Many people suffer from issues related to chronic pain, and use muscle stimulators to stimulate and relax fatigued muscles reducing the aches and pains. Here is a colorful diagram that shows how to build a transcutaneous electrical nerve (TENS) device, and includes wattages, voltage and output to the electrodes necessary. To view this diagram visit: http://i3.tinypic.com/wlsm0n.jpg%22. This is a
. forum that talks about electro stimulators and one comment warns that the proper skin-electrodes should be used because whenever there is a current between a metal and an electrolyte (such as salty flesh), the metal corrodes and metal ions will be injected into the electrolyte. If you use a random metal as the skin electrode, you will be injecting all sorts of contamination into the skin. Doctors use silver/silver-chloride electrode patches for EEG or EKG probles for good reasons. Equally dangerous is using an electro stimulator on a person who has a pacemaker, using it or placing it on the neck since this can stimulate nerves which control breathing and blood pressure, do not use an electro stimulator for headaches or attach the electrodes to the head and do not connect the electrodes to the body so that there can be a flow of current through the heart. To read the forum contents go to: http://forums.makezine.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=385. This website gives a list of all of the reasons electro stimulator might be used: http://www.livestrong.com/electrostimulation. They range from weight loss to sport injuries and surgery rehabilitation. With weight loss, the electro stimulator acts as an aid in digestion and reduces appetite, especially when consuming unhealthy foods that are high in calories or processed fats. Here is a website where you can purchase electronic parts to build your electro stimulator: http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1. They offer aluminum casing, high-class ABS plastic speedy boxes, breadboards, protoboards, and basic stamp modules. http://i3.tinypic.com/wlsm0n.jpg%22 or http://www.livestrong.com/electrostimulation
