Now, a remote control could take your headaches away

Can you imagine controlling headaches with a remote? A hospital in Mumbai had literally put the remote in its patient’s hands: A British man who suffered from chronic headaches had electrodes inserted along his neck which control the intensity of his headaches with a pacemaker! The 32-year-old George Johnston came to India to fix a 13 month-long headache he couldn’t get rid of. “The pain persisted day and night and prevented me from even leaving the house. I began working from home, and was in always in a foul mood due to the beating pain,” Mumbai Mirror quoted Johnston as saying. [caption id=“attachment_1713083” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Johnston underwent what is called ‘occipital nerve stimulation’, becoming the first ever patient to undergo the procedure in India. He suffers from a neurological disorder called Occipital neuralgia, which is widespread in India, said the report in DNA. However most people are too afraid of going under the knife and end up living in pain for years, Dr Paresh Doshi the Neurosurgeon at Jaslok Hospital who operated on Johnston explains: “Patients, especially in India, will go to any extent to avoid surgery. A patient had to be detoxed for taking anti-migraine medications for 17 years, but he did not want to hear the mention of surgery.”   “The brain is made up of large and small fibers. The small fibers are responsible for the sensation of pain. The passing current stimulates the large fibers, which block the small fibers from carrying the sensation,” Doshi told DNA, explaining how the device works. The surgery, which costs Rs 11 lakh is almost double the price in UK. “I decided to get operated in Mumbai as it was expensive and time-consuming to do it in the UK. Moreover, the National Health Services (NHS) in the UK don’t cover the procedure under medical insurance. And even if I were to appeal for its inclusion in NHS, I would have had to wait for six years for a tribunal’s response,” Johnston told Zee News.