Electrical Stimulation and Physical Therapy
Electrical stimulation, commonly known as a TENS unit, utilizes a low level of electricity for a few different effects. As the amount of electricity exciting a cell increases, different messages are being relayed to the brain.
Generally speaking, the lower level of electricity correlates to sensation like tingling, burning, and numbness. As it increases it causes them to contract or quiver. Even more electricity starts to create a pain response. As much as some people might think, physical therapists aren’t there to hurt you. Utilizing low levels of electricity can be quite therapeutic at combating pain, and rehabilitating muscles after surgery or injury. Utilizing electrical stimulation for pain management is one of the most common rehab therapies.
The main premise on how this works is something called the gate control theory. Briefly, there’s only so much information that can go to the brain at one time. If you overload the sensation of feeling good, it will help mask feeling bad. A classic cartoon depicts someone going to the doctor because their hand hurts. The doctor comes out with a hammer and smacks their foot, asking how’s your hand feel? This sums it up quite nicely.
A common response when you bump your knee or elbow is to rub it vigorously. This sends a nerve response to your brain, a.k.a., the feel good receptors, competing pain signals are quickly overwhelmed by the feel good ones, and some much-needed pain relief is provided. This is only temporary, but some studies have shown after using a TENS unit, one can feel the effects for hours. In physical therapy, a TENS unit is often used in combination with an ice or hot pack in a position of comfort, as a way to calm the system down if it’s been overworked or in acute pain.
Just like how light changes based on its wavelength, adjusting this will increase or decrease the amount of excitement a muscle or nerve bundle will get. If the desired effect of using electrical stimulation is to excite a muscle, this becomes part of consideration for treatment.
When a muscle is recovering after injury, often the body is not going to allow the muscle to fully contract out of protection. The proverbial swollen ankle is a quite obvious sign to those injured, signaling they probably should stay off their foot. Now if you sprained your ankle and you’re camping, suddenly a bear approaches, you’re still going to run regardless of how swollen it is. This protection mechanism is not the same in the muscles, but is one that you need to work through in the beginning stages of recovery.
Electrical stimulation can be quite helpful in the very early stages engaging a muscle back on after injury. It doesn’t make the muscle stronger per say, it helps it facilitate a stronger contraction which in turn will allow the muscle to move more giving the illusion of increased strength. The phrase, “take this hit” is often used in therapy to help understand that we’re trying to turn the electricity up as high as we can to excite as many muscle fibers and nerve bundles as possible.
Electrical stimulation can come in a few different forms, over the years the price of the units have dropped drastically. Once only able to be received through prescription, they’re now available on Amazon for extremely cheap. They all seem to use a 9 V battery and are often quite similar from product to product. Finding out what would work best is still under the strict domain of an orthopedic physical therapist, which should be the first provider to seek out with questions regarding electrical stimulation for treatment.
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