In a recent pilot study on people with rheumatoid arthritis (another autoimmune disease) scientists were able to significantly improve symptoms in the majority of their study subjects, by placing a tiny electrical stimulator around the vagus nerve that subtly zapped the vagus nerve 4 times a day (sort of a pacemaker for the autonomic nervous system).
Read the whole fascinating, out of the box article, amazing article here:
Can the Nervous System Be Hacked?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magaz ... .html?_r=0
Its a really long article, here are a few excerpts:
and...Inflammatory afflictions like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease are currently treated with drugs — painkillers, steroids and what are known as biologics, or genetically engineered proteins. But such medicines, Tracey pointed out, are often expensive, hard to administer, variable in their efficacy and sometimes accompanied by lethal side effects. His work seemed to indicate that electricity delivered to the vagus nerve in just the right intensity and at precise intervals could reproduce a drug’s therapeutic — in this case, anti-inflammatory — reaction. His subsequent research would also show that it could do so more effectively and with minimal health risks.
Tracey’s efforts have helped establish what is now the growing field of bioelectronics. He has grand hopes for it. “I think this is the industry that will replace the drug industry,” he told me.
and...During a 20-minute operation, a neurosurgeon will slide SetPoint Medical’s bioelectronic implant onto the vagus nerve on the left side of a patient’s neck, and then snap on an outer housing called the Pod to hold the device in place. Once the implant is activated, electrical impulses transmitted from the implant will communicate directly with immune cells in the spleen and the gastrointestinal tract, inducing them to reduce the production of cytokines — molecules that are involved in inflammation. To recharge the device’s batteries and update its software, patients and physicians will use an iPad app to control a wearable collar that transmits power and data wirelessly through the skin.
M.A.In September 2011, SetPoint Medical began the world’s first clinical trial to treat rheumatoid-arthritis patients with an implantable nerve stimulator based on Tracey’s discoveries. According to Ralph Zitnik, SetPoint’s chief medical officer, of the 18 patients currently enrolled in the ongoing trial, two-thirds have improved. And some of them were feeling little or no pain just weeks after receiving the implant; the swelling in their joints has disappeared.
