hey everybody it's Doctor Jo. today I'm going to show you how to use a TENS
unit for hip pain. so let's get started.
So the folks at Healthmate forever sent me their wee little NTS 8 unit to use, and
so that's what I'm going to use for the tens unit today. and if you're interested
in purchasing any of their tens EMS units, you can click on the link up there.
so I'm going to start off with using four electrodes. so with a TENS unit you
can use either two electrodes which is one channel or four electrodes which is
two channels. and so you can connect them here and so what makes it nice about
that is each channel has two electrodes. so if you're just trying to get like
general hip pain, usually using four electrodes is the best because what you
want to do is make each channel cross. so you don't want to hear it here, you want
your pain to kind of be in the middle and then you have an electrode here here
here and here, so it's crossing each other. so that's where the intensity goes.
sometimes I think people forget about that and then they don't feel it quite
as well because it's just going this way versus this way, so I'm going to do the
four electrodes which is the two channels, and so what's really nice about
this is you just kind of stick them on it doesn't have to be specific. for a
TENS unit you're just trying to kind of get the general area. so you don't have
to, everybody has to be here, everybody has to be here, everybody has to be here,
so if for example maybe I was having some hip bursitis and that greater
trochanteric hip bursitis right there, what you do is when you get that point
tender spot, you're gonna put an electrode here, an electrode here for one channel, and
then an electrode here, and an electrode here for the other channel. so the big thing
about the tens not being exact is sometimes once you turn it on you might
have to move the electrodes just a little bit, but that's okay because it's
got a pause button here so you don't even have to turn the whole unit off. you
can just pause it move the electrode a little bit,
and then try it again. so sometimes it's a little bit of a learning curve finding
the right spot, but then if you once you find the right spot, you can kind of go to
that because again it doesn't have to be exact. so then if you maybe had some
piriformis pain, piriformis syndrome in the back here, so maybe it's just like
this spot, so you would do one here, one here, one here, one here, so they're
crossing each other. just getting that in general area. so if you wanted to get
more of a specific spot so maybe you're saying it's just right here, it's not
really the whole area, this spot is one that hurts, then you can just do the one
channel which is two electrodes and just put one here and one here. or you can do
it side to side whichever one is more comfortable for you. so then you're
getting it in the specific spots because the closer the electrodes are, the
stronger it's going to be. and so it's kind of the same if you have four
electrodes that are around it's kind of a general strongness, but if you have too
close together it's going to be a lot stronger, so that's just kind of how you
can do it, if you want the two electrodes or if you want the four electrodes. but
the biggest thing to remember is to make sure and cross it. so also with the tens,
you don't want to get a muscle contraction. if you feel like your muscle
is doing this, it's on too high, or you need to change those pads because the
tens is a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. so it's just it's
stimulating those top nerves. it's not going down into the muscle. so it's
helping with pain, it's helping increase the circulation, but there are some
things that you might have that you shouldn't use a tens unit for, so make
sure that you talk to your healthcare provider about is it okay and is it safe
to use for your particular injury or ailments. so I'm gonna put these on and
then I'll go into a little more detail about what to do with this. so I've got
in place now and I just put my shorts back down because I didn't want to blind
you with my milky-white thighs, but what I have is for the channel one it's here,
and here. that's where the electrode is. and for channel two it's here and here. so
I'm I'm placing the electrodes as if I that hip bursitis or greater
trochanteric bursitis. so what's nice here at the 8 the NTS 8 part, means
there's the 8 settings. and so a lot of times people will ask well what settings
should I use for my pain. well as long as you're doing the tens settings, it doesn't
really matter. some people might tell you the different frequencies or wavelengths
are better for one thing or the other, but what they all really do the same
thing. they just feel differently, so I usually say put it on the lowest setting.
so I'm just gonna, I'm just going to turn the intensity up until I can feel it,
and then I'm just gonna try out each one and see which one I like the best.
so for tens, you're really trying to decrease the pain, help increase that
circulation, so you want it to be the most comfortable for you. there's no
reason you should be sitting there going like this the whole time because it's
uncomfortable or it doesn't feel good. so if you get it on and you're like hmm
I don't like that setting, then you just hit the little M or the mode, and it'll
go to the next one. and then you just then bump up the intensity with that. so
if you get to one then you're like that one you know it's kind of a prickly one,
then just move on to the next setting. and so this one is the one I like a
little bit better it kind of ramps up nice and slow and comes back down. but so
you can see ,I have it on I have it about setting three where it's pretty light
for me, I would want a little bit stronger, but again you shouldn't really
see any muscles contracting. so I'm gonna see I'm not sure if I have it in a spot,
but I'm gonna take it up and see if I can get some, so there is a contraction
there. I don't know if you can see that, I'm gonna I'm gonna go even higher. if
I'm getting that contraction that means it's it's too high.
you don't want to actually see the muscle contraction because then you're
fatiguing out that muscle and that's not the goal of the tens unit. so if it
you're getting too much with that and you see a muscle contraction especially
on other parts of the body that don't have as much meat on them, you might just
either need to change the placement of electrodes, or just go down in the
intensity a little bit because again that one was pretty uncomfortable. I
wouldn't want to sit there for 15 or 20 minutes with it on with that feeling, so
if you know you're like oh oh and your muscles squeezing tight then that's just
too much for you. so again if you're interested in purchasing
the healthmate forever either tens unit, EMS unit, make sure you click on the link
up there. and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down there. and remember be
safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.