Today’s fascinating guest is Garrett Salpeter, dubbed a “health engineer” by many. He invented a patented device that makes the benefits of neuro bioelectric stimulation more accessible to everyone. His system for improving the body (starting with the brain) is called NeuFit (think “neurological fitness”). This device and his program has helped people in chronic pain or injury, or those who simply want to improve overall performance. He works with people in almost all situations, including those in wheelchairs, athletes in all of the major sports, the Olympics, and much more, to help people get out of pain, improve performance, and sometimes avoid surgery.
I first met Garrett in Austin, and since I’m geek for new technologies and learning more about the body and how it works, we couldn’t stop talking! I also had the chance to try the NeuFit. I’m delighted to share him and all of his knowledge with you today… see the resources below for how to find this technology in an office near you.
Episode Highlights With NeuFit
- Factors that slow down the healing process after an injury (and how to speed it up instead)
- How an electrical current could actually be good for you!
- Differences between this device and other electrical stimulation devices
- The promising science showing that enhancing the body’s internal electric fields may protect against disease
- How heart rate variability is an important marker that can tell you a lot about your health
- Benefits for the parasympathetic nervous system and calming the “fight or flight mode”
- How bioelectric devices can complement your next chiropractic or physical therapy session
- Ways athletes can use NeuFit to maximize workouts and recovery
- And more!
Resources We Mention
More From Wellness Mama
- 147: Using Heart Rate Variability With HeartMath to Stop Stress & Improve Nervous System Health
- 170: Using Biological Medicine & Uncommon Therapies to Help With Chronic Conditions
- 267: Solving Joint Pain & Why Sports Aren’t Good for Kids With Hunter Fitness
- 178: A Pediatrician Explains How EMF Kill Switches Can Protect Our Children
- 238: Using Neuroplasticity to Rewire Nervous System or Brain Disorders With Carol Garner-Houston
- 252: How to Activate Peak Brain Performance With Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Hill
- What Is PEMF Therapy?
Did you enjoy this episode? What questions do you have about NeuFit or bioelectric stimulation in general? Please drop a comment below or leave a review on iTunes to let us know. We value knowing what you think and this helps other moms find the podcast as well.
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Katie: Hello, and welcome to the “Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com. And I’m here today with Garrett Salpeter, who is known as the health engineer and inventor of the patented Neubie device. And I met him in Austin, where he has a facility where he helps people. We’re gonna talk a lot about that today. But Garrett has taken his education in engineering and neuroscience, and applied it into this fascinating system for improving the body. It’s grown into what we now know as NeuFit, which combines an advanced understanding of physiology with the best practices from diverse training and therapeutic practices to push the process of using technology to accelerate them further. He works with people in almost all situations, including those in wheelchairs, athletes in all of the major sports, the Olympics, and much more, to help people get out of pain, improve performance, and sometimes avoid surgery. And we’re gonna talk about how today. So, welcome, Garrett, and thanks for being here.
Garrett: Thank you, Katie. It’s a pleasure. I’m honored to be here and excited to dive into this conversation.
Katie: Well, I always love to hear about new technologies and our new understanding of the body, and how we’re able to use that to really improve things on an exponential level. So, to start, can you walk us through what the NeuFit is, like, what it’s physically doing?
Garrett: Yeah. Absolutely. So, the system that we call NeuFit is centered around this unique technology that the Neubie device, which is just an acronym for neuro bioelectric stimulation. And it has some unique effects on the nervous system. You know, NeuFit, neurological fitness is kind of built into our name, where we’re focused. And with traditional electrical stimulation, just to kind of set the context here. Typically, you’re sending a current into the body and you’re causing muscles to contract, and you’re really focused on the muscles and, you know, there can be some benefit to that just the same as going to the gym and lifting weights, and doing things with your muscles. You know, over tens of thousands of reps, you make changes and adaptations, and positive things can happen.
