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Vancouver Sun - September 27, 2000
Amputees use it to relieve phantom limb pain, equestrians use it on their horses and
now athletes and others seeking pain relief from overexertion or accidents are
flocking to a flexible metal fibre fabric called Farabloc.
While no one can pinpoint the exact mechanism of how it works, an award-winning
University of B.C. study published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine has
shown that the invention of a Coquitlam man, when worn during or after exercise,
does in fact have a positive biochemical effect.
It mediates the body's cellular response so that inflammation and the resulting pain is
reduced in people who exercise vigorously.
In their study, UBC sports medicine specialists Doug Clement and Jack Taunton (the
latter is now at the Sydney Olympics tending to Canadian athletes) measured the
effects on the blood chemistry of 20 non-athletic subjects who were asked to do
enough resistance exercise to induce muscle soreness and stiffness.
A control group wore the Farabloc material -- a fabric made of woven stainless steel
and nylon thread -- around their thighs while a placebo group wore an identical
looking nylon-alone fabric.
Trial subjects were asked to do 200 leg extensions each day for five days to induce
delayed onset muscle soreness in the thigh.
The five blood level tests used to measure inflammation revealed that the Farabloc
material was effective at reducing cellular damage and swelling.
In control group subjects, the study found that levels of the five different biochemical
markers of muscle injury -- creatine phosphokinase, malondialdehyde, myoglobin,
leukocytes and neutrophils -- were all greatly reduced with the use of Farabloc.
Control group subjects also perceived less muscle pain and strength loss than those
who wore the placebo cloth wrapped around their thighs.
"Quite frankly, we're shocked by these totally bizarre results and the area clearly
needs a helluva lot more study. But clearly, electrical currents have quite a lot to do
with the functioning of the body and electrical fields have an influence on cellular
activity," Clement said in an interview.
"When one creates damage to tissue, it's like creating a free radical storm and one
way to explain how Farabloc works is that it may act as an antioxidant, reducing free
radical damage," he added.
Just how an externally applied fabric facilitates an anti-inflammatory response is still
a puzzle, but Clement said some researchers who previously studied the fabric's effect
believe it blocks high frequency electromagnetic radiation from penetrating or
exciting cell membranes.
Farabloc was devised by 50-year-old Coquitlam businessman Freider Kempe in 1978
to relieve phantom limb pain. Growing up in Bavaria, Kempe watched his father, a
war amputee, suffer phantom limb pain, so he invented a cloth shield made of nylon
and fine metal fibres to protect the nerve endings.
He named the product after a 19th-century scientist, Michael Faraday, who
discovered electromagnetic induction.
Positive results of the effects in reducing the pain in amputees were published seven
years ago in the Canadian Journal of Rehabilitation.
Kempe's company, Farabloc Development Corporation, manufactures factory and
custom articles costing $70 to $450 that people can wear as gloves, socks, pants,
jackets and blankets.
Clement, whose co-authored paper on the efficacy of Farabloc won an award earlier
this year from the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine, said the results have some
potentially exciting implications for those recovering from muscle injuries stemming
from sports training or workplace injuries.
He didn't expect these results but find them to be quite revolutionary for the pain and
injury world...the serum level results show clearly that the Farabloc cloth wrap
significantly reduced the level of noxious substances in the blood that are associated
with muscle injuries and inflammation," he states.
Hill, a former U.S. cycling Olympian (an alternate in 1984) who lives in Vancouver,
has been coaching elite Canadian cyclists for several years. She said she and her
husband, a running coach, use and recommend various Farabloc articles.
It's great for muscular injury and fatigue. I've got a fingerless glove, socks and some
custom- made pants which I use during or after exercise. I can really feel the
difference. The muscles relax more quickly and it cuts my recovery time in half," she
said.
The horse community has known about Farabloc for a long time, especially when
warming the horses up, and you sure couldn't say it's only a placebo effect because
they've documented the [blood serum] effect in horses too," Hill added.
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