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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> Electromagnetic Gun
        
(Message started by: Ronny on Aug 2nd, 2004, 1:52am)
Title: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by Ronny on Aug 2nd, 2004, 1:52am
Hi,

I stumbled on an artice in the newspaper this morning about an electromagnetic gun that cures the worst headaches. It is beeing developed in Ontario, Canada by Dr. Adrian Upton, head of neurology in the McMaster hospital. It's still in experimental phase. Next fall, He's supposed to publish an article with details about this gun.

Anyone heard about this?

    Ronny.
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by BobG on Aug 2nd, 2004, 4:13am
Dr. Adrian Upton is a chiropractor. I have never heard of a chiro that has helped with cluster pain.
But maybe he’s on to something new.
[smiley=huh.gif]
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by UN_SOLVED on Aug 2nd, 2004, 4:33am

on 08/02/04 at 01:52:30, Ronny wrote:
Hi,
...  an electromagnetic gun that cures the worst headaches. It is beeing developed in Ontario, Canada by Dr. Adrian Upton


If it's not even developed yet and never tested than how could anyone say that it will *cure* "the worst headaches ??

BTW...
"Dr. Upton has 34 years of experience, 32 of which have been in Canada, as a clinician, scientist and teacher."

"Dr. Upton has over 30 years of research in the area of seizures has recently culminated in the experimental implementation of a "pacemaker" implant into the brain to stop events leading to seizures, so as to prevent the seizures themselves;"

"a significant portion of his practice involves seeing patients who have suffered strokes;"

SOURCE: http://www.axischiropractic.com/Is%20Chiro%20Safe.html

He sounds like another doctor wanting to find someone to put in a neurostimulator device. He's probably never done one for a cluster patient or even for headaches before. Maybe never done one at all.

Unsolved
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by floridian on Aug 2nd, 2004, 9:53am
Transcranial electromagnetic therapy has been shown to help some people with depression - the pioneering work for this was at the Medical University of South Carolina, and it is being replicated and validated elsewhere.  So the idea of using electromagnetics for headache makes sense.  Not sure about what this 'gun' device involves.  Upton is a neurologist affiliated with McMaster University's med school and has a solid research record.  As Un_Solved pointed out, he hasn't done any cluster headache research. Maybe he came across something in his epilepsy research that helps with some kind of headache.  I'm guessing it was the press (not Dr. Upton) who came up with the words "cure" and "worst headaches."

Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by LeeS on Aug 2nd, 2004, 10:16am
This appeared yesterday in one of our rags:

Quote:
The Sunday Times - Britain

August 01, 2004

Magnetic gun has cure for headaches in its sights
Michael Fox and Jonathan Leake

SCIENTISTS may have found a painless and drug-free treatment for the common headache - using an electric 'gun' to fire magnetic pulses into the brain.
The technique claims to block headaches, migraines and possibly even epileptic fits by soothing the brain cells from which they originate and damping down the surge of nervous impulses that cause pain.

So far the system is experimental but tests on humans have suggested that it can block the onset of even the severest migraines.
The researchers are designing a magnetic device that can be kept at home and then used to fire soothing magnetic rays into the head when sufferers feel a headache developing.
If the device went into widespread use, it could deal a big blow to Britain's £300m-a-year market for headache pills.
Dr Adrian Upton, head of neurology at McMaster University hospital in Ontario, Canada, is to publish research on the technique in Neurology journal this autumn.
He said he was hopeful that, for many patients, the magnetic gun could mean an end to headaches, migraines and other related conditions.
About 10% of Britons suffer migraines - powerful headaches thought to be caused by disruption of the electrical signalling systems between brain cells.
Many more people suffer regular headaches that are less intense but can heavily impair what they are able to do. Epilepsy, a separate illness but possibly with similar causes, can be even more severe.
The idea that magnetism might help has been around for decades and is widely used in complementary therapies.
Conventional medicine has experimented with magnetism as a cure for depression and epilepsy but such techniques have never gained wide acceptance. However, anecdotal evidence that people who underwent brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging were cured of headaches has prompted renewed interest.
Upton's studies suggested headaches and migraines were caused by a wave of electrical activity spreading across the cortex, the outer layer of the brain. Studies have shown that after each neuron fires off a signal to its neighbours it undergoes a brief quiet spell.
Upton's theory was that hitting such cells with a magnetic pulse could prevent them sending more signals and so block the migraine or headache before it spread.
"The best way of thinking about it is like a forest fire," he said. "By having a controlled burn you remove fuel for the fire. The same thing happens with neurons. Once they are hit with a magnetic pulse they cannot become excited, so the flames die out."
So far the research has been carried out with laboratory apparatus but Upton has shrunk this into a hand-held device that he plans to market through a company, NeuraLieve, set up for the purpose.
Some experts are sceptical. Dr Peter Goadsby, director of the headache referral unit at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, said the idea was 'interesting' but he thought it unlikely such a device could stop the onset of many migraines.
However, Brenda Holt, a high school vice-principal from Ontario who was treated with the device for her severe cluster headaches said she had found the experiment helpful.
"They kept trying me on different medications, none of which worked, but after my first magnetic treatment the headache just went," she said.
"I went several more months without another, which has never happened before."


