About Dr. David Phillips, MD, PhD
Who is Dr. David B. Phillips?
How It All Started...
A letter from Dr. David Phillips, MD, PhD
I invent medical devices to solve health problems in my family. The ReBuilder® invention was for my father.
My father (1928-2008) had always been a very healthy man. He worked hard, loved his family, and his favorite thing in all the world was to bowl. He had bowled as a teenager.
When he was advised to undergo open-heart bypass surgery for blocked arteries in his heart he was assured that removing a vein from his calf would not have any adverse effects.
Unfortunately, it did produce adverse effects. The suture site in his leg became very painful, and he found that it was accompanied also by nerve pain, which he found hard to understand. Additionally, his calf muscle began to shrink, a condition called “disuse muscle atrophy” which only increased his concern. He was advised to walk a mile a day but complained: "How the heck can I walk a mile a day when I can’t feel my toes, and my leg hurts with every step?”
His leg pain and other symptoms also affected his willingness to go out to dinner for fear of stumbling in public, but his primary concern was the negative effect on his bowling. Bowling was his only outlet for stress and relaxation, and camaraderie with other men his age.
His family doctor prescribed pain medicine. Those drugs only exacerbated his condition. Making him drowsy all day interfered with his sleep at night. His pain was replaced with increased painful neuropathy symptoms, lethargy, clouded thinking, and depression. He tried a series of drugs to no avail. Finally, I had to take matters into my own hands and invent something for him.
I knew that I had to address his pain without merely closing off nerve function which would only exchange pain for other painful neuropathy symptoms. I also had to strengthen his calf muscles, and I had to increase blood flow to his feet to bring in more oxygen and remove toxins. This solution also had to give him energy and overcome his depressed mood. It also had to be easy to use, or he would not use it.
I experimented with a common TENS device, and although it helped his pain temporarily, it increased his nerve pain making it hard to throw his bowling ball. I tried a muscle stimulator, (EMS) and at least that seemed to solve the problem of disuse muscle atrophy and increased the girth and strength of his leg muscle.
But it still did not bring enough blood to his feet, elevate his mood, and not cause permanent damage to his nerves, resulting in nerve pain. Because this process had been going on for a few months, his nerve paths were affected by non-use and the connections to and from his brain were now becoming more and more dysfunctional.
Finally, the solution came together for me. I needed a combination nerve stimulator to wake up his sleeping nerves, a muscle stimulator to strengthen his leg muscles and increase circulation, a way to open up blood vessels in his feet, and also to help him relax, so he could sleep, as well as help elevate his mood. This device would need to be safe and easy, and also react to his improving condition as he got better. I suddenly got the answer while in my morning shower, all at once.
I came up with a vastly improved version of a TENS device that measured his actual nerve function and delivered a compensating signal that adapted to his particular condition at that time, even able to adapt during his 30-minute treatment.
I discovered what is called the Schumann Resonant frequency (7.83 times per second) which would cause the brain to release its own pain-relieving and mood-enhancing chemicals with no side effects. I overlaid upon the TENS impulses the EMS muscle stimulating impulses to strengthen his legs. I made the device with a single large knob for simplicity of use, and an automatic shut off for a 30-minute treatment. I powered it with a plain 9-volt battery available at any grocery or convenience store, and I made it small and compact.
This solved his problem! His nerve pain went away, his painful symptoms went away, he could walk normally, his sleep improved and as my mother reported: “He became his old happy self again”. Most importantly to him, he went back to his weekly bowling league.
That was over 30 years ago. Today, this system is called the ReBuilder®, and it has been constantly updated and improved as new technology was developed but remains true to its original appearance, function, and ease of use.
By the way, now that I am 72 years old, I developed some nerve pain symptoms myself, but I am completely symptom-free by using the ReBuilder® once or twice a month.
David B. Phillips, M.D., Ph.D.
