For a long time, I've been keenly interested in the work of Dr. Robert Becker who has studied how bioelectricity affects your body's natural ability to heal itself. European researchers have taken Dr. Becker's work an important step forward by demonstrating how the electrical fields and currents in your tissues naturally heal wounds.

Scientists grew mouse cells and tissues (like corneas) in a lab, then wounded them. Based on how they applied varying electrical fields to the tissue samples, researchers could stop or accelerate the healing process. How this works: Cells work like batteries with positive potassium ions and negative chlorine ions flowing across membranes.

Wounds disrupt that natural process, however. When they are hurt, electrical fields are altered, attracting and guiding repair cells to the damaged area.

Your body's natural electrical fields also influence how genes prepare repair cells to migrate to a wound. Exposing electrical fields to migration-promoting genes slowed healing while migration-blocking genes accelerated the process.

New Scientist July 26, 2006