Prickly Painkiller. Although medicine has advanced far enough to treat basic headaches, strained muscles and the agony of having a cavity filled, inflammatory pain—the kind that results from osteoarthritis, bone cancer and back injuries—has proved to be a far more elusive target.
Current remedies, including morphine and other opiates, flood all the nerves of the body, causing dangerous side effects. More localized remedies, such as steroid injections, wear off over time. Recently researchers have begun working with a toxin found in a Moroccan cactuslike plant that may be able to deliver permanent, local pain relief with a single injection. The compound, called resiniferatoxin (RTX), works by destroying the neurons specifically responsible for inflammatory pain.
These neurons extend from the body's periphery (including the skin and internal organs) to the spinal cord, carrying pain signals along their axons. The NIH is now running a trial of RTX in people with advanced cancer. Snail Venom Inspires Powerful Pain Reliever. The new drug could be the most promising painkiller since morphine was introduced.
Cone snail venom is inspiring a new generation of painkillers. The newest drug is 100 times more potent than existing pain medications. It also works at much lower doses and without risk of addiction. Waiting for pain can cause more dread than pain itself - health - 22 November 2013 - New Scientist#.UpVV0XaEjIV. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," said Franklin D.
Roosevelt. He might have been onto something: research suggests that people are happy to endure a bit more pain, if it means they spend less time waiting for it. Classical theories of decision-making suppose that people bring rewards forward and postpone punishments, because we give far-off events less weight. This is called "temporal discounting". But this theory seems to go out the window when it comes to pain.
One explanation for this is that the anticipation of pain is itself unpleasant, a phenomenon that researchers have appropriately termed "dread". To investigate how dread varies with time, Giles Story at University College London, and his colleagues, hooked up 33 volunteers to a device that gave them mild electric shocks. No pain, no gain. Molecule from Venom of Chinese Centipede Could Lead to Painkiller as Effective as Morphine. Scientists reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have discovered a peptide in the venom of the Chinese red-headed centipede, Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans, with the potential to be developed into a pain drug as effective as morphine.
Chinese red-headed centipedes, Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans. Image credit: Department of Biology, the University of New Mexico. The team studied the venom of the Chinese red-headed centipede in an effort to find better solutions for people who suffer from chronic pain. They found that a peptide, named Ssm6a, from centipede venom blocks the human Nav1.7 channel in pain-sensing nerves. “People without a functioning Nav1.7 channel cannot feel pain, so it’s likely molecules that can block this channel will be powerful painkillers,” said study senior author Prof Glenn King University of Queensland from the University of Queensland. Bibliographic information: Shilong Yang et al.
Why sex is a 'better headache cure rather than painkillers' “The majority of patients with migraine or cluster headache do not have sexual activity during headache attacks,” the study concluded.
“Our data suggest, however, that sexual activity can lead to partial or complete relief of headache in some migraine and a few cluster headache patients. “Our results show that sexual activity during a migraine attack might relieve or even stop an attack in some cases, and that sexual activity in the presence of headache is not an unusual behaviour.” They added: “Sex can abort migraine and cluster headache attacks, and sexual activity is used by some patients as acute headache treatment.”
In their research, titled “The impact of sexual activity on idiopathic headaches: An observational study”, the team of neurologists investigated whether sex can trigger headaches. They also wanted to establish whether there was any substance to anecdotal suggestions that it could actually ease symptoms of migraine and cluster, also known as one-sided, headaches. Mouth device in clinical trials as possible treatment for TBI. <div id="others"><ul><li><a href="/media/282333/"><img src=" width="150" alt="Mouth device in clinical trials as possible treatment for TBI" /></a><div class="title" style = "font-weight:bold;"></div><div class="caption">The PoNS device is an electrode-covered appliance user's place on the tongue.
The 20-30 minute stimulation therapy, called cranial nerve non-invasive neuromodulation, is accompanied with a custom set of physical, occupational, and cognitive exercises... </div></li><li><a href="/media/282334/"><img src=" width="150" alt="Mouth device in clinical trials as possible treatment for TBI" /></a><div class="title" style = "font-weight:bold;"></div><div class="caption">U.S. Army Medical Materiel Agency commander (left) Col. Alejandro Lopez-Duke, a subcommand of U.S.
Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, signs a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Feb. 8, 2013, with the NeuroHabilitation Corporation... FORT DETRICK, Md. Now researchers at the U.S. Marijuana Isn't a Pain Killer—It's a Pain Distracter.