♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi folks. I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- So what exactly does a TENS unit do for pain?
We're talking about Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve
or Neuromuscular Stimulation.
- That's a mouthful. - It's a mouthful.
- TENS is easier.
- And we'll get into that in just a minute.
But if you are a new to our channel, by the way,
please take a second to subscribe to us.
We provide videos,
how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free and we upload every day.
Also go to bobandbrad.com, go to the giveaway section.
This week, we are giving away a TENS unit.
- Oh yes.
- So we're gonna give away actually the 8080.
That's our favorite one.
I'll talk about why it's our favorite little later on.
- That's a model of the TENS.
- Yes. - You'll see.
- Can also find the giveaway on Facebook,
it'll be pinned to the top of the page.
Go to Twitter, Instagram, or Tik-Tok
if you want a 60 second version of our program,
where we don't ramble.
- That's right. 60.
- And Brad what else do we have?
- Well, now we do have podcasts out there
and it's more than just us on there.
We've got excellent people from authors.
- Really great interviews.
- To experts. Carry on Bob. (chuckling)
- Yeah okay.
- So we're talking about TENS units.
It's a small battery-operated device
and it can be used to treat pain.
- Right.
- Especially if you're on any narcotics
or prescription medication.
- And you want to get off of them.
- You wanna get off them
or maybe use them less.
- Sure. Yup.
- This is the thing for you to try,
because it's gonna be less expensive
and it's gonna be less harmful to your body.
It really has no contraindications to a large extent.
I mean, if you have a pacemaker
or something like that, but...
- Right.
- You'll wanna read on their website, probably,
what the contraindications are
or what their precautions are.
So how does it work? It creates electrical impulses.
And Brad, do you want to show
how you got it pulsating right now?
- Yeah, so I've got this hooked up to my deltoid area.
Let's say maybe I had a shoulder pain,
impingement problem or whatever,
and I wanted to manage it.
I've got two pads and that equals one channel.
- Right.
- You know, electricity goes through one wire
through and actually it goes through your body.
It's a very small amount of current
it is not gonna injure you.
You can adjust the intensity.
- And the mode. There's different modes.
- Right. Yep.
- You can see it pulsating there.
- Right, you don't have to set it so it pulsates the muscle.
We're doing it so that you can see that it's on
and it can be-
- It actually works.
- Yep, exactly.
So you would, if this was the case,
you would set it up like this.
I've got it set for 15 minutes.
It's already down to 12.
This, I would-
- Stick in your pocket?
- Stick in my pocket. I'd route the wire under my shirt.
So it wouldn't get caught. Put it in my pocket.
And let's say I wanted to use that
about three or four times a day.
I would set it up for 15 to 30 minutes.
It would timeout when it's done.
And then you can turn it on again later in the day.
- They do have wireless ones too,
but they're a lot more expensive.
- Right. Right.
- And a little more difficult, I think, to set up.
Me personally.
- It's one of those things that with time,
those will get easier and easier.
- Right. You get accustomed to it.
How does a TENS unit work?
It works through two manners.
One is they call it the gate theory,
the electrical impulses from the machine,
they actually flood your nervous system
and they cut off the pain signal
or reduce the pain signal.
- When he says flood the nervous system.
He doesn't mean throughout your whole body.
- Just that spot.
- At the location. That's why you put it where the pain is.
And we do have videos to explain in detail where you would
place those electrodes.
- And I've seen people, for me
I'd say maybe 50% of the people really get some good relief.
- Right.
- And some people they're not so sure about it.
- Right. Right.
- So it's something to try.
The other thing it does.
It stimulates your body to produce natural endorphins.
- Sure.
- And so you actually can put this on, take it off
and you might get some relief for several hours afterwards.
- Right. Exactly.
- Without it.
- The people that really benefit from this.
They really appreciate that aspect of it.
You turn it off and it's not done.
It's almost like you continue to feel the stimulation.
- Right after it's off - Afterwards,
yeah it's a very interesting sensations.
- The one we like is actually a rechargeable one
and so it's a little more expensive.
This is their most inexpensive one
it's a 1313 model, right Brad?
- Yes. Yep.
And this one, you put three 'AAA' batteries in it
and they last quite a while,
but the other one, you just charge it up
through the USB port. - Right.
- A little more handy.
- They used to all have batteries.
It's a hassle.
- Right. Back in the day.
- Back in the day. (laughing)
Research really indicates
that it works well for acute pain.
That's pain that's just presented itself suddenly.
- Yup.
- And it also works well on people who've had operations.
- Right. Yep. - Postoperative pain.
- Exactly.
- A little more mixed on chronic pain.
