[HN Gopher] A new treatment for arthritis: Vagus-nerve stimulation
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A new treatment for arthritis: Vagus-nerve stimulation
Author : WaitWaitWha
Score : 58 points
Date : 2022-12-28 17:18 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| consumer451 wrote:
| I was diagnosed with arthritis at a very young age. This was
| likely due to (at least related to) snowboard straps being too
| tight around my left ankle. I hobbled every morning for an hour,
| then a couple hours, then half the day.
|
| One day I learned about modifying my diet to avoid inflammation.
| I limited, but did not eliminate, tomatoes and potatoes in my
| diet.
|
| The effects were literally life changing. I no longer hobble each
| morning. If someone you know is suffering from arthritis I can
| highly recommend conducting this experiment for a few months.
| ekianjo wrote:
| Can confirm for tomatoes. Definitely worth a try if you suffer
| from arthritis.
| objetovoador wrote:
| IIRC inflammation is linked to endotoxins produced by bacteria
| in the gut. Apparently curcumin has a good reputation for
| helping people with inflammatory conditions like that. And it's
| been proposed that it yields positive benefits by modulating
| the gut rather than being bioactive (curcumin is famously not
| bioactive).
| hammock wrote:
| You're being downvoted because it sounds like woo but the
| people downvoting aren't up to speed on the latest science.
|
| Nightshades are tolerated by people with healthy guts and
| there is a smaller set of people with a gut dysfunction that
| means the solanine (alkaloids) in nightshades causes leaky
| gut syndrome leading to the inflammation you are talking
| about.
|
| Curcumin (turmeric) does alleviate this inflammation pretty
| powerfully, at least on a temporary basis
| voisin wrote:
| Can you share any of the science you've come across that
| you find compelling based on sample size, effect side, etc?
| I'd love to know dosages.
| hammock wrote:
| It's more of a meta analysis in my mind of all the
| different studies and anecdotes I've osmoted over the
| years. As someone else said earlier, there aren't great
| and clear individual studies because there isn't any
| money in it.
|
| For dosing curcumin, you can try juicing a quarter inch
| of turmeric root a day and starting there, I have seen
| that knock out a lot of things within a short number of
| days
| psychphysic wrote:
| It's worth drawing a thick distinction between rheumatoid
| (autoimmune) and osteoarthritis (worn out).
| GoToRO wrote:
| Why tomatoes and potatoes?
| consumer451 wrote:
| Well, it could be placebo effect, but the thinking is/was
| that:
|
| > Nightshade Vegetables
|
| > Eggplants, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes are all members
| of the nightshade family. These vegetables contain the
| chemical solanine, which some people claim aggravates
| arthritis pain and inflammation. However, most reports are
| anecdotal, and while it certainly might be true for some
| people, there are no scientific studies done to prove that
| they actually cause inflammation or make symptoms worse, says
| Kim Larson, a Seattle-based dietitian and Academy of
| Nutrition and Dietetics Spokesperson.
|
| https://www.arthritis.org/health-wellness/healthy-
| living/nut...
| boplicity wrote:
| > there are no scientific studies
|
| If this treatment could be turned into a drug that had
| billions of dollars in revenue, as some arthritis drugs
| have, then there would be endless studies.
|
| Sadly, that's not the world we live in.
|
| "Lack of studies" in many cases is code for "there's no
| money to be made here."
|
| This is too bad, because many extremely effective and
| effectively free treatments are ignored by scientists
| because they can't fund the research.
| esperent wrote:
| * * *
| grugagag wrote:
| Also let's also keep in mind not all inflammation is bad.
|
| As an anecdote, I know someone who had rosacea breakout and
| ended up eliminating tomatoes in particular from her diet and
| it seemed to do the trick so there should be something in
| tomatoes that causes inflammation...
| christkv wrote:
| Both are in the Nightshades family which contains a lot of
| alkaloids that are believed to be a cause of inflammation in
| some people. I've not seen any real studies about this
| though.
| amelius wrote:
| Posted this (about externally stimulating the vagus nerve) a
| while back because it looked interesting:
|
| https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201...
|
| I bought the equipment to try this myself (basically a TENS
| device and some electrodes), but have been too afraid to apply it
| :/
| exmadscientist wrote:
| You probably already know this, but for the benefit of others:
| it is very possible to kill yourself if you do this wrong. The
| vagus nerve (or its mirror on the opposite side of your face, I
| forget, it's been a while since I worked on this and I've never
| particularly wanted to revisit it) is involved in pacing your
| heart. Screw it up and you can end up very dead of cardiac
| arrest.
|
| So be careful trying this stuff at home!
| voisin wrote:
| You can avoid the potential for death by slow exhalations and
| other breathing techniques that have been shown to stimulate
| the vagus nerve.
| jeremycarter wrote:
| Important advice. As a person who has PVCs and PACs I would
| say avoid anything that isn't medical grade and advised by
| your cardiologist/specialist doctor.
| fernly wrote:
| > Both Galvani and SecondWave expect to announce first-in-human
| data within the next year.
|
| In other words, this is vaporware as yet.
| abledon wrote:
| another win for introducing bio-electricity into our modern
| arsenal of western medical solutions.
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