Two types of biofeedback neuro-stimulation device are used in clinic, the RITMSCENAR Super Pro, and the PhysioKey. We also offer existing clients the opportunity to hire the SanaKey device for use at home to help with their ongoing treatment. All are based on the principles of SCENAR (Self Controlled Energo Neuro Adaptive Regulation).
SCENAR in brief
How does SCENAR work?
SCENAR is a non-invasive treatment, which restores the body’s self-healing mechanism. The SCENAR device emits an electro-magnetic signal, which is almost identical to the human nerve signal. This signal travels along certain types of nerve fibres, which triggers the release of powerful pain relieving substances into the bloodstream. SCENAR also stimulates the production of neuropeptides, which rapidly advances healing.
Who can benefit from SCENAR?
Anyone who is experiencing pain whether chronic or acute may benefit from SCENAR therapy.
Although it seems counterintuitive, pain can be useful! When you have an injury, pain alerts the brain and the body to where the problem is so that the brain can produce its pain-killing endorphins and the body can begin to heal.
Imagine a sprained ankle: the pain alerts the nervous system and the body responds immediately so that the injury can begin to heal as soon as possible. This is an acute injury and the pain is a positive symptom of healing. On the other hand, pain often persists long after a reasonable healing period has elapsed, especially if the damage was severe or extensive. Extended use of pain killers can also affect healing because they take away the signal the brain needs to repair the injury. After a while the brain, nervous system, endocrine and immune systems do not work on the injury any longer but the pain is still there. This is called chronic pain.
SCENAR helps our adaptation systems produce mediators, hormones and other chemical substances, redirecting the body’s energy back to the injury and gives the body what is known as “PRIMARY FOCUS”, it can then begin to repair itself.
Is SCENAR safe?
SCENAR is a gentle therapy. It is neither addictive, invasive, manipulative, nor toxic. It can be used safely with people of any age. SCENAR can feel a little prickly or mildly tingly, however these are generally soothing sensations.
SCENAR is very well researched. After large clinical trials and over thirty years of use in Russia, plus more than fifteen years here in the UK, there are no reports of any negative side effects. SCENAR uses the most natural and gentle of healing processes – those in your own body.
Preparation for your SCENAR treatment
- Clients should be well hydrated before attending SCENAR sessions. Please ask if you are not sure how best to achieve this.
- Clients should not bathe / wash for two hours prior to, or two hours after treatment.
- Clients should not apply lotions or cream to their skin on the day of the treatment (including topical analgesics).
- It is preferable that self-prescribed medications, especially pain relief, are avoided before treatment.
- It is preferable that women do not apply make up before treatment.
- Magnetic and electrical items should be removed from the body before treatment.
Contraindications to and special precautions for SCENAR treatment
Contraindications:
- Cardiac pacemaker or other electrical implant
- Severe mental illness
- Acute infectious diseases of obscure origin
- Hypersensitivity intolerance
Special Precautions:
- Pregnancy (1st trimester)
- Epilepsy
- Cancer
SCENAR’s history and workings
SCENAR, which stands for ‘Self-Controlled Energo-Neuro Adaptive Regulation’, is a handheld device the size of a television remote control that was invented in the 1970s by Dr Alexander Karasev, currently the head of LET Medical Research Laboratory in Taganrog, Russia. His ideas for a device designed to powerfully stimulate the body’s own healing capacity were swiftly adopted by the Russian space programme because they offered an answer to the issue of how to provide medical treatment to cosmonauts on long space flights.
So, for years, Karasev was part of the medical team at the Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City near Moscow where the technology was being developed. They were the first to achieve repeatable therapeutic treatment using electrical signals to stimulate the immune system. This breakthrough led to two members of the team receiving the Order of Lenin. Development continued with pioneering research led by Dr Yori Gorfinkel and Professor Alexander ‘Sasha’ Revenko, resulting in the advanced SCENAR devices of today.
The blueprint for SCENAR was based on acupuncture, Chinese zonal massage and the knowledge of Chi or energy flow through the body. Soviet scientists who studied the intricate workings of the Central Nervous System and the ability of cells to communicate via different pathways, began to formulate the ideas that would lead to sophisticated electrical biofeedback devices.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the technology – commonly referred to as ‘energy medicine’ – was rapidly commercialised and made its way to Europe and, from there, to the rest of the world.
‘ The SCENAR works by making the body’s own immune system operate more efficiently. Technically it is a very complicated device, which sends electronic impulses via the skin to the brain. The device is held / moved over the affected area or organ and it sends an amplified signal of pain to the brain. This causes the brain to trigger the body’s immune system, which, after only a few minutes of treatment, the patient starts feeling much better. ’ – Alexander Karasev, Founding researcher.