But, what I would say is it's so much safer
and less expensive than opioids,
that I would absolutely give it a try.
- Yes. For sure.
- And some of the opioids are obviously addictive
and you can become dependent upon them
or they may have adverse side effects.
- Right.
- This really, for a relatively low cost, it is worth while.
- Yeah. I mean, you can just for a bottle of pain pills
you could probably buy one of these or more.
I just wanted to mention one case, a little case history.
My uncle, who was severely electrocuted,
he literally lost half of his fingers from electrocution,
because his insulative gloves, it's a long story,
but they melted right to his fingers
- Oh my gosh. - and they peeled them off.
But anyways, he was taking pain meds for decades, literally.
This happened in the sixties
and it wasn't until I believe the nineties
when he got a TENS unit and it was like,
why didn't I know about this years ago.
- What a miracle.
- And it really helped him manage his pain.
'Cause it's a chronic thing.
You know, when you have something like that.
- Right, and you can use this daily,
several times a day and not worry about it.
So they are, as you can see small and portable.
We like to use the 8080,
because again, it's rechargeable,
it also has a neuromuscular stimulator.
So if you want to stimulate the muscle,
strengthen the muscles, like after you had surgery
and your muscles may have wasted away a little bit.
- Yep.
- It helps recover that way.
So it's got two benefits
and I just think it's really easy to use.
Out all out of all of them
I thought it was one of the easier ones to use.
- Yep.
You just need to get used to that initial use of it
and the feeling of it.
And I personally think it feels good.
It's an interesting sensation.
- I had a friend who just had a spinal stenosis
and we got it for him
because he was having such severe pain in his shoulder.
- And it was successful?
- Yes it was.
- Ah, great.
- So there's hundreds of TENS units on the market
and the vast majority work well.
But we liked iReliev for this reason,
one, many of the TENS units have really poor manuals.
You notice that Brad?
- Yeah, that's kind of interesting enough.
You want to have something simple that step-by-step
and it's clear.
- And a lot of them have really confusing buttons
with weird images on it.
Do you remember that?
(both laughing)
We got a whole bunch of them.
And so we've tried again, dozens of units without a doubt.
And the ones we liked is by iReliev,
we liked the 8080 a lot.
They're simple, they're powerful.
They're easy to use.
They come with really good brochures and booklets
and they also have good videos online on how to use them.
- Right.
- And if that isn't enough,
(both laughing)
- There's more.
- We actually did a program for this.
- What's the program?
- TENS.
- I know, but they don't know what a program is.
- Okay. I see what you're doing.
You're acting like the devil's advocate.
- So you go to Bobandbrad.com go to the program section
and look for TENS under that section.
- Yep.
- We have I don't know, 30 videos on TENS units?
- I don't know. You made them.
- Yeah, I know.
- There is about, it's between 20 and 30, I believe.
And it'll tell you, say you have knee pain
and you want to know where to place electrodes,
go to that one.
And there you'll find the video.
- We even show how to use the 8080.
- Yup, it covers every question you would have
about a TENS unit.
Each video is about 10 minutes long and the big bonus is,
there's a PDF printout.
You can print it out
and you have everything on that video reviewed
and it'll make your life much easier.
It's a good deal.
We don't even ask for your email. No charge.
- No it's all free.
And so the other thing, Brad,
is iReliev products are FDA cleared.
- Yep.
- They're medical grade.
So we know they're high quality.
They're clinically supported.
They're all natural.
Again, like we said, we're gonna provide you,
step-by-step on how to use them.
If you decide to go with other ones, that's fine.
No problem with that at all.
- Right. The. programs will work on any.
All that information is universal for TENS.
- So, you want to follow all the instructions.
Clean the skin
or shave the skin in case it's over a hairy area.
- Yeah, because that will be an issue.
- And like I said,
there are a few instances where you don't want to use it
and you wanna make sure you know what those are.
- And there's a video just on that.
All the precautions, like a pacemaker.
If you have some kind of cardiac issues.
- Now, you can also, by the way,
he's got two electrodes hooked up right now?
- Mm-hm.
- You can do another set of electrodes.
You can do four at the same time
and you have different size pads.
- You can cover a bigger area.
Or I could treat my knee and my shoulder
at the same time. - Yeah they have big pads.
There we go. All right.
We always like to hear comments below
or I can see your comments. Not hear them.
We don't want people yelling at us.
- Like if your wife read them to you,
then you could hear them.
Doesn't she do that?
- Probably not the voice I'd wanna hear.
I'd better not say that. What's wrong with me?
- We better care on.
Have a good day.
- Yeah. Take care.
(upbeat musical flourish)