However, this is a paradigm shift because what we’re doing here with this technology is tapping into the nervous system in a new way, almost bypassing the muscles and going right into the nervous system, so that we can make changes much more quickly. So we’re focused on neuromuscular reeducation is kind of the term for this. And when we work at that level, we’re able to help people make changes much more quickly. So, you know, if someone listening to this is trying to recover from a shoulder injury, for example, a lot of times, it’s the movement patterns of the body that create protective patterns around that injured area that slow down the healing process and restrict movement.
And by kind of going a layer deeper, more towards that underlying cause at the neuromuscular level, we’re able to find where the underlying issues are, help people make these changes much faster, whether it’s faster recovery from injury, getting more out of their workouts. And so, really the distinction is, you know, this type of technology, it’s direct current as opposed to alternating current, and really the way in which it’s applied is the big difference.
Katie: That makes sense. And I’d love to go a little deeper on that because I’ve done some research into things like PEMF or, for instance, the book I’ve mentioned on this podcast before, “The Body Electric,” and just this understanding that we’re starting to have of just how electric the body is. So, when you say it’s direct current versus an alternating current, can you explain a little bit more on that? What is the type of current and how is that impacting us on a cellular level?
Garrett: Yes. And that’s awesome. I’m so glad that you have covered that. That is one of my favorite books of all time, and absolutely informs our work and my thought process, and it’s been one of the influences that has guided me over the last 15 or so years that I’ve been really, really exploring these topics and, you know, working very deeply in this field. So the electrical system of the body, absolutely, guides almost everything relevant and important about the body, from how the muscles work to how the digestive organs work, to the heart rate and blood pressure, and control of everything: psychologically, energetically, metabolically, hormonally.
So, the nervous system and the underlying electric signaling is so vitally important. And the system of the body, underlying system of the body definitely does work on direct current. So, the signals are going in one direction. There’s one pathway from the brain out to the body, and there’s a separate pathway from the body back up to the brain. So, those are both direct current pathways. Alternating current is what we have in our walls of the buildings and what comes out of the outlet. So, it’s a signal alternates back and forth. So, if you look at the electrons, instead of just going in one direction around a loop and a current, they’re oscillating back and forth. And when that happens in the body, if you use an alternating current signal, you end up creating kind of an unnatural combination of contractions because the signal is going up and down, and up and down, and back and forth, and back and forth.
And so, you end up… When you get it up to a high enough level to really make a difference in the body, you end up creating what’s called co-contraction, or where muscles on both sides are gonna be fighting against each other. And so, if you use traditional alternating current devices, you train the body to move, as if you were driving your car and hitting the throttle and the brake pedal at the same time. You’re getting this confusing message. And that can certainly be problematic because if you train the body in this way, and it adapts to that, you’re gonna end up teaching the body to resist its own movements and waste energy. So, at best, you’re getting less efficient, at worst, possibly even setting the body up for injury, at least increasing the risk of injury.
So, using direct current is important from that perspective for efficient movement. And then also, you know, if you’re talking about “The Body Electric” and PEMF, and the work that we’re doing at NeuFit, having direct current is vitally important, especially, as we learn more and more about these underlying electrical signaling mechanisms and how the changes in electric fields promote healing, promote regeneration, promote growth and repair within the body, and how, you know, as those internal electric fields tend to diminish, there’s work out there showing that that actually is a precursor for disease. And being able to enhance the body’s inherent or internal electric fields actually is protective against disease, and supports health and vitality for a very long healthspan and lifespan.
Katie: Got it. And so, okay, on a practical level, you have a facility in Austin, and then I believe practitioners can also purchase this device and use it in their own facilities. Is that correct?
Garrett: Yes. Absolutely. So, we have both. We offer rehabilitation services for everyone from, you know, people who have been paralyzed or have various neurological challenges, all the way through regular, everyday, healthy people who just have some pain or some injury and through elite athletes. Then we also have a whole range of people who come in for training as well. So, they’re able to use this technology to help enhance muscle activation and recruitment, and get more bang for the buck in their workouts.
