Method for enhanced electro-muscle stimulation

Abstract

The invention relates to an enhanced method of electrical muscle stimulation.

Claims

1. A method for muscle stimulation comprising: irritating skin and subcutaneous fat to increase blood circulation in a treatment area; applying electromagnetic pulses to stimulate muscle in said treatment area; and maintaining muscle stimulation during a period of time while blood circulation is being increased, and further comprising applying said electromagnetic pulses for a period of time following increase of said blood circulation before conductivity of tissue in said treatment area is restored to normal conductivity level.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein irritating skin and subcutaneous fat is done by applying RF energy to the skin and the subcutaneous fat.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein irritating skin and subcutaneous fat is done by applying optical energy to the skin and the subcutaneous fat.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein irritating skin and subcutaneous fat is done by applying negative pressure to the skin and the subcutaneous fat.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein increasing blood circulation in the treatment area is done by heating the treatment area.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein tissue irritation is done simultaneously with muscle stimulation.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein tissue irritation is done prior to muscle stimulation.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein maintaining muscle stimulation is done for up to 90 minutes following tissue irritation.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein muscle stimulation is done by electrical current delivered using one or more electrodes.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein muscle stimulation is done by using pulses delivered to the treatment area as a pulsed electromagnetic field.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein tissue irritation is done by heating tissue to a sub-necrotic temperature.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the sub-necrotic temperature is 40° C. to 50° C.

13. The method according to claim 1, comprising heating skin to penetrate down to muscle tissue.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) In the accompanying drawings:

(2) FIG. 1 is measured tissue impedance in the abdominal area following preheating up to 41° C. for 30 min.

(3) FIG. 2 is measured skin temperature in the abdominal area following preheating up to 41° C. for 30 min.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(4) In addition to changing tissue physical parameters, heating above 40° C. increases blood circulation in the dermis and subcutaneous fat. Blood electrical conductivity is significantly higher than conductivity of skin and fat. The higher the blood content the higher the tissue conductivity.

(5) To prove the concept the following experiment was conducted. In-vivo abdominal tissue impedance was measured prior to heating. The skin was afterwards heated using bi-polar 1 MHz RF energy up to 43° C. and maintained for 30 min. Then EMS electrodes were applied to the same area after heat application and EMS voltage and current were measured over 90 min to monitor tissue impedance. A temperature sensor was embedded into the EMS electrodes and skin temperature was monitored. Because the initial electrode temperature was lower than the skin temperature, the initial temperature behavior included electrode temperature balancing with the treated tissue in the initial part of the graph in FIG. 2. Thus, as seen at the first minute or so of FIG. 2, the sensor was initially heated by the skin whereas the skin was cooled by the electrodes having a lower temperature than the skin surface.

(6) Normalized tissue impedance as a function of time following tissue heating is shown in FIG. 1. Temperature behavior was measured with a temperature sensor embedded into the EMS electrode, and is shown as a function of time in FIG. 2. One can see in FIG. 1 that the tissue impedance rose sharply by 10% during a few seconds when the cold EMS unit was attached to the skin and the skin temperature dropped. Afterwards the tissue impedance stays stable over the next 25 minutes despite a temperature decrease by 5° C. After 25 min the tissue impedance starts to increase and continues to rise even after temperature of the skin reached a minimum and stabilized at around 26-28° C. (room temperature was 22° C.). The experiment shows that tissue conductivity does not correlate with temperature directly but rather correlates with skin erythema which was strong over the first 25 min following the treatment and then slowly decreased over the next 60 min. It is important to note that the feeling of EMS pulses in the tissue with erythema was much stronger than in areas which were not pre-heated.

(7) The method of muscle stimulation without limitation includes the following steps:

(8) 1. Preheating of skin and subcutaneous tissue using RF energy

(9) 2. Monitoring tissue temperature

(10) 3. Maintaining tissue temperature in a range of 40° C. to 50° C. for about 5-30 min.

(11) 4. Applying EMS pulses to cause muscle contraction to the preheated tissue

(12) The preferred parameters for the RF energy used for tissue heating are, without limitation:

(13) 1. One or more RF electrodes applied to the skin surface

(14) 2. RF peak voltage applied to the tissue in the range of 10V up to 1000V

(15) 3. RF frequency in the range of 100 kHz up to 40 MHz

(16) 4. Temperature sensor embedded into applicator for tissue temperature monitoring.

(17) 5. RF energy is controlled according to feedback from temperature sensor and impedance measurements.

(18) Preferred parameters for EMS without limitation:

(19) 1. EMS application during one hour following tissue heating

(20) 2. EMS voltage in the range of 5V to 100V

(21) 3. EMS pulse width in the range of 10-1000 microseconds

(22) 4. Wave form is biphasic pulse

(23) 5. Frequency of 1 Hz to 200 KHz