What are high-voltage electrotherapeutic devices?
Physiotherapy refers to therapeutical methods that use physical energy such as heat, sound waves, water, electricity, light beams, etc. to alleviate a variety of symptoms and ailments. Examples of physiotherapy include massages, moxibustion, laser treatment, infrared light therapy, and spa treatment. Physiotherapies are used in a number of clinical settings. The high-voltage electrotherapy we refer to here is one kind of physiotherapy. Electrotherapy uses high-voltage energy to alleviate headaches, shoulder stiffness, insomnia, and constipation.
Be snugly wrapped in an electrical field
The use of high-voltage energy does not mean electrical current is passed through the body. Electrotherapy involves the use of specialized medical devices that create high-voltage AC electric fields which enfold the entire body.
Electrical fields are places where an electrical charge is present. They cannot normally be felt, but are always generated around objects to which a voltage is being applied. They exist in the vicinities of power lines and household appliances, as well as between thunderclouds and the Earth. In this way, electrical fields are actually common elements in our natural world, which is full of electricity.
<<Reputed Benefits of Electrotherapy>>
Electrical fields have been shown to cause body hair movement, stimulation of the skin, and heightened skin temperature. From this, it is believed that "electrical fields stimulate the sensory receptors that detect sense of touch and pressure at skin, improve blood circulation, and activate the body's regulatory functions".
Nothing can begin without electricity!?
The vital role of electricity in the body
We share a close relationship with electricity. Though we cannot see it, it is all around us.
In fact, the human body is no stranger to electricity. On the contrary, electricity plays an essential role.
Consider nerves, for example. Our nervous system is a communications network unrivaled by even supercomputers, and is simultaneously sending and receiving large amounts of information all the time. When information is sent from nerve cells to other nerve cells, electrical signals are used in the exchanges.
Electricity also shares a deep connection with the heart, without which we could not live. By regularly contracting and expanding, the heart keeps blood flowing throughout the body. This is done by acting as an automatic pump, repeatedly providing electrical impulses at regular intervals from the atria to the ventricles. Incidentally, there is a device that outputs this electrical activity in the heart as a graph. This device, as you may know, is called an electrocardiogram.
Electrotherapy has a history. To begin, we go back to before the Common Era.
The idea to use electricity for therapeutical purposes is a surprisingly ancient one. It was, in fact, 2500 years ago when the Greek physician Aetos used the electrical energy generated by electric ray to treat gout.
Various attempts were later made to use electricity as a folk remedy for ailments. Now, in the modern age, extensive progress is being made in related research and testing. Beginning with William Gilbert (1540 - 1603), a prominent figure in the study of electricity as well as its godfather, lightning was later shown to actually be electricity by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and his kite. History has since produced a series of discoveries concerning electricity, and electrotherapy has evolved in step.
Hiraga Gennai, the father of electrotherapy in Japan
The hand-operated electric generator “ELEKITERU”, built in 1776 by Edo-period inventor Hiraga Gennai, was Japan's first electrotherapeutic device. Gennai used static electricity generated through friction as a medical treatment. At the end of the Edo period, the great Sakuma Shozan (1811-1864) also designed and built electrotherapeutic devices.
More about electrotherapy
-High-voltage electrotherapy
Alleviate headaches, shoulder stiffness, insomnia, and chronic constipation by enfolding head to toe in high-voltage electricity.
There are also other methods of therapy, including low-frequency therapy, ultra-short wave therapy, and high-frequency therapy.
