♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
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- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- And we're the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- How and when to use a tens unit for pain relief,
which, gonna keep it simple, Brad,
we're gonna get right down to basics here.
- It's a wonderful device,
and it works great on chronic pain.
And when it works for people,
it really works well, I've found.
But Bob there's people out there waiting.
- Thanks for coming.
- It's a beautiful day out there.
- Yeah, it is, finally.
- By the way, if you are new to our channel,
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We provide videos on how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free,
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- Yeah.
- Can we just say it that way?
- Yeah, yeah.
And it's working Bob.
You know, people are starting to like us more every day.
- I found one yesterday that liked me.
- Tens unit.
- What is it?
- What is tens?
- T E N S, transcutaneous-
- Acronym.
- I'm sorry.
- Acronym, oh.
It's transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.
- I've also heard it called
transcutaneous electrical neuromuscular stimulation.
- Yeah.
- So it's either way.
- Right.
One way or another it's a mouthful,
so you just say tens.
- Right.
- And what does it do?
So you got this acronym or this big title,
and it's for managing pain.
It's not gonna eliminate pain, but it manages it.
- It doesn't help it heal.
I mean, it's really...
Like, you said chronic pain, quite often, Right?
- Right.
- Oftentimes, for someone who has chronic pain,
they're taking pain meds.
They're having problems and side effects of the pain meds.
This can eliminate taking the pain meds,
and there's no side effects to this.
- Right.
It's really, I mean,
with the the exception of some precautions,
it really is a a great device to use if it works.
'Cause again, I don't know.
I mean, what percentage would you think
works on your patients?
- Well, I would say-
- What percentage?
- Probably about 50%.
- That's what I would say the same thing.
It's about 50%.
It just seems like some people really like it,
and some people like, "It really didn't do anything for me."
- And I think some people from tens, they hear tens,
they don't think too much about it.
Then, they hear something about electricity.
People can get a little nervous about that.
- Right.
- But you don't have to have any concerns there.
It's completely safe.
The amount of ampere juice for this is so small.
They're completely...
you know, it's not gonna do anything to you
except for give you the sensation-
- Well, having said that though, you wanna start off slowly.
- Well.
- 'Cause you can zap yourself pretty good with it,
I mean, if you turn it way up.
- But it's not gonna hurt you.
- No, no.
- You'll feel it, but you can't get electrocuted.
Let me put it that way.
- Right, exactly.
- It's safe that way.
How does it work?
So it's like, what are we doing?
We're hooking up electrodes, some wires to us.
And what it's doing is
it's doing something called the gate theory,
which we don't want to get into the whole details of it.
- Specifics of it too much.
- But it blocks the messages of pain from the...
if this is a pain site right here on my elbow,
it interferes or interrupts the pain message to your brain.
So you don't feel it.
- It cuts it right off.
- Right.
- It stimulates a nerve that cuts it off.
- What I use an analogy is if you burn your finger,
and you put your finger under cold water,
you don't feel the pain.
You feel the cold water running over it.
- Right.
- It's not exactly the same thing
but if you can think of it that way.
- Kind of even when you rub,
like when you're having pain you know,
you hurt something, you start rubbing it.
- Right.
- I mean, that's the same thing.
You're also kind of cutting off the pain by...
you're flooding the pain nerves.
- Right.
So that they, they can't respond as well
- I think we've got people glazed over.
- Yeah, completely, yeah.
It works on 50% of the people.
Let's just say that.
- And the other thing is
it does get some endorphins going so-
- Right.
You can't have this on all the time.
I usually go for a maximum of 30 minutes,
but afterwards you get some endorphin release,
which can continue the pain relief after you turn it off.
- My understanding Brad, was
that if you use like low tens, it's more endorphins,
which again, people aren't gonna understand that.
- Right.
- But if you use high tens, you can keep it on all day
'cause it's the gate theory, and it just keeps working.
You know what I mean?
- Right, right.
- It's depending on what you're trying to go for,
so I think you can leave it on longer times.
- Well, then, the other thing...
And see, obviously there's-
- There's different schools of thought on it.
- Theories and controversies.
If you leave it on all the time,
does your body acclimate to it?
- Adapt to it.
Right.
- And sometimes it does,
and then, we say turn it up more.
- Sure, or change the channel,
which we'll get into it, or the frequency.
- Okay.
- Okay, so people are really gonna be wondering about this.
- Yeah.
When we get to the use of it,
they're really not real hard to use.
So who can use it?
Like this, we're going through the iReliev.
- iReliev.
This was... We just looked online
and found one that had really good reviews.
It was a decent price, a very good price, I thought,
compared to what they used to be.
- So yeah, we started using it.
It's a nice unit.
- Yeah.
- I would say it's easier than a lot of 'em I've used,
as far as setup and how to use it,
but they recommend nobody under 16.