And then, just as you said, yes, we have now been offering this technology to other rehab and fitness businesses around the country. So there’s several physical therapy clinics, chiropractic clinics, some gyms, other medical offices, and then universities and sports teams are using it. And it’s been really cool to see that they’ve been able to duplicate the awesome outcomes that we’ve been seeing here in Austin. They’ve been able to, not only duplicate that, but expand on it and reach even more people. And it’s been awesome to see that new community of practitioners emerge over the last year-and-a-half.
Katie: That’s awesome. And so, I’ve gotten to try it at an event in Austin, actually. And I’m guessing, like, probably, because you were slammed, there were so many people that wanted to try your device at the event. I’m curious, when someone walks into your facility, are people coming in with a specific thing, like, “It’s my knee and I don’t wanna have surgery,” or are people coming in, like, for workouts? Basically, what’s the process, like, when someone comes into you?
Garrett: Yeah. Absolutely. So, usually, it is for a specific thing. You know, some pain or some injuries has motivated someone to want to address it, and now they’ve either heard about us from their doctor or been referred by a friend. And, you know, they’re kind of open to a new way of doing things. And so, people will come in, and what we wanna start with is our evaluation process. So, one of the cool things that we’re able to do with this technology, you know, because of some of these differences and how it impacts the nervous system, it actually allows us to do this assessment process where we scan around or map the body. So we’re actually using one of the electrodes and scanning around on the body.
And based on how someone responds, we can usually tell, in the first session, where the underlying issues are, what isn’t working properly that’s causing them to stay stuck in the rut of being in pain, or what is not working well enough and might be an impediment to their healing process, and might be standing in the way or at least slowing down their healing process if they’re recovering from an injury. So, that assessment process is very valuable for us because it informs the rest of our process. And it’s usually very illuminating for the patient or client going through it because, in many ways, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. They can feel, “Oh, yeah. Wow. There’s something right there. And yes, it’s definitely different. It’s definitely something we need to work on.” So, people tend to really like that process, even if it’s not pleasant.
It can feel like finding a trigger point or something, and so it can, you know, for a moment, be uncomfortable. But overall, people really tend to appreciate the precision with which we can find some of these underlying issues. And then, of course, we wanna actually do some work in that first visit as well. So, even in just a few minutes of treatment, beginning this process of neuromuscular reeducation, after we have found these issues, you know, we start working on them. And then usually, within that first session, people notice some tangible improvement. And that’s really our goal for each session. Every time someone comes in, if they’re investing the time and money to come work with us or another practitioner, you know, we wanna have some result to show for it. So, that’s our goal is to have some tangible progress each session.
And on the rehab and training side the sessions feel somewhat similar in that you have, you know, some electrical current going through the body, combined with different movements and various progressions of different types of exercise, and tailored for whatever the individual wants to do. So, there’s definitely a very active component. You’re not just lying on a table having something done to you. It’s an active component. There’s movement involved. And using the electric current, while the movement is happening allows us to dramatically accelerate the results and the healing process or the training and adaptation process.
Katie: That’s so cool. And so, are you finding that other practitioners, that this could be used in conjunction with traditional physical therapy with chiropractic? Who’s typically kind of using this as a therapy?
Garrett: Yeah. So, it definitely can be a complement or an adjunct to traditional physical therapy, chiropractic, other medical treatments. And you know, at the time that we’re speaking today, the technology is being used in about 80 facilities around the country. And, you know, certainly, that number is growing, as more and more people are learning about it. So, I’m eager to see that number, and of course grow and allow us to reach even more people with this technology. And it’s used in a variety of these places, where some physical therapists have shifted to where they’re using this with everybody, and it’s one of the primary things that they use, others still do some manual work that they’re passionate about doing and enjoy. And, you know, they continue to use it because it has benefits also. And then they use this in conjunction with that.
