Healing tools – medical devices for the home

By official definition, a home medical device is an instrument that is the personal property of a person with temporary or permanent health impairment or disability and whose use does not require the continuous presence of a healthcare professional.

It is important to understand that these devices are not designed to treat acute problems! Treating acute cases is a medical task.

Most home medical devices help in the management of chronic diseases. In other words, they are useful for conditions that have been investigated, whose origin is known, and for which causal therapy can therefore be pursued.

In the treatment of chronic diseases, lifestyle plays the biggest role, and home medical devices help the patient in that effort. If you do these things well, you will need fewer and fewer medications.

“Health-improving tools”

Think of home medical devices like tools (screwdriver, hammer, pliers, wrench, etc.). With tools you can handle the smaller and larger repairs and improvements around your house or apartment.

With a medical device you can support your recovery from chronic conditions in the comfort of your home.

I already explained that a chronic disease is one that lasts for months and whose improvement can also take months. You cannot lie in hospital for months just to receive a ten-minute treatment daily. Nor do you need to travel to the clinic for that.

Home medical devices make it possible to use a given device, in a given condition, at a frequency and in a manner agreed with your doctors — right up to your recovery.

Every device is for something different!

You know that knife, spoon and fork are all cutlery. A fork does not replace a spoon, nor does a spoon replace a fork. You cannot eat soup with a knife, nor slice meat with a spoon. For a multi-course meal you set several types of cutlery.

Each tool has a different function, but each in its way contributes to getting the food into your mouth and making you full.

What does this mean for medical devices?

Different types of devices are applied differently, are intended for different purposes, and different effects can be expected from them.

One reduces pain, another does not. One is a very good anti-inflammatory, another is moderately so, and a third not at all. One stimulates wound healing, another does not.

Multimodal approach

Different groups of medical devices help your recovery in different ways.

Although you can use them individually, if you apply several different (but complementary) devices, they enhance each other's effects and speed up your recovery.

For example, if your back hurts from long periods of sitting, a TENS device reduces the pain quickly but has no curative effect, so the pain will return. If you strengthen your back muscles with a muscle stimulator, your pain may not decrease much in the first sessions, but since it slowly eliminates the root cause (weak spinal-supporting muscles), the pain eventually disappears permanently. Using the two devices together gives better results — the TENS quickly reduces pain while the muscle stimulator removes the cause of the pain.

On my blog I write about what you can expect from each device, how to use them, and which other methods strengthen their effects when combined. This varies by symptom and disease. Moreover, what helped your neighbor with similar complaints may not necessarily help you.

Before you buy a home medical device, inform yourself thoroughly!

First and foremost you need to know whether the device you have chosen is really suitable for the purpose you intend to use it for. For example, expecting an anti-inflammatory effect from a TENS is like trying to carve a roast turkey with a dessert spoon.

What a medical device can be used for

A home medical device is not a substitute for hospital care, but

• for continuing a few days of treatment started in hospital at home, to complete recovery. For example, recovery from paralysis, regaining strength after surgery, etc.
• for the treatment of chronic disease. So if your disease has been known for a long time (for example osteoarthritis, arthritis, lymphedema, muscle wasting, etc.), you do not need to run to the hospital or clinic for a few minutes of daily treatment; with devices designed for home use you can treat yourself in the comfort of your home.

Technology is advancing so quickly that today’s home medical devices are more effective than many hospital devices were 10–15 years ago. Their safe and simple application allows you to use them for your recovery without a doctor being present.

Modern devices, besides treating diseases, are also suitable for disease prevention and health maintenance. Regular use can improve your quality of life.

• They help prevent diseases.
• They help with the early detection of certain diseases.
• They make it possible to monitor an existing disease, condition and the effect of therapy.
• They help in treating or improving certain diseases and conditions, or at least in preventing deterioration.

Some groups of home medical devices, not exhaustive

TENS device

Provides effective and lasting pain relief using electrical impulses. It is most effective for musculoskeletal pain. Compared to medications, the advantage of TENS treatment is the complete absence of side effects, while the pain-relieving effect can last from a few hours up to a day. However, it has no curative effect, meaning the disease causing the pain does not improve because of it.

Microcurrent (MENS) device

Microcurrent is a more effective pain relief method than TENS. According to recent studies, about 90% of those receiving microcurrent treatment reported pain disappearance after 10 treatments.
Its main advantage is that while TENS only reduces pain, microcurrent treatment can also have a curative effect!
Microcurrent restores the altered electrical potential of the cell membrane, stimulates ATP production and protein synthesis, and regenerates the cell — it is very effective at healing.
Microcurrent can be used to improve inflammation, injury, tears, strains, wear, scars, ulcers, edema and many other conditions.

Muscle stimulator (EMS)

Can be used for muscle and joint pain. It treats muscle wasting and muscle weakness. You can improve joint stability and thus reduce joint pain.
It is an indispensable tool in rehabilitation after stroke, accident or infection-induced paralysis!
For athletes it is excellent for enhancing muscle recovery and as a supplement to training.

Iontophoresis

Allows you to deliver active substances locally into the skin and joints. It is generally used for sports injuries, joint pain and to enhance the effects of cosmetic agents.
It is excellent for treating palm-sole and underarm excessive sweating that does not respond to other treatments (hyperhidrosis).

Therapeutic ultrasound

Useful for relieving muscle and joint pain, muscle and tendon stiffness, and reducing inflammation. It is also suitable for beauty treatments (acne-prone skin, cellulite treatment, fat reduction).

Softlaser

Effective in joint pain (rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, tendinitis, temporomandibular joint inflammation, etc.) in reducing pain and inflammation, stimulating cell regeneration and thus healing.
It speeds up scar healing, including wounds (ulcers) that do not heal with other treatments. Excellent for treating cold sores, shingles, and trigeminal neuralgia.

Cold therapy

Can be used for fresh muscle and joint injuries and recent inflammations.

Heat therapy

Primarily alleviates chronic musculoskeletal pain, tendon and muscle stiffness (e.g., osteoarthritis, heel spurs, Achilles tendon pain, Dupuytren's contracture, etc.).
The “heat” of infrared lamps penetrates less deeply, so they are more suitable for treating facial and sinus inflammations, ear infections and cold symptoms.

Humidifier

Helps increase air humidity, which aids in preventing and treating various respiratory conditions.

Inhaler, also known as nebulizer

Plays a vital role in treating respiratory diseases. The device creates an inhalable mist from medication so the active ingredient is delivered directly to the lungs. It provides immediate effect in asthma attacks and suffocating conditions.

Salt therapy device

Primarily useful for prevention in colds, croup, asthma attacks, hay fever and respiratory allergies.
In acute symptoms it strengthens medical therapy and can reduce the need for medication in bronchitis, COPD, cystic fibrosis, pneumonia, influenza, sinusitis, etc.
It is also helpful for eczema and psoriasis.

Magnetotherapy device

Unfortunately, some deceptive sellers have discredited this method domestically and it has been unfairly sidelined. Yet magnetotherapy is a recognized tool in physiotherapy. It is used in medical practice for chronic musculoskeletal conditions (osteoporosis, bone fractures, osteoarthritis, arthritis, etc.).

Compression therapy unit

An effective solution for maintaining and treating lymphedema at home (home treatment).
Excellent for symptoms caused by varicose veins, including promoting the healing of leg ulcers, and for post-thrombosis conditions.

Paraffin treatment

Reduces rheumatic joint pain and is also excellent for dry, cracked skin.

Defibrillator

Provides electrical shock to resuscitate victims of sudden cardiac arrest. We need such devices in many more places, because in our country around 80,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac arrest, typically young and unexpectedly. With defibrillators a portion of them could be saved. Without a defibrillator there is no chance.

Home ECG device

You can record your heart's electrical activity (an ECG) anytime. If you feel a heart rhythm disturbance or chest pain, an immediately recorded trace can help your doctor (because by the time you reach the doctor the event that caused the complaint may no longer be visible).

Pulse oximeter

Allows monitoring of blood oxygen saturation, which is very important for anyone with heart or respiratory disease.

Blood glucose meter

Allows diabetics to monitor blood glucose levels and the effectiveness of treatment.

Blood pressure monitor

An automatic device that measures blood pressure.
It aids the early detection of hypertension (high blood pressure).
Its most important role is to regularly check the effect of antihypertensive treatment.

Modern medical devices are now accessible to everyone, safe and effective aids in treating diseases and symptoms.

If you have already undergone evaluation (your diagnosis is known), consult me for advice and I will help you choose the device best suited to your disease and other treatment goals.