Vibration therapy is relatively new in treating tennis elbow but has come as a major revelation to may sufferers. We’re big fans of the process here at tenniselbow.gg as its one of the only proven pain relieving techniques and doesn’t require expensive equipment or surgery (or painfull injections – we hate needles!).
The research on vibration therapy has been around since 1983 and we’ve managed to acquire a copy of the original research by Lundeberg who discovered the effect. You can read an except below or if you’ve got a particularly scientific mind, download the entire pdf at the end of the article.
Article Summary:
In the present study 366 patients suffering acute or chronic musculoskeletal pain of different origin were given vibratory stimulation for the pain. Many of the patients had previously had treatments of various kinds without satisfactory relief. The effect of vibratory stimulation was assessed during and after stimulation using a graphic rating scale. Sixty-nine per cent of the patients reported a reduction of pain during vibratory stimulation. The best pain reducing site was found to be either the area of pain, the affected muscle or tendon, the antagonistic muscle or a trigger point outside the painful area. In most patients the best pain reducing effect was obtained when the vibratory stimulation was applied with moderate pressure. To obtain a maximal duration of pain relief the stimulation had to be applied for about 25-45 min.
Article Introduction:
A great number of methods have been used to relieve or diminish the pain arising from muscles, tendons or fascia. In general these methods provide only temporary and partial relief of pain. Many of them involve stimulation of skin receptors by rubbing or massage, application of heat or cold, or the use of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) [2,5,6,13,27]. Still another technique by which pain relief may be obtained is mechanical vibratory stimulation. Although this method appears to have been widely used, its practical implications have not been
systematically studied except for patients suffering acute or chronic orofacial pain [l&23]. The aim of the,present study was to evaluate the effects of vibratory stimulation in patients suffering musculoskeletal pain using a scheme presented in Table I. Preliminary results have been presented earlier.
