RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Improved Fatigue and Ache Reduction: The high-dose TENS group skilled 26.1% extra ache aid and improved strolling capability (8% throughout quick strolling) in comparison with the placebo group, demonstrating its potential to alleviate lengthy COVID signs.
- Wearable and Consumer-Pleasant: Contributors benefitted from the machine’s wearable design, which allowed for seamless use all through every day actions, contributing to excessive compliance and perceived advantages.
- Potential for Broader Purposes: Researchers recommend the machine might also assist handle fatigue and ache in different circumstances, comparable to post-hospitalization weaknesses, fibromyalgia, or chemotherapy-related unintended effects, although additional research are wanted.
A wearable transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machine can present aid to folks experiencing the persistent ache and fatigue linked to lengthy COVID, a research co-led by UCLA and Baylor School of Medication researchers suggests.
Lengthy-COVID, a fancy and lingering situation following COVID-19 restoration, impacts roughly 1 in 13 adults in america. Signs comparable to widespread ache, fatigue, and muscle weak spot usually proceed to disrupt every day actions, together with strolling and fundamental duties.
The research, revealed in Nature Scientific Reviews, centered on a wearable transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machine, which makes use of low-voltage electrical currents to cut back ache, fatigue, and mobility points related to long-COVID.
Examine Design and Findings
The venture was co-led by Bijan Najafi, PhD, analysis director of the Middle for Superior Surgical & Interventional Know-how at UCLA Well being and co-director of NSF IUCRC Middle to Stream HealthCare in Place, who mentioned the machine might have wider purposes.
“Whereas this research centered on managing ache and fatigue brought on by lengthy COVID, it could even have potential purposes for addressing related signs in people with different respiratory illnesses, those that have skilled prolonged ICU stays and developed post-hospitalization weaknesses, and circumstances involving continual fatigue and ache, comparable to fibromyalgia or chemotherapy-related unintended effects,” Najafi says in a launch. “However additional research are wanted to verify these potential makes use of.”
Within the research, 25 members with continual musculoskeletal ache, fatigue, and gait difficulties had been assigned both a high-dose (lively) TENS machine or a low-dose (placebo) machine. Each teams used the TENS machine for 3 to 5 hours every day over a four-week interval.
Outcomes Spotlight Symptom Reduction
Researchers measured members’ ache ranges, fatigue, and strolling efficiency earlier than and after the remedy interval. Findings indicated that the high-dose TENS group skilled notable enhancements in ache aid (26.1% extra aid in comparison with placebo) and strolling capability (8% throughout quick strolling), suggesting that wearable TENS remedy might assist cut back long-COVID’s affect on every day life.
The high-dose TENS group additionally reported a barely increased perceived profit (71.2%) in comparison with the low-dose group (61.4%), underscoring the potential of wearable TENS expertise to assist long-COVID restoration.
Wearable Know-how and Future Instructions
One issue within the research’s success was seemingly the excessive price of every day machine utilization, Najafi says in a launch. The wearable nature of the TENS machine allowed members to make use of it seamlessly all through the day, with out disrupting their routines.
“This wearable TENS system provided instant, on-demand aid from ache and fatigue, making it simple to combine into every day actions,” Najafi says in a launch.
He additionally cautions that extra analysis is required. This research gives some hope for locating an efficient, non-invasive answer for managing lingering COVID-19 signs that proceed to have an effect on tens of millions,” he says in a launch. “However our pattern dimension was restricted, so additional analysis is required to verify these findings.”
Photograph credit score: Bijan Najafi Analysis Workforce
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) machine
