By Alexander Germanis
Of the five senses, the sense of touch has the broadest scope, allowing us to feel everything from the gentle pressure of a soft breeze to the first warning pains of touching a hot pan. Our nervous system allows us to feel these and everything in between. However, it is usually assumed that the nervous system is in control of everything we feel and there is no changing it.
Neuromodulation is a way around that. In simple terms, “neuromodulation means altering the function of the nervous system,” explains Dr. Benjamin Taimoorazy of Guardian Pain Institute in Bloomington.
“Neuromodulation can be as simple an intervention as a psychiatrist talking to a patient and revisiting their perspectives in life,” the doctor adds. “By doing so, they can physiologically alter neuro-transmitter levels in the brain.”
When a mental health professional teaches “biofeedback, stress relaxation, and coping techniques,” Dr. Taimoorazy explains, “physiologically he has altered function of the nervous system enough that he has dragged them out of that depression they have. Or if they have minor pain even, the patient can control the pain themselves by performing biofeedback.”
Biofeedback is the process by which a person “can gain control over a condition by controlling their own heart rate, respiration, and how they think about, for instance, pain. So a painful condition is not painful anymore,” the doctor continues. “Biofeedback is the simplest form of neuromodulation and is very frequently used successfully for treatment and control of migraine headaches.”
Despite the rather complex sounding name, neuromodulation is simply a new word for an ancient concept. “It goes back to some 5,000 years ago,” Dr. Taimoorazy says. “Egyptian physicians used electric eels. They would put the patient who had some kind of pain or disease with the eel in the water and they would get zapped, and that restored their electrical balance in the body. That was the first evidence of using electrical activity for treatment of either pain or different disease states. It’s nothing new; it’s very, very old.”
Fast forward to 1965, when the scientists Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall introduced the world to the Gate Control Theory of Pain, “which basically says that within the spinal cord there are areas called ‘gates,’” Dr. Taimoorazy explains. “They control the transmission of pain to the higher centers of the brain. The Gate Control Theory is the cornerstone of current neuromodulation techniques.”
Some of these techniques go way beyond simple biofeedback. Although “there are specific medications that alter nerve function and are used for different painful conditions such as neuropathy pain,” the doctor says, there is still a “more complex approach” to neuromodulation.
This approach “would be when we actually introduce a device in a part of the nervous system,” he says. “Whether it is the central nervous system — the brain or spinal cord — or the peripheral nervous system — the peripheral nerves,” physicians can introduce different types of electrical stimulation: spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation, or peripheral nerve stimulation.
“Very small electric leads are built in contact spots,” the doctor says. “These electrical contacts are then placed near the nerves, or the backside of the spinal cord in the epidural space, or deep within the brain. By placement of these leads near these structures and stimulating these leads, we start altering the function of the nerve which is either responsible for the pain or for transmission of pain.”
“So when you stop the activity of that nerve or alter its activity,” he continues, “you can control the pain or alter its function. By altering its function, you may reduce seizures, treat depression, improve the movement disorders of Parkinson’s disease, and possibly give the patient a permanent relief from that condition.”
Although the “spectrum of neuromodulation,” as the doctor calls it, covers much of recorded history, modern medicine still seeks for new and better ways to control the nervous system and, thereby, controls the greatest of the five senses without the need for swimming with electric eels.
For more information or to make an appointment, you may call Dr. Benjamin Taimoorazy at Guardian Headache & Pain Management Institute at 309-808-1700 or visit www.guardianpaininstitute.com. His practice is located at 2203 Eastland Drive, Suite #7, in Bloomington. Dr. Taimoorazy strives to increase awareness and understanding of different types of headaches and other chronic painful conditions and the available diagnostic and therapeutic options for each individual disorder.
Photo courtesy of Guardian Headache & Pain Management Institute