Galileo Research Fact Sheet No. 63: Can Galileo Therapy increase blood-flow in the legs of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients?

This study utilizes one of the principles of Galileo stimulation: Streck reflexes are only activated in a pre-tensed (pre-activated) muscle. In normal application during standing this is achieved by any muscles working against gravity supporting our body – all muscle in the body which are pre-activated and the vibration is transmitted to will respond with stretch-reflex based activation. However, this pre-activation can also achieved using external forces – e.g. by pulling or pushing from the outside (by using a thera-band) – or alternatively by using sub-maximum electro stimulation (e-Stim). The important point is using a sub-maximum e-stim intensity, since the main muscle activation should be triggered by the Galileo vibration using the closed muscle loop and physiological activation patterns.

This study observed this effect indirectly by monitoring the blood-flow (caused by increased muscle activation) during Galileo Therapy, electro-stimulation (ES) and Galileo Therapy + electro-stimulation (Galileo + ES) for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients (sitting in front of Galileo, 10Hz, pos. 2.5). As a result Galileo Therapy showed the largest effect (130% increase of blood-flow) which can be improved further in combination with ES to up to 250%.

This is a quite interesting result not only for SCI Patients where e-stim might be the only option to address some muscle-groups but also for the general combination of e-stim and Galileo Therapy.

#GRFS63 #GalileoTherapie #SCI #SpinalCordInjury #MechanoStimulation #BloodFLow #Electrostimulation #estim