Answer to pain relief lies in space

A concept born in the research rooms of Nasa has been picked up and packaged into a machine its Mount Maunganui developers say can reverse osteoporosis.
Six years after Max Cherry began looking for an alternative to drugs to treat the degenerative bone disease, the V-Robics director and his business partner Fred Stewart are preparing to mass-market their "Osteo" machine next year.
Mr Cherry said he grew sick of watching family members members suffer from the disease so decided to swap his nightly two hours of piano playing for medical research.
He came across international research showing accelerated growth of bone density as a result of vibration training, namely work being done by Nasa Research head scientist Clinton Rubin, who was eyeing the method as a way to rehabilitate astronauts.
Nasa eventually built a body-mimicking vibration machine and installed this on one of its spacecrafts.
Dr Rubin has since declared the technology can "reverse osteoporosis".
Over the next five years, Mr Cherry used the Nasa papers and notes and research from other international institutions to develop a machine that, on first appearance, could be a mistaken for a set of bathroom scales.
He said one had only to stand on it for 30 minutes each day to help relieve pain, heal bone cartilage, build bone density and improve balance.
Mr Cherry said it was only during development that he discovered how the machine was capable of moving stem cells back into place and strengthening heart muscle tissue.
But explaining how it worked was more complicated.
Putting it as simply as he could, Mr Cherry said the tiny vibrations created by the machine caused an effect called dynamic motion, which caused a greater synchronisation of muscle fibre within the muscle.
It passively vibrated muscles, causing them to rhythmically stretch and contract and blood to circulate. He said this kind of technology had been found to help sufferers of Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and motor neuron disease.
"This does not affect the ailment but helps with mobility and well being."
It also helped relieve severe connective tissue diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Studies over the past 40 years have proven that whole body vibration training has significant benefits in improved muscle strength, increased metabolism, increased blood circulation, increased movement, improved balance, lymphatic drainage and stimulated cellulite reduction and weight loss.
"Research undertaken by the Food and Drug Administration in the US has revealed that all it takes is a total of 30 minutes a day to benefit from this treatment," Mr Cherry said.
"By enabling a large number of our ageing population to regain their independence and mobility could save our nation's health costs millions, let alone the improved lifestyle of those people they well deserve."
High-frequency vibration therapy has been endorsed by Mount Maunganui GP Dr Max Neate, who said how he had seen it work "dramatically" with relief for spinal pain, muscoskeletal pain, muscle spasm and other conditions.
Orders for the machine have come in from as far afield as Russia but up until now marketing had been "very low key", Mr Stewart said. "I've prepared a complete business marketing plan and we're looking at a launch in the New Year."