More and more people are seeking pain relief that doesn’t involve taking pills. Now there’s a new topical device available: Alfa Plus by Solio, invented and manufactured in Israel.
Alfa Plus is the world’s first radio frequency (RF) device for home use to receive FDA and CE clearance for pain relief, says founder Shahak “Chuck” Cohen.
“Once we succeed, no doubt you’ll see more like it,” he tells ISRAEL21c.
Cohen, a serial entrepreneur, explains that he was not satisfied with the effectiveness of pain-relief devices that use light or electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).
“I decided to find something that really works. For two years I ran around to medical companies until I found the right thing,” says Cohen.
That “right thing” is a combination of bipolar RF to increase blood circulation, dual-wavelength infrared technology (IR) to heat and ease skin pain and stiffness, and low-level laser therapy (LLLT) to relieve the skin. All of these are contained within the unit used externally by the consumer.
DMT, the Herzliya-based privately funded company Cohen founded to commercialize the invention, developed Alfa Plus with fellow Israeli company Home Skinovations located in Yokne’am. Home Skinovations has an award-winning track record in professional beauty devices for home use.
“At Home Skinovations, RF is their main field and they did all the development exclusively for us. Without their help we couldn’t have done it,” Cohen explains.
Meant to give long-lasting relief of chronic pain and to eliminate pain from trauma, sports injury or menstruation, Alfa Plus is placed on the part of the body that hurts. Four RF diodes noninvasively penetrate the skin with deep heating to increase blood circulation, accelerate tissue regeneration and reduce inflammation, muscle aches, stiffness and pain.
Cohen says the effect is comparable to trigger-point therapy and stimulates the body’s natural healing mechanisms, increasing the blood circulation and drawing oxygen and nutrients to the affected area. The product comes with a conductive gel that assures proper delivery of the treatment and allows the device to move smoothly over the treatment area.
A clinical study in Israel, to be published soon, used Alfa Plus together with a trigger-point treatment on over 100 patients, of whom 90 reported reduced lower-back pain. A second trial will test how well the device performs on its own.
Length of treatment
How long and how often you use Alfa Plus depends on the type of pain you have.
For period pain, Alfa Plus claims one 15- to 20-minute treatment session is all you need. For chronic pain, the device is recommended to be used twice a day for the first few days and then once a day for two to three months, and then no more than four times a week after that to avoid overstimulation.
“Chronic pain will probably never go away but our device can reduce the amount of pain and the intervals between the highest levels of pain,” Cohen says. “We noticed that people who were taking lots of pain medication for chronic lower-back pain were able to reduce their meds by half when using Alfa Plus.”
Cosmetic and medical dermatologist Dr. Judith Hellman, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, said many of her patients also have problems with pain and prefer to avoid oral medications due to potential side effects.
The combination of technologies in the Alfa Plus device, Hellman says, “is able to treat pain from the level of the skin all the way down to the level of the muscles. It’s very easy to use, it’s very safe, and I think it’s good for a lot of people by itself or in combination with pain medication, if needed.”
Manufactured in northern Israel by Flextronics, Alfa Plus by Solio is sold for about $500 on the company’s website as well as on Amazon and eBay. It comes with a two-year warrantee.
“We aim to find distributors in the US and in other countries,” says Cohen.
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