Sabrina Brunner, DACM

After twenty-two years of working with professional athletes, I have learned that these highly talented men are more than just a body. As the athletes come in for weekly sessions, they also have high levels of professional pressure they put on themselves: to perform at optimal levels, maintain their spots on the 53-man roster, and keep their contract, all while having peace of mind.

Even though I use soothing music and calming essential oils in an aromatherapy diffuser during sessions, I wanted to add another level of passive relaxation for the athlete. I purchased an amethyst Biomat and amethyst and tourmaline pillow.

The Biomat is 27.56 inches by 72.83 and weighs 31.08 pounds. The outer layer is a tan-colored waterproof silicon urethane with cotton material. The inside of the Biomat consist of rows with loose tumbled natural purple amethyst crystals (to prevent sharpness while allowing slight movements) in the Biomat. Under the layer of purple amethyst crystals are 14 different layers for reflecting the infrared rays up while protecting individuals from EMF currency as the purple amethyst crystals are being heated.  As the amethyst crystals are being heated, they produce natural infrared rays and negative ions.

According to Richway and Fuji Bio Inc., the amethyst Biomat provides negative ions, far infrared radiation, and hyperthermia.  Negative ions are biproduct of electrical charged air molecules.¹ Nature naturally produces negative ions via the sun’s rays (ultraviolet), by products of electric storms, and when water strikes against itself.¹ “Once they reach our bloodstream, negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.”²  

I set the heat of the Biomat on the lowest setting, which is 113° F.  At this setting, the Biomat is warm enough to penetrate the active infrared rays six inches into the body, which is when the hyperthermia treatment (slight raising of body temperature) begins while negative ions are activating.

Far infrared consist of 760 nm to 100,000 nm wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, according to Tsai & Hamblin, 2017.³ As the ions and rays are being dispersed from the mat’s heat, the heat goes into the skin, muscles, blood vessel, lymph gland and nerves.⁴ Once the body is slightly heated, blood and lymph circulates faster and more easily to areas of injury or pain, allowing quicker recovery time.

When the Biomat addresses the athlete’s body on a biochemical level, it is easier for me to address the body on a physical level with acupuncture, cupping, and medical massage. Because acupuncture works with the energetic system of the body via the meridians, the acupuncture results are amplified from the purple amethyst crystals.

According to Melody (p.111), amethyst crystals can be used “to both strengthen the skeletal system and reinforce one’s posture and to stimulate both the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine glands.⁵ Amethyst is a very helpful crystal to help aid the athletes’ various muscular-skeletal issues. 

Using the Biomat, the athletes can have both the front and back of their bodies treated at the same time. The Biomat provides the passive treatment on one surface of the body, while acupuncture, cupping, and medical massage provide the active treatment on the other surface of the body.

While the athlete is resting for 20 minutes with the acupuncture needles in, the purple amethyst and black tourmaline crystal pillow also provides passive healing effects.  Black tourmaline crystals can be used to deflect and decompress negative energy of another source. It also provides a grounding energy and helps connect to the earth (Melody, p. 655).⁵ This is such a great crystal for athletes because of the high levels of competitions and negative energy emitted from opposing fans among the league’s teams. Not only does this crystal help to clear out the competitor’s energy or opposing team fans’ energy, black tourmaline crystals can also help to redirect the athlete’s focus back into his body and away from busy thoughts in his mind.

NFL athletes are like chess players making mental moves in their head and executing the moves to further themselves down the field. Black tourmaline crystals are widely known to help with grounding one’s energy and repelling negative energy from an outside source.

Some of the qualitive effects that were reported by my weekly athletes were fewer injuries, more relaxed, more mental clarity, better performance results (especially running), more flexibility, less moody, faster muscle recovery and generally, overall positive outlook for their weekly games.  Amethyst has been known to balance out the intellectual, emotional, and physical aspects of one’s body (Melody, p. 109).⁵

In the athletes I worked with using the Biomat, I could feel the meridians and tell where there was a distortion in the channel. This allowed me to place a needle in the distortion. As a result of the Biomat, the muscle tissue and fascia were warm and pliable, making it easier to get deeper into the tissue and allowing more blood and lymph to circulate.  This makes it easier to flush the tissue out through cupping. This greatly increases the healing and reduces the pain for the athletes.

“Increasing evidence suggest that infrared radiation can carry out photo-stimulation and photo-biomodulation effects partially benefiting neural stimulation, wound healing, and cancer treatment.”³ This is very beneficial to jump start the healing process for the professional athlete.

The Biomat took up the length and width of the entire treatment table. The adaptor from the control panel to the Biomat was inserted in the top of the mat so I switched the mat around to the foot of the table, keeping the adaptor from hitting my patient’s collar bone or scapula (depending on if the patient was prone or supine).

I enjoy the results from this mat, so I bought a mini-version of it. However, my patients were not happy or impressed with the smaller mat size (19.7 inches by 33.5 and weighs 11 pounds). The mini-version covered the torso of most of my patient’s body leaving the arms and legs free. While many of my clients were on the table, the mini-Biomat curled around their bodies. These clients did not feel the same result as they experienced with the professional mat. I, too, noticed that my energy was more depleted at the end of the day with the mini-version versus the larger size Biomat, where I was able to maintain high levels of energy and work stamina. I now lend the mini amethyst and black obsidian Biomat to the athletes who have surgery during the off season for added passive healing, relaxation, and comfort.

The amethyst Biomat and amethyst and black tourmaline has been such a great addition to not only the well-being of my patients via passive therapy of improved blood and lymph circulation, deeper relaxion, and clearer mind but also to me. It has kept my energy levels up, my spirits high, and my mind clear.

On a professional level, I would use the Biomat in addition to and not as a primary source of treatment. More research needs to be done on the medical benefits of the Biomat with professional athletes to specifically address their current needs.

References

1. Jewel, Tim. The Effect of Negative Ions. Healthline.” Sept. 2019.
2. Mann, Denise. Negative Ions Create Positive Vibes. Altered-States. May 2002. https://alteredstates.net/barry/newsletter1010/positivevibes.php
3. Tsai, Shang-Ru, Hamblin Michael. Biological effects and medical application of infrared radiation. J Photchem Photbiol B. May 2017;170:197-207.
4. Grant, George. Measuring Stress Reduction Using the Infrared Negative Ions Amethyst Biomat. November-December 2011. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Measuring-stress-reduction-using-the-infrared-ions-Grant/908b00a4470d05e2d2b51553f2dcd32d6b49e4ea
5. Melody. Love is in the Earth: A Kaleidoscope of Crystals. Colorado: Earth-Love Publishing House. 2005.

About the Author

Sabrina Brunner, DACM, is a Doctor in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. She has a double master’s from Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture in Los Angeles, California. She has 22 years of professional experience with pee-wee through professional athletes while specializing in sports injuries. Dr. Brunner is licensed through the State Medical Board of Ohio for acupuncture and medical massage. She also has national certifications in both acupuncture (NCCAOM) and massage (NCTMB). Dr. Sabrina Brunner, DACM, is well-known in Cincinnati for her successful treatments that consist of acupuncture, cupping, medical massage, essential oils, and liniments of her choice.