A method and an apparatus for relieving pain in a region of the body of a user by contacting electrodes to a surface of the body of the user at the region and providing a series of electrical impulses to the region. The series of impulses comprises a plurality of cycles Ttotal, each cycle having a positive voltage pulse 552 and negative voltage pulse 554, the plurality of cycles having a frequency of 60-150 cycles per second. The positive voltage pulses have a time-averaged voltage amplitude Vap of 20-90 volts over the entire duration, and each pulse has a voltage ramp-up section 556. The ramp-up section either attains 80% of the time-averaged voltage amplitude within 70-150 nanoseconds, or increases by 20 Volts within 70 nanoseconds. The voltage ramp-up section of the pulse may get shorter in subsequent subsets of cycles (see figure 6).
