Why Is Medical Progress So Slow?

Posted: 10/28/2017

Trigger

Just read a very stimulating article about vagus nerve stimulation (no pun intended; source 1). More about VNS later.

The Usual Suspects/Culprits

Western countries have done many things to undermine faster medical progress. Just to name a few (in no particular order):

1. The special privileges and monopoly powers conferred to the medical profession
2. The excessive specialisation and compartmentalisation of the medical profession
3. Too much excessive legislation & regulation of medical treatments
4. Too much excessive intellectual property protections of inventions
5. Very excessive and heavily exploited fears of harm from e.g. new medical treatments

Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Caveat: I am not a doctor nor am I an expert of the autonomic nerve system (ANS) etc.

A bit history (emphasis added): “An observation first made in the 1880s was that manual massage and compression of the carotid artery in the cervical region of the neck could suppress seizures, an effect attributable to crude stimulation of the vagus. Electrical VNS studies were conducted during the 1930s and 1940s to understand the influence of the ANS on modulating brain activity. Studies in cats and monkeys demonstrated that VNS influenced brain electrical activity. Subsequent studies determined that VNS had anticonvulsant effects on experimentally-induced seizures in dogs …  Cardio-respiratory stimulation of the vagus nerve may explain some of the positive emotional and cognitive benefits of deep breathing, yoga, or aerobic exercise activities. Dedicated clinical trials eventually led to approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of an implanted VNS device indicated for the treatment of refractory epilepsy in 1997 ...” (Source 3)

Is not the ancient Chinese acupuncture treatment also some kind of VNS? Is not VNS, in its simplest form, easy to apply even for lay persons (see above, manual massage)?

It took doctors and scientists over 100 years to recognize that the all important vagus nerve could help to treat epilepsy, headaches, heart failure/diseases, or treatment resistant depression etc. That is a very dismal performance by a highly educated elite!

I would also bet that diseases like the very annoying irritable bowel syndrome might be susceptible to VNS treatment.

The Power Or Miracle Of Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Here is an excerpt (emphasis added):

“Following the hypothesis that vagus nerve stimulation functionally reorganizes the thalamo-cortical network, we tested its effects on the cortical activity of a patient lying in a vegetative state for 15 years following traumatic brain injury. Behavioral, electroencephalographic (EEG) and 18F-FDG PET recordings were performed before and after surgical implantation of a vagus nerve stimulator. Stimulation was gradually increased to a maximum intensity of 1.5 mA, and its effects were monitored over six months post-implantation. After one month of stimulation, when intensity reached 1 mA, clinical examination revealed reproducible and consistent improvements in general arousal, sustained attention, body motility and visual pursuit. Scores on the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) test improved, mostly in the visual domain, as stimulation increased, from a score of 5 at baseline (last exam) to 10 at highest intensities (1.00–1.25 mA), indicating a transition from a vegetative to minimally conscious state.” (Source 1,2)

Sources:

1. Hirnstimulator hilft aus Bewusstlosigkeit
2. Restoring consciousness with vagus nerve stimulation
3. Vagus Nerve Stimulation
4. Neuroanatomic and clinical correspondences: acupuncture and vagus nerve stimulation.