Why Do I Get Itchy When Using A Vibration Plate
Vibration plates are a popular tool to help the lymphatic system and decrease symptoms from Lipedema. Vibration plates are easy to use and there are many different things you can do with them such as exercise, rest your legs or arms on it, and stand for a full body shake!
A common side effect I hear patients and clients report is they have an itchy feeling after using their vibration plate. This was an interesting side effect that I have not experienced personally, so I went down a rabbit hold and researched why this was happening.
Here is what I found!
There could be different reasons on why a person gets an itchy feeling when using a vibration plate. Here are the top 3 reasons.
Nerve compression - Nerves could be getting compressed as your body is moving in different directions. Sometimes when a nerve gets compressed it causes an abnormal sensation that could feel like your tissue is itchy.
Dilation/Expansion of the blood system/Increased movement of the lymphatic fluid - This is one of the many reasons why we use a vibration plate! When we are using a vibration plate our blood vessels can become larger causing increased blood flood as well as our lymphatic fluid increased movement due to our muscles working on the vibration plate. The feeling of blood and lymph fluid moving could be causing an itchy feeling.
Mast Cells could be releasing histamines in your body - Mast cells are in our white blood cells in the connective tissue. Mast cells are our first defense against harmful substances in our systems and protect our bodies. When Mast cells are activated they can release histamine which can cause us to feel itchy. The release of mast cells and histamine unfortunately causes inflammation which is exactly what we do not want!
If you experience an itchy sensation when using your vibration plate, I suggest lowering the amount of time you are on it. When you start feeling the sensation of being itchy, slow down the vibration or do a cool down off the plate. Slowly try to build your tolerance to using the vibration plate without the itchy sensation!