Humans have been using electric nerve stimulus to treat pains and aches for thousands of years!

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Hippocrates the father of Western medicine used this treatment in ancient Greece and Scribonius Largus, a Roman doctor, recommended this treatment after he discovered that mild shocks from an electric fish helped with the symptoms of pain relief. Electric eels have long been on record as being utilised in early medical treatments.

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In the late 18th century, Benjamin Franklin was an enthusiast of this treatment. In 1747 he made the discovery that electricity is a fluid energy that can enter a body without destroying it, a discovery that forerunners drew on later when making their inventions work on human bodies.

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TENS treatment has now well and truly entered the mainstream, but what is it and how does it work?

 

The electrical impulses generated by the TENS machine block pain messages sent to the brain. The central nervous system is a ‘gate’ mechanism in the brain and spinal cord nerves. When the gate is open, pain messages get through to the brain. Conversely, when the gate is closed, these messages are blocked and we do not feel pain.

 

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