Specialists yesterday said that low-frequency therapeutic devices cannot sculpt users’ physiques, but they can help reduce muscle pain if used appropriately, despite the claims of some manufacturers that the machines can help people get in shape.
Low-frequency therapeutic devices, also known as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulators (TENS), have been used by physical therapists in rehabilitation programs and can be bought at pharmacies without a prescription.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official Huang Yu-wen (黃育文) yesterday said TENS send low-voltage electrical currents into the body using electrode pads to relieve pain.
‘MEDIUM RISK’
They are listed as class 2 “medium risk” medical devices.
Huang said people should not use TENS for more than 30 minutes per session to avoid possible damage to muscles or nerve tissue, while allergies might cause skin issues after extended use.
The devices should not be used on newborns or women in the early stages of pregnancy, Huang said.
People with diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, fever, spinal fractures, or wounds should also not use them, Huang said, adding that they should not be used while driving or when someone has wet skin.
“TENS have good therapeutic effects for treating people with acute or chronic pain, such as muscle strains or sprains, acute pain after surgery, or chronic pain after a stoke,” National Taiwan University Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy assistant professor Luh Jer-junn (陸哲駒) said. “Studies show that they can also be used to treat shoulder aches, joint pain or peripheral nerve paralysis.”
As for products that claim to be able to help people get in shape, Luh said that TENS cannot serve this purpose and there is no evidence to prove the effect.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods