Electric Muscle Stimulators
Question: I had bought EMS (electric muscle stimulator) to enhance the muscle size and strength Have anyone tried it before or any recommendations?
Dr. Bruno’s Response: Enhance muscle size and strength with an electric muscle stimulator? Oh boy. Before you try, please read this: Surviving, poliovirus-damaged motor neurons allowed polio survivors to recover muscle strength by turning on 16 times the number of muscle fibers they’d activated before polio by sending out sprouts — like extra telephone lines — to muscle fibers orphaned when their motor neuron died. Then, survivors' individual muscles grew, as they do in weight lifters, and have on average muscle fibers twice the size of those who didn't have polio. But these fibers look abnormal, appearing "moth eaten" and showing damage typically found only in heavy weight lifters. Several studies have found that the number of muscle fibers stimulated by a single post-polio motor neuron increases by about 14% each year. So, as polio survivors age, their remaining, poliovirus-damaged motor neurons are forced to turn on more and more oversized muscle fibers…and they fail, causing muscle weakness and muscle atrophy. How could poliovirus-damaged motor neurons not be overworked, exhausted, fail and even die when they have been turning on 16 times more double-sized muscle fibers for decades? The last thing you want to do is use electric stimulation, or any means, to increase muscle size.