Some chiropractors use it in combination with adjustments. And they’ve found that using the Neubie, particularly, before an adjustment, can have a profound impact on reducing the protective tension. So, if they’re going to adjust a patient, and that patient is guarding, and has all this protective tension, it’s tough to get a proper adjustment to get them the force into the right joints that you’re looking to move in the spine or elsewhere. And so, doing a treatment like this first, even in just a few minutes, can really loosen up all of the tissues there so they can get the adjustment that they’re looking for. So, we’ve heard some really positive feedback about how it can work into what other practitioners are doing.
Katie: I’m also really curious, as I’ve learned more about the electrical aspects of the body, something I track all the time is heart rate variability because there’s a lot of really cool data, I’m sure you know, showing that that’s tied to longevity and overall health. And you want that number to be higher, when possible. So I’m curious, because of the electrical component of this, do you guys see any changes over time on things like heart rate variability?
Garrett: So, I love that you are talking about this and working this into your dialogue, and the course of these podcasts and your other content because I agree with you. I think that is a very significant marker, something that we should definitely be looking at, something that definitely has a very high priority in the health conversation. So, I’m really pleased that you’re prioritizing that as well. And thankfully, we’ve seen profound changes in heart rate variability. So, we have just anecdotally, even in our office, and we have dozens of people who wear, whether it be an Oura ring, or a Whoop band, or other wearable technology, they see, you know, both right after a session and long term over time, improvements in their HRV. So, there’s both an acute and chronic benefit, if you will or, like, a short and long term benefit where HRV definitely goes up.
And I think that speaks to a couple things. One is definitely the underlying electrical components, that just strengthening the electrical potential of the body, you know, can have a profoundly positive effect on everything neurological, including HRV. And then also, specifically, there’s a very important concept that I think is often misunderstood, that the body actually has to be stimulated in order to recover. So, we think, in conventional wisdom, and it kind of makes sense, we think if we wanna recover well, we need to rest. But if you really look at it a layer deeper, if we’re just resting, you know, if we’re just sitting on the couch all day, the signal to the body is one of down-regulation. The signal is, “I don’t have much to do to today, we can down-regulate the metabolism.”
We can reduce the rate at which some of these neural pathways are firing. You know, we can down-regulate protein synthesis because we’re not gonna need as much muscle. And obviously, you know, one day of sitting on the couch, doesn’t send everything haywire. I’m not trying to imply that. But there is a little bit of a nuance here that I think is kind of a bit of a misconception, where we actually have to stimulate the body to recover. The recovery systems of the body, the hormonal and enzymatic releases, and heart rate variability, all of these underlying pieces of the recovery puzzle are working at their greatest level, right after a workout, right after something that stimulates them to happen.
And so, a lot of times, we think, you know, we’re working out, like, we’re going for a run, for example, and we think that, “Oh, I’m doing this thing that’s so healthy and I’m gonna get all these tremendous health benefits from it.” However, if you go and run and, you know, you’re panting and breathing through your mouth, and you’re slouching in your third position, the signal is actually one of training the body to be more sympathetic dominant, or get kind of locked in that stress or fight or flight state. And so, you don’t actually get enough of that signal to cause the shift into high heart rate variability after that workout. And so, how you train is important and getting enough neurological stimulation is important.
And so, when we do that same… Well, if that same person who was going to run for 45 or 60 minutes, and was mouth breathing, and in sub-optimal posture, you know, if they ended up training their body to have high cortisol levels, and low heart rate variability, and more of these markers of, you know, sympathetic fight or flight state. They come and do a 30-minute workout with us on the Neubie, and all of a sudden, their HRV shoots up because they’re getting so much more neurological stimulation. They’re getting so much more input to their brain, that the brain actually gets the point, you know, trips the alarm. And it’s actually enough to reach that threshold, where the brain says, “Oh, yes, something happened. And oh, yes, now it is time to switch into recovery mode.” And so, it’s going to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. It doesn’t just, you know, happen by default. It has to be actively engaged. And so, that will trigger the brain to actively engage the parasympathetic nervous system. So, I think that’s another important piece of it. And, you know, kind of explains one of those profound effects that we’ve seen.
