Zapping the Brain and Nerves Could Treat Long COVI
Post# of 7804
1/5/2022
"Even as the world continues to grapple with new waves of acute illness, doctors are trying to understand and find treatments for long COVID, which can trouble patients for many months after their recovery from the initial infection. The syndrome, technically known as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), is associated with a long list of possible symptoms, including heart palpitations, breathing problems, and a wide variety of neurological issues. “We need to do so much work to understand what long COVID is,” Charvet says. “But we also need to reach people now with something that we know is safe and deployable.”"
Researchers Step Up
"Neurostimulation refers to electrical stimulation of the brain or peripheral nerves with either implanted or external devices; it's part of a growing field that's sometimes called bioelectronic medicine or electroceuticals. When the pandemic hit, researchers who had been working on neurostimulation for other maladies looked for ways to help the medical response."
"If neurostimulation does help with the neurological symptoms of long COVID, it’s not clear why. Stimulation with tDCS has been shown to increase “plasticity” in the brain, or the ability of the brain to make new connections between neurons; neuroplasticity is associated with learning, changing thought patterns, and rehabilitation after injury. Vagus-nerve stimulation has been shown to reduce inflammation in the body, which is a component of autoimmune disorders; if some long haulers are suffering from an overactive immune system, vagus-nerve stimulation could help. George in South Carolina hopes to collect biomarkers associated with inflammation in his next study to examine that possible connection."
https://spectrum.ieee.org/long-covid-neurosti...oggle-gdpr
BIEL's research team have written about ActiPatch being able to stimulate the Vagus Nerve.