What is Interferential Therapy?
If you're looking for pain relief, you may want to consider interferential current therapy. This therapy uses electrical impulses to help relieve pain. It is commonly used for chronic pain, but can also be effective for acute pain relief. Interferential therapy works by sending electrical impulses through the skin. These impulses help to block pain signals from reaching the brain. This can help to relieve pain, and can also help to increase blood flow and reduce inflammation. It is the most common type of electrical muscle stimulation that most physiotherapists and rehabilitation experts use at their clinics to provide good pain relief to their patients. It not only provides good pain relief but also helps heal muscle injuries. It is good for patients who are either recovering from surgery or suffered an injury. It is used to help patients heal faster and to provide them with good amount of pain relief.
How Interferential Therapy Works?
For adequate pain relief, the damaged or injured tissues in the body are stimulated by small amounts of electrical current. This small electrical stimulation is used to amplify the natural body response to pain. It not only increases the blood flow reaching towards the affected tissue, but also promotes localized healing by increasing the production of hormones. Two different frequencies of electrical stimulation are used, i.e., 4000 Hz and 400 Hz while doing ICT. When these two frequencies cross each other, interference is created because of the differential in frequencies. That’s why it is given the name of interferential therapy. The optimum interferential frequency can be easily controlled by the therapist for best results in terms of pain relief which can be determined simply by asking the patient’s response to therapy in the therapy session.
Which Medical Conditions Can Be Helped by ICT?
Patients with muscle spasms, strains, edema, joint injury, and high-impact sports injuries can expect significant benefit both in terms of pain relief as well as expedited healing process. Also, the ICT therapy can help the patients who have chronic pain due to arthritis, had undergone surgery recently, or have swelling and inflammation in or around the joints. ICT is targeted for specific areas of the body which are sore or tender to touch to expedite recovery and to promote localized healing. The localized areas that can easily receive deep stimulation through ICT include back, shoulder, neck, and the knees where most common types of injuries can be expected. People practicing in pain management, physical therapy, and rehab clinics generally use ICT therapy as part of their treatment plan.
Benefits of Interferential Therapy!
Localized ICT therapy stimulation induces release of endorphins in the affected area and also increases the amount of blood reaching that area to promote healing as part of the body's natural response to an injury. It helps to provide great pain relief while decreasing any swelling or soft tissue inflammation. It is also helpful in improving the range of motion of the patients and increasing the joint mobility due to reduction in pain after therapy.