Published in Bedfordshire on Sunday (UK) on August 8, 2008:
My Electric Saviour
A woman who suffers from excruciating muscle pain has found relief in the form of a gadget from the USA.
Debra Seymour, 49, from Grange Street, Clifton has suffered from fibromyalgia - a condition which causes severe muscle pain, tenderness and tingling sensations - for the last three years.
The disease crept up on Debra gradually, starting with painful headaches and progressing to the stage where the agonising pain left her unable to carry out even the most basic tasks.
She consulted a chiropractor, an osteopath and even tried painful deep tissue massage, before being diagnosed with the illness in January 2006.
On the advice of her doctor, she started having acupuncture for her pain but she began to feel her condition was hopeless when the pain continued to get worse and began to spread.
Debra was in so much pain that she was unable to go to the supermarket as carrying one bag of shopping left her neck in agony and she left her beloved Choral Society as standing up and holding a single sheet of music was too painful.
Her brother had heard about a revolutionary drug-free gadget from the USA and asked Debra to try an Alpha-Stim 100, which treats acute, chronic and post-operative pain, as well as depression, insomnia and anxiety.
Within minutes of using the small hand-held device Debra had noticed a difference and now after ten months feels that she couldn't live without it.
"It has basically come on over a number of years, it started with head aches, and I was going backwards and forward from the doctors. In the end the pain kept on spreading until finally I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, fibro meaning muscle and myalgia being pain, which is what I had; muscle pain.
"It is hard to explain what it is like. If you knock your arm it would be more painful, the pain is more intense and when you wake up in the morning you feel as stiff as a board.
"To look at me nobody would know anything was wrong. The pain spread, it started off in the neck area and then spread to my arms, hand, hips and it can be even traced down to my ankles.
"I found I could not do as much as I could before, like pushing a vacuum cleaner backward and forwards or dusting the shelves.
"I heard of Alpha-Stim 100 through my brother. I don't know how it works, it just does.
"You use two probes, you hold them around the area of pain and it alleviates the pain or sometimes takes away the pain altogether."
"It certainly isn't complicated, you can hold it in your hand, and it's got a clip."
Today Deborah says she feels that life is manageable and she is able to do the things that she enjoys. She no longer has acupuncture, is able to carry shopping, do the housework and has even starting singing again.
The manufacturers say the Alpha- Stim 100 provides an alternative to drugs, especially in disorders that require long-term management. They say it relies on the body's natural ability to heal itself, it uses micro current therapy to jump start the body's cellular activity.
Minute levels of electricity mimic the body's electric impulses and helps it to recuperate, relax and heal all at a greatly accelerated rate.
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The Alpha-Stim 100 |
