Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Tense about TENS


I am testing out a TENS unit "at home" (I'm at work really) today. TENS=Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator.

Basically, what it looks like is a generic white box the size of an older palm pilot that can clip somewhere on your clothing attached to some wires which then hook onto some electrodes, mine are placed on the lower back. The little electrodes send out this wave of stimulation which feels neat, and is supposed to relieve pain.

If that wikipedia entry I cited above is true, it may not, though. This BBC article also sheds some light on the subject.

Like I said, it feels nice and we've been using it in PT, but I haven't noticed any long lasting effects from using it. So I'm going to test it out more today (since I already have the electrodes on) and see where that goes. This seems to be the common theme:

Please keep in mind that TENS is not effective in curing pain; it can only to treat it and make the pain more tolerable.

Well, I guess that's good too. We shall see. The above picture appears to be the exact model I'm testing out.

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