Sure.
For elderly people or whoever maybe use it
they need to be alert,
be able to, you know, comprehend and and us it well.
- Be educated on it.
- Right, be educated, and you should get an order.
You know, have a doctor or a therapist say this is for you.
- We're saying even maybe if your therapist already said,
you know, "A tens unit would work for you."
Maybe they'd show it to you,
and this is a good review for you.
- Right, right.
Because it does take a little bit of practice
to get used to all the-
- Yeah.
- The ins and outs.
I know when I have a patient,
I spend a whole period with them
showing exactly how to use it.
I show 'em how to use it.
I put it in their hands.
I say, "Can you use it all by yourself?"
And when they can do that, then they can walk out the door.
- Right, exactly.
- So there are some people who will not
and cannot use it under certain health conditions.
One is if you have a pacemaker.
- Right.
- You're not gonna have it if you have a pacemaker.
If you have any metal implants-
- You don't put it over the metal implants.
You can use it; just don't use it over the metal implant.
- Right, so if you got a new knee,
you're not gonna use it over your knee.
And then also-
- If you're pregnant.
You're not gonna use it around water.
You're not gonna use it around a wound, open wound.
- Right.
And I think what you said, Brad, really,
really don't use it from the neck up.
I mean, you don't wanna use it on the carotid arteries.
You don't wanna use it on the temples.
You don't want to use it over your eyes.
So really-
- I don't... I've never-
- Stay away from the neck.
- Right.
From here down.
- You could go in the back.
- Right, lower neck.
Sure.
- Okay, so how do you use it?
So, oh, here it is.
I put it in my pocket.
- All right.
- And which is a nice place to put it.
And they have a belt-
- It's got clip on too.
- Clip for you to put it on your belt.
That is one of the disadvantages of it.
You have some wires that you have to...
and the little unit.
This is small.
- Well, if the wires go into your back, though,
you'd never see 'em,
you know if they were covered up by your shirt
- Right? You have to manage 'em though and figure out
where you're gonna go,
but once you get used to that, it's no big deal.
Now, in this case,
I just picked my arm because it was easy to demonstrate,
but you can use this on any part of your body.
Knee pain, back pain, you know,
chest pain, wherever you have the spot.
If the pain is really drawn out, let's say I had pain
from my neck all the way down to my hand.
That gets kind of hard to manage with a tens,
but if it's a smaller area, it works a little bit easier.
- I don't know if I would do chest pain though,
either, Brad.
- No, yeah.
- Have that checked out if you're having chest pain.
- Right, that's a good point.
Okay, so this red area represents where my pain is.
Let's say I've got some tennis elbow,
and it's running down here.
- Sure.
- I'm gonna put a pad
if I'm just gonna use one channel.
There's two channels on here.
Each channel is two pads.
- Sure.
- You have to have two pads to make the unit work.
So I'm gonna put one pad on this side of the pain
and one pad on this side.
You know, I could put it here and here or here and here,
but I want to cross the pain area.
And then, you do need to spend some time with the book
because there's a lot of little things to remember,
like on this one, but once you get it, it's quite easy.
So it says... there's just...
I dunno, can you see this Lonnie?
Is that pretty clear?
Little closer?
Okay, so I'm just... there's an on button.
- [Bob] That's the on button.
- [Brad] It turns it on.
Here's one channel, and this channel.
I have one channel I'm only using,
and I'm gonna go to mode.
On this particular unit, there's eight modes.
There we go.
Now this is... first I'm gonna set the time.
This asks you to set the time.
It goes five, 10, 20, 30,
all the way up to an hour.
- [Bob] Okay.
- [Brad] I'm just gonna leave it at five minutes.
I'm gonna hit mode again.
Then, it links over here under P, I don't know why.
The P is program I believe.
- [Bob] Sure.
- [Brad] Now mode.
This is on five.
There's eight different modes on here.
If you look in the book,
they tell you what each mode is recommended for,
like back pain, elbow pain, neck pain,
but I found that you can use
whichever mode works good for you in any location.
- [Bob] Yeah.
You don't... you can experiment,
and I would definitely do that
because you'll find something works better than others.
- [Brad] I went through this
sitting on my couch the other night,
and I went through every mode for five minutes,
just to see what they feel like.
And plus, you get used to the unit that way.
- [Bob] Right.
- So that works out well.
So I'm just gonna go to channel one; gonna push that.
That's blinking, and now I can go.
There's a plus and a minus.
The on has a plus below it; off has a minus below it.
So now, we're gonna go off the plus, which means
- [Bob] You're increasing the intensity.
- [Brad] Right.
I'm at three, four.
I start to feel a little tingle.
Pins and needles.
- [Bob] Sure.
- [Brad] Now I have some people you can go way up
before they start to feel it.
- [Bob] Right.
- [Brad] And I've had other people that-
- [Bob] Almost immediately.
