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Clinicians are always looking for additional ways to help deliver care and send you on the road to recovery. Modern technology can provide answers to many issues and deliver new tools to facilitate recovery.

Recently, many rehabilitation clinicians have started investigating the secrets of whole body vibration (WBV), in which you stand on a platform that provides gentle to challenging constant vibration that reverberates through the body.

Originally developed for Russian cosmonauts to preserve muscle and bone mass in zero gravity conditions, WBV is gaining confidence among health care practitioners, especially those who treat athletic populations, and people compromised by disease, age or disability.

Vibration therapy units are either motor-generated plates or vibrational models. Motor units move in horizontal (side-to-side) and vertical (up and down) planes. This is beneficial for athletes who want a challenging workout or treatment.

Vibrational sound or piston models operate in the vertical plane only, reproducing the effects of gravity. This can benefit an older population and those recovering from injury. Vibrational models also allow patients to experience higher ranges to allow higher tolerances for more systemic benefits.

Like aerobic and anaerobic exercise, whole body vibration increases physical strength, dexterity and endurance. Better circulation increases oxygen uptake, while mechanical oscillations create tendon stretch reflexes to stimulate involuntary muscle contractions throughout the body.

Comparable to weight repetitions at the gym, WBV can increase muscle strength and work tolerance with less effort and time for the same movement.

WBV can also be a therapeutic adjunct if you have paraplegia, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. By stimulating muscles that the brain can't control, WBV helps minimize lower body atrophy and, in some cases, reconnect the signal from the brain with previously weakened muscles. Patients with postural problems have reported new awareness and control over lower abdominal muscles after WBV sessions.

In addition to whole body strengthening and improved endurance, WBV provides other key advantages, such as the following:

Balance and coordination. During WBV, the moving plate can challenge balance and coordination in a safe environment. Single-leg activities during WBV promote improved balance through that lower extremity.

Bone density. WBV can quell the effects of osteoporosis by balancing hormones and increasing mechanical stressors on bones via involuntary muscle contractions.

Joint pain. The vertical movement stretches joints. As a result, the movement increases space and replaces fluid between the bones, while raising critical blood flow to an area.

Intermittent pressure stimulates optimal cartilage function. Like a sponge squeezed underwater, synovial fluid is repeatedly pumped through cartilage. This improves joint mobility, eases joint stress and relieves tension.

Pelvic floor instability. Pregnancy can soften connective tissue and pelvic floor musculature. Vibrational therapy quickly returns the hormonal system to balance, while firming connective and muscle tissue.

Postoperative recovery. Improved blood and lymph circulation through WBV speeds healing after surgery or trauma. Serotonin release calms a patient, while HGH release speeds recovery. WBV also inhibits the loss of muscular strength during the postop period.

In addition to these specific applications, WBV can return a range of systemic benefits, leading to a healthier, pain-free body. Regular use of WBV can result in a trimmer, shapelier body. Many patients find WBV sessions more efficient than lengthy aerobic workouts. People who are overweight or have low back pain, painful joints and other health problems can reap the rewards of an exercise plan.

Vibration therapy is still a new concept. But it might be time to talk your clinicians and investigate the range of benefits that can accompany this technology.

This Patient Handout was written by Vivian Eisenstadt, MAPT, OCS, owner of Prevent The Pain Therapy in Los Angeles. She can be reached at www.preventthepain.com