Foot borne circulatory devices

[Gerrard Farrell]

Re: Foot borne circulatory devices

The previous post contains a note as follows -

"Note - I am not advocating electrical stimulation of the foot muscles in a standing or walking/running individual due to possible balance issues . "

It made me wonder if NMES might be a comparatively inexpensive way of delivering balance perturbation training .

We know that the intrinsic foot muscles and those around the ankle are involved in balance .So , if they are unexpectedly and briefly subjected to specific patterns of NMES , it follows that they could be involved in loss of balance . In addition , in a standing individual ,the effect would be to produce a balance shift similar to a trip and not a slip .
Safety would of course require supervision and a safety harness .

Any thoughts on this ?

Gerry

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[Gerrard Farrell]

Has anyone considered using foot borne intermittent compression devices in combination with NMES . That is to say using the two systems simultaneously ?
The rational behind the question is that intermittent compression devices work by applying force to the sole of the foot which is then transmitted , mainly via viscoelastic muscle tissue , to the veins of the plantar venous plexus which then collapse and eject blood . I suspect that if the intrinsics are in a state of active contraction then the forces applied by such devices might be better transmitted to the PVP and so produce a more forceful emptying of the plexus .

The level of electrical stimulation would not need to be very high with the state of contractile activity in the intrisic foot muscles being intermittently raised to only a little above the normal resting tone of the muscle .
If proven to be effective then perhaps a similar "combined" system could be tested for the calf muscle pump so that intermittent compression and NMES could be used simultaneously and to greater effect than intermittent pneumatic compression alone .

Regards

Gerry

Note - I am not advocating electrical stimulation of the foot muscles in a standing or walking/running individual due to possible balance issues .
Gerrard Farrell

Glasgow