Fact: The ads for electric muscle stimulators claiming that you can lose weight and firm up without moving a muscle sound too good to be true, and they are. Electric stimulators for “passive exercise” (“3,000 sit ups without moving an inch,” as one ad says), are only “the latest in vanity type quackery,” according to the FDA,

Electric muscles stimulators contract muscles by passing current (from batteries or line current) through electrodes applied to the skin. Study after study has shown that regular use of electric stimulation produces no significant change in body weight or body fat. Recently researchers at Northeastern University in Boston found that this treatment bummed only six calories in 35 minutes when applied to the buttocks, thighs, and abdomen. Even if it bummed a lot more calories it wouldn’t trim the treated areas, since the spot reduction is a myth. The body uses fat from throughout the body for ener8Y, not selectively from the parts being exercised or electrically stimulated.

The results of studies on the effect of electric stimulation on muscle strength have been less Consistent. Some have shown that regular sessions produce minimal or no strength gains, while others have found increased muscle bulk. It seems to depend on how fit you are, the duration and intensity of the electric pulse, and the length of the treatments. But no study has ever shown that electric stimulators can improve cardiorespiratory fitness, much less remove respiratory fitness, much less remove wrinkles or provide a nonsurgical “facelift,” as is sometimes claimed,

Over the years the FDA has seized many of these devices because they are both ineffective and unsafe. The obvious dangers are shocks and burns. Pregnant women and people with heart problems should definitely avoid electric stimulation. The machines should never be placed over the heart or brain.

Electric muscle stimulators do have some legitimate uses. Employed in physical therapy, they can help relax muscle spasms, improve muscle tone and range of motion after an injury or surgery, and prevent atrophy of muscles after a stroke. The FDA regulates their use as prescription medical devices,

Article extracted from this publication >> November 4, 1988