Did you know that tendons and ligaments do not get a lot of blood flow? And a muscle tear can also take a lot of time to heal without encouraged blood flow. How do we increase blood flow to an area? With acupuncture! And when you add something called electrical-stimulation (e-stim for short), you actually can ramp up the healing process in a directed way to a targeted area. Acupuncture with e-stim was introduced in the 1940’s, created with the intention of healing bone fractures more quickly. This technique works by attaching small diodes emitting a low-frequency and painless electrical current to the exposed ends of a set of Acupuncture needles. Needles are placed at specific points of injury with the strength of the current set based on the condition being treated. And the results are….shocking! 😉

Conditions commonly treated by E-stim include:

• Sports injuries
• Chronic pain
• Bulging Discs
• Arthritis
• Chemotherapy-related nausea
• Stress and anxiety

During your pre-treatment consultation, your Acupuncturist will determine the type of current to be used during your session. There is micro or milli current and also three options of electrical wave patterns are:

• Continuous: used to treat muscle and joint pain, used for short amounts of time due to the strength of the pulse
• Tense and Disperse: used to treat neurological imbalances and acute to chronic nerve pain and inflammation
• Intermittent: use to treat pain, especially pain that can require and handle longer sessions of current

E-stim also allows for the increased release and prolonged blood content of endorphins during your acupuncture treatment, allowing for faster healing speeds for the above stated conditions and natural pain relief. One can expect the sensation of e-stim to resemble someone tapping or lightly stimulating their muscles or surface area (depending on current strength) during the duration of the treatment. Generally sessions last for up to 20 minutes.