I ran across comments on your site regarding the use of ultrasound therapy. Do you have a suggested protocol for intensity, frequency (1 vs 3.3) duration, etc?

Greetings,

There seems to be a rash of great interest lately in using ultrasound treatment for not only Peyronie’s disease but also Dupuytren’s contracture.  I suppose this is the way the internet works.

Yes, I have a detailed protocol for using the ultrasound machine for the particular problems of Peyronie’s disease and Dupuytren’s contracture that is being sold on the PDI and DCI websites.  This protocol is specific for this particular machine, and would not necessarily apply to other ultrasound units.   Further, this set of treatment guidelines will probably change over time as our research with ultrasound continues.  For these reasons I hesitate to share the specific ideas with others who do not have such a unit.  They might not know how to adapt my protocol to their machine, and they would be outside of the loop when later changes are made to improve these treatment instructions.

I can tell you, however, that I strongly advise against the use of the 1MHz frequency ultrasound machines for treating PD and DC; the 3MHz is preferred. 

There is a great difference of effects from ultrasound on living tissue when delivered at higher (3MHz) and lower (1MHz) frequencies.   The reader might need to be reminded that 1MHz and 3MHz are not brand names or model numbers an ultrasound machine.   Many companies make a 1MHz US machine, and a few that make a 3MHz US machine.  These two terms, 1MHz and 3MHz, refer to frequency or rate of sound vibration that a particular US machine will produce.   The terms mean that at 1 MHz, the sound is being produced at 1 million cycles or sound waves a second, and at 3MHz the sound is being produced at 3 million cycles or sound waves a second. 

There is three times the amount of sound waves created in a 3MHz machine compared to a 1MHz machine.  The higher number of sound waves get “jammed” as they enter living tissue.  Thus, the higher rate of sound does not  penetrate very deeply into the tissue, so they remain near the surface where they create heat, since they tend  to be unable to penetrate deeper down.   The greater the number of sounds waves of a 3MHz US machine is more powerful and faster, but this greater amount of sound also prevents the sound from going down into the tissue -which is exactly what we want to treat Peyronie’s disease or Dupuytren’s contracture.

Ultrasound therapy is just sound that is directed into the body to shake the cells at extremely fast speed that will heat them up.  The sound produced at this high frequency cannot be heard, and it cannot travel through air; it can only travel through solids and liquids. Most therapeutic US machines are made to generate sound at 1MHz.  These one million sound waves are created each second and can be driven deeply into the tissue (several inches) where they bounce around and create heat by producing friction between the cells the sound waves strike against. In addition to producing heat, this cellular vibration also increases metabolism of the cells, especially the healing process. That is how and why US therapy works.

For information about the unit we sell, see ultrasound treatment of Peyronie’s disease  and  ultrasound treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture.   TRH