Tecarpuls primarily flows through the intra and extracellular spaces in the tissues as the cell membranes offer high impedance.
Coupling the Tecarpuls field energy to the body (tissues) through air is difficult hence the use of a contact medium (Foster & Glaser 2007).
Ultimately, the level of biological effect is determined by the level of absorption of the energy into the tissues and the properties of the exposed tissues that enable it (Kitchen 2008. Petrofsky et al. 2011 McLellan et al.2009 Petrofsky & Laymon 2009).
This absorption can be quantified as the specific absorption rate (SAR). It is a numerical representation for the rate at which energy is absorbed by a known mass of tissue and varies by the frequency of the wave and the type of tissue.
So what does it do to the tissues?
- Excitation of molecular vibrations
- Changes in protein conformation
- Changes to the behaviour of cell receptor proteins
- Challis 2005, Laurence et al. 2000, Chiabrera et al. 2000
This then leads to:
- Increased temperature
- Increased blood supply
- Decreased pain
How quickly a tissue will absorb Tecarpuls energy will be dependent on how much permittivity the tissue has. This permittivity will in essence tell us how easily a tissue will heat up and store that heat.
A material with high permittivity polarizes more in response to an applied electric field than a material with low permittivity, thereby storing more energy in the material.
The absorption of any given tissue at any frequency can be found in research papers but is easily accessed in an online calculator:
http://niremf.ifac.cnr.it/tissprop/
Please remember when using the calculator the inputted measurements are in Hz so the Tecarpulse is 500KHz or 500,000Hz
(Frequency is measured in the unit hertz (Hz), referring to a number of cycles per second. One thousand hertz is referred to as a kilohertz (KHz), 1 million hertz as a megahertz (MHz), and 1 billion hertz as a gigahertz (GHz))
| Tissue: | Permittivity: |
| Skin Dry | 1062 |
| Skin Wet | 3610 |
| Blood Vessel | 312 |
| Blood | 4188 |
| Synovial Fluid | 91 |
| Bone Cancellous | 308 |
| Cartilage | 1938 |
| Fat | 34 |
| Lymph | 2139 |
| Tendon | 200 |
| Muscle | 3647 |
| Nerve | 1487 |
| Spinal Cord | 1487 |