Acticare TSE & TENS Unit Review

Good Points
Rechargeable, easy & effective, VAT exemption depending on your health condition, quite relaxing

Bad Points
Needs further instruction in pad placement, pads can come loose, quite relaxing, cost

General Comments
I bought an Acticare TSE & TENS unit for £170 with VAT exemption; this was on a 28 day free money back trial. The unit also has a 1 year guarantee. It comes complete with everything you need, 4xAA rechargeable batteries that are charged whilst in the unit via a cradle, leads, pads and instructions. Its compact/palm size, fairly light and looks well made. It also has a belt clip built on the back of the unit. Also as AA batteries are readily available; you could buy & use them and throw the batteries away after use, for instance on holiday if you couldn't take the charger.

Judging from the rechargeable batteries you'd get about 4 hours use out of a set. That may not sound much, but should allow you to chase your aches & pains away 4 or 5 times say over a week, and 4xAA batteries are cheaper than a prescription. The display on the unit is clear and amongst other things shows battery charge. The sticky pads are said to last a month with daily use, and there are 2 spare supplied.

Further spares are available from manufacturer/supplier. It's my opinion that these pads are only sticky enough to be used while remaining fairly still, I say that because it's unlikely that you will need to place them on a perfectly flat piece of skin, where they would get maximum purchase. In some positions I found myself checking the pads a couple of times during use, although the unit will indicate if there is no connection. Also it looks like I'm gonna have to lose some of that body hair lol. An obvious problem is being able to reach to put the pads in the position you want, especially if you're not very agile. For anyone thinking of using a unit of this type, please make sure that it is safe for you to do so; there are quite a few medical conditions and mechanical units like pacemakers that are not meant to be used with these. Either check with the manufacturer or preferably your doctor. For the record Acticare are quite clear about what this unit may be used for, both in the instructions and on their website.
I'm not going to go too deeply into the different methods involved in TSE & TENS technology, they are similar in many ways, and in sensation (they both tingle), but the TSE method seems to be involved with blocking pain signals in the spinal column, therefore the pads are either placed at either end of the spine, or at the side of the neck, depending on your requirements. When using it as a TENS machine you can place the pads where your pain is, with a few restrictions for your own safety. The unit has 3 TSE modes & 8 TENS modes, one of which you select to start with, attach the pads (2 of) and select the intensity and time of treatment, and off you go. My main gripe about this unit is that it's obviously been thoroughly tested and trialed, and yet there are not enough recommendations for treating types of pain. You get a few pad placement pictures in the manual, which are vague and non descriptive, so the user is left to try their luck with the type of programme, intensity and pad placement. I'm sure they could have given some pointers for treating fairly typical problems. In use the user will feel a warm tingling sensation, more so with increased intensity or used in TENS mode. It is however quite powerful and I was surprised how light-headed I felt after 30 mins use, on half power, on TSE mode on my spine (I'm a chronic Arthritis sufferer). It was a bit like the spaced out feeling of taking strong painkillers, but I have become more accustomed to it with use. I found the TSE treatment soothing and rejuvenating, leaving tingly sensations in my back, arms and legs, but still accompanied with some headiness. It removed the constant ache from my back and relieved the muscle tension around my spine too, rather like when you have a massage or acupuncture. I was still left with some sciatic pain, but arranged the pads to treat this with the unit in TENS mode.
I could feel the pain dissipate after about 15 minute's treatment. It's not a miracle cure by any means; in fact it's not a cure at all as it only treats your pain. The user will have to find the amount of use and repetition needed to suit their problem. Whether that will then fit in with their work schedule and other commitments, is for them to find out. I can certainly recommend it for chronic pain, which it may only temporarily allay, but that little window of pain free or reduced pain is great and also relieves the mental load caused by chronic pain. To summarize I would recommend it as a viable alternative to painkillers, but due to its fairly powerful relaxing/tingling effect, I would say that you have to allocate some serious chill-out time during and after use. This is another plus providing you're not too busy. Seeing as you can trial it first, I don't think you've anything to loose, apart from your pain.