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JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
One session was all it took for Kathleen to feel the effects of the BTL Emsella chair.
Many a professional chef will tell you that the hardest part of their job is not the challenge of creating tasty new dishes. Rather, it’s the long hours they’re forced to put in.
“You work nights, weekends and holidays, so it’s tough,” Kathleen Szabo points out.
Those long, difficult hours are what drove Kathleen out of the profession.
“I was a chef by trade, got married and moved to Miami, but after two years, my husband said, You need to quit this because I never see you,” Kathleen remembers. “He wasn’t wrong.
“Once I quit, though, I was miserable. I was sitting around the house all day doing nothing. Then one day, I walked into a pet store and bought a blue and gold macaw. That was in 1972, I’ve been raising exotic birds and medium-sized cats ever since.”
On a five-acre farm in Lake Worth, Kathleen raises mostly parrots and African servals, a golden-haired bobcat with black spots. She sells the parrots to pet stores and the servals to people who have a license to own one.
“For a while, I also bred Savannah cats, which are a cross between an African serval and a domestic cat that people can own without a license,” Kathleen explains. “I’ve neutered a small colony of those, and they’re all living here on the property with me.”
Kathleen’s passion for birds and cats keeps her on the run throughout the day. Recently, this 75-year-old “semi-retiree” found herself running to the bathroom every time the need to urinate presented itself. Too often, she failed to run fast enough.
“The first time it happened, I was out shopping,” Kathleen recalls. “I thought it was just a bad moment, but then it happened again and again. Finally, I went to my internist and my gastroenterologist to find out what the problem was.”
What Kathleen learned was that she was suffering from urinary incontinence, an involuntary loss of urine that can be sparked by something as simple as a laugh, cough or sneeze that typically results in the loss of a few drops of urine.
As with Kathleen, the condition can also present itself as a strong urge to urinate or an inability to hold urine when the urge arises. No matter the symptoms, it’s typically caused by a weakening of the bladder or sphincter muscles, an overactive bladder or nerve damage.
And while urinary incontinence typically affects older women, those who are pregnant, have had children or are going through menopause, it can affect men as well. Like Kathleen, many people affected are forced to make drastic lifestyle changes.
“I had to start wearing absorbent underwear, but the biggest issue was that the problem wouldn’t go away,” Kathleen reveals. “It was a real annoyance that I put up with for years. Then a friend suggested I visit Karen Fish at Palm Beach Wellbeing.”
Meet and Seat
Karen is a certified wellness professional and practitioner. She is also the founder of Palm Beach Wellbeing, where her medical director is Jeffrey Kotzen, MD, FACOG, of Distinctive Women’s Health Care in West Palm Beach.
In areas where she is certified, Karen teaches the principles of whole health and offers leading-edge wellness solutions, which include wearable light therapy and the use of the AVACEN® device for microcirculation.
She also offers a drug-free protocol for the treatment of urinary incontinence. It uses a core-rejuvenation device called the BTL Emsella® chair, which stimulates the pelvic floor muscles and restores neuromuscular control through high-intensity electromagnetic energy.
“A typical BTL Emsella chair session lasts just 28 minutes,” Karen explains. “During that time, the patient sits comfortably on the device fully clothed, and the chair provides the benefits of roughly 12,000 Kegel exercises.
-Karen Fish
Kegel exercises are a form of pelvic floor strength training that calls for repetitions of contracting then relaxing the muscles. People are typically instructed by health care providers to perform three to five sets of eight to 10 Kegels per day.
“No one can do 12,000 Kegel exercises in 28 minutes,” Karen continues. “But this chair not only provides that effect, it also impacts almost the entire pelvic floor, whereas Kegel exercises typically affect only 25 percent of the pelvic floor muscles.”
COURTESY PHOTO PALM BEACH WELLBEING
BTL Emsella chair
The BTL Emsella chair can also improve fecal incontinence and enhance sexual performance in men and women. And unlike other incontinence treatments, the noninvasive, drug-free sessions cause no side effects.
Best of all, it works. Studies show that 95 percent of patients receiving BTL Emsella chair treatments for incontinence report an improvement in symptoms while 73 percent experienced a complete resolution of issues.
“This is a treatment that’s good for everyone, including men,” Karen states. “I even know women who have no incontinence issues who are using the chair because they want to avoid those issues. So, it’s a preventive treatment as well.”
Dr. Kotzen, the medical director at Palm Beach Wellbeing, agrees, noting that Karen “is providing a good service, a very safe service and a service that has results for the indication of the machine she’s working with. I’m happy to be sharing office space with her.”
Regaining Control
After an initial meeting with Karen, Kathleen began treatment on the BTL Emsella chair in September 2022.
She followed a standard treatment protocol, which calls for two 28-minute sessions each week for three weeks. The results were incredible, Kathleen raves.
“The treatment is not uncomfortable at all,” she details. “You feel the vibrations, but they don’t feel strange or anything. It’s actually kind of comforting. And the effects are almost immediate.
“I felt a difference after the first session, which was an introductory session. It was a demonstration session that Karen offers just to show you how it works. That session only lasted about 15 minutes, but afterward, I already felt like I had more control.
“As time went on and I completed the full course of therapy, I couldn’t believe the difference it made in my life. After three weeks of treatment, I had total control of my bladder for the first time in years. It was absolutely amazing.”
Kathleen maintained that total control of her bladder for almost a year, until early this past fall, when she experienced another round of minor leakage that she described as mild compared to those experienced before.
“I’d make it to the bathroom, but by the time I got there and pulled my pants down, I’d have a little bit of leakage,” she says. “So, I called Karen, and she told me to come in for a follow-up treatment.”
Karen says the need for follow-up treatments on the BTL Emsella chair are best determined by the patient based on individual experience. Some may seek a maintenance treatment once or twice a year. Others may not need them at all.
In Kathleen’s case, she needed one maintenance treatment to regain that bit of control that she lost. She received that on October 12 and has had no further issues.
“It’s a great therapy that can help a lot of people, and I strongly urge people to visit Palm Beach Wellbeing,” Kathleen concludes. “Karen is a very caring and understanding practitioner who has your best health at heart.”
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