There is a lot at stake when you are fighting chronic pain in your life. Everyday day becomes hampered by the effects of the pain – your work, family life, happiness, and wellbeing are all at stake when the pain lashes out at you. There is a very apt saying for this: “Pain is the worst side effect of life”.
When you suffer from chronic pain, there are no avenues that you leave unexplored. Be it pain killers, TENS, Acupuncture, Ayurveda, or Yoga, you try it all. After a while, you learn to explore the various options you have before you decide on which product or treatment regimen you need to adopt.
It is critical that you find something that works for you. The fight against pain is a personal one, and it is more personal than you think.
Things that work for other people might not work for you, and vice versa. Unless you find the perfect solution that fits your physiology, you might find zero success with the pain relief systems that you try out.
If your search has finally brought you to consider DR-HO's Pain Therapy System as a possible solution to your painful condition, and you would like to know more about the therapy and whether it works, we have provided you with the run down on everything there is to know about the system.
About Dr. Ho
Many would say that the fact that a well known doctor has chosen to put his name on this system should show that it has some authenticity to it. At the end of the day, that all depends on whose name it actually is.
Let’s take a look at exactly who Dr. Ho is and why he has chosen to create this pain therapy system.
Dr. Ho is a Doctor of Chiropractic and Acupuncture with nearly two decades of experience treating and curing people who are suffering from pain, chronic or otherwise. This is impressive depending only on the actual success rates, so the fact that the product has been developed by a doctor shouldn’t be given too much consideration before you make your buying decision. What matters is how well it actually works.
Dr. Ho has since then gone on to develop a range of products aimed at treating chronic pain which he claims will give either temporary or long term benefits to the patients using them.
One of the products that he has developed is the DR-HO's Pain Therapy System that we are reviewing, which is based on TENS system.
About DR-HO's Pain Therapy System
Dr. Ho’s Pain Therapy System is based on the age old TENS or Transcutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulation therapy system. This system has been around for ages with professional and home-use kits readily available in the market.
TENS uses electrical signals that are transferred into your body through the skin (this is referred to as Transcutaneous), which reach your nerves and dull the pain that you are experiencing. This therapy has seen wide spread acceptance in the market, although the medical evidence that leads to its viability as an effective treatment for chronic pain is scant or non-existent.
While modern medicine does not actually support this treatment method, many of the alternative medical practices fully endorse the system.
Again, since pain alleviation is a very personal affair, most people who suffer from chronic pain try TENS as a possible therapy for their pain.
The electric signals that are sent through the Gel Massage pads of the TENS units are designed to mask the otherwise powerful pain signals that are sent through the body’s nervous system.
These electrical signals from the TENS unit confuse the brain into scrambling the pain signals coming from the affected area to give you temporary or relatively long lasting relief from your pain.
The principle behind all TENS units and this therapy system is to confuse the body and trick the brain into deflecting the pain signals.
For this reason, perhaps the system can work for a person who is more susceptible to a scrambling technique like this. You cannot say with absolutely certainty that the system will work for you or won’t unless you take the system for a trial run.
The TENS unit also increases the circulation in your body, thus considerably reducing muscle spasm and tension, which helps you fight against chronic pain.
The signals generated in the unit are also designed to promote tissue oxygenation due to increased circulation, which also helps in the fight against pain.
It’s more like trying to find the right car for your most comfortable ride. It depends on your fit with the car. So does the TENS therapy system.
Three Variations – Is It Marketing?
Dr. Ho’s Pain Therapy System comes in three different variations, each slightly different from the last one with some additional features and higher prices charged for these additional features.
The basic model includes 8 small massage pads, 2 large massage pads, a travel bag, an instructional dvd & manual, and circulation promoting foot massage pads.
In addition to this, the Deluxe Package from Dr. Ho includes 16 more small massage pads and 4 more large massage pads.
The Ultimate Package has an additional travel foot therapy pads, pain therapy back relief belt, and a magic heat pad.
The prices for the pain therapy systems range from near $200 for the basic model to $300 for the ultimate model on all e-commerce sites.
The price variation in these models (including PRO, PTS-II, and 4 Pad TENS versions) are significant and compared to the prices of other similar TENS units in the market, Dr. Ho’s are priced considerably higher. The website claims that their product is superior to other products in the market, specifically due to three separate technologies used in Dr. Ho’s products, and we will be analyzing that in the next section of this review.
But more significantly the question here is if the different models are a marketing gimmick.
If the Ultimate and Deluxe models are superior to the Basic model, does it mean that the Basic model is less efficient in relieving pain for you than the other models? Do more pads mean better pain relief?
Or is it that the Basic models works just fine, but the additional pads are a marketing gimmick to stack more useless features to entice the customer into parting with more money for the perceived value?
Either way, we think that the good doctor should explain the benefits of buying the more expensive systems (other than the obvious statement that you get more number of pads at a small additional price) he has developed in the struggle against pain.
Custom Pain Relief
The pain therapy system comes with customization options to give better pain therapy. The system comes with personalized intensity controls and with 6 different modes of massage intensity.
This will help you adjust your pain therapy system to specifically suit your preference and condition. There is also an auto-off timer in case you are using the device in your snooze mode. These are rather useful customization features that can be of great value to you.
Pitting Against the Competition
As we have already mentioned, Dr. Ho’s Pain Therapy System is one of the more expensive choices out there. The website has highlighted a few factors to substantiate its higher cost.
The topper is the fact that it perhaps is the most popular product of its kind in the market, which is true. Our analysis of the products in popular e-commerce sites indeed confirms the claim. Secondly, the website highlights the fact that Dr. Ho’s is perhaps one of the longest standing products in the market, which we think is also a valid claim.
Another differentiating factor is that the system provides a Back Pain Relief and Support Belt in the package, but this is available only with the Ultimate Package and you are paying considerably more for this additional benefit.
This pain therapy system has two ports which can work simultaneously for two different body parts and give effective pain relief. This feature is available with other less expensive models in the market, as well.
But the major differentiating factor is the fact that this pain therapy system uses three independent technologies to fight the pain. While TENS and EMS (electronic muscle stimulation) are used in the other TENS products in the market, Dr. Ho’s Pain Therapy System also uses Auto-modulating Pain Relieving Waves. Remember how we discussed the TENS signals tricking the brain into ignoring the pain signals?
What happens after a while is that the brain becomes used to the external stimulus and starts responding to the pain signals again. With the APRW, which is a proprietary concept from Dr. Ho, the signals constantly change or fluctuate, never giving the brain and the body a chance to get used to the external stimulus.
What Do The Customers Think?
We monitored the customer feedbacks in various forums and the feedback of customers on e-commerce sites like Amazon.
The response is not overwhelmingly positive. There are mixed reviews with many having commented that they had experienced lasting pain relief with this therapy. They have also commented on the ease of using the system and the way it has worked to help them get out of chronic pain that afflicted various parts of the body. However, some of the feedback criticizes the system as not working properly or not giving any pain relief, and many customers are not happy with the higher cost of the system after having experienced it.
Again, it all boils down to the fact that pain relief is dependent on the physiology of the person and what might work for one might not work for the other.
DR-HO's Pain Therapy System Final Words
After consulting with your doctor and analyzing your situation, if you find that you indeed need a TENS system, this one is as good as any. Just mind the higher price.
Ultimately, this kind of pain relief is based on tricking your brain and it all depends on whether your brain is wired in such as way that it can be receptive to this type of treatment.
