Migraine headaches can be horrible. An intense throbbing pain in the foreheead or the temples. Nausea. Vomitting. Diarrhoea. Sensitivity to light and sound. Currently, there is no known cure.
A neurologist at Ohio State Medical Centre now claims that he has found a way to zap migraines before they begin. Yousef Mohammad says that a hand held transcranial magnetic stimulator (TMS) the size of a cereal bowl can prevent migraines if the is applied during the headache's warning period. “The device's pulses are painless. The patients have felt a little pressure, but that's all,” said Mohammad. When signs like sleeplessness, irritability, fatigue or a light show known as an aura show themselves, the stimulator is placed at the back of the head. When turned on, it creates a magnetic field that sends an electrical current through the brain's neurons and disrupts the abnormal brain activity believed to be the cause of migraines.
Although it is now in the open market for other illnesses such as depression, the US Food and Drug Administration has not approved it for migraines.
What a pain.
Seamstress: After a quick internet search, it was found that Mohammad presented his research and invention on Thursday, June 22, 2006, to coincide with a presentation at the American Headache Society meeting in Los Angeles. it has been two years now and the latest update was reported in CBS News last month.
Here's the article:
(CBS) A strange-looking device may be able to stop a migraine in its tracks. That could be good news for the estimated 30 million Americans who suffer from the condition. It’s called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation - or TMS. The patient puts a device on the back of the head, and pushes a button, sending a magnetic pulse into the skull, CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook reports. "It actually generates a very small amount of current that flows through the brain and the assumption is that current is what turns off the migraine attack," said Dr. Richard Lipton of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. About 25 percent of migraine headaches are preceded by what's called an aura, including visual changes like flashing lights, zigzag patterns and blind spots. The idea is to use the device at the first sign of an aura. "People can treat a headache when they feel it coming on," Lipton said. In results released today by Lipton, a shareholder in the company that makes a device, TMS treatment stopped migraines in 40 percent of patients - twice as effective as placebo. "There are a lot of patients who can't take the prescription drugs that are available for migraine, and this gives me a whole new avenue of therapy,” Lipton said.
There are medications currently available that have been extremely effective at stopping migraines, but they do have side effects. So if the FDA approves this device, it could be a welcome alternative.
There seems to be other versions too:
The heavyweight-add-more-suffering TMS edition - i think i may suffer from neck and shoulder pains on top of migraines after use. Ouch!
The "Doctor-Octopus-without-tentacles-lookalike" TMS edition. One word: freaky.....
Maybe OSIM or OTO could develop their own versions and we can finally chuck away the panadols. :)
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