-Lee
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by BobG on Aug 2nd, 2004, 10:26am

Quote:
However, anecdotal evidence that people who underwent brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging were cured of headaches has prompted renewed interest.  


How many of us have had MRI's? Probably most of us. I've never seen it mentioned they were cured of anything.


Quote:
Some experts are sceptical skeptical. Dr Peter Goadsby, director of the headache referral unit at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, said the idea was 'interesting' but he thought it unlikely such a device could stop the onset of many migraines.  


I'll go along with Dr. Goadsby until I see more, a lot more proof.
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by Rock_Lobster on Aug 2nd, 2004, 11:25am
I posted about this below in a thread titled 'Transcranial Mag Stimulator'.  Further details there.  First read about it in Discover.


Article is now online:
http://www.discover.com/issues/aug-04/departments/biology-of-migraines/
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by floridian on Aug 2nd, 2004, 11:30am
Proof is good.  

I would think that an MRI would be more likely to induce headaches or fatigue, rather than cure them. MRIs involve a huge amount of magnetism.  I think it was Arizona where someone was killed - a steel oxygen cyclinder was left in the MRI room, and when the magnetron was turned on, the cyclinder turned into a missile aimed at the patient.  

I saw one researcher who could stimulate particular parts of the brain, using magnetics of a particular frequency and intensity.  He could activate speech areas and make people squawk,  activate the motor cortex and make arms twitch, or turn off one area of the brain (I forget which) and temporarily improve people's drawing ability.  Still not proven for therapeutic purposes, but more than a parlor trick.

This is your brain on magnetics:
http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/TMS_NYT.html
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by don on Aug 2nd, 2004, 1:36pm
You buy it first and let me know how well it works.

Will it clash with my magnet bracelets?
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by Rock_Lobster on Aug 2nd, 2004, 3:24pm

on 08/02/04 at 13:36:51, don wrote:
You buy it first and let me know how well it works.

Will it clash with my magnet bracelets?


This is completely different than the snake oil lads.  The company is funding clinical trials.  If it fails, the company is out a shitload of money and the product will never make it to production.  If it does work, chances are you will only be able to get one through your doc. $$$.  Make that $$$$.

Try to find info on this.  It is brutally difficult.  The company is NOT pushing this product at all to the general public.

 
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by UN_SOLVED on Aug 2nd, 2004, 6:14pm
Shit ... I'll try it first.

Point that gun at my head and pull the trigger !!

How much more could it hurt ??

Unsolved
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by Rock_Lobster on Aug 2nd, 2004, 7:03pm

on 08/02/04 at 18:14:42, UN_SOLVED wrote:
How much more could it hurt ??

Unsolved


The guinea pig quoted in Discover said you can feel it when it fires.  I forget the exact wording, but the impression I had was that you kinda do a 'wtf was that?' when it hits.  

I would guess it is like a 'reset' button for the skull.

We gotta sneak a clusterhead into the studies.
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by tbone on Aug 7th, 2004, 5:45pm
I'm in!
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by IndianaJohn on Aug 7th, 2004, 6:43pm
wtf..just shoot me.
Title: Re: Electromagnetic Gun
Post by IndianaJohn on Aug 7th, 2004, 9:04pm
Better yet, just put the gun in my hand and I'll pull the fucking trigger myself...wonder if a tazer would do the same thing?  LOL


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