Rebuilder?
 

A number of years ago several people on the board, including myself, used the Rebuilder. Most seemed to feel it helped with pain, and a few felt it helped with symptoms in a cumulative way, if I remember correctly.

I've just taken another look at their website, and they are designed a little differently, but with a better explanation of how the machine works. I'm wondering if anybody has used it, and if so, what their response has been? Has their insurance paid? It is very pricey. I recall way back when, that they were giving discounts to most who asked. But perhaps I mis-remember.

http://www.rebuildermedical.com/

Search Rebuilder on our search engine. You will find over 70 posts about it.

Wow.
 

Thanks, Mrs, D., I did the search, and was astounded to find the recent thread, long and controversial. I had not imagined that it would have caused this much excitement all over again.

I was startled at their new website's advertising--they are now saying that the machine actually measures signals that the nerves are generating and sends back impulses that are the negative the what is measured. But I know for sure the unit I bought a decade ago didn't measure a thing. It was a pure output unit.

A lot of whoo-ey.

Well, I personally think the new website is rather evasive and makes claims expansively. I tend to agree with you. The cost is huge if one does not have insurance.

With the popularity of this forum and our previous one, the track record of Rebuilder remains sketchy at best. (I hope this comment does not bring out the shills here!)

I know a retired person (from where I work at) told me about it... He was diagnosed with idiotic (Idiopathic) neuropathy... did some researching and found this machine... and SWEARS by it... says its really helped him out... hardly any more pain... I'd like to try one... but don't want to spend the $$$ on it if it doesn't work...

Ed... There have been some who liked it but not many. I guess that when long time frames are involved with an advertised product/device, and we don't hear the stampeding hooves and trumpeting of miraculous results, then the response is limited or poor.

Basically it is a IFc type electrical device. (inferential current)

This link I found that examines the claims...such as "FDA approved" explains it better than I can.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/...ealth-devices/

I mentioned in an earlier thread this summer that I did not like the graphic on the Rebuilder website. This is why...
IFc is very good for pain. I had it in my PT when I had a severe painful tendon injury. IFc units can be purchased for about $150 plus the replenishment periodically of the pads it has. One has to know how to use it, and apply the electrode pads.

It may very well be that for those with circulation problems the Rebuilder may work some...but PN is a huge problem with many presentations and variants. Say, someone with damaged mitochondria, applying electrical current won't work since the cells are damaged. Mitochondria work chemically not electrically. But that is just my take on it. When the mitochondria stop working the cell cannot maintain itself and hence the axon dies, or the autoimmune antibodies attack it from the outside. Neither process is "electrical". But the RESULT is that the electrical message from the sensory periphery cannot go further because the cell is damaged inside.

Look at it this way. If the maker of this device which is so spectacular all PNers will benefit... he could lower his prices, sell to a million more people and still profit richly. But he charges huge prices to try to manipulate the buyer into thinking it is a great thing and sells fewer units. The masses are not getting this wonderful machine...because basically it is most likely only going to help a small section of the PNers. This concept is illustrated often today in our world. Look at cell phones, and computers. They work splendidly and provide a great benefit and hence their costs come down over time. The Rebuilder's cost goes UP over time! (as an example... my old cell phone..a huge bag phone in the boonies (our summer island) cost almost $20 a call to home. Now it is FREE with a low monthly charge.) The DEMAND for this service eventually solved the cost problem.

I have not read the website recently, but I would think that it would be worth a hefty pricetag for many to get relief, provided it would also be offered with a "no-risk money-back trial period" (of 30 - 90 days) as some other types of medical equipment are. :icon_rolleyes:

Doc

Some of our members over the years have not received that refund. You wouldn't know this, because you are relatively new, and those people are no longer here. (or there on the old venue)

Those on insurance of course would not get a $$ refund at all. That is a clever marketing strategy as well.

Not having been to the site recently, I was not aware that they even offered such (I was waxing a tad cafetious), but if the guarantee's not worth the pixels it's printed on...

If they've been reneging as you say, I'm a little surprised they haven't been brought to task, one way or another. Folks usually scream about that kind of thing loud and long - with even longer memories! :Speechless:

Doc

Some of the differences--
 

--in reports about the Rebuilder over the years may stem from the fact that its design has been tweaked at least several times, partly due to company having undergone reorganization on at least one occasion. It's my understanding (through contacts at the Neuropathy Association and some first hand reports of users) that the people who originally developed it no longer have the exclusive rights to it, and that there have been some contentious battles over the years over that group and other groups' rights to produce/market the "original Rebuilder" versus similar copycat devices.

