By Emily Stifler Explorebigsky.com Managing Editor
Imagine a totally new treatment for people with chronic pain. In 20 days the Arp Wave Clinic takes a patient considering a knee replacement and makes them pain free, says founder Dennis Thompson. And it’s all without the drugs or surgery.
The clinic is headquartered in Minneapolis, and has satellite offices around the country, including one in Bozeman.
“We’re a soft tissue neurological clinic,” said Paul Erickson, owner of the Bozeman Arp Wave Clinic. “We prevent orthopedic surgeries, help recovery, enhance athletic performance and get rid of pain, inflammation and scar tissue.”
A machine invented by Thompson, the RX100, uses DC current to retrain the electrical impulses in the muscles, break up scar tissue, elongate the muscles and promote healing, Thompson says. That’s the first 10 treatments.
The RX100 is followed by 10 treatments with a machine called the POV that contracts muscles 245 times a second, strengthening the muscles, and getting them back to absorbing shock and increased range of motion, Erickson says.
“You’re going to feel like you just got done squatting 500 pounds,” Erickson said. “Your brain can only contract your muscles two times a second. It’s intense, but it has to be.”
Erickson, a semi-professional baseball player now in his ‘50s, says he’s living proof that it works.
“I was told by [a surgeon] that the only way I could continue to play baseball was with cortisone shots and Synvisc (injections used to treat osteoarthritis of the knee), and grin and bear it while playing,” he said. “After the first treatment I could walk up stairs without pain, and the second I could sprint. I can do now with my leg and my knee what I did in my 20s.”
He opened the Bozeman clinic two months later, in December 2011.
Now, if you go in for an appointment, Erickson is the one attaching the pads and working the machine, while a therapist in Minneapolis Skypes in to direct him. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes. And Erickson believes so strongly in it, he’ll give you the first treatment free:
“We want people in here to show them it works.”