Katie: So, what are some of the results that you’ve seen from this? I’m curious because you talk about the nervous system side, for instance, what about people who have lost movement or function in some way through the nervous system, like MS patients, for instance? Is this helpful for people like that or people in wheelchairs? Can it be helpful for them?
Garrett: So, thankfully, we’ve seen that it can be. And I just wanna be clear that, in anything I’m saying, you know, we’re not claiming to be able to cure MS or cure spinal cord injuries, or anything like that. What I’m saying is that the advanced form of neuromuscular reeducation that we are able to provide has helped improve function for many of these people. So, you know, it’s been a really powerful and gratifying, and awesome evolution to see how we’ve been able to help more people dealing with these challenges. I had been an athlete and set out, originally, working with people like me, with athletes, helping them recover from different injuries. And, you know, thankfully, it was working well.
But because of the more neurological path that we were taking, people that we worked with, is a woman named Amy, and she’s given me permission to share her story. So, she fell off a horse in her early 20s, broke her neck, and was paralyzed from the waist down for 25 years. And so, she made a little bit of progress in the first year or two, you know, regained bowel and bladder control, which is great, but never had regained the use of her legs or sensation in her legs. And so, for about 25 years, she was living life without the use of her legs, had adapted, had a great life, a very wonderful person, productive member of society, you know, just great all around, and again, without the use of her legs. And so, we started working with her.
And it was so interesting because we did that scanning process with her, mapping process, and we actually found a couple spots where we could get little glimpses of sensation, even after 25 years, when everyone had written her off and said, “There’s nothing anyone can do for you at this time. It’s been far too long.” And, you know, seeing that made us optimistic that maybe there was a way we could help. So, we started working together. Within the first few weeks, she started getting some sensation back, being able to sense hot and cold for the first time in 25 years, being able to sweat in her lower body, some of that autonomic underlying neurological function coming back. And then, we started seeing some movements, I mean, pretty early on some twitching of the toes, a little bit of ability to raise the leg, a little bit of hip flexion coming back.
And then fast forward, at the end of year one, she was able to stand and take a couple steps with hand support. And then, at the end of year two, she’s able to walk with a walker. And, you know, it’s just been a really amazing, amazing experience seeing her working hard and diligently, and actually seeing some return on that investment of time and energy. And she, you know, now is able to walk with a walker. She still, you know, spends a lot of time in a wheelchair, but to regain the level of function that she has, and still be making progress is amazing. And we have a little video, a few minutes of her sharing her story that we can certainly link to and make that available. And after people started to take note of her story, we have had more people with neurological challenges come and see us more, spinal cord injury or patients with brain injury, more people with neuropathy, certainly, more people with MS. I’ve done some work with Dr. Terry Wahls. Has she been on your show?
Katie: She has. Yeah. She’s phenomenal.
Garrett: Yes, one of my absolute favorite people. So, she, as you know, is just a true thought leader in functional medicine, overall, and specifically, in the more holistic treatment of MS. And she does phenomenal work to help people stop the underlying progression of the disease. And then once that’s in place, of course, you wanna work on rebuilding function. And so, we’ve worked with now, dozens of patients that have heard about us through her, many here in Austin, and are also our community of practitioners around the country. And we’ve seen some really profound results. Seen several people restore function. Some get out of wheelchairs, also, some will be able to return to activities of daily living, reduce pain, improve their sleep, improve their strength. So we’ve seen…you know, some have had profound transformations. Some have made mild to medium progress, but almost everyone has at least made some progress. And it’s been really cool to see some of those transformations, particularly, that have come out of the MS patients who are using this around the country.
Katie: Wow. That’s astounding. And, yeah, I love Dr. Wahls, and I love the work she’s doing. I know a lot of people who have even used her protocol for just things like autoimmune disease, and I know she’s writing more about that. But yeah, you’re right. She’s a thought leader and definitely an inspiration. I love that you are able to help some of her people as well because she’s just doing such amazing work. It’s incredible.
