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Dr. Michael Cooney is a chiropractor just outside New York City who has been treating complex acute and chronic pain conditions for more than 30 years. In partnership with Dr. Robert Kelly, a pain management physician, they have successfully treated thousands of patients from around the world.
In 2011, without publicity or fanfare, Dr. Cooney, clinical director of Calmare Therapy NJ, USA, began offering Calmare Therapy to help his treatment-resistant patients. Little did he know he would soon be treating people from around the world, primarily battling CRPS / RSD.
In April 2015, Dr. Cooney was interviewed for Burning Nights and answered questions about Calmare submitted by readers worldwide.
Since then, the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. conducted the first CRPS / RSD clinical trial using the Calmare device and achieved results so resounding, they profiled some trial patient stories (links below).
Dr. Cooney offered to share an update with us:
Some years ago, we had an issue with some of our patients. Even after prescribing medication, physical therapy, chiropractic treatment or other non-invasive treatments–some people were still in pain. Over time, some were even further debilitated by the side effects of pain medication. In other words, traditional pain treatment didn’t work on these patients. Many of these patients had been referred to us by other physicians who were also not successful in helping them.
As a healthcare provider charged with helping children, teen, adults and seniors overcome pain in order to resume the highest quality of life possible, I had a responsibility to find a solution to help these patients who had already tried every treatment possible, including Ketamine, implanted devices, more surgeries.
Dr. Kelly and I looked long and hard for the best new alternative therapy which could treat different kinds of chronic pain—but without side effects, more pain or drugs. Eventually, we discovered Calmare scrambler therapy, invented in Italy, and cleared by the FDA here in the U.S. During our due diligence, we agreed we had finally found the comprehensive treatment solution we were seeking.
I obtained the professional training to use the Calmare MC-5A device and grew more excited with each passing day. I knew this technology would offer a new option to many patients who had run out of pain treatment choices. We tested the machine on some patients and immediately they saw relief, even after one or two treatments.
Scrambler therapy consists of a machine that looks somewhat like an electrocardiogram device. Leads are placed above and below the area of the neuropathy. Painless scrambled electrical signals are then sent to the brain that perceives them as normal, non-pain signals. Via this process, the brain is retrained (“scrambled”) to understand that there is no physiological reason for the pain. With CRPS / RSD specifically, the pain experienced by the patient is similar to phantom limb syndrome. The treatments do not cause any pain nor are there any reported side effects.
Dr. Charles L. Loprinzi, who was interviewed in January 2016 after leading his own successful Calmare clinical trial for the Mayo Clinic, explains, “TENS is thought to work through the gateway theory of pain relief, whereby normal touch sensations blocks pain sensations. But scrambler therapy, on the other hand, provides normal-self, non-pain electrical information via nerves which have received transmissions of chronic pain information.”
Dr. Loprinzi said that through a process called ‘plasticity,’ this is able to retrain the brain so that it no longer recognizes pain sensation in the chronic pain area.
Mayo Clinic Calmare Trial Patient Story: “Side-lined No More”
Post-Clinical Trial Interview with Dr. Loprinzi
While the treatment was originally designed to help lessen post-chemotherapy pain, healthcare providers discovered that it could also lessen treatment-resistant pain for other neuropathic conditions including CRPS / RSD, postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) or shingles; diabetic neuropathy and post-surgical pain.
While I can only speak about the patients I have treated directly, we have seen a significantly decreased volume of pain in about 80 percent of the CRPS / RSD cases I have personally treated since 2011. Not only have patients achieved pain relief or remission, their physical symptoms–allodynia, open sores, skin discoloration–have also been diminished or resolved. Over time, some patients require follow-up booster therapy (generally 1 – 3 treatments) while others remain pain-free.
“I’ve had Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) for years. After an accident at work, I required back surgery (which turned into three) and after the last one, my left foot was insanely painful. It quickly spread throughout my entire body.
I have two spinal cord stimulators – one for my lower body and one for my upper body. I had a drug pump for years as well. I’ve had too many injections and blocks to even keep track of. I was in a wheelchair for years…
I originally had two Calmare treatments with chiropractor Dr. Michael Cooney (we’d gone up to visit with a friend from Australia who was having boosters). Since it worked so well for me, hubby and I returned so that I could finish the full 10 sessions.
Since my 10-treatment Calmare Therapy treatments:
Feel free to send folks to me who’d like to know more about MY first-hand experience with Calmare!
And I love that I have two perspectives I can share – the personal — and from a nursing point of view!!
Non-invasive treatment that DOES help with RSD? I can’t tell you how wonderful it is has been!!”
Dianne Blackburn, Texas, USA
To date, there are at least 20 published reports on scrambler therapy that included results involving close to 1,000 patients in total.
These reports include clinical practice summaries, prospective non-randomized clinical trials and randomized controlled trials, including two trials that sought to double blind patients and investigators. In sum, the authors of 19 out of the 20 reports concluded that scrambler therapy was a beneficial treatment approach.
Should you wish, you can read and watch a plethora of patient stories who arrived at our clinic restricted to wheelchairs or other mobility devices, unable to work, go to school or even socialize.
They had “tried it all and done it all” up to the day they arrived at our clinic. Not surprisingly, many were initially skeptical (and who could blame them?) But nonetheless, they came to try Calmare Therapy.
Keep in mind, we have treated children, teens, parents, and grandparents, most with regular pain levels from 8-10 every day. And after 10 daily treatment sessions lasting about 35-minutes each, more than eight in 10 patients achieved a pain-free state or a reduction in pain to a degree that enabled them to finally get back in the game of life.
Dr. Cooney is one of five Certified providers of Calmare scrambler therapy in the United States. He specializes in treating patients battling severe neuropathy as a result of CRPS / RSD, fibromyalgia, diabetes, shingles, post-surgical pain and pain after chemotherapy. He has successfully treated patients from the U.S., Canada, the EU, Australia and Africa.
To contact Dr. Cooney at his clinic in New Jersey, 10 minutes outside of New York City, email him at CalmareNJ@gmail.com or call 001-201-933-4440. To learn more, visit www.calmaretherapynj.com.
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