Introducing the Neubie: The Future of Physiotherapy
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At Progress Clinic, I’m proud to have been the first physiotherapist using the Neubie in clinical practice in the UK.
The Neubie is an electrical stimulation (e-stim) device designed by Neufit, a company based in the United States.
The Neubie device.
Electrical stimulation devices are nothing new, with most people having heard of a TENS machine or Compex. However, there’s several unique features of the Neubie that make it such a powerful therapeutic tool.
Most e-stim devices use alternating current (AC) to operate. This is the result of experiments done in the 60’s and 70’s using direct current (DC) electrical stimulation, which would leave burns on the skin due to the accumulation of heat and charged ions.
Nonetheless, our bodies work on DC via nerve pathways to and from the brain, and so when using AC e-stim devices, you’re essentially speaking a foreign electrical language, which limits their effectiveness with regards to neuromuscular re-education.
The Neubie combines DC with an additional waveform that reduces the build up of heat and ions on the skin, achieving the comfort of an AC device without leaving any burns.
This allows those using the Neubie to speak the same electrical language as the body, tapping into something called the nervous system feedback loop.
The nervous system feedback loop: sensory information is sent to be processed by the brain and spinal cord from the body (and external environment). Once processed, the brain and spinal cord decide on the most suitable ‘output’ to generate in response to the sensory inputs (e.g movement, pain, emotions etc).
Essentially, our nervous systems (the communication network between the brain and rest of the body) are a constant loop of information coming in and out of the brain and spinal cord. Information coming in from the outside world and up from the body known as afference (e.g the 5 senses), and information being sent out from the brain and spinal cord known as efference (e.g motor commands).
As mentioned earlier, this feedback loop operates on DC, and so when we stimulate a part of the body using the Neubie, that electrical stimulus becomes a new afferent input going up to the brain and spinal cord.
Most obviously, creating this new afferent input using the Neubie can help those with sensory changes begin to sense affected parts of their body better again, such as in those affected by a stroke or multiple sclerosis, or even those suffering with chronic pain or recovering from injury.
Additionally, by directly changing the inputs going into the brain and spinal cord using DC, you can indirectly change the outputs coming out, such as movement or pain. This can lead to more effective motor control, and reduced pain in those with a wide variety of physical and neurological ailments.
However, the various settings on the Neubie allow you to change the frequency of electrical impulses per second, depending on what you’re trying to achieve, with lower frequencies allowing a more direct effect on motor outputs by contributing to increased muscle fibre recruitment and contraction. This can be incredibly useful for both musculoskeletal conditions and neurological conditions, where using a muscle may be difficult because of pain or lack of control, when instead the Neubie can provide a powerful strengthening stimulus without having to use any weights at all.
Overall, this unique ability to rapidly tap into the nervous system’s feedback loop makes the Neubie an incredibly powerful therapeutic tool for rehabilitation. Many of the problems people deal with when trying to recover from pain or injury are due to changes in the nervous system; Pain itself is simply an output of the brain and spinal cord as a result of the inputs being received. This central tenet becomes even more obvious when dealing with loss of function due to a neurological condition.
Therefore, if many of the problems physiotherapy seeks to solve are these so-called ‘software’ problems within the nervous system, it makes sense to use a tool that can directly access and influence this network in order to achieve better functional outcomes as part of your rehab.
Since introducing the Neubie to my practice in May 2024, I have seen countless examples of patients achieving results that were simply not possible before.
I’ve seen clients 1 week post-ACL reconstruction surgery struggling to achieve a quadriceps contraction burst into laughter as they tense their muscles like normal within seconds of applying the Neubie.
I’ve seen a client with Multiple Sclerosis who couldn’t walk without assistance from their FES device and hadn’t wiggled their toes in over 10 years regain the ability to move their toes within minutes of using the Neubie, and walk without their FES device after 9 hours of treatment.
I’ve seen a client with Motor Neurone Disease who could barely stand or walk upright due to weakness in their back muscles, run up and down my clinic after just a few hours of treatment using the Neubie.
If you’d like to hear more about how the Neubie could potentially help you, click the button below to book in a FREE online video consultation with me.