Garrett: Yeah. Absolutely. She’s, oh, gosh, real true inspiration and she just lives her mission. I mean, she is practicing what she preaches. And she’s awesome.
Katie: Yeah. Absolutely. And I know, from talking to you before, another big demographic for you guys, are professional athletes or high-level athletes. I know my friend, Ben Greenfield, uses your device all the time, he’s still competitive athlete. How are you seeing athletes use the device?
Garrett: So, that is definitely a demographic that appreciates this device. Athletes, whether professional, recreational, you know, athletes have the mindset of being able to push themselves through a little bit of temporary discomfort to achieve a long term result, a kind of delayed gratification mindset. And so, athletes who really do want to put in the work to achieve a result, are drawn to this technology because they can go through a few sessions, and they can recover much, much faster than they would with more traditional methods. So, we’ve seen athletes using this whole system, the device, and the progressions of exercises, and the different assessments.
You know, we’ve seen them recover everything from sprained ankles that happen. You know, high school football, huge here in Texas, and every season, we’ll have a few high school football players that have a sprained ankle and are supposed to be out for four weeks, at least. And they come in and see us, and they do a couple sessions each day. And, you know, the game is on a Friday night, and they’re back to practice Tuesday or Wednesday of that next week. They miss three or four days instead of four weeks. And they’re fired up because they thought they’re gonna have to miss three games. And all of a sudden, they’re out there playing next week.
So, the acute injuries that normally would take a long time to heal, those are a big opportunity to make improvements to the healing process because the reason it takes so long to heal most of the time is that, you know, it’s kind of funny, the body gets in its own way, in some sense, because the body… And it makes sense, you know, if someone has an ankle sprain, all the muscles around that ankle, contract and protect, and guard that area, thinking that, “Oh my gosh, if this tissue gets attacked again, you know, we wanna be locked down to protect it.”
And that is productive if someone was trying to hit that ankle or attack it. But it’s counterproductive for efficient movement and counterproductive for healing. And part of the reason for that is that the excessive tension, literally, just blocks the flow of blood. You can’t get the nutrients and the raw materials there to heal, and so, of course, you’re not gonna be able to heal as quickly. And by restoring more normal tone, optimal function of those muscles and breaking through those guarding and protective reflexes, we’re able to get rid of those impediments that are blocking and slowing down the healing process and allow the body to just do its thing.
And the amazing thing is that the body has such a massive capability of healing, has so much potential to heal, adapt, and grow, and change, and improve, that when we get those impediments out of the way, the healing happens so quickly, that it almost seems miraculous. And, you know, it’s still the same healing process the body has to go through, the same biology, the same rules still apply, just by getting out of the way, those impediments or those hurdles, it’s able to happen so much more quickly.
So, definitely, the acute injury piece, also, the same logic, same line of thought applies. After surgery, you know, there’s even more significantly, those guarding protective reflexes happen after the trauma of surgery, let alone the… You know, the original injury is bad, but the trauma of surgery being cut into and sewn together, and the trauma there causes these massive guarding and protective reflexes, and being able to work through those quickly, accelerates that healing process, significantly. Just, you know, it can knock weeks or months off the recovery a lot of times.
So that definitely, the recovery piece, the rehabilitation piece, and then similarly, to a lesser degree, in terms of what’s happening in the body. But the similar thing applies, recovering after games and practices, and workouts, where when the body is fatigued, and muscles can be short and more tense. Applying this signal and going through some of these same processes can help increase blood flow, reset the tone of muscles, increase heart rate variability, like you mentioned, to get the body in a state where it can recover as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s a big one.
And then we have several athletes that like to use it for training, particularly in season, because they can… Well, anytime, in or out of season, they can use it before, you know, working out or doing player metrics or before anything that they need to have their muscles firing optimally. So, a few minutes on the machine can help reset the neurological firing patterns. And then during a workout, you can have it on and without having to lift heavy weights and load up the joints, and have the risks of injury associated with that, you can still get the benefits of heavy lifting, still get as much muscle recruitment, and do it for more reps, more safely with higher quality of movement, and get more done in less time and with lower risk. So, you can get, you know a 15 or 20-minute workout on the machine.
