“Frankly, I don’t know what I’d do without it.” - Stan Graham
Having to give up things you love because of a health condition is miserable, so it should come as no surprise that folk singer and songwriter Stan Graham searched for solutions when he started to suffer from reduced mobility in his fingers. We recently spoke to him to hear how NuroKor Lifetech’s electrotherapy helped treat his trigger finger and collapsed vertebrae so he could keep playing.
Writer of one of the 2010 Folk Songs of the Decade, five highly acclaimed albums and with several successful global tours to his name, Stan Graham is a legend of the UK folk music scene, so anything that could keep him playing was worth a try.
Trigger finger - a guitarist’s worst nightmare
This condition affects the tendons that control your fingers. At first, it causes pain when moving your fingers, but can quickly progress to constant pain and the inability to properly bend or straighten your fingers. As any guitarist - or any other musician - will tell you, not being able to move your fingers as you would like is a significant problem and severely limits your ability to play.
The exact cause of trigger finger developing is unknown, but the symptoms are the result of swelling or inflammation around the tendons controlling your fingers. Fortunately, certain types of electrical current used by our technology - such as microcurrent - have been shown to help with inflammation and swelling.
“As a regular guitarist it’s obviously a worrying condition for anyone who needs flexibility in order to play an instrument.” - Stan Graham
So what did Stan do?
Having been a fan of NuroKor Lifetech for some time already, Stan turned to his mitouch. He found that using the Performance and Recover modes in the mornings and late evenings helped him most, with a 30-minute session of each being enough to ease the pain and increase the mobility in his fingers. When needed, he also used the Pain setting. Stan finds that the effects last for several hours so he can play the guitar with the full range of movement!
To ensure that the benefits of the mitouch’s therapeutic programmes reach all of his hands, Stan uses the KorGlov accessory to make treating his hands easier and more effective. If you’ve not tried them yet, they are made of conductive material so that the therapeutic electrical current is distributed across the whole hand, rather than just in a smaller area if you were using the normal pads. We can say from personal experience that if you’re suffering from hand or wrist pain, then they make treating it much simpler!
Although we haven’t tried this ourselves, Stan has found that applying a small amount of hand cream before use makes for an effective addition to the treatment.
Unfortunately for Stan, trigger finger is not the only problem he has been contending with recently.
Muscular problems and more
Early in 2022, Stan suffered from a collapsed vertebrae, as a result of which it was impossible to walk long distances or even to stand for more than ten minutes. Not to mention that it is also extremely painful.
However, using mitouch again, but this time in tandem with some stretching exercises, Stan was able to reduce pain and increase his general mobility. He focused the treatment on his lower back and left leg to relax the muscles, using the Recover and Performance modes on medium intensity for 30 minutes twice per day, as well as the Pain mode when needed.
“I would highly recommend the NuroKor system to anyone who has suffered similar problems. It helps aid recovery and eases muscular pains. It helped me through two difficult periods and enabled me to manage these serious injuries.” - Stan Graham
Stan’s situation now
Since we first spoke to him, Stan has made remarkable progress - his trigger finger is cured! He is now able to play with full use and mobility in his fingers and has no pain whatsoever. But that doesn’t mean he has stopped using his mitouch, which he takes on the road with him wherever he goes, including to a recent string of concerts that he has performed at. These are usually two sets of 50 minutes each, standing in front of a microphone, and he always uses his mitouch beforehand to make sure he’s feeling at his best.
Stan’s experiences show that severe injuries and chronic conditions, while understandably troubling in how they can impact your life, can be managed with the right therapies so that you can continue to do what you love. Stan’s use of mitouch in combination with KorGlov has allowed him to not only continue his incredible music career, but has also helped him cope with potentially life-changing conditions.
To find out more about mitouch and KorGlov, head over to our store page.
To learn more about Stan, visit his website. He’s an internationally successful folk music singer and songwriter, with multiple awards and albums to his name.