropractors who find that SCENAR treatments can make adjustments easier and that they hold better. SCENAR also can find subluxations in the spine easily, which can be addressed quickly by the Chiropractor.

There is an acupuncturist, Dr. Donald Snow, in Louisiana who uses SCENAR and acupuncture together and finds that his results are better with the combination than with using either modality alone.

There have been times, because of Post Polio Syndrome, when I have used Physical Therapy.  Along with the PT, I have used SCENAR to ameliorate the pain that can result from those treatments. I have also found that I recover a lot faster, since using the SCENAR in this way, than I did before I had the SCENAR to complement what I was doing in PT.

My experiences with the complementary way in which SCENAR works with massage therapy have been impressive.  If someone has a SCENAR treatment before a massage, the relaxation and pain relieving effect is enhanced. It also makes it easier for the massage therapist because it is easier to go more deeply into the muscles to effect a release.

In SCENAR literature it is often suggested that when working with someone who is taking a pharmaceutical for a chronic condition such as diabetes, that the levels of the drug be monitored. This is because as the body begins to balance itself and recover, not as much of the drug will be necessary.

Unlike the idea in conventional medicine that one cure fixes all, natural medicine recognizes the uniqueness of each individual, and that very often a mix of modalities appropriate to the individual will speed healing faster than using only one. For this reason it is good to find a natural practitioner, such as a naturopath, who understands this and can monitor your progress if you are using more than one modality.

This capacity of the SCENAR to complement other treatments is also a good reason to own one. If you are interested in discussing owning a SCENAR and which one might best suit your needs you can contact me at 828-337-6854.