After over 30 years in private practice, during which many people have come to my office, having been seen and denied any validity to their concerns from every other doctor they had seen, with what we now recognize as ME/CFS, it is gratifying to finally see that with the COVID pandemic MD’s and researchers are finally gathering data, and hypothesizing treatments for PASC, and ME/CFS. I about lost my shit, when Dr. Daniel Griffen, on TWIV Clinical Update #1188, this past Friday mentioned, with a few citations taVNS (transcutaneous auricle Vagus Nerve Stimulation). If Dr. Griffin were in the room with me, I would have had a difficult time not whacking him about the head and shoulder with printouts of the myriad studies done on this technique.
From the timestamps, episode notes on #1188:
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation improves Long COVID symptoms in a female cohort (Frontiers in Neurology) 28:03
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2024.1393371/full
Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation trials:
https://www.mountsinai.org/clinical-trials/tvns-in-long-covid-19https://www.centerwatch.com/clinical-trials/listings/NCT06585254/tvns-in-long-covid-19 30:55
Devices:
https://pulsetto.tech/products/meet-pulsetto?pulsetto_offer_id=57&transaction_id=1024e5a0258b6647e262ba8fec5d62https://www.dolphinmps.com/product/dolphin-neurostim-professional-single-kit-vagal-stim-kit/ 29:41, 31:16
A method for stimulating the vagus nerver where it comes to the surface of the body at the cymba concha region of the auricle/ear. I first came across this method from a paper published in August 2019, and much work has been published in the intervening years. Imagine, a cheap, non-invasive way to use electrotherapy, think TENS unit with a clip elecctrode for the auricle, and a stickon electrode on the upper trapezius (can you say it with me “CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE”), to effectively stimulate the Vagus nerve and re-balance the autonomic nervous system. Dysautonomia is a key symptom in PASC, and ME/CFS. I’ve been recommending this to patients for a couple years in the hope and reasonable expectation that it would help, and now there is a body of research to support it’s use. PubMed, search taVNS, tVNS, and you will see what I’m talking about.
Would be a good start if doctors even started to acknowledge it.
Yep! Even large swaths of the medical field are ignoring it.
We had psychiatrists claiming it was mass hysteria until fairly recently.
Mine said the symptoms and treatment were the same as depression anyway
I’m sorry you experienced gaslighting. Fuck that doctor for misinformation they said…
But yeah shitty doctors tend to just blame it on depression because they are too lazy to learn about something new.
After over 30 years in private practice, during which many people have come to my office, having been seen and denied any validity to their concerns from every other doctor they had seen, with what we now recognize as ME/CFS, it is gratifying to finally see that with the COVID pandemic MD’s and researchers are finally gathering data, and hypothesizing treatments for PASC, and ME/CFS. I about lost my shit, when Dr. Daniel Griffen, on TWIV Clinical Update #1188, this past Friday mentioned, with a few citations taVNS (transcutaneous auricle Vagus Nerve Stimulation). If Dr. Griffin were in the room with me, I would have had a difficult time not whacking him about the head and shoulder with printouts of the myriad studies done on this technique. From the timestamps, episode notes on #1188: Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation improves Long COVID symptoms in a female cohort (Frontiers in Neurology) 28:03 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2024.1393371/full Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation trials: https://www.mountsinai.org/clinical-trials/tvns-in-long-covid-19 https://www.centerwatch.com/clinical-trials/listings/NCT06585254/tvns-in-long-covid-19 30:55 Devices: https://pulsetto.tech/products/meet-pulsetto?pulsetto_offer_id=57&transaction_id=1024e5a0258b6647e262ba8fec5d62 https://www.dolphinmps.com/product/dolphin-neurostim-professional-single-kit-vagal-stim-kit/ 29:41, 31:16 A method for stimulating the vagus nerver where it comes to the surface of the body at the cymba concha region of the auricle/ear. I first came across this method from a paper published in August 2019, and much work has been published in the intervening years. Imagine, a cheap, non-invasive way to use electrotherapy, think TENS unit with a clip elecctrode for the auricle, and a stickon electrode on the upper trapezius (can you say it with me “CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE”), to effectively stimulate the Vagus nerve and re-balance the autonomic nervous system. Dysautonomia is a key symptom in PASC, and ME/CFS. I’ve been recommending this to patients for a couple years in the hope and reasonable expectation that it would help, and now there is a body of research to support it’s use. PubMed, search taVNS, tVNS, and you will see what I’m talking about.