Brief, weekly magnetic muscle therapy improves mobility and lean body mass in older adults: a Southeast Asia community case study

Abstract

Brief (10 min) weekly exposure to low energy pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) has been shown to improve human muscle mitochondrial bioenergetics and attenuate systemic lipotoxicity following anterior cruciate ligament surgical reconstruction. Here we present data generated from 101 participants, 62% female, aged 38-91 years, recruited from the QuantumTx Demo Centre in Singapore, wherein 87% of participants (n = 88) presented with pre-existing mobility dysfunction and 13% (n = 13) were healthy volunteers. Participants were recruited if: (i) not pregnant; (ii) above 35 years of age and; (iii) without surgical implants. All participants completed mobility testing, pre- and post- PEMF intervention for 12 weeks, whereas bioelectrical impedance analysis was conducted in a subgroup of 42 and 33 participants at weeks 4 and 8, respectively. Weekly PEMF exposure was associated with significant improvements in mobility (Timed Up and Go, 5 times Sit-to-Stand, and 4m Normal Gait Speed) and body composition (increased skeletal muscle mass and reduced total and visceral fat mass), particularly in the older participants. Perception of pain was also significantly reduced. PEMF therapy may provide a manner to counteract age-associated mobility and metabolic disruptions and merits future investigation in randomized controlled trials to elucidate its clinical benefits in the frail and older adult populations.

Keywords: frailty; intra-abdominal fat; muscle weakness; sarcopenia; type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: AFO is an inventor on patent WO 2019/17863 A1, System, and Method for Applying Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields and is a co-founder of QuantumTx Pte. Ltd. SV, ST, IG are employees of QuantumTx Pte. Ltd. All other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1

Individual functional assessments pre- and post-PEMF therapy. (A) Functional tests administered to study participants. Subject performance in the (B) timed-up and go (TUG; seconds), (C) 5X Sit to Stand (5xSTS; seconds), and (D) 4 m normal gait speed (4mNGS; meter/second), measured at baseline (pre-PEMF, week 1) and at week 12 (post-PEMF). Heat maps showing the responses of subjects by color gradient, with darker blue indicating functional improvement, white being the cutoffs based on known consensus for older adults, and red showing a less fit or frail characteristics. A TUG and 5xSTS score of ≥14 and ≥15 seconds, respectively are associated with increased falling risk in older adult [29, 30]. A gait speed of ≤ 0.8 m/s is correlated with an increased risk of adverse health outcomes in the older adults [31]. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test and showed significant improvement in mobility function (p < 0.0001) with magnetic therapy for all three tests.

Figure 2

Age-stratified changes in mobility function, pre- and post-PEMF therapy. Bar charts depicting age-stratified performance at baseline (pre-PEMF; red bars) and following 12 weeks of PEMF therapy (blue bars) in the TUG (A), 5xSTS (B), and 4mNGS (C) mobility tests. The gray shaded areas represent cutoffs of ≤14 seconds, ≤15 seconds and ≥0.8 m/s indicative of safety from physical failing reported for the TUG [29], 5xSTS [30], and 4mNGS [31], respectively. The number of subjects per age bracket are as follow: (35–55) = 14, (56–65) = 24, (66–75) = 41, and (76–91) = 22. Statistical analysis was carried out using One-Way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis multiple comparisons test, with *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001.

Figure 3

Normalized age-stratified changes in mobility function before and after PEMF therapy. Fold change improvements for the (A) TUG, (B) 5xSTS and (C) 4mNGS tests after 12 weeks of PEMF therapy. Data was normalized to the respective baseline score for each subject. The orange-shaded regions depict the direction of improvement in mobility function for each test scenario. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test, with *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 and ****p < 0.0001. For more information on the total number of responders and non-responders to PEMF therapy, refer to Supplementary Figure 2.

Figure 4

Changes in body composition before and after 4 and 8 weeks of PEMF therapy. Body composition assessments were performed using bioelectrical impedance analysis with an InBody device at baseline (pre-PEMF), and after 4 (S4; n = 42) and 8 (S8; n = 33) sessions of weekly PEMF exposure. (A) Changes in body weight, expressed as fold change over baseline measured after 4 and 8 weekly PEMF sessions. Fold changes in skeletal muscle mass (B), total body fat (C) or visceral fat area (D) following PEMF therapy normalized to the respective baseline score for each subject (also see Supplementary Figure 3). The normalized before-after muscle and fat plots depict the fold change over baseline after 4 (S4) and 8 (S8) sessions of weekly PEMF exposure. The orange-shaded regions depict the direction for fold change improvement for each compositional assessment. The number of subjects for each trend direction is indicated in the corresponding box. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test, with *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01.

Figure 5

Visual analogue scale (VAS) scoring of pain pre- and post-PEMF therapy for 12 weeks. (A) Venn diagram depicting the number of subjects (60 females and 32 males) reporting health conditions as either age-related (blue) or arising from injuries and/or surgeries (yellow) and associated pain (red). The number of subjects for each disorder/injury/surgical intervention are indicated within the parentheses. Pain level before and after PEMF therapy was rated using the VAS “faces” pain rating scale (B), with a rating of 10 indicating strong pain and a rating of 0 indicating no pain. VAS scores were tabulated based on pre-treatment scores between either (C) 0 and 5 (n = 19), or (D) scores above 5 (n = 21). (E) 40 of the 92 subjects completed the VAS pain questionnaire, wherein 83% (33/40) reported chronic pain, amongst whom 21% (7/33) reported age-related disorders and/or 42% (14/33) reported past or recent injuries/surgeries. The mean change in VAS score for subjects in the “0 to 5” bracket (C) was −1.23 points, from a mean of 3.23 to 2.07, before and after PEMF therapy, respectively. The “above 5” group (D) showed a −2.12-point change, from means of 6.57 to 4.45. Statistical analysis was carried out using Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test and showed significant improvement in pain relief with ***p < 0.001 after magnetic therapy.