Medicine

Ear tickling helps with indigestion

Tickling the ears can help with indigestion
It turns out that special stimulation of the auricle can help in the fight against digestive disorders. The clip-on gadget stimulates the nerve with a light discharge of electricity, reducing the severity of symptoms by a third.

Scientists at Nanjing Medical University in China have developed a device that tickles a nerve in the ear. It can treat chronic indigestion. A new study has shown that stimulating the nerves with a mild electrical discharge reduces the severity of some symptoms by a third. The clip-on gadget targets the vagus nerve, the largest in the body, which runs from the brain to the colon and is involved in regulating digestion, mood, blood pressure and breathing.

Tickling saves lives

Stimulation of this nerve has been used in the past in the treatment of disorders such as hypertension and depression. But it usually involves implanting a matchbox-sized generator in the chest and connecting it to a nerve where it runs from the chest to the neck. The patient activates the generator by passing a special hand device over it.

Ear wax gives out health problems

The advantages of ear tickling technology are that the device does not need any surgical implantation. Clinical experiments involved 36 patients with functional dyspepsia – a chronic form of indigestion, from which up to 30% of all adult inhabitants of the planet suffer at some point in their lives. Its symptoms include stomach pain, bloating, excessive belching or nausea after eating, and a feeling of fullness that comes on quickly. (READ MORE) Nanjing Medical University

Nanjing Medical University

Medicine

Nanjing University, Jiangsu Province, China. It was founded in 1934 in Zhenjiang but subsequently moved to Nanjing in 1957