We’ve had professional bodybuilders who will normally do three-hour sessions for their legs, for example, they’ll only literally be in the gym for three hours. They’ll do 15 minutes on the machine of their leg workout. And they’re just breathing heavy and saying, “Man, I’m gassed, I can’t do anymore.” And it just intensifies that reeducation component. Teaching the body to engage more muscle at the same time, allows people to get a lot more bang for the buck. So, it’s definitely a range all the way through early stage rehab to training and elite performance.
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Katie: And for people listening, I’m wondering if people may be thinking, you know, “This sounds a little bit like a TENS unit” or something like that. There’s other, like, electrical stimulation type devices. So, can you, like, just go a little deeper on what the difference is or how it’s impacting the body differently?
Garrett: Yes. Absolutely. So, that is a great point. And that’s one of the most common questions we get. You know, people see pads on the body or electrodes on the body and say, “Oh, I have one of those” or “Oh, that’s a TENS unit.” And it is similar, in the sense that, it is a type of electrical stimulation. But it’s also a lot different. My favorite metaphor for this is to say that, you know, you have two cars, you have a Ferrari or a Tesla, something that’s super technologically advanced from 2019 right now. And then you have a Ford Taurus from the mid-1990s, and they’re both cars, they both can serve the same purpose, to some degree, but you can also do with one car a lot more things.
You know, think about bringing that Ferrari on a racetrack. You can do a lot more with one than you can do with the other. So, there’s more features, more power, more functionality. And the technology that we’re using, I think that’s a good metaphor because it’s just a generation or two beyond the TENS units or the Russian Stim or Interferential, or the other electrical modalities out there. And one of the reasons for that difference is the direct current versus alternating current. So, virtually everything else that’s out there is alternating current, whereas ours is direct. And that has an important effect on the underlying electrical system of the body and a lot of the stuff that you had brought up, and we talked about earlier.
And then the biggest difference on the nervous system here is this ability to stimulate more of the nervous system. So, it’s less about the muscles, more about the nervous system, that traditional electrical stimulation like we talked about that. Alternating current as that signal volleys back and forth, you create a lot more tension in the muscles, the muscles fight against each other. And that becomes the limit on how much current you can take. So, you’re limited by that on how much signal you can get into the body, how much impact you can have on the nervous system. Whereas, with the Neubie device, we’re able to preferentially, it’s not just one or the other, but preferentially more lengthening and relaxation of the tissues that we’re stimulating.
And so, you have less of those protective contractions, less of the co-contractions. And you can get more of that signal into the nervous system to get more of this signaling, more of this retraining effect, more of what we’re trying to do. And it also allows us to do that mapping process. So, it has that evaluation and that assessment component too. So, some of it is, you know, you have to just dig down one layer deeper to understand the differences. And it’s one of those things that, you know, sometimes has to be experienced, to really get the difference. You know, we can talk about it, but then when people feel it, they say, “Oh, yeah, now, I know what you’re talking about.”
Katie: For sure. Of course, I’ll put these in the show notes, the links, but let’s talk a little bit more about how people can experience because I wanna definitely mention that this is a pricey device that most people are not gonna buy for their home. But we’ve talked about how practitioners can buy one and use it in their office. And you have, of course, this facility in Austin, where I’m assuming people can come in to see you as well.
Garrett: Yeah. Absolutely. We do have…particularly through Dr. Wahls’s community, we’ve had several…a few dozen MS patients fly in from around the country to see us for a few days of intensive work. And then most of the time, they’ll rent a machine to bring home so they can…you know, we’ve made this progress. They wanna continue it just three or four days, usually, is not enough, obviously. So, that is definitely an option.
