All matter, living and non-living, is ultimately an electromagnetic phenomenon (Becker 1985). All atoms are bonded electrically and all bonds are ultimately electromagnetic because the electrons creating the bonds are in constant motion and moving electrons create a magnetic field. The material world is a collection of atomic structures held together by electromagnetic forces.

Biological tissue is made up of complex combinations of atoms and molecules creating the membranes, organelles and cells that determine physical structure and physiologic function. Every cell and tissue membrane has an electrical potential or charge difference between one side of the membrane and the other (Kirsch 1998). Furthermore, the body as a whole has an electromagnetic field created by charge differentials between one area and another. The human system is more positively charged at the top near the head and along midline at the spine and more negatively charged in the periphery. Becker established that the bioelectric field produced by these linked electrical potentials is responsible for intracellular communication and tissue repair and eventually he proposed that the electromagnetic field controls all life processes (Becker 1985).

All living systems have an electrical component whose existence is now well established but whose function is still not completely understood. The following basic principles of electronic circuitry apply to all biochemical, bio-electric living systems.

Current is created by the movement of electrons from one point to another using some conducting medium. The electron is a negatively charged particle that moves in, or is likely to be found in, a particular volume, called an orbital around the positively charged nucleus of an atom. Electrons have mass when measured as a particle but have only energy when measured as a wave. Energy and matter are actually interchangeable in all matter. For our purposes the electron is the basic unit of charge that moves in any circuit including the human bio-electric circuit.

Amperage describes the number of electrons moving past a fixed point in a unit of time; it is the amount of current flowing. Current is measured in amperes or amps.

Voltage is the measure of pressure or push behind the electrons flowing in a circuit and is measured in volts.

Resistance to current flow is measured in ohms and is determined by factors that inhibit current flow.

Circuit: To have current flow you need a circuit. Current is introduced in one spot, flows through a conductor and eventually gets back to the generator by way of some conductor.

Water flowing through a garden hose is the classic analogy used to describe these circuitry concepts. The amount of water flowing through the garden hose corresponds to the amperage or current, how many gallons per minute come out of the end of the hose. The water pressure corresponds to the voltage, how much water pressure is there behind the stream driving the water out of the hose. The size of the hose or any impediment to the flow of water corresponds to the resistance. A smaller hose, or even a larger hose with a tangle of fiberglass webbing in the line, will have more resistance to water flow.

In the garden hose circuit analogy, water is made available by the municipal water district and conducted through a series of pipes to the garden hose. The garden hose delivers some total amount of water to the lawn that is determined by the water pressure, the size of the hose and the amount of time spent watering. Some of the water is absorbed by the grass and, combined with sunlight, turns into the energy that makes the grass grow; some of it evaporates, goes into the clouds and returns to the municipal water district in the form of rain; and some of it percolates through the ground into the aquifer and returns to the wells used by the water district. The water or current is produced someplace, travels to someplace and does something and then returns to the source to complete the circuit.

This relationship between voltage, current and resistance is described in Ohm’s law, Voltage = Current × Resistance (V = I × R). If the voltage stays the same and the resistance goes up then the current will go down. If the current must be kept constant then the voltage must increase if the resistance increases. If one parameter changes it automatically changes at least one other parameter.

Microcurrent devices used in FSM treatments are “constant current generators”. The machine increases the voltage automatically as needed, up to a maximum of about 30 volts, in order to keep the current constant and push the desired amperage through the body’s resistance.

Resistance to current flow is created by anything that interferes with conductivity or that acts as an insulator. Blood, water, collagen and lymph all conduct electricity; oil, scar tissue and inflammation resist current flow. Total resistance in a human body is determined by fluid content or lack of it, general health and inflammation, muscle mass, amount of oil on the skin, adipose and hydration.

Current increases ATP energy

Current flowing through the body fuels all biological process. Gnok Cheng (Cheng et al 1982) and his associates demonstrated that applying additional current to a biological system could increase both protein synthesis and energy production dramatically as long as the current was small enough. Direct current levels of 50 to 1000μamps applied across rat skin increased glycine (amino acid) transport by 75% compared with untreated controls and current levels of 500μamps increased aminoisobutyric acid (amino acid) uptake by 90% indicating a dramatic increase in protein synthesis. But current levels above 1000μamps decreased protein synthesis by as much as 50%.

Box 2.1 The direct relationship between voltage (V), resistance (I) and current (C)

Microcurrent devices are constant current generators. The voltage will increase as needed to maintain the current level that has been set as long as the resistance is low or stays constant. Eventually if the current requirement is increased enough the voltage will not be able to increase sufficiently to maintain current levels and the percent conductivity shown on the machine will decrease.

If the resistance (I) increases, for example when a patient is dehydrated or when the conducting medium has too much resistance, the voltage (V) must increase to keep the current (C) constant at the level the machine has been set to deliver. If the resistance increases past a certain point, the voltage will not be able to increase sufficiently to maintain the current level. And the percent conductivity shown on the machine will decrease. The percentage of current conducted will return to 100% if the current level set on the machine is reduced or if the resistance decreases.

If the current is set to very high levels of 300–400μamps, as it is when treating athletes, the voltage can compensate as long as the resistance stays low. This need to reduce resistance may explain why athletes need to be more hydrated than the average patient. It also suggests that the combination of graphite gloves wrapped in wet towels may be a very low resistance conducting medium since it is so effective in conducting the higher levels of current required for athletes and heavier patients.

ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the chemical energy molecule that fuels every biological process. Direct current levels between 100 and 500μamps applied to rat skin increased ATP levels by three to five times (300% to 500%). Current exceeding 1000μamps caused ATP production to level off and currents above 5000μamps reduced ATP levels as compared to untreated controls. Once the external current was discontinued the ATP production and amino acid transport levels returned to baseline; there was no residual effect in rat skin.

Cheng and his colleagues hypothesized that the increased number of electrons from the DC current flowing along the mitochondrial membranes increased the proton gradient across the membrane thereby increasing ATP production. Oschman (2009) has proposed that the electron transport chain in mitochondria can become electron-deficient, and that microcurrent provides more electrons that are semiconducted through the living matrix to the mitochondrial membranes. In either case, the additional ATP available is probably responsible for the increase in protein synthesis. There have been no studies that demonstrate increased ATP production in a living system but the increases in healing seen with microamperage current are usually attributed to this increase in ATP production and protein synthesis. Cheng and colleagues did not attempt to explain why current levels over 1000μamps reduced ATP production and protein synthesis. It is worth noting that all electrical stimulation devices except microcurrent use current levels above 1000μamps and may be decreasing ATP production, although that has not been demonstrated.

It has been proposed that Voltage Gated Ion Channels (VGICs) may also be affected by the current flow along or across the membrane but no one has measured changes in these transport proteins in response to externally applied microamperage current. VGICs transport ions such as sodium, potassium, calcium and others across the cell membrane and control virtually all cellular processes. VGICs require ATP activation to change configuration allowing them to transport their ion across the cell membrane. There has been some suggestion that microcurrent and the voltage pushing it along or across membranes has a direct affect on the VGICs but there is no data to support this hypothesis. The current could be altering VGIC function simply because it increases ATP production.