Study shows device can zap away your migraines

Published February 7, 2013 | By Iowadawg

Migraines are difficult to treat and prevention usually means taking daily medications, which may come with unpleasant side effects.

Some migraine sufferers don’t respond well to preventive meds, and it can take a lot of trial and error to find a combination of drugs that work.

Now, a group of researchers is looking into preventing migraines using of a form of non-invasive electrical stimulation, not unlike what physical therapists use to treat injuries. A new study found that a device you wear on your face like a tiara, but which delivers electrical pulses, can reduce the frequency of migraines in some sufferers.

The device, called Cefaly, is placed on the forehead along with a small electrode. It delivers electrical stimulation (it feels like a prickling sensation) to the supraorbital nerve. This nerve reaches up to the forehead and down to the trigeminal nerve, a nerve responsible for sensation in the face and has been implicated in migraines. High -frequency nerve stimulation is thought to somehow interrupt the pain signals and prevent a migraine.

“Repeated stimulation of [the supraorbital] nerve is able to modify the activity of brain centers that are involved in the transmission and control of pain,” said study author Dr. Jean Schoenen of the Headache Research Unit at the University of Liège in Belgium

In her study, published in the online issue of journal Neurology, 67 people from Belgium who had an average of four migraine attacks per month, received either the stimulation 20 minutes a day for three months or a sham stimulation, where they wore the device but the stimulation given was at levels too low to have any effect.

About 38 percent of patients who received the stimulation had at least a 50 percent reduction in the monthly frequency of migraine days, compared to 12 percent for those who wore the sham glasses, Schoenen said.

The number of days with migraine decreased from 6.9 days to 4.8 days per month. The treatment took about a month to have an effect.

There were no side effects from the stimulation.

“These results are exciting, because the results were similar to those of drugs that are used to prevent migraine, but often those drugs have many side effects for people, and frequently the side effects are bad enough that people decide to quit taking the drug,” Schoenen said. The authors are careful to point out that the study did not include people with the most severe cases of migraines.

This was a trial to prevent the frequency of migraine attacks. There are no well-designed trials testing how effective it is in reducing the pain of a migraine attack once it starts, but the stimulator contains an “acute” stimulation program that reduces pain in moderate attacks in many patients, Schoenen said.

The device is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. Visit Cefaly’s website to learn more about it.

From Fox News.

###

Looks like Piers Morgan is right: there’s no gun-crime in England:
A fugitive lured police officers to him before shooting them repeatedly and then throwing a grenade at his victims, a court has heard… Dale Cregan, 29, had evaded a nationwide manhunt when he set the trap, Preston Crown Court heard.

Mr Cregan denies killing PCs Nicola Hughes, 23, and Fiona Bone, 32, in Hattersley, Greater Manchester last September. He also denies the murders of David Short, 46, and his son, Mark, 23… Mr Cregan appeared in court wearing a false left eye made of black onyx.

Mr Nicholas Clarke QC, prosecuting, said PCs Hughes and Bone were killed as they responded to a report of a burglary on the morning of 18 September.

Mr Clarke said: “[Cregan] lay in wait with a Glock firearm with an extended magazine that was fully loaded.

“PC Fiona Bone and PC Nicola Hughes attended. As soon as they arrived Cregan, who was on the run, shot the officers repeatedly, until his magazine was empty.

“As he left the scene he again threw a grenade towards the victims.”
The ludicrous, clownish hack Piers Morgan hardest hit.

Found at Doug Ross.

###

SO-CALLED “MENS” MAGAZINES ARE FOR GIRLY MEN!

AWD was recently in an office waiting room that had a copy of Esquire magazine on the coffee table. I’ve seen magazines of this sort in the past and always chuckle at how some pencil-necked, New York wuss writer tries to write about what they imagine life as a man would be. As if they’d know! I guess these are the people that started the “metrosexual” fiasco in which males now try to be women with the only difference being standing up while peeing….or at least trying. The term “metrosexual” seems to basically signify homosexuals who reside in metropolitan areas.

These “mens” magazines are filled with worthless girly crap. Oh sure, they’ll tell you all the details of the latest $8,000 bicycle that is made of polybiometric tubular molecules or where you can buy a $4,000 Italian jacket that looks like something you saw on a homeless bum…if the bum was a homosexual bum in a metro. I went to Esquire.com to check out all the stylish acoutrements (look it up, Mikey) and saw they were discussing a $60,000 watch! Like any of the poofters reading Esquire will run out and buy a $60,000 watch! The only way I’d ever spend $60 large on a watch is if James Bond wore it and it controlled a guided missile! And then I wouldn’t!

Another area of interest in all these magazines is gourmet food and fancy wines and crap like that. Nothing says “poofter” to a first-date filly than for her date to order a lemon chicken almondini pasta with a volcanic vinaigrette on a bed of free range grown basil and sh*t. Another sign of poofterness is a male who says the food is “marvelous” and the dessert “was to die for!” Yum! Any of these terms and the curvy babe will know she’ll be opening her own doors but won’t have to worry about that good night kiss. What the curvy filly really wants is a man that will say, “Garcon, I want food! Big food! Keep it coming until the button on my pants shoots across the room and drills a hole in somebody’s head!” Womerns like that. Fillies got to eat too!

From the AWD.

###

Currency Wars Return, 1930s Style: Who Will Lose Out?

As countries try to weaken their currencies to boost exports, the risk of a currency war similar to events seen in the 1930s has heightened, and policymakers are making sure they are on the winning side, according to Morgan Stanley.

The balance of power now rests with Japan, according to the bank, as Japan’s policy-makers’ more dovish approach looks set to bring the world a step closer to a currency war.

The Bank of Japan doubled its inflation target to 2 percent in January and made an open-ended commitment to continue buying assets from next year. This follows a leadership change, with new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe openly calling for aggressive monetary stimulus from the country’s central bank.

This move, Morgan Stanley said, is a “game changer” as Japan tries to invigorate its stagnating economy .

“If a weaker yen is an important pillar of the strategy to make this export-oriented economy more competitive again, it brings into the picture something that was missing from earlier interactions among central banks of the advanced economies – competitive depreciation,” it said in a research note.

“This, in turn, takes us one step closer to a currency war.”

Read on HERE.

###

Now suppressors for really BIG guns?

The Tank Silencer

Pictured above is a extremely large silencer for the M109G 155mm self-propelled Howitzer. Apparently used to keep the noise down in surrounding communities during training.

Check it out HERE.

###