Jun 30
It is Monday. You are up and about getting ready for your usual commute to work. On your way out, you look in the mirror by the front door to check your appearance, as you always do. Tie is straight…check! Hair is neat…check! No food in the teeth…check! You are on time- no, you are early, in fact. You think to yourself, “This will be a good day.” Suddenly, just as you are opening your car door- BAM! A flash of light hits you out of nowhere. It happens to you every so often so you are no stranger to its sneakiness, and its brashness. It is a migraine-or at least the familiar beginnings of a migraine and you dread what you know will be the inevitable pain and misery that will surely abound within the hour. For those of you who don’t know about them, a migraine is not just a bad headache, it is much worse, and unless you have personally experienced one, you cannot imagine just how badly they can hurt. They are painful. They are disruptive. They can sometimes be debilitating. But now, a new device is on the horizon that may just zap the pain away. A recent study revealed that a device, which delivers a therapy known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, may be just what the doctor ordered. This cool little device sparks a magnetic pulse, that when held against a person’s head, creates an electric current among nerve cells to the brain. In turn, the migraine is disrupted in the “aura” phase, which is experienced by many people at the beginning stages of a migraine and causes visual disturbances and tingling and numbness. A new study, which included over 200 patients, randomly selected some of the patients to use the TMS device and the others to use a “sham” product. Of those who used the TMS device, 39% of the TMS patients were pain-free two hours after treatment, versus 22% of patients using the sham device.
Dr. Yousef Mohammad, of Ohio State University in Columbus, said “This is very significant. This is a much better response than is achieved with any other method or medication that we have.” If this incredible device becomes available, it means that the misery migraine sufferers have to endure may be soon be a thing of the past. So let’s rewind, shall we? With the TMS device in your pocket, you walk to your car feeling ready for the day, and when the migraine strikes, you whip out your little headache blocker and BAM! Within a short period of time, you are back to Monday morning in great shape and the day isn’t an entire loss. Well, isn’t technology and science a wonderful thing?
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