What is up with Australia? They overtook everybody in finding the migraine chromosome (it's 10q23, BTW) by sacrificing literally thousands of identical twins to the altar of science. Now, apparently using the only hospital in the country that is not crank-powered, they succeeded in closing Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), basically a flopping a hole in the heart, without cutting a patient open. Not only that, they did it to treat migraine.
Is migraine an epidemic in Australia? Is it because they are up-side down all the time and the blood is constantly rushing to their heads? Or it just makes them smarter? There must be a reasonable explanation for all the advances they've made.
There also should be some sort of explanation why other people in other countries (as in starts with U, ends with A, hint, hint) are not following on the promising research. As reported earlier:
"NMT Medical went as far as developing an implant to correct PFO condition and running some tests to see how it might cure migraines.
Then they realized it costs too much and looks like actual work. They didn't need all this hustle since they could easily push their new gizmo as a stroke-prevention device. Looking at the numbers, the company is planning to save "approximately $14 million over the next few years". Seriously? That's all it takes? Get a second mortgage on that garage you run your experiments from, that should cover it."
Anywho, back to Australians. The procedure is pretty simple - same idea as treating some other heart diseases - "A catheter and a guide wire is inserted into a patient's thigh, and are then directed up to the heart. "They call it "percutaneous closure". And it did help to cure a migraine.
Obviously, my gentle readers, there are as many reasons for migraines as there are migraine sufferers, PFO being only (and provisionally) one of them. Neurological ails cannot be easily quantified, diagnosed or cured. However, it would have been nice to have this option for those who might benefit from it.
link: Migraines cured in new LGH procedure
related articles: Fixing broken hearts is costly; dope-pill is cheaper.
10q23, the Migraine Chromosome
Migraine ménage à deux. Research or Fetish?
Wednesday
Heart Operation Cures Migraine
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment