TENS pain relief machines

Hi,

I've only heard of them as TENs machines. I haven't used one, but my mother in law used one when her hip pain was bad prior to the replacement operation - she found it gave her some relief. From my limited understanding they interfere with the conduction of pain along the nerves. They might reduce some arthritis pain, but I wouldn't expect them to have a big influence on any inflammation associated with pain - though I'm sure someone else will be able to give more information

FBx

I can only assume you mean TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation). This offers plenty of good information about them.
Yes, it will be good for arthritic pain (including inflammatory arthritis) and works by stimulating the pain gate and/or releasing local endorphones at the spinal level synapses, essentially short-circuiting the pain gate.
TENS is purely an analgaesic, and won't affect healing at all; but is good for chronic, intractable pains like arthritis; I often recommend it to patients.

Make sure the machine you get allows you to control the dose, too many of the cheap and easy machines have one setting and one setting only, which doesn't allow you to tailor it to yourself, or to choose which of the effects you're after.
Bear in mind that in a lot of cases of biomechanical pain, the pain is there for a reason, so reducing this pain may lead to an exaccerbation of the underlying problem. This shouldn't be a problem with arthritis; but don't recommend it to others unless you are sure that analgaesia won't lead to exaccerbation.

Whoops! Yes, TENS is exactly what I meant to type (where did Pens come from?!)
And thanks for the information - very helpful.

Can I also add that the best results are usually obtained if you experiment with the settings on the pulse rate setting of the TENS machine. If you ae not getting pain relief it usually means that you have not got the setting quite right for your body.

Lloyds chemist have them on offer at the moment, at £15.00 if you want to check them out, don't know if they are variable setting or not.

Whoops! Yes, TENS is exactly what I meant to type (where did Pens come from?!)

I've edited the thread title for you so it now says TENS. 😉

Love and Reiki Hugs

Thanks, Giles!

Hi
I used a tens machine when I had my 1st baby & they did help with the early stages of labour, like feur mentioned, Lloyds are doing an offer on them from £39.99 to £14.99...bargin;) & you can alter the setting on them, heres a link

Love
Amy
xxx

My mum's recently got one of the lloyds ones (she didn't know that I sell them, even though she had our rental machine for a fortnight - bless).

I would advice avoiding them if I were you. As both Kaz and I have said, you need to be in control of the settings, and you need to tinker with them, both the pulse time, and the frequency settings; if you're in chronic pain, then things like burst &/ modulation modes are useful too.

If it helps, are the machines that I stock and sell, having tried out several, aand come to an informed decision.

This is the information I include with it when giving them to patients:

Neural Stimulation:

Works by stimulating an action potential in nerve axons, creating sensory “overload” or muscle twitch.
Aβ Sensory Nerve Stimulation: “Overloads” the “pain gate”, reducing the patient’s perception of pain. There is minimal carry-over once switched off. May be used continuously through the day. Accommodation may occur (Rx becomes less effective at current intensity). This is most effective for acute Px; is purely analgesic.
Aδ Sensory Nerve Stimulation: Gradually floods the “pain gate” with endorphins (encephalin) which chemically “disables” the “pain gate”, reducing the patient’s perception of pain. There is a significant carry-over once switched off, which can last up to 6-8 hours (1 Hour burst of Rx is plenty to induce this). Continuous use through the day is not recommended, cyclical use is better. Accommodation very rarely occurs. This is most effective for chronic Px; is purely analgesic.
Motor Nerve Stimulation: “Fires” a motor nerve, creating a twitch in the supplied muscle fibres; this helps to strengthen the muscle directly, and to help the patient gain conscious control of muscles (eg VMO, TvA etc). This muscle twitch can also reduce oedema, whilst increase vascularity locally to the muscle twitch, by using the muscle as a venous/lymphatic pump, helping the healing process. Stimulation of Type I muscle fibres can increase the endurance potential of the muscle, potentially converting some Type IIa fibres to Type I. Stimulation of type IIa muscle fibres can increase the overall strength of the muscle, potentially converting Type I and Type IIb fibres to Type IIa. Stimulation of Type IIb fibres can increase the explosive power of the muscle, potentially converting Type IIa fibres to Type IIb.

Selecting Treatment:

TENS: Is best at stimulating sensory nerves, but can stimulate motor nerves.
NMES: Is best at stimulating motor nerves, but can stimulate sensory nerves.
IFT: Is a mimic therapy, and can mimic either, but not as successfully as the specialists, but is more comfortable, better tolerated, and often providing swifter results.

Dose Calculations:

TENS: Aβ nerves: Pulse Time: 200µs ± 25µs
Frequency: 110Hz ± 25Hz
Intensity is just the volume, numbers are irrelevant

TENS: Aδ nerves: Pulse Time: 200µs ± 25µs
Frequency: 3.5Hz ± 2Hz
Intensity is just the volume, numbers are irrelevant

Pad placement: 1 channel at location of pain; 1 channel at relevant spinal level (horizontal & vertical, if same)
Mode (mobile): N, for normal – use this 99% of time
B, for burst - best used for an acute exacerbation of a chronic condition

(fires fewer of both Aβ & Aδ nerves)

M, for modulation – best used for patients using Aβ nerve stimulation for ≥6 hours a day

(varies the frequency at an average as shown)

S1/S2 - Don’t bother with these; sweeps the pulse time, very rarely affects treatment

Bia - good description (but if your patients are like mine, they don't follow them:))
I was taught that if you have it on the burst setting it only fires at 10Hz whatever setting you have carefully put it on:confused:
PS I use the TPN 200

It certainly shouldn't do; but may well average out at around that; it would probably give a burst of say 100Hz, but only sending out the signal for a tenth in every second. Or at least, that's my understanding anyway.

I good tip to test it out if you have a spare pair of wires is to attach them to a pair of speakers / headphones (cut the cable, bind the wiring, insulate). you should then hear what the machine is throwing out; should also work on NMES (IFT would probably be too high a frequency).

I tend to find patients more or less follow my advice on TENS, but nost on most things. Probably because the advice is on the settings that there's no way for them to know otherwise, rather than ice/exercises etc that they can't be bothered with.

PS, thanks for the back-up that I'm using it right 🙂

PPS, I just prefer the digital controls of the 300D; just more user friendly

Thanks for the responses. I bought one of these from Lloyds a week ago and so far my wife has been delighted with the results. The machine is fully adjustable and has given her a lot of comfort. She has used it on her upper back and, particularly, her hip.
It is still available, according to the Lloyds website, for £14.99. Based on my wife's experiences, I'd recommend it as a bargain to anyone suffering from arthritic pain.