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This paper presents evidence that activating neutrophils using a 5 μT low-frequency electromagnetic field (LF-EMF) micro-stimulus could reduce immune delays. In recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) that would mean less symptoms and less need for antibiotics.
Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) induces an immune delay, allowing it to strongly multiply before the immune system responds. UPEC also establishes an intracellular niche that protects a population of replicating bacteria from arriving phagocytes. A low-cost, low-burden treatment with a subtle electromagnetic stimulus has been shown to activate neutrophils in vivo in humans. The same stimulus has been shown in animal and in vitro experiments to immediately increase immune function, reduce mortality and tissue damage and increase vitality with an easy treatment of 30 minutes per day. We hypothesize that the selected LF-EMF treatment will accelerate neutrophil activation and recruitment to the bladder, reducing immune delay. When used early in a UTI episode it accelerates the immune response, reducing both the maximum ‘size’ of the infection and of the immune response, and thereby reducing disease-symptoms and tissue-damage. Lowering the need for frequently repeated antibiotic treatments, it can also help to mitigate the increase of antibiotic resistance.
