A Method for Prevention of Exposure of Acupuncture Points to Undesirable Effects

摘要

Analysis of currently used medical electrostimula-tion equipment shows that under certain conditions (determined by current characteristics and electrode size) the skin is exposed to considerably high electric current. If an electrode is applied to a skin region containing acupuncture points (AP), unintentional and, therefore, uncontrollable exposure to electric current can have a detrimental effect on the health and the functional state of the human body.The field lines of electric current are distributed in tissues in accordance with electrical conductance. Therefore, the electric current direction does not universally coincide with the shortest distance between the electrodes. Dry and coarse skin has maximum electrical resistance [6]. Skin corneous layer resistance ranges from 105 to 106 Q, and resistance of internal tissues is some hundreds of omiga. Therefore, skin resistance is dominant and resistance of internal tissues is negligible. Thus, electrical conductance of skin does not depend on inter-electrode distance provided that surface shunt caused by enhanced moistening is absent [5].