Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition that occurs when the immune system starts attacking the lining of joints. It causes pain, swelling and inflammation around the joint. It affects millions worldwide and significantly increases in prevalence for women and older adults. In the United States alone, Rheumatoid arthritis affects more than 1.3 million people, with women being two to three times more likely to develop the condition than men.
Meanwhile, such has been the case of a certain woman named Lynn Milam. She has been battling with this condition for more than four years. According to her, her children could not hug her and her husband couldn’t hold her hands as she spent most days on the couch.
Mrs Milam tried everything possible including physical therapy, acupuncture, steroids and even the latest immune drugs. Nothing worked for her.
However, that changed in October, 2023, when a surgeon implanted an experimental device in Milam’s neck. This device delivers pulses to her vague organs, which connect the brain with internal organs, for a minute each morning.
According to her, after three weeks of the therapy, her elbow pain was completely gone, her hands didn’t hurt anymore, and the swelling started reducing. Eventually, all the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis she had vanished. The 60-year old woman further said she and her husband have regained the life they enjoyed before she got sick.
Fortunately, the device will be available to many other people like Mrs Milam. The device, which was made by SetPoint Medical, was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in July, for people with rheumatoid arthritis whose symptoms aren’t adequately controlled by drugs.
It was until Aug 22, surgeons at Northwell Health in New York implanted the first approved device in a patient. Meanwhile, the FDA approval for this device could be a turning point for the treatment of not only rheumatoid arthritis, but other autoimmune diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis.
In a statement made by Dr John Tesser, a rheumatologist in Phoenix who oversaw the study that led to the device’s approval, he said that this treatment uses the body’s own mechanism of managing inflammation. By stimulating the vagus nerve, the device sends a signal to the hypothalamus, a brain area that regulates bodily functions and interacts with the immune system. That brain area responds by sending signals back down the vagus nerve to the spleen.
The signals instruct certain cells in the spleen to slow down production of proteins called cytokines, which regulate inflammation, including inflammation in the joints. Cytokines play an important role in fighting infection, but can also trigger damage to healthy tissues, including the lining of joints.
It’s worth noting that the device rarely produces the sort of dramatic recovery that Lynn Milam experienced. However, the pivotal clinical trial found that patients who had not responded to even the most powerful drugs often saw meaningful improvement with the use of this new device.