TENS machines work by transmitting electrical impulses through the skin to the nervous system, stimulating A and B nerve fibres to produce amines (chemical neuromediators in the nervous system) like acetylcholine and noradrenaline (norepinephrine), and amino acids like alanine, cysteine and glutamic acid – all of which have short-term physiological effects. They have been used in hospitals all over the country for some time, in order to alleviate pain in birth and in cases where pain medication is not appropriate.
Crucially, the impulses that these machines send are uniform. This means that your body gets used to the signals and, over time they cease to cause a reaction. The machine becomes ineffective and, over a prolonged period may be counter-productive. SCENAR is the next generation of pain treatment.
SCENAR enables practitioners to communicate directly with a client’s central nervous system, stimulating the natural adaptive processes of the body and nervous system so that it can heal itself. The signals sent to the body are designed to mimic natural nerve impulses, so both the brain and the rest of the body easily accepts the impulses being delivered.
SCENAR works on exactly the same principle as TENS, and other similar machines; but it uses the reflex biofeedback your body provides to alter the signal to produce a non-uniform stimulus as your body demands it, targeting the C nerve fibres causing the brain to release a measured dose of bioactive neuropeptides, including enkephalin, neurotensin and bradykinin, and endogenous opioid neuropeptides – also known as endorphins, dopamine and serotonin, the brain’s natural antidepressants – as well as other agents that affect cognitive ability.
The body produces around 2,000 neuropeptides in all. They are believed to regulate the body’s self-healing mechanisms, prompting the body to heal itself.
The software algorithms used in the SCENAR mimic the nervous system’s own impulses. By constantly monitoring changes in resistance, the signal output adapts to your body’s demands every few milliseconds.
Typically at the start of a treatment the SCENAR appears to drag over the point of pain feeling ‘sticky’. As healing begins the site may redden or change colour in relation to the surrounding skin and the SCENAR may give out a ‘buzzing’ sound as it passes over the point of pain. Once the area undergoes change, by either the stickiness reducing; the colour of the skin changing; or the buzzing getting fainter, the Scenar treatment is complete.
Within minutes of treatment with the SCENAR, the body has delivered sufficient natural chemicals to give powerful pain relief and to speed up the healing process.
When treating with the SCENAR device it is very important to treat frequently and for long enough to ensure that the condition is fully resolved. It is like pushing a rusty wheel up a steep hill. Once you get to the top, the wheel will go along on its own, but if you get half way up and then stop, it will roll right back down to the bottom and you are back to where you started! It is the same with SCENAR, you have to give the body and the brain enough information and momentum to be able to do the work itself. Once it knows what to do, it will continue on its own, but stop too soon and it will simply return to how it was before you started.
Although SCENAR is licensed in most countries, including the UK – it is only for the treatment of acute pain conditions and general ‘dysfunction’. Over the past few decades however, SCENAR has also proven highly effective for the treatment of systemic and chronic disorders and pathologies.
When the approximately 3,000 SCENAR practitioners in Russia were asked to complete a survey a few years into the millennium, the collated results showed, on average, a 79% improvement in all musculoskeletal conditions, including muscle injuries, arthritis, sciatica and osteoporosis.
Although licensing approval has not been granted, the technology has been demonstrated as highly effective in:
- Relieving inflammation and pain from arthritis and fibromyalgia;
- Treating back pain, neck and shoulders (including whiplash), knees, wrists (RSI) and any other joint related problem;
- Treating and rehabilitation of post-operative pain and aiding rehabilitation following joint replacements. This can be used along side prescribed physiotherapy;
- Treating people with resistance to pharmaceuticals;
- Increasing energy, aiding sleep, improving the sense of well-being, and supporting immune function; and
- Treating sporting injuries including breaks, fractures, pulled tendons, muscle sprains, strains and tweaks, and chronic pain related injuries including sciatica, tennis elbow, golfers elbow, back ache, knee and shoulder problems.
An injury can be extremely disruptive to competition and training and giving in to the temptation to ‘battle through the pain’ can result in even more time on the side-line.
The video below shows DTM racing Driver, Susie Wolff undergoing SCENAR treatment during her segment on the BBC.
Training has been undertaken to Masters Level 3, with Alexandra ‘Sasha’ Revenko, Galina and Lena Subbotina of Revenko Scenar Training, and Debra Graham of UK Scenar and Senior Trainer at Natural Pain Relief (The Apex Practice).