If you haven’t heard the news, there’s a new type of pain relief that is hitting the market that doesn’t involve more pills!
For someone like me, who avoids pain medicine like the plague, I was 1000% intrigued to find out what it was and how it worked.
Read along as I share my experience with the WaveLife Energy Cell to manage my chronic pain from Fibromyalgia. Full disclosure, I received a free cell to review this product. HOWEVER, all thoughts are my own and I have been completely honest in my review.
This page contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read the full disclosure here.
What WaveLife is and how is it supposed to work
I’m obviously no scientist – or even a remotely scientific person. If you’re looking for a description that sound science-y, I may not be your best resource. But here is the average-joe description of the device.
The energy cell is a small and lightweight chip that resembled a magnet. It is said to contain and emit a frequency that helps heal you at a cellular level.
WaveLife uses the term ‘vital fields’ to describe the frequency released by the cell. They describe vital fields as, “enabl[ing] living systems – cells, organs, and micro-organisms – to transfer information and energy across the system (or body) instantly, helping the body’s cells to repair, regenerate, and protect against life’s cumulative stressors, such as toxins, stress, trauma, injury, and electrosmog.”
The cell is mounted on a silicone pad that is then placed on your body by an adhesive pad. It can be placed anywhere, depending on where your pain is.
If you visit their website, the first thing you’ll see is the claim-to-fame of their product: pain relief with ‘no doctors visit, no painkillers, and no surgery’.
Those are pretty impressive claims!
However, I would warn against using this without visiting a doctor first. There are some circumstances in which doctors, painkillers, and/or surgery may be necessary. As their instructions say, it is “not intended as a replacement for medical treatment.”
First impressions of WaveLife
Through my years of battling chronic pain, I have tried more therapies, drugs, and snake charms than I can even remember. I always go into a new treatment with a slight bit of skepticism.
Especially when that therapy sounds too go to be true.
So when I first received my WaveLife Energy Cell, I was cautiously optimistic.
The cell itself is small and lightweight and the adhesive bandages look like regular medical-grade bandages.
I was slightly worried about the bandages and silicone itself. I have developed very sensitive skin thanks to my health issues and I was worried about placing a new object directly on my skin. Especially with my history of painful and long-lasting rashes from medical tape and bandages.
The package included a handy pouch for storage, which I thought was a nice touch.
There was also an instruction pamphlet that came with the product. It contained all the info I needed to get going.
I will admit to being slightly confused by the instructions. I had to read them through a few times before I fully understood how to apply it to the bandage and then my skin. But that could simply be a result of my brain fog and not a deficiency on their part!
Wearing WaveLife Energy Cell
The cell itself is extremely easy to wear. It’s unobtrusive enough that most of the time you can forget it’s there.
The silicone on the cell did not cause any skin issues for me.
But as predicted, the adhesive patches that were provided aggravated my skin. This was remedied by wearing it for less time in one specific location. As long as the bandage didn’t touch my skin in one spot for too long I was okay.
The instructions do say you can use “kinesiology tape or other compatible tapes.” I have been told by the company that there are no incompatible tapes, though. So whatever your preferred medical adhesive is should work.
There is a sticker covering the cell that was a little difficult to keep on. Every time I removed it from a bandage, the sticker tried to come off. The instructions do not say if it needs to stay on, so I’ve been doing my best to keep it on there.
WaveLife let me know that it IS okay if the sticker comes off. They are working with their manufacturer to change the stickers so this shouldn’t be an issue going forward.
I was able to easily clean the cell, after each use, with lukewarm water.
Where to wear the energy cell
The cell can be worn on areas where you experience pain or on three specific zones for more generalized pain. The instructions are pretty great at explaining where to wear it depending on your type of pain.
The website also has a lot more info if you aren’t satisfied with the instructions. You can visit their site by clicking here.
An overwhelming majority of my daily pain comes from my head, shoulders, neck, etc so I chose to wear the patch on my neck.
I also experience lower back pain so I alternated with it on my lower backbone.
What type of pain is WaveLife supposed to work on?
According to their website, the energy cell is proven to help with pain associated to: arthritis, headaches, osteoporosis, lower back pain, tissue or bone injury, post-surgical pain, muscle sprain or tension, upper back pain, and post-trauma pain.
It is apparently less effective on: shingles, phantom pain, neuronal pain, hormonal pain, migraines, and multiple sclerosis.
You can read their explanation of the ‘science’ behind the cell on their website.
Stick around to read my theory behind when it works and doesn’t work and to find out if you are a good candidate for the device.
What you really came for….does it work?
If you’re reading this review, you’re mostly likely primarily interested in the answer to this question.
