Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)
This pain management treatment provides pain relief using a small battery device to deliver weak electrical stimulation to nerves. The TENS unit has two electrodes that are stuck on the body where pain occurs, arranged in a way to cause the weak electrical pulse to follow nerve paths. The strength and wavelength pulses of the electrical current can be adjusted by the doctor to treat different kinds of pain symptoms.
TENS is ideal for treating all types of pain: low back pain, neck pain, knee pain, chronic pain in muscles, joint pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain, pain following surgery, cancer pain, visceral pain, fibromyalgia, bursitis, and tendonitis, and even pain during child birth.
Patients treated with Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation usually feel less pain when the TENS unit is activated. Why TENS works isn’t known, but one theory is that TENS stimulation of the nerves causes the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain killer. Another possible explanation is that the TENS electrical current blocks or scrambles the pain signals the nerves normally send to the brain.
Unlike treating pain using drugs, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation is not addictive, doesn’t cause drowsiness, and has little or no side effects. Patients like the elderly who normally have adverse reactions to drugs and nerve blocks can treat pain with TENS without worry.
Pain management with TENS is affordable, easy, and non-invasive. Call Atlanta Pain Doctors to learn how TENS can treat your pain. Patients who discover pain relief with TENS can even get their own TENS unit to provide pain managment at home.
The science of TENS
Studies show that the nervous system is affected by TENS electrical current because receptors in the supraspinally and spinal cord are stimulated. High-frequency TENS stimulates delta-opiod receptors while low-frequency TENS affects mu-opiod receptors. High-frequency Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation lowers the transmission of nociceptive information, makes central neurons less excited, lowers glutamate neurotransmitter release, and causes more GABA neurotransmitters to be released within the spinal cord. Muscarinic recports that create analgesia to block pain are stimulated. Low-frequency TENS stimulates spinal cord serotonin receptors and serotonin release, activates GABA, and lowers nociceptive neurons in the spinal cord.