Electrical Muscle Stimulators: A reassessment

One of the tools that can at minimal cost enhance the physical strength of individuals with diseases that leave muscles atrophied is electrical muscle stimulators.

In the 60s and 70s such devices were recommended on paralytic polio children in developing countries. However, misdirected expectations and lack of understanding sometimes led to disastrous results. For many children who had already lost all muscle functions in some areas such as the quadriceps muscles,repeated electric muscle stimulation only led to further atrophy and further weakened the leg. In other instances, there voltage mis-calibration issues that led to similar results. As a result such tools stopped being recommended to post polio paralytic patients in countries where the condition is still prevalent such as Africa or in China. In fact in the Post Polio re-habiliatation prescriptions, EMS are still viewed as unreliably bettering patients' condition. Reliable empirical information is scarce and reasonable theories led to questioning any claim of improvement.

In China where surgical practice via muscle transfer help functionally recreate basic lost muscle function, very often muscle strength gained via such procedures still fall quite short of normal strength. Here, aggressive physical therapy can help carry the base strength gained quite a long way. A quite affordable component of such physical therapy rehabilitation process is the use of electrical muscle stimulators or EMS. See Reference and refences within.

Nowadays there are many relatively inexpensive and easily portable versions of such muscle stimulators with electronically calibrated voltage that can even be carried under clothes and programmed at various level of strength with various alternating combination of stimulation and rest. I've shown some commercial examples below. By targeting areas where basic muscle strength exist, significant muscle growth can be gained.

Unfortunately in many developing countries there is limited awareness nowadays of the possible gradual improvements that are possible. My own recent experience has so far delivered tangible and measurable progress.

References:

Warning on the use of Threshold Electrical Stimulator (TES) on post polio patients:
http://www.englewoodhospital.com/pdf/polio_library/tes.pdf
Note that our personal finding here is on post muscle transfer surgery patients such as myself