In all honesty I had to check what "pulse massagers" were before I could give you an answer - but having looked them up, I realise that these are basically TENS machines. TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) basically stimulates nerves so that they do not transmit pain - how, I hear you say?
Essentially, nerves are a bit like traditional telephone lines - when you speak down a telephone it converts the sound of your voice into an electrical signal, which travels along a physical line and then is converted in to sound on the receiving unit - similarly, nerves are the signal transmitters in your body.
The TENS machines keep the nerve in a constantly stimulated state so that they cannot transmit new pain signals from where the pain is originating. Its similar principle to topical treatments such as tiger balm and deep heat - the capsiacin element in these treatments stimulate the nerves so that they do not transmit pain responses.
TENS has been used in medicine for many years and in sports medicine are often used for pain associated with an injury. Now here are some considerations:
1. Pros - they can help with pain, they can help with restoring function (by reducing pain) and it seems that they are now available at a low cost
2. Cons - they mask pain (i.e. doesn't deal with why you have the pain), to work effectively they need to be correctly placed over the responsible anatomical structure, the level of stimulation needs to be carefully controlled, it can potentially interfere with other electrical items such as defibrillators and pace makers
While I do not believe that there is any harm with careful, supervised (i.e. with medical support) and judicious use, masking pain is not ideal on a long-term basis as you are not dealing with the root cause. All of these modalities are only for symptom relief.
Hope this helps.
BW
Dr Dinesh