Yes, I have noticed that a certain chiropractic connection is selling them that way, to those for whom it "works".

The fact remains that refunds are not given to Medicare patients if the gov't is footing that high price!

People still interested in this device should keep watching Ebay... the Rebuilder does turn up there for very low prices. These would be the other incarnations of it, before the spiffy conductive socks and gloves replaced the water bath version.

I just checked the site and couldn't believe how much it's gone up in price. I have to wonder how much of the price increase is the result of insurance companies now paying for a portion of it. Seems like anytime insurance or medicare covers something, prices go up. I've seen in the past where companies will give you lower price on lab test and medical devices if your insurance doesn't cover it.

It would be worth asking them for a discount. Something close to what the out of pocket difference would be.

revisiting electricity
 

It's great to see how much more investigation into the company has gone on since the Rebuilder first appeared a decade ago. I had begun to wonder about it because this winter I had the return of some of some numbness in my feet which had totally resolved with treatment for lyme six months earlier, and it's still not back to it's newer normal. I was running through the list of possibilities for what I could add to my regimen to help with it, and thought about revisiting that idea.

Also, I'd received an email from a friend asking me about another device called the Calmare. It didn't take much investigation to see that the guy who developed that was a total rip-off artist. I just wasn't sure if he was ripping off Rebuilder or TENS.

So now I have another question. Can anybody help me understand the difference between:

1. TENS
2. Rebuilder
3. Inferential current units
4. EMS or electrical muscle stimulator units

I have a combined TENS/EMS unit. I used it on my feet directly last night and fell asleep with it, and it went on all night. I have no idea if it was on TENS or EMS. I don't know how to set it up to do one or the other.

I have a pure TENS unit, and this I use purely for pain. Usually I use it on my arthritic neck. It works like a dream. In the bad old days, I used it on my feet and it gave relief, but I have to say, in the bad old days, substituting any sensation worked. Massaging my feet, soaking them, frozen green peas, or paraffin wax, depending on the pain du jour.

I had a Rebuilder. But I can't find it. Okay, I know it's got to be somewhere, but I don't know where...and I need more motivation than I've gotten to make myself go look. :)

So, can anybody help me understand the different units. In English? Not in pure physics or engineering terms?

Thank you.


I like the idea of the sock, but not at a high cost.

REbuilder
 

I have idiopathic neuropathy in my feet. I tried the rebuilder and was even given an extension to their performance guarantee of 45 days. It never did anything for me so I returned it for my money back as stated in their website. Well lo and behold, they are appear to be broke and couldn't make good on the money back guarantee. So now they have the Rebuilder they sent me AND my money. They offered to send the Rebuilder back but that wouldn't do me any good. They seem to be sincere about wanting to return my money but who knows. I've been in business for a long time and can see the handwriting on the wall. I suspect they will close their doors soon unless some angel investor comes to their rescue.

I asked about Calmare (a.k.a. scrambler therapy) in the Medications & Treatments forum a while back after searching for it in the archives. Here's that thread:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread145682.html

Most of the posts about it are in the RSD/CRPS forum; seems it's had some potential for some RSD sufferers, but I've not seen anything (yet) about its efficacy with PN.

Doc

I bought one back in 06 and it helped a while too until it gave me tinnitus so I stopped.

Is this newer version supposed to be better in terms of offering relief or just more tweaks to make you think it is , when its really just the same ol thing ?

m

if i were you i would contact the attorney generals office in west virgina as soon as possible. here is their link. otherwise the rebuilder people will string you along until they go belly up if that is the direction they are going in. either way they arent honoring their guarantee and i would contact the attorney general in the state they are located in which according to their site you order it from west virginia.

http://www.wvago.gov/contact.cfm

My husband had an injury to his neck. He has severe pain in his left arm and back do to nerve damage in his neck.

It did not work for him. His pain went down while he was having the treatment, but as soon as he walked out the door it was back to the same old stuff.

Hello,
I got the ReBuilder out the other day(don't use it anymore) and tried it out, on the 4 setting use to be the limit, took it up to 9 and just felt a slight zipping. My feet and legs are gone and the powerchair has been a blessing for mobility.

Nah !!!
They'll just bankrupt this company and continue to do business under a new corporate name. Or sell out all the stocks for one dollar to another company (that they've created with the same people) and a new board of directors and not have to pay the debt, or pay 5 cents on the dollar to get out from under their obligations.
They'll still keep on doing what they are doing now- snake oil salesman, that are as slippery as that snake themselves.....IMHO