Electrical Muscle Stimulation

What is Electrical Muscle Stimulation?
Electrical Muscle Stimulation, also known as EMS or E-Stim, involves healing the body with slight and harmless electrical pulses through the use of electrodes placed onto the skin. These electrical currents force the targeted muscles to quickly contract, and this quick contraction leads to a relaxing of the muscle.

Once the muscle begins to fatigue and relax, the patient’s existing muscle spasms begin to settle, leading to pain relief and accelerated healing from injury. The contractions also trigger the natural release of endorphins, thus further relieving pain in the targeted area.

Electrical Muscle Stimulation Goals

– Flexible Stimulation: A strength of Electrical Muscle Stimulation therapy is its flexibility. Wherever electrodes can be placed on the body, EMS therapy can be applied. This includes the back of the neck, knees, ankles, wrists, shoulders, the back, and other places.
– Passive Treatment: For patients who are unable to engage in direct physical exercise programs for rehabilitation, Electrical Muscle Stimulation is a successful alternative. Studies have found that electrical stimulation of the muscle can be just as effective as rehabilitation exercise programs, leading to similar levels of pain relief and stiffness reduction.

What does Electrical Muscle Stimulation treat?
EMS is used both as a rehabilitation tool and a strength-training tool, as it directly engages the body’s muscles to help relieve a number of conditions, such as:

– Inflammation
– Muscle Spasms
– Edema
– Headache pain
– Low range of motion
– High stress