A microcurrent electrical neuromuscular stimulator or MENS (also microamperage electrical neuromuscular stimulator) is a device used to send weak electrical signals into the body. Such devices apply extremely small microamp Aelectrical currents (less than 1 milliampere A to the tissues using electrodes placed on the skin. One microampere Ais 1 millionth of an ampere and the uses of MENS are distinct from those of "TENS" which runs at one milliamp Aor one thousandth of an amp.

Uses

MENS uses include treatments for pain,

diabetic neuropathy Diabetic neuropathy is various types of nerve damage associated with diabetes mellitus. Symptoms depend on the site of nerve damage and can include motor changes such as weakness; sensory symptoms such as numbness, tingling, or pain; or autonomic c ...

, age-related

macular degeneration Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, som ...

, wound healing,

tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...

repair,

plantar fasciitis Plantar fasciitis or plantar heel pain (PHP) is a disorder of the plantar fascia, which is the connective tissue which supports the arch of the foot. It results in pain in the heel and bottom of the foot that is usually most severe with the ...

and ruptured ligament recovery. Most microcurrent treatments concentrate on pain and/or speeding healing and recovery. It is commonly used by professional and performance athletes with acute pain and/or muscle tenderness as it is drug-free and non-invasive, thus avoiding testing and recovery issues. It is also used as a cosmetic treatment.

History

The body's electrical capabilities were studied at least as early as 1830, when the Italian

Carlo Matteucci Carlo Matteucci (20 or 21 June 1811 – 25 June 1868) was an Italian physicist and neurophysiologist who was a pioneer in the study of bioelectricity. Biography Carlo Matteucci was born at Forlì, in the province of Romagna, to Vincenzo Matt ...

is credited as being one of the first to measure the electrical current in injured tissue. Bioelectricity received less attention after the discovery of

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum using ...

, when the focus of medical research and treatments turned toward the body's chemical processes. Attention began to return to these properties and the possibilities of using very low current for healing in the mid-1900s. In a study published in 1969, for example, a team of researchers led by L.E. Wolcott applied microcurrent to a wide variety of wounds, using

negative polarity In linguistics, a polarity item is a lexical item that is associated with affirmation or negation. An affirmation is a positive polarity item, abbreviated PPI or AFF. A negation is a negative polarity item, abbreviated NPI or NEG. The linguistic ...

over the

lesion A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by disease or trauma. ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin "injury". Lesions may occur in plants as well as animals. Types There is no designated classif ...

s in the initial phase, and then alternating positive and negative

electrode An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). Electrodes are essential parts of batteries that can consist of a variety of materials ...

s every three days. The stimulation ranged from 200-800uA and the treated group showed 200%-350% faster healing rates, with stronger

tensile strength Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to tensile strength (TS), ultimate strength, or F_\text within equations, is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle materials ...

of scar tissue and antibacterial effects. In 1991, the German scientists Drs.

Erwin Neher Erwin Neher (; ; born 20 March 1944) is a German biophysicist, specializing in the field of cell physiology. For significant contribution in the field, in 1991 he was awarded, along with Bert Sakmann, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for ...

and

Bert Sakmann Bert Sakmann (; born 12 June 1942) is a German cell physiologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Erwin Neher in 1991 for their work on "the function of single ion channels in cells," and the invention of the patch clam ...

shared the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

in Physiology or Medicine for their development of the

patch-clamp technique The patch clamp technique is a laboratory technique in electrophysiology used to study ionic currents in individual isolated living cells, tissue sections, or patches of cell membrane. The technique is especially useful in the study of excitabl ...

that allows the detection of minute electrical currents in

cell membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane (PM) or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of all cells from the outside environment (the ...

s. This method allowed the detection of 20 to 40 types of

ion channel Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins that allow ions to pass through the channel pore. Their functions include establishing a resting membrane potential, shaping action potentials and other electrical signals by gating the flow of ...

s that allow positive or negatively charged ions into and out of the cells and confirmed that electrical activity is not limited to nerve and muscle tissue.

Efficacy

A study by a neuroretinologist in the late 1980s suggested that microcurrent stimulation of acupuncture points for the eye had positive effects in slowing and even stopping progression of macular degeneration. This treatment is used to treat both the Wet and Dry forms of AMD. This study was based on Ngok Cheng's research on the increased amounts of ATP levels in living tissue after being stimulated with microcurrent.

Mechanisms of action

While the mechanisms of efficacy are not well established, a few studies have shown that there may be a correlation between the traditional Chinese medical system of acupuncture and microcurrent. A study published in 1975 by Reichmanis, Marino, and Becker concluded in part that. “At most acupuncture points on most subjects, there were greater electrical conductance maxims than at control sites.”

Manufacturers

Many companies manufacture microcurrent devices for both professional and personal use, and microcurrent is in use as a "complementary" veterinary modality.

References