Does the WaveLife Energy Cell really work?
I can tell you, for me, it definitely made small improvements in my pain.
I would not claim it completely erased my pain. But I could safely say I was more comfortable getting through my day after having used it.
I did experience a few migraines while using it and did not notice any particular difference in intensity or duration.
My neck and shoulder pain was reduced but not eliminated. My lower back pain was reduced to being almost gone. It is a less sever pain, as a general rule, so maybe that was to be expected.
It’s hard to tell if it had an impact on my overall body pain. That is such a moving target that it’s hard to tell if it was lessened. My pain certainly wasn’t increased during the time I was wearing it.
Overall, I am comfortable saying I had a lessening of pain levels. I was not pain free. As I am so fond of saying, I believe the answer to chronic pain is multi-faceted. The answer is a combination of therapies.
And I’m thrilled to add an additional therapy to my pain tool-box.
Why it won’t work 100% for chronic pain patients
As I mentioned previously, I’m no scientist. But I did have the opportunity to participate in the Fibromyalgia self-management class a few years back.
In part that class, they talked about what causes Fibro pain. Among many causes, including poor sleep leading to poor healing, they talked about Substance P and it’s impact on pain.
Essentially, Substance P is the chemical that signals pain to your brain. In Fibro and chronic pain patients, there is an overload of this chemical running rampant in our body. And unlike in healthy people, it is not directly related to any particular cell that needs healing.
Eventually, our ‘memory’ and ‘motion’ nerves are recruited as pain nerves, which leads to pain super-highways running through our body.
Those pain super-highways have little to do with healing.
So although the WaveLife cell is apparently capable of improving cellular healing, it likely won’t have much impact of pain caused by too much Substance P and nerve recruitment. This is seen in their list of conditions that have not experienced great improvement.
Most, if not all, of the categories they’ve shown great success in are conditions where the human body needs healing. Nerve-related pain has been much less successfully improved.
Therefore, you’re likely to experience some pain relief from improved healing, but little from too much Substance P and nerves that have been strong-armed into sending pain signals that were never intended to do so.
SOO…that is my two cents on why I believe this is not likely to give chronic pain patients 100% relief.
You can read more facts and science behind Fibromyalgia in my Complete Beginner’s Guide to Fibromyalgia.
Is there a down side?
I believe the cell will be cost-prohibitive for a lot of people.
A single cell, which is supposed to be at full strength for 6 months, costs $123. You can add 30 additional patches to the standard 10 for $17. It’s reasonable to assume you will need those 30 patches to get through 6 months of use.
So you’re looking at $140. Assuming you use it for 6 months, that’s a tiny bit over $23 per month.
This is where you’ll have to do some soul-searching, and perhaps an initial investment. If the cell works wonders for you and your pain, $23 a month seems like a small price to pay. Especially when other therapies (massage, pills, acupuncture, etc) can cost you well over that amount.
If it only works to a small degree or temporarily, you and your bank account will have to decide if it’s worth the cost.
I am still undecided. I will re-evaluate at the 6-month mark if I have seen a marked enough difference to invest in another cell.
Overall Thoughts
All in all, I have been pleasantly surprised. I am always interested in new methods of pain relief that don’t involve pills or magic.
Looking at the cell, it’s hard to believe such a small and inconsequential looking item is capable of helping pain that I feel constantly. But it genuinely seemed to reduce my pain.
If it is, in fact, healing the cells, I anticipate this pain reduction will continue beyond the use of the cell. At least until my body comes up with new and creative ways to cause damage.
I would absolutely recommend trying it out for the initial 6 months period. I believe it could really change your life if you experience the type of pain that can ‘heal’, as described above.
You can go to the WaveLife shop by clicking here.
I’m happy to be able to provide a discount for readers of this blog if you chose to purchase. Use the coupon code WAVELIFEWILLOW15
Let me know below if you have any questions and I’d be happy to answer them!
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Tried to order using PayPal. But could not find a way to complete order after entering password.. can I call and place an order..
Hi Reina, I’m sorry you’ve had problems purchasing! I talked to the company rep and she said they are able to take purchases over the phone, as long as you have a credit/debit card. The gal I talked to was Elani and her phone number is 310-425-2123. She said she could arrange everything for you. Best of luck!!
This is such an interesting read. I’ve never heard of these and lIke the idea of it working on the generalised spots on the body, especially the neck and shoulders area as I’m currently experiencing trapped nerve pain. But as my conditions are both migraine and a brain disease with migraine like pain, I’m not sure this would help me long term. I’ve never heard of Substance P either so I’ll read up more on this. I really hope it continues to work for you. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! I’m really hopeful!