And we have a wonderful and growing community of practitioners around the country. So, I would absolutely, if any of this sounds interesting to you listening to this, if you have pain or you’ve been dealing with an injury, or you’re frustrated with how long it’s taking to recover from an injury, or you want help with some of these neurological challenges, or you wanna take your training to the next level, you know, please seek out some of our practitioners, our website… I know you said we’ll share the link. It’s neu.fit, N-E-U for neurological neu.fit/locations is gonna be the page on the site that has a map of all the facilities around the U.S. And later this year, we should have some international locations as well. And that was just, you know, being updated. So, hopefully, there will be someone… If there isn’t someone in your community now, hopefully, there will be soon. And we just wanna be able to reach as many people as we can with this.
Katie: And of course I’ll make sure all those links are in the show notes. As we get closer to the end of our time, some somewhat related questions I love to ask. The first being if there is a book or a number of books that have really changed your life? And if so, what they are and why?
Garrett: You know, that is an awesome question. And my first thought, first aha moment that comes to mind is “The Body Electric,” funny enough, because you mentioned that already. And I think it’s worth making another mention of “The Body Electric” because that was one of the first and most significant influences that has guided my thinking in this area. And it speaks to the incredible potential that we have to tap into the body’s own healing and regenerative powers. And in the work that we’re doing and everything we’ve been talking about here, we’re still only tapping into a fraction of that. So, that’s something that I’m excited to mention because, one, just the little bits that we’ve been able to tap into, that so far have had profoundly positive outcomes for people. And it’s kind of a guiding light North Star, for me because it motivates me to want to continue my own research in pushing this field forward and pushing our work forward to be able to harness even more of the power and impact that we can have by tapping into the electrical system of the body.
Katie: It’s so cool. Yeah. And I’m excited for more research in this area, too. I think over the next 10 years, it’s gonna be amazing what we learn and what we’re able to do. And in that note, what parting advice would you like to leave with the audience today, your encouragement to those listening?
Garrett: So, that’s a great question. I would say, play detective with yourself. You know, if you’re dealing with something, whether it be, you know, an actual disease or an injury, or a pain, or, you know, thankfully, you are healthy and you’re trying to work to improve in some area, I would say, play detective with yourself, consult experts like Katie and all of her wonderful content, and other people out there. There’s such a wealth of information, but finding a good quality source of information, who can give you ideas, give you frameworks how to think about things, and then take that information and apply it.
And when I say play detective, I mean, you know, measure, pay attention to what’s happening. If you’re trying to work on something, there’s a great saying in business that, “What gets measured, gets improved,” or, “What gets measured, gets managed.” And I am a big believer in that because, you know, some of the things that worked in a study for 40 people in another country who had some disease, you know, may not necessarily work for you, or something that didn’t work for other people, may actually work for you.
And so, I think paying attention, finding something to measure to actually track progress and tracking results, and playing self detective is kind of the first thing I would like to encourage people to do. And I’ve seen, you know, that’s helped me tweak and refine all the things that we’re now using with teaching our practitioners, and with all of our patients, and clients around the country. And that’s still something that I’m always trying to do research and push this field forward. And I love self-experimentation and measuring HRV, like you said, is a great place to start there. So, find some meaningful metrics and use them to track your way to progress.
Katie: I love that. I think that’s a perfect place to wrap up. And like I said, I’ll make sure links to NeuFit, and to finding practitioners, and to “The Body Electric,” and everything we’ve talked about, are in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm. So if you guys are driving or running, or anything else, don’t worry about writing them down, just head over to wellnessmama.fm and all the links will be there.
Garrett, thank you so much. I know that you are busy in all that you do, both as a practitioner working with people, and in research and development, all these things. So, I’m really honored that you took the time to be here and share today.
Garrett: Thank you so much, Katie. This was a fabulous conversation. I really appreciate it and appreciate you, and the work you’re doing and the great content you’re putting out there. So thank you.
Katie: Thank you. And thanks to all of you for listening and sharing one of your most valuable assets, your time, with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the “Wellness Mama Podcast.”
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