Dr. Malcolm Ing treated Gwen Miles with the SCENAR. Miles suffered excruciating pain from shingles, but now says it is mostly gone.
Best-case SCENAR
A Honolulu ophthalmologist is
getting amazing pain-relief results
using a device that was originally
developed for the Russian space team
A medical device developed by the Russians in the 1970s for cosmonauts on long space missions has freed Gwen Miles of Moiliili from excruciating pain from shingles.
"It's awesome," she said, describing results of the SCENAR (pronounced ska-nar, an acronym for Self-Controlled Energy Neuro-Adaptive Regulator.) "I had so much pain and most of it is gone."
The instrument resembles a TV remote control and operates on a 9-volt battery. The European press dubbed it "the Star Trek Device" after cure-all medical devices on the series.
Dr. Malcolm Ing, an ophthalmologist who treated Miles and who has introduced SCENAR to other patients and friends, said when he tells most doctors about it, "Their eyes roll up with justifiable skepticism."
He also was skeptical but has used it informally for about two years (without filing any insurance claims) in his practice at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children.
Pain relief has been dramatic for some patients who are incapacitated and unable to work, he said.
Miles said she had severe pain for about two months with shingles -- a rash affecting her eye and scalp -- and couldn't sleep for a month and a half.
When Ing held the SCENAR on her forehead, she said, "I could feel energy going all the way to the top of my head. It opened up all those nerves that were dead."
The first treatment wiped out 85 percent of the pain and she's "coming along really good" after four other treatments, she said.
The SCENAR stimulates the nervous system to teach the body to heal itself, Ing said. As it is moved over the scalp, spine, stomach or other parts of the bare skin, it sends out electrical signals that trigger changes in the body's response.
It's gentle and noninvasive, he said. "That's why we call it 'biofeedback.' You ask the patient to tell you what they feel."
Usually it's light tingling or a stroking sensation.
"I think it's fabulous. ... It is exactly like acupuncture without needles," said Dr. Curtis Takemoto-Gentile. He went for training after hearing about the device from Ing and uses it in his integrated healing center in Moiliili.
The SCENAR is a little larger than a television remote control.
The Food and Drug Administration approved SCENAR in May 2002 for use in the United States as a Class II biofeedback device for "relaxation training and muscle re-education."
Non-health professionals can use it but it requires "very sophisticated training," said Ing, University of Hawaii medical school assistant clinical professor in complimentary alternative medicine.
He said he learned about SCENAR from Dr. Jerry Tennant of Irving, Texas, who brought it to the United States from London. Tennant formed the sEnergy Medical Group for research, training and development of cybernetic biofeedback devices in the United States.
Ing said he saw Tennant, a retired ophthalmologist, at a medical conference on Maui about two years ago. Ing had banged his knee on the reef while surfing and because of the injury couldn't make turns while surfing at the conference a few weeks later, he said.
He asked Tennant, "What is this energy course you're teaching (at the meeting)?"
Tennant told him about a doctor with tennis elbow who couldn't use his arm for two days but went out and played three sets of tennis after a SCENAR treatment, Ing said.
"I jokingly said to my friend, if it works on the elbow, would it work on the knee? He said, 'Why don't we see.'"
Tennant treated him for 10 minutes the next day and when he went out to surf he was "right back to normal," Ing said. "Wow!"
He and his wife flew to Dallas to take Tennant's three-day course and never travel now without the device, he said.
He uses it on patients for relief of pain and inflammation from eye injuries and to accelerate recovery from surgery, with 80 to 90 percent improvement.
"It's unexplainable by conventional thinking," he said. "Some of the stories, you can hardly believe. But it is not a magic wand that will cure all things. It is an adjunct of what we have to offer."
Blossom Lam Hoffman said a neurologist suggested medicine for a pain she was experiencing near her temple and into the scalp on her right side. Ing held the SCENAR at the base of her skull on that side for about two minutes and the pain subsided and hasn't returned, she said.
She was so impressed she attended a seminar held here last year by Tennant and bought a SCENAR for personal and family use. "It has been useful to me for several other aches, such as stiff arthritic fingers, a carpal-tunnel like problem in my right forearm, etc.," she said.
Chuck Leland, a tax accountant, said Ing introduced him to the SCENAR a few years ago after he complained of stress-related symptoms in his back and shoulders during tax season.
He said it felt like "a very light needle pricking in the area" as Ing rubbed the device across the affected area. He seemed better in the morning and "sort of forgot it and went about my business," he said.
Then about a year ago he developed very painful shingles on the left side of his head and into his forehead and left eye, he said. Ing used a small probe attached to the SCENAR to rub across the area and after two treatments, he was fine, Leland said.
He said his wife, Galina, signed up for Tennant's training session and her treatment "really got me through the tax season in a lot better shape than ever before."
Aina Haina physical therapist Thomas Harrer says SCENAR is "a pleasant blend of eastern and western medicine, enough science to be credible and enough unknown to stir the imagination."
A former Kapiolani Community College educator, he said he remains skeptical about many applications but his outcomes after training in Dallas have been 90 to 95 percent positive.
He's continuing to test the device and said he's "hoping clinical practice and outcome studies will drive its acceptance."
Dr. Flora Medina Manual, a pediatrician, recently went to see Ing because of excruciating pain and "vision almost zero" after putting the wrong drops in her eye.
After a few minutes with the SCENAR, she said, "My goodness, it was relieved. ...I went back to him two more times....After that, I am fine. I said, Dr. Ing, I like your SCENAR."
Ing said he suffered from migraines for 40 years. When Tennant treated him for a disc problem two years ago, his migraines disappeared. "That's pretty impressive after 40 years," he said.
"I think we're in the infancy of learning about this."
The cost of the instrument and the course ranges from $3,000 on up, depending where the training is held and the instrument purchased.
For more information, see www.senergymedicalgroup.com or call toll-free, 866-514-8221.
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