Long-term Use of TENS Pulses
I've done a bit of looking online and couldn't find anything that specifically said it was bad to have extensive use of "TENS" pulses. I'm aware of potential muscle issues resulting from excessive use over a short time span, but I was thinking about potential uses as an alternative to a vibrator or speaker in a phone, to send notifications. My thought was that you could incorporate a small pair of contacts to opposite sides of an armband (which could, for discretion, be worn under a sleeve, even on a short sleeve shirt, which is part of why I liked the idea to begin with, as it should (theoretically) make no noise that could be heard by nearby people. I'm sure you could incorporate it with some more advanced program on a phone that could also relay a message via morse code or anything that could otherwise be done with a small vibrator on a phone or watch, but this would be discrete enough to be... I don't know... Cool. I'd do things just cause they're cool. To accompany it I thought that a watch with a longer wristband could be worn around the thigh, just behind a pocket, so you could then tap that to send signals back a phone, also fairly discretely. That's a bit off-topic though.
Main thing, would there be negative effects I can't seem to find out about online, to the TENS-based armband idea? Anyone?
Main thing, would there be negative effects I can't seem to find out about online, to the TENS-based armband idea? Anyone?
Comments
I ended up pulling a muscle today at the gym and could not for the life of me get a solid connection in this area. So I put a 180 boxing wrap around it to press it against my skin (also to press some hairs down). It has really good connectivity and it's not overly evident through my shirt that it's there. You can kind of see it if you look at just the right angle.
When I take it off I'll get a photo of the actual device and upload it. Here is a link with what I have so far.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B92Cg-Q6q4OtLTBhWVpUQl9pZ1E
EDIT:
I added the two other photos with out a wrap
I did a quick search of medical literature and of the four studies so far, the only reported negative effects for use in a span ranging 1-4 years (depending on study) was skin irritation and transept dermal water loss. Of those, only about 25% of participants reported them. I didn't see much literature overall on long term use.
On a side note, looking forward to increased availability of flexible thermoelectric generators. (I imagine a sort of sleeve like device that draws power from heat being radiated from skin, and then can also store enough power for several consecutive pulses, possibly some other things too... A watch for instance...)