Difference Between Nerve & Muscle Stimulators

Nerve and muscle stimulators are used to provide electrical stimulation to both nerves and muscles. Both are pads that are placed on the skin with a wire leading off to the electricity generator, but they have a number of differences, such as purpose and the ways they work.

Purpose

• The most fundamental difference between muscle and nerve stimulators is what they are used for. Nerve stimulators are usually used to relieve pain. Both nerve and muscle stimulators are used to cause the muscles to contract. However, where nerve stimulators stimulate the nerves which causes the muscle contraction, muscle stimulators bypass the nerves altogether, directly stimulating the muscles to contract themselves. Muscle stimulators are usually used to exercise the muscles and assist in rehabilitation techniques.

Nerves

• The nerves look like elongated bags of salt water and carry messages from the brain to the muscles and from the muscles to the brain. The outside of the nerve is positively charged to carry the electrical signals from the brain. The nerve is depolarized when a message is sent along it.

Nerve Stimulators

• One type of nerve stimulator uses negative electrons to depolarize or negate the electrical charge of the outside of the nerve. This essentially simulates the process that occurs when the brain sends messages down the nerve, causing the muscle to contract. This type of nerve stimulator essentially performs the same function as a muscle stimulator, but stimulating the nerve to cause the muscle contraction instead of the muscle. The other type of nerve stimulator uses electrons to block the nerve, blocking any signals that are running through it. In this way, nerve stimulators can ease pain by blocking the signals being sent by a painful area to the brain.

Muscles

• Muscles are long series of fibers that usually stretch from a joint to a section of bone. The muscles contract and expand, moving the body parts back and forth. The outside of the muscle is electrically charged, like the nerves. A depolarized nerve sends a substance called Acetyl-choline out to the surface of the muscle. This substance depolarizes the surface of the muscle, causing it to contract.

Muscle Stimulator

• Muscle stimulators do the job of the nerves, sending an electrical charge into the muscle that depolarizes the surface, causing the muscle to contract. This performs the same function as a nerve stimulator. However, where a nerve stimulator stimulates the nerve to cause the muscle to contract, a muscle stimulator causes the muscle contraction itself, without using the nerve at all. This process has been FDA approved to assist in rehabilitation, as stimulating muscle contraction can help to strengthen a muscle that has been weakened by illness or injury.