Rise of the engineer in fibromyalgia battle

Fibromyalgia is a painful subject to anyone afflicted by it, or familiar with commercials about it on the evening network news.

Now a Clearwater company believes it may have a new solution to the chronic disorder that doesn't exclusively involve swallowing expensive prescription pills such as Lyrica or Cymbalta.

Pico-Tesla Magnetic Therapies LLC says it is expanding its studies of “magneceutical” therapy beyond Parkinson's disease and type-2 diabetes to include fibromyalgia. The company, led by CEO and part-time Clearwater resident Allen Braswell, has started a double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study involving 30 fibromyalgia patients to determine whether magnetic fields generated by its patented Resonator system can be effective as an adjunctive therapy.

Dr. Miguel Trevino, medical director of Innovative Research of West Florida in Clearwater, is coordinating the study. The therapy involves using an extremely low-level magnetic field applied from within two large wheels called Helmholtz coils.

Pico-Tesla (Business Review, June 11) was established in Littleton, Colo., and opened its East Coast headquarters in 4,000 square feet at Airport Business Center, near St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport earlier this year. Braswell, who has been with the company for the last five years, divides his time between Littleton and Clearwater.

“If we're successful, we get to change a lot of lives,” Braswell said in an earlier interview. “The next big thing in medicine may come from a physicist or an engineer, rather than a chemist.”