Cosmetic Electrotherapy micro-current machine together with a selection of electrodes, made by Silver Fox (China)"Galvanism" Electrodes touch a frog, and the legs twitch into the upward position[1]
Cosmetic electrotherapy is a range of beauty treatments that uses low electric currents passed through the skin to produce several therapeutic effects[2][unreliable source?] such as muscle toning in the body[3][unreliable source?]: 226 and micro-lifting of the face.[4] It is based on electrotherapy, which has been researched and accepted in the field of rehabilitation,[5] though the "scientific and medical communities have tended to sideline or dismiss the use of electrotherapy for healthy muscles".[6]
The use of electricity in cosmetics goes back to the end of the 19th century,[7][8] almost a hundred years after Luigi Galvani discovered that electricity can make the muscle in a frog's leg twitch[9] (see galvanism). Subsequent research in electrophysiology has been carried out by people such as Robert O. Becker, Dr Björn Nordenström,[10] a former chair of the Nobel Selection Committee for Medicine, and Dr Thomas Wing,[11][12] who invented some of the first micro-current devices.
^David Ames Wells, The science of common things: a familiar explanation of the first principles of physical science. For schools, families, and young students., Publisher Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman, 1859, 323 pages (page 290)
^"Introduction, Facial Electrical Manual, The Carlton Institute. 23 pages. (Page 2)
^Dawn Mernagh-Ward, Jennifer Cartwright, Health and beauty therapy: a practical approach for NVQ level 3, Edition 3,
Publisher Nelson Thornes, 2004, ISBN0-7487-9035-7, ISBN978-0-7487-9035-7. 420 pages (page 109)
^Robinson AJ, Snyder-Mackler, L. Clinical electrophysiology: electrotherapy and electrophysiologic testing 3rd ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2008;151-196, 198-237, 239-274
^Kristin Schaefer Centofanti, "Electrical Stimulation for Health, Beauty, Fitness, Sports Training and Rehabilitation", Advances in Muscle Research, 2008, Volume 4 (Application of Muscle/Nerve Stimulation in Health and Disease), 69-116. (page 69)
^See for example: "Dr Hardaway has remarked the wide usefulness of electrolysis in cosmetic manipulations." in The Medical Times and Register, Volume 16, (Author: Horatio Charles Wood), Publisher The Medical Publishing Company, 1886 (90)
^In the treatment of scars (cicatrix): ".. electro-galvanic currents ought to remove cicatrical tissue of the skin, and thus prove of incalculable value as a cosmetic" in Eclectic medical journal, Volume 45, Ohio State Eclectic Medical Association, Published 1885, (page 99)
^Thomas Thomson, An outline of the sciences of heat and electricity, Publisher Baldwin & Cradock, 1830. "Chapter VII: Of Electricity by Contact" (page 489)