Electric muscle stimulation therapy provides a relatively cutting-edge solution to a variety of physical ailments. This therapy is conducted using devices that generate and transmit electrical current, devices that are attached to the muscles through pads placed on the muscles.
This process provides low electrical currents to stimulate muscular contraction, thereby preventing atrophy and spasms while retraining the muscles.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken to regulating the electrical devices used in muscle stimulation therapy, as this process remains a fairly new option on the market.
Ultimately, muscle stimulation therapy provides a viable option for patients battling a variety of muscular disorders—a few of which will be outlined here.
Foundational muscle re-education
Perhaps the most common use of electric muscle stimulation therapy is muscle re-education.
Muscle re-education via electric muscle stimulation is primarily used in the earliest stages of the physical rehabilitation that follow an injury causing certain muscle groups to remain unused for a long period of time.
The primary objectives of muscle stimulation therapy are to tone and strengthen muscles that have weakened or atrophied. After preliminary muscle stimulation therapy, patients rehabilitating their muscles can move to more rigorous forms of treatment and on to building optimal muscle strength.
Even in the process of degeneration, electric muscle stimulation can be used to mitigate the effects of atrophy simply by keeping muscles active. Muscle atrophy yields symptoms of decreased muscle mass and results from a variety of different medical conditions.
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis results from the degeneration of joint tissues, a condition that usually causes patients a great deal of pain. This condition usually manifests in the elderly demographic, and muscle stimulation therapy provides a way to manage associated symptoms.
Other painful conditions
Another common usage for electrical muscle stimulation therapy is for the reduction of the risk of pressure sores. Pressure sores usually manifest in patients confined to wheelchairs, beds, or other devices that apply continuous pressure to specific parts of the body.
Muscle stimulation therapy can keep these sections of the body active and can also keep circulation continuously flowing to these areas. In doing so, muscle stimulation therapy can help to hamper the development of pressure sores, as well as avoid the muscular deformities that usually go hand-in-hand with pressure sores.
Final thoughts
Ultimately, muscle stimulation therapy provides a relatively new avenue to mitigate effects from different muscular ailments. Atrophy, osteoarthritis, and pressure sores are simply a few of the conditions that can benefit from this form of treatment.
This treatment can also be used in the preliminary stages of physical rehabilitation, providing an easy way to stimulate muscle groups without significant patient effort.
Electric muscle stimulation can even provide benefits to those suffering from basic muscle tension, as this therapy simply stimulates muscles that would otherwise remain underworked.
Althea Carter is an aspiring writer and storyteller from Kentucky. Her passion for literature and storytelling began at a young age, and now she is an avid blogger and author, sharing her experiences and stories with readers from around the world. When she’s not creating content for her blog, Althea loves nothing more than exploring the complexities of the human experience through theatre, reading, painting, and travelling. She hopes her words and art can inspire others to create, explore, and experience the world around them.
