In-ear nerve stimulation could help relieve indigestion
An earbud-like device inside a person’s ear could help with chronic indigestion, a team of researchers from notable US institutions suggest. The research involved the use of a specific therapeutic device known as a Respiratory-gated Auricular Vagal Afferent Nerve Stimulation (RAVANS). The device is based off an existing tool i.e. transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulator (taVNS) which painlessly stimulates the vagus nerve that runs from the head down to the abdomen.
The RAVANS device is special because it delivers its electrical pulses in time with the patient’s respiratory rhythm. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Indiana’s Purdue University used RAVANS and a non-functional dummy gadget on 12 test subjects suffering from functional dyspepsia (a form of persistent indigestion). Each person proceeded to eat a meal, subsequently receiving MRI scans 15, 65 and 80 minutes after doing so.
In patients with chronic indigestion, the stomach does not expand and contract properly as food is ingested. Fortunately, the MRI scans showed that the ratio of stomach volume to the volume of ingested food was higher after the RAVANS treatment, meaning that the participants’ stomachs had better expanded to accommodate the meal. Their stomachs also emptied faster once the food had been digested.
While taVNS is relatively safe and without major side effects, according to Harvard’s Dr. Roberta Sclocco, systems currently available on the market are quite different and not optimised for gastric applications.The scientists caution that people afflicted with chronic indigestion do not simply buy a device and start using it – further research involving a larger group of test subjects is necessary in order to determine factors such as the optimal doses and timings of treatments, before the device can be used in gastric applications.
