Tesla chair treatments Sydney.

The pelvic floor muscles are an extremely important part of our core structure, helping support many of our internal organs, facilitating normal function. It is a set of muscles that we are mostly unaware of, deep seated within and at the base of the pelvis, they essentially form a basket of muscle, keeping everything above flexibly supported.

The easiest way to identify some of these muscles and their action is recognising the muscles you squeeze tight when trying to hold your bladder until you can go to the bathroom or when trying to stop the flow of urine midstream. It is therefore easy to understand why, if these muscles become weak that our bladder control can be seriously affected.

Our Tesla chair is a breakthrough medical device that will deliver functional magnetic stimulation to muscle fibres, activating, exercising and strengthening pelvic floor muscles, resolving incontinence and other related issues.

The revolutionary Tesla FMS technology is able to strengthen muscle cells more effectively and faster than regular voluntary exercise therapy by inducing muscle contractions which engage a much greater % of muscle cells per muscle contraction. It is an excellent therapy for those of us who find it difficult to engage these muscles voluntarily, especially if they are very weak. This speeds up recovery substantially. During treatment the muscles will be stimulated strongly without you having to think about it. However, you will feel them being activated and this in itself will make you more aware of their function and how it feels when they are working. This helps to re-establish the mind to muscle connection. Other forms of physiotherapy designed to strengthen these muscles may take much longer to be effective if at all, and will require more work on your part as well.

This can be a life changing treatment for some people with ongoing incontinence problems.

FMS technology uses a pulsed magnetic field which causes muscle fibres (cells) to contract aside from stimulation from the nervous system. Our nervous system will only engage up to around 40% of muscle fibres per voluntary contraction in a healthy state, possibly significantly less in an atrophied state. The Tesla chair will engage up to 90% in a single contraction due to its novel mode of action.

This technology is therefore able to bypass the limiting initial weak signals from the nervous system due to a generalised weakness in the area. If the nerves supplying these muscles are in a weakened state, it can take significant time and effort to regain normal function. Being able to directly stimulate the muscle at almost 90% capacity within a few treatments can hasten recovery substantially. After a course of treatments the body will continue to improve and continue with normal function.

• Leakage (when you sneeze, laugh, cough or during day- to- day activities)
• Urge urinary incontinence
• Stress urinary incontinence
• Mixed urinary incontinence
• Incontinence after radical prostatectomy
• Regeneration after childbirth
• Milder forms of drooping uterus and bladder (cistokela, descensus uterusa)
• Rehabilitation after pelvic floor surgery
• Chronic prostate inflammation
• Erectile dysfunction (due to weak Ischio and bulbo cavernosus muscles.)

Men can benefit in the same manner as women with incontinence issues if the problem is due to a weak Pelvic floor. Men can have all the same incontinence issues as women, usually from aging, however injury or post-operative issues can cause these as well in men.

Erectile difficulties can also benefit from the Tesla chair if the two muscles in the Pelvic floor called the ischiocavernosus and bulbocavernosus: situated at the base of the internal part of the penis are in a weak condition. These muscles perform a task at the end stage of the erectile process by squeezing the base of the penis, assisting with holding blood in the erectile tissues and further increasing the pressure within these tissues enabling a full erection to occur. This process is automatic and happens without the male thinking about it. If these muscles are not working as they should or are in a weak state due to aging, extended periods of sitting, surgery or injury to the area, erectile function can be affected.

Yes, this is quite possible, it can occur more frequently in men than women and is often more common in younger men. This is almost an opposite condition to a weak pelvic floor whereby the muscles in the male pelvic floor are in a hyper contracted state all the time. This is quite different to the issue of a weak soft pelvic floor. The muscles simply cannot relax. This can affect the nerve supply to the penis and blood flow resulting in erectile difficulties, sensation changes and possibly pelvic pain in the genital and perianal area. Men can also experience dribbling post urination with this condition due to the bladder not being able to empty properly and also issues with the bowel.

It is important that a diagnosis of either a hypertonic (overly tense) pelvic floor or a hypotonic (weak and soft) pelvic floor be made so that the correct treatment is performed. Performing strength improving exercises would not be recommended for a hypertonic pelvic floor initially as this could make the condition worse. Relaxation therapy and stretching need to be employed first so that the pelvic floor can resume a more normal state.

What can cause a hypertonic pelvic floor?

There is no one defining cause of a hyper contracted pelvic floor, there can be many activities or life circumstances that can lead to this condition. For example; men who lift heavy weights in the gym regularly for a number of years, tensing the core muscles continually can develop constant tension in the pelvic floor, essentially these muscles remain “switched on” and never relax. They become shorter and remain overly tight. People who lead high stress lifestyles or experience anxiety, often have an overactive sympathetic nervous system, they are always in “fight or flight” mode, this can cause the pelvic floor to be in a constant state of tension.  Trauma or injury to the area such as impact to the coccyx can also cause these muscles to tense up to protect the area.

The tesla chair can also be employed for this second pelvic floor condition with different programs and treatment intensity to help the pelvic floor muscles relax.

We do recommend consulting with a Pelvic floor specialist to get an accurate diagnosis if this is suspected initially before undertaking treatment. It is possible for us to get a general idea as to which you may have during a consultation, but a specialist pelvic floor physiotherapist will perform more involved testing for men with the above issues and give you a definite diagnosis.