- [Brad] I just hit, right, one, two or three,
and it's like, "Oh, I really feel it."
So everyone feel-
- [Bob] Way different.
- [Brad] Yep, responds different.
- [Bob] I've had people where I thought
the unit didn't work.
I pushed it up so high.
Then I put it on myself and I'm like-
- [Brad] Oh yeah, it's jumping.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- [Brad] So I'm at eight right now,
and I can feel it.
- [Bob] Now you can start to see it pulse a little bit.
- [Brad] Right.
Now, if I go high enough, it's normal,
particularly where you put the pads.
I'll go a little higher.
You can see it's starting to make my muscles contract.
- [Bob] Right.
- [Brad] Little neuromuscular-
- [Bob] Which is kind of a wild feeling.
- [Brad] Right, and there we go.
- [Bob] Yeah, there it is.
- [Brad] I'll go a little more.
- [Bob] It's moving on its own there.
- [Brad] Now, see, this finger's contracted all by itself.
- [Bob] He's not doing that.
- [Brad] Right, I'm gonna pull it back.
Now, this is too high because I cannot function.
Because it's making my muscles contract.
Or I have to move the electrodes.
I'm gonna go back down.
That's at 11, and we're gonna go down.
And I believe this goes up to 30.
I've never gone as high as it could go.
I have to look on the instructions.
I did not do that because it's not important
at this point in time.
But now, if you have more pain
or you want to manage this even more aggressively,
you put four pads on.
Okay?
- [Bob] And you can, by the way,
I don't remember what they recommend,
but you don't want the pads too close together either.
- [Brad] Right.
- [Bob] I don't remember.
It's a couple inches or an inch, at least.
- [Brad] Right.
Yeah, if you put 'em right next to each other,
it's too close.
You gotta have some distance.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- Now I've got the other pad set up here.
Bob, do you wanna hold onto that for a second?
- He's got a lot of trust here in me.
Doesn't he?
- Yeah.
Go ahead and plug that in.
- So that was channel one.
Now, this is going into channel two, this lead.
- And so now, I'm gonna surround it.
And make sure you put the pads so they make a crisscross.
- Sure.
- So this is one channel.
This lead and this lead is one channel.
You wouldn't wanna put the same channel
here, here, and here and here
'cause the current's just gonna go directly across
from there to there.
You wanna crisscross them
so the current goes this way and then crosses this way.
So it makes an X.
- And you may want to clean the skin before you do this.
- [Brad] Right.
- And if you have a lot of hair, you may wanna shave it.
- Yep.
It'll give you better contact.
Plus, the pads last longer.
- Right.
'Cause you gotta take these on and off,
and the cleaner they are and the less hair you have,
the longer they last
when they wear out and they don't stick anymore
- Comes with eight pads, which is pretty decent.
You know, Brad and I are old enough
that we remember when tens units cost like $1,000.
I mean, they were like $1,500.
- Right, right.
- And now, for 39.95, you can get one of these units.
It just blows my mind to be honest with you.
- Okay, so we got both pads.
I'm going on channel one.
I'm gonna just bring that up to nine.
Now, I'm gonna hit channel two,
and then the channel two number is blinking away.
And I'm gonna go up on channel two.
Whoa.
I'm gonna...
Ooh.
Now, I'm at four there,
and I've got all the intensity that I want.
- [Bob] Are you feeling channel one also right now?
- [Brad] Well, right now,
I feel it kind of all over the place.
- [Bob] Okay, so it's hard to tell.
- Right, which is a good thing.
Now, I wouldn't want to go any higher
'cause I can feel my muscles start to be enervated,
and I can still control 'em though.
I would probably...
I'm thinking I'm gonna go back to channel one
and go down just a little.
There, that's better.
- And you can experiment on the placement of the pads too.
- Right.
- Like they talk about
if you do have pain going down the arm,
sometimes, they do recommend going down the nerve path.
- Right.
- Putting one along there.
- If you had a long, you know, a long pain pattern,
you might put one here and one here,
one channel and then another channel down here.
- Yep.
- Then, you gotta...
This is the thing.
You gotta get the wires managed or tucked in properly.
So with this, I would probably run 'em up through my sleeve
down into here,
and then, I would tuck this in my pocket
or put it on my belt.
- You can wear long sleeves.
- Sure, yep.
So that is just something you have to manage,
but if it takes care of the pain,
you don't have to take pain pills,
it's gonna be well worth it.
- That's a big plus.
- So very good, Bob.
I really think that this is gonna be a lot...
help a lot of people with pain,
but there's one thing that, again, we're working on.
It's not gonna help cure that.
- I don't remember what it is.
- The broken heart.
- Oh yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
We Can fix just about anything except for a broken heart.
- This isn't gonna help for that, Bob.
I don't think.
- Thanks for watching.