Zap it to me now,Why Wait?
June 28th 2008 01:55
Magnetic Device Could Zap Migraines
NEW YORK, June 27, 2008
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(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.
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Ok,so the study is done.If this device can help,why,why,why, make people wait...let me think.Oh,I know,I got it...competition for prescription meds.
And who wants an alternative without side effects.After all,taking certain meds can cause side effects and that could mean more meds to help those side effects and on and on.
Not to mention,well this med didn't work,so we'll switch you.Or oh my,a new med out that is really better than what you're taking now,or what you've been taking stops working,so let's switch.
We're a civilized country here in the USA.So why would we make people suffer?It's all in the name of money.
I don't know about you,but I'm tired of the pain.I have chronic migraine now,but my level goes up so high at times,I feel like this is the big one...When it wasn't chronic,I remember the fear I had of the next migraine attack.
Look,they know people miss work,it's costing companies money.But the big companies that make our meds the power.I remember there were all sorts of songs when I was growing up,Power to the People.Right.
Civilized,no I don't think so.
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