How sound and electrical body stimulation could help treat chronic pain – Medical News Today
About 20% of all adults around the world live with chronic pain. Researchers from the University of Minnesota discovered via an animal model that the combination of electrical and sound stimulation has the potential to treat chronic pain. Scientists hope their model will provide a noninvasive, non-drug treatment for chronic pain symptoms.
Researchers estimate about 20% of all adults around the world live with chronic pain — a condition that can impact a person’s everyday life physically, …….
- About 20% of all adults around the world live with chronic pain.
- Researchers from the University of Minnesota discovered via an animal model that the combination of electrical and sound stimulation has the potential to treat chronic pain.
- Scientists hope their model will provide a noninvasive, non-drug treatment for chronic pain symptoms.
Researchers estimate about 20% of all adults around the world live with chronic pain — a condition that can impact a person’s everyday life physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Treatment for chronic pain can include different types of medications, lifestyle changes, and different types of therapies, both traditional and alternative.
Now, from findings via an animal model, a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities says a combination of sound and electrical body stimulation has the potential to treat chronic pain.
This study was recently published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
When you injure yourself, nerves notify the central nervous system of what has happened. The brain then interprets what has occurred as pain.
Normally, the amount of pain a person feels lessens as the injury heals.
However, sometimes a person’s nerves do not stop sending pain signals to the central nervous system, making the brain think they are still in pain, resulting in chronic pain.
Certain types of injuries have a higher rate of developing chronic pain, including:
And chronic pain may also occur after a person experiences a very painful disease, such as:
In addition to pain, people with chronic pain may also experience:
Doctors normally treat chronic pain with a combination of pain medications. These include over-the-counter pain medications, opioids, anti-inflammatory medications, and antidepressants that help block pain signals in the body. Additionally, doctors may suggest lifestyle changes to help alleviate pain, including physical therapy, massage, and meditation.
Researchers have also looked at alternative therapies for treating chronic pain, including acupuncture and electrical stimulation.
For the new study, the researchers wanted to use a mouse model to investigate how bimodal sensory stimulation — both sound and electrical — would affect or alter neural activity in the <hl-trusted-source source="PubMed Central" rationale="Highly respected database from the National …….
