Tens Machines

[barbadosslim93]

Hey guys, my Mom has one of these units for her knee and suggested that it may help me with some of the muscle issues I have been having recently.

Do any of you use a Tens or similar style machine to stimulate your muscles? Any results?

 

[Nighthawk]

I have read that TENS machines are supposed to stimulate the sensory nerves and might relieve pain, whenever there is pain involved but, they should be used sparingly and...at very low current level to achieve this.

At a high current level they could affect adversely the motor nerves and cause lots muscle of twitching which is not good to PALS because it would speed up the degeneration of those muscles fibers already being denervated by the death of the Motor Neurons. Just my 2 cents.

Hope this helps.

NH

 

[notme]

I love my TENS unit. IT helps me a lot with back pain.

Not sure at all it would help with spasticity and PLS issues, though. I've never noted a decrease in those areas on myself when I use my TENS--just pain less. I use mine in very high levels as low levels don't help me anymore. They kind of work by stopping the pain signals from reaching the brain. Think of them as a short circuit that catches the pain before it can travel up the spinal cord to the brain (all pain comes from the brain--it is what sends the signals that say "Ow this hurts".

I'd tend to believe Nighthawk. I don't have a diagnosis of ALS and have never been told not to use it on high--HE has ALS and would know moreso than I.