User:Rmohme

Facial Electrical-Stimulation

Background on Electrical Stimulation in medicine: History of Muscle Stimulation

-47 AD: Ancient Rome: Scribonius Largus was charged by Gaius Julius Callistus, the emperor’s freedman, to draw up a list of remedies. He published 271 prescriptions, (Compositiones), mostly his own. In addition to herbal remedies, he described the use of electrically charged sea rays called “torpedos” for medical application. (Sounds like he put the “eel” in “heal”). Seems Scribonius was able to use the ray’s electrical current to relieve and even cure some chronic headaches, and reduce the pains of arthritis, including gout. Four hundred years later, his work was copied by Marcellus Empiricus.

165 AD: Galen of Pergamum (Turkey); (131-201): a major influence on European medicine until the renaissance, he concurred with Largus about the effectiveness of electricity from torpedo rays in treating pain in humans.

1743; Germany: Professor Johann Gottlob Kruger the University of Halle, suggests that electricity might be used in treatments for paralysis, and for some of its associated symptoms. 1745; Germany: Professor Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, also from the University of Halle, publishes a book on electrotherapy. In sort of a primitive “electric chair”, he seats the patient on a wooden stool, then draws static electricity from him by means of a large revolving frictional glass globe near the affected body parts.

1780’s; Italy: Dr. Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), professor of Anatomy at the University of Bologna, first notes the twitching of frog’s leg muscles with the contact with electrical current. He then proved that atmospheric electricity, such as lightning, would do the same thing. 1800; Italy: Carlo Matteucci ((1811-1868)- demonstrates that injured tissue generates electrical current. Alessandro Volta shows that electricity is produced from the contact of two different metals in a moist environment. 1820-; Sinusuoidal stimulation is developed worldwide.  This is the advent of alternating current, a more controlled way to deliver it to test subjects.

1831-1834; England: Michael Faraday (1791-1897), Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich from 1830-51, discovers electro-magnetic induction. This leads to the development of modern dynamos and generators. 1840; England Dr. Golding Bird (1814-1854) establishes the first electrical therapy department at the famed Guy’s Hospital. He uses mechanically pulsed Galvanic current. 1860-; England Orthopedic surgeon W. Rowley Bristow develops (and, we presume, also named) the Bristow Coil, using Faraday’s principle of electromagnetically controlled voltages. He published a book on “the Treatment of Joint and Muscle Injuries”

1891; USA: Nicola Tesla (1856-1943), one of the great geniuses of the electrical age, presents a paper in “Electrical Engineer” about the medical application of high frequency currents. He fortold of the Longwave, Shortwave and Microwave diathermy devices, all common in medicine today. He is considered the inventor of alternating current, as opposed to the direct current favored by his work-mate Thomas Edison 1891; France: Jacques-Arsene d’Arsonval ((1851-1940), reporting to the Societe de Biologie, showed that a high frequency current (more than 10,000 cycles per second (HZ) can be passed through the body with just the sensation of heat. Below this frequency, muscle contraction is demonstrated. He also notes that these high frequency currents can modify several physiologic functions, eg respiratory exchange, dilation of peripheral blood vessels, and arterial blood pressure. 1900-; Worldwide: In the 20th century, the work of pioneers Galvani, Faraday, and Tesla were adopted into therapeutic devices. 1906; USA: Lee de Forest builds the first thermonic triode vacuum valve, which bypasses the need for the spark-gap method of delivering current to human tissue. 1908: Germany; Herr Doktors Von Berndt, Von Priess and Von Zeyneck publish a paper on the treatment of arthritis with high frequency currents. 1914-; England World War I casualties are treated with electrotherapy at London’s Guy’s Hospital. These therapists are called “medical electricians”. Their results were excellent for treating pain. 1930’s: Germany Comfort comes to electrical stimulation, thanks to the development of interferential currents. 1946; USA Nobel Prize winner (Physics-1956) Dr. William Shockley (very appropriate name) produces the first transistor, which replaces the vacuum valve. He was born in London in 1910, but his family returned to the USA when he was three years old. He is considered to be the founder of the semiconductor industry, but fell into disrepute as a lousy manager, whose employees quit and founded Intel. 1969; Australia: Lamers makes the world’s first portable electronic stimulator.

1970’s; USA Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is acknowledged by the FDA, and electrical therapy enters the modern medical era. Medical uses are even enhanced when this stimulation is passed through the skin with acupuncture needles. Since then researchers all over the world have added to our knowledge of how electrical stimulation heals tissues, cures pain. Because it has been shown to release endorphine from the pituitary gland, it is also a great mood elevator, helping cases of depression and anxiety. Due to the simultaneous output of cortisone from the patient’s adrenal gland, this therapy is also excellent for asthma. Orthopedic surgeons find a new use for electricity to heal recalcitrant pieces of a fracture (so-called non-union fractures). 1976- Canada, USA: In addition to its medical uses, facial treatments begin to demonstrate a toning of the superficial muscles of the face. Great for cases of partial paralysis, like Bell’s Palsy or strokes, this also becomes very popular for cosmetic purposes. Spas begin to use very sophisticated e-stim machines to do these facials, which have pleased millions of patients for over 4 decades.

1999; USA: Home version's of the big spa machines are developed. FaceMaster is introduced, the product of co-developers Rodger Mohme (formerly lead engineer for Apple Computers’ Notebook) and Peter G. Hanson, M.D. It was introduced to the US market with Suzanne Somers, and has since sold over 600,000 units for home use.