Reduce knee pain caused by osteoarthritis by stimulating a nerve in the ear

According to RCO News Agency, The vagus nerve is the key to the parasympathetic nervous system that, in contrast to the “war or escape” response of the sympathetic nervous system, creates a “rest and digestion” calming response. It is like a highway that connects the brain to other organs such as the heart, lungs and digestive tract. It is also involved in managing pain signals.

In a new study led by the University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP), the researchers conducted an experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaginal nerve irritation through the ear to treat arthritis -related knee pain (OA). This is the first study to do this.

“As a physiotherapist, I saw many patients suffering from knee pain from arthritis,” says Dr. Kosaku Aoyagi, the chief professor and assistant professor of physiotherapy and motor science at the UTE School of Health Sciences. This encouraged me to pursue my research to improve their quality of life, and our results showed great potential.

Vagan nerve stimulation through the skin, where a mild electrical current is applied to the nerve, usually through the back of the ear, has been used to treat indigestion, pain and even slowing the aging process. Vagan nerve stimulation is a safe and non -invasive intervention that has been shown to relieve reliable parasympathetic function. This method can be performed using a device that lies on the ear and sends an electric pulse to the vagus nerve.

Avigi says: Current evidence suggests that people with knee pain caused by osteoarthritis have an imbalance of sympathetic activity against parasympathetic body, which can cause pain. By stimulating the vagus nerve, we assumed that our treatment may correct this imbalance.

The researchers chose four adults with knee arthritis and knee pain associated with activity, each of which gave an ear a 5 -minute treatment. Participants were asked not to take painkillers two hours before studying, and knee pain before treatment was evaluated immediately afterwards and 2 minutes afterwards. The average knee pain was initially 0.5 on a scales of zero to 2 points.

3 out of 5 participants exceeded the minimum clinical improvement of the post -treatment pain. Compared to the onset of treatment, knee pain was reduced immediately after treatment by 3.5 points and 2 minutes after treatment.

The researchers said: “All of our participants completed the full 5 -minute protocol without any major side effects, and more than a third of them exceeded the important clinical threshold for improved knee pain.” This indicates that their symptoms may be due to improved parasympathetic function or central pain mechanisms, as no topical intervention is applied to the knee.

Researchers acknowledge that the lack of control group means that the observed effect may be due to the effect of placebo. They also considered as a restriction that lying or sitting slowly for an hour as part of the treatment may affect the pain itself. In addition, they only looked at the effect of a treatment, and their studied population was mainly Spanish that limits the generalization of the findings.

However, despite these constraints, our new initial data has shown promising signals of safety, feasibility, acceptance and effectiveness for knee arthritis symptoms.

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