Vibration Therapy for Health Promotion

Abstract

Vibration therapy has been used as a clinical intervention, in which mechanical vibration is transmitted to a part or to the whole body of the individual. It is very important to point out that mechanical vibration is a natural stimulus that is part of the daily life of all living beings and is periodically added to the organism due to a movement of the body. When, for several reasons, the person cannot add mechanical vibration to the body, the mechanical vibration generated by a device can be transmitted to the person in contact with it. When the intervention aims to treat a complaint referring to a specific anatomical segment, it is called local or segmental vibration therapy. However, when mechanical vibration is transmitted to the whole person’s body, aiming for an improvement in the performance, or as a clinical intervention, the procedure is called Systemic vibration therapy. The biological effects would be due to the mechano-transduction mechanism by which cells convert mechanical stimulus into biological activity, releasing various hormones and other substances. This form of mechano-transduction is important to physiological processes in the body, including proprioception, effects on bone mineral density, muscle, balance, and functionality, promoting the modulation of biological effects through specific signaling pathways. In this chapter, the use of mechanical vibration as an intervention aiming to improve and optimize daily life is discussed, either as a local or systemic application, targeting a specific part of the body or the whole body, respectively.