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Vagus Nerve Stimulation

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This article discusses how an electrical shock given to a nerve that travels from the brainstem to all the organs, called the vagus nerve, can help to stop autoimmune diseases. In the past, stimulation of the nerve was used to treat epilepsy and depression. In 1998, a neurosurgeon by the name of Kevin Tracy at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research found that the stimulation of the vagus nerve in rats greatly reduced the production of TNF-a which is a protein that helps the process of inflammation. Basically, when this nerve is stimulated, it releases increased noradrenaline in the spleen to immune T cells. In turn, the T cells release more acetylcholine to the macrophages. Last, these macrophage release less of the pro-inflammatory TNF-a. To carry on Tracy’s work, Akiko Nakai at the Osaka University in Japan found that nerve stimulation limited what T cells could do in the bloodstream in the process of inflammation. Over …show more content…

Although there is no cure for autoimmune disease, this treatment could potentially be very effective and efficient. The power of the electrical shock needed to stimulate the nerve is miniscule relative to its effects on all the organs it connects to, including the most important one to this treatment, the spleen. Unlike other treatments, all this requires is an electrical shock that is accessible at any medical center.
This article interests me personally because I find that the interdependence of the nervous and the immune system is fascinating. Two different organ systems that have only one common goal: to maintain homeostasis. In all other aspects, they are prodigiously different on how they work, why they work, and what they do for the body. This article also shows how humans these days are brilliant enough to think of these techniques that would have been

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