Electrical Twitch Obtaining Intramuscular Stimulation (ETOIMS) for
Relief of Muscle Pain and Discomfort

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/9/prweb154552.htm


Electrical Twitch Obtaining Intramuscular Stimulation (ETOIMS)
method is beneficial for patients with various nerve related muscle
discomfort conditions such as fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, muscle
tightness, aches and soreness. ETOIMS works by automated rapid
insertion of a thin needle electrode into specific muscle-nerve
junctions at different depths within the muscle. A small amount of
electricity applied for 0.5 second, facilitates these areas
to "twitch". The stretch and exercise effects of the twitch
mobilizes and loosen deep muscle tissue. This is essential to
relieve acute and chronic muscle pain and discomfort.

(PRWEB) September 2, 2004 -- At the age of 31, Jerry Zaslow
sustained a lower back injury that caused his left foot to go numb.
Fast forward . . . at 79, he has completed fourteen 26 mile, 385-
yard marathons, that include one London Marathon, one Marine Corp
Marathon, eight New York Marathons and four Boston Marathons. How
does Jerry, a marathon man, keep going after being disabled by an
injury that would keep most people from exercising altogether?
Through ETOIMS.

ETOIMS is Electrical Twitch-Obtaining Intramuscular Stimulation.
Jennifer Chu, MD, associate professor of Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
and Director of the Penn Soft Tissue Comfort Center, created this
innovative technique that sends very brief electrical pulses to
areas with irritated nerves to relieve muscle pain. Like many of Dr.
Chu's patients, Zaslow found Dr. Chu and her revolutionary technique
by accident. After taking up running – despite his lower back injury
and against the advice of orthopedic surgeons from Boston,
Philadelphia and Baltimore – he ran for 17 years without any adverse
affects. In 1990, the numbness in his left foot became severe, and
Zaslow was forced to seek medical help.

"I thought I'd need surgery so I could keep running," said
Zaslow. "That's when a running buddy of mine asked if I'd tried
acupuncture. My son-in-law, a physician in rehabilitation medicine
and a former resident of Dr. Chu suggested that I make an
appointment with her." The rest is history.
Dr. Chu determined that Jerry Zaslow's chronic pain condition
stemmed from nerve root irritations related to spinal stenosis and
herniated discs. But ETOIMS goes deeper than traditional
acupuncture – literally.

ETOIMS is an automated form of electrical muscle stimulation from
within the depths of the muscle. Instead of following
traditional "energy" lines or meridians as in acupuncture, Dr. Chu
follows the lines between and within muscles and inserts a needle
electrode automatically to give a brief electrical pulse at nerve-
muscle meeting points. This stimulation causes the muscle to twitch.
Since acute and chronic muscle pain can be caused by nerve
irritation that tightens a muscle, focussed exercising of the muscle
through twitch related contraction and relaxation at many points
within the muscle alleviates muscle pain.

"When you irritate or damage a nerve, muscle fibers close around the
nerve fibers like a fist," says Chu. "The electrical pulse uncurls
the fist from the nerve fibers, thus relieving pain and restoring
function."

Dr. Chu first pioneered TOIMS. Unlike the theories of acupuncture
where many needles are used to balance excess and deficient
energies, TOIMS places only a single needle electrode into the
muscle to stimulate nerve muscle meeting points for ½ second at each
point, one at a time. This causes the muscle to twitch focally,
exercising the stimulated area. The local exercise helps restore
local circulation essential for healing muscle and nerves around
that area. While the initial procedure was arduous and done by hand,
pain relief did occur. ATOIMS automated the process and electrical
stimulation with ETOIMS made the method more efficacious.

"ETOIMS is so much faster and much less painful," said Zaslow. "And
definitely more effective."

This latest update of the technology now makes the procedure easier
and allows Dr. Chu to treat patients whom otherwise couldn't have
been treated.
Zaslow says, for the time being he has retired from marathons, but
not from being physically active. He is the CEO of a manufacturing
and distribution company who are sole source global suppliers to
institutions that include schools, hospitals, prisons and government
agencies. He works eleven-hour days, trains on a treadmill, Nordic
Track and vigorous hill climbing. His objective is to return to
running and have his ETOIMS therapy and exercise activity counter-
balance, enhance and compliment each other. Zaslow says, "I wouldn't
be able to do this without Dr. Chu. Long live ETOIMS."