Shock tactics: The devices using ancient techniques for modern medtech

Lu Rahman looks at some of the technology being used in medtech devices and finds it might have been familiar with many of our ancestors too

Without giving too much away about the next episode of the MedTalk podcast, one of the topics we discuss is the Modius Headset, a wearable that claims to help you burn fat by electrically stimulating the vestibular nerve. This controls sound and balance information from the ear to the brain so effectively, the device makes the brain think that the wearer is being active, which causes the hypothalamus to reduce fat storage. According to the product’s website, ‘Modius is a groundbreaking careable tech headset... It can help you burn fat, get a lean body, and keep a lean body’.

Initially this product worried me. Could there be any adverse effects to electrically stimulating nerves? Is it the right approach - wouldn’t eating healthily and exercising regularly be a better way to tackle weight issues?

Parking my sceptisim, I took a look at some of the coverage the headset has received. When the Daily Mail wrote about the Modius, it asked TV medic, Dr Pixie McKenna for her thoughts. According to the site, she said the “technology has the potential to help millions of people reach their goals of a leaner, healthier body”.

McKenna also told the newspaper: “Vestibular stimulation may be an unfamiliar phrase to most people, but it’s actually science which has been around for a long time.

“What Modius does is take this science and apply it through the headset to a very, very particular part of the brain. Previously vestibular stimulation has been shown to kick-start metabolism and decrease appetite. This could be a huge discovery for the millions of people around the world who would like to be leaner and healthier.”

The Modius isn’t the only device of this type that has recently made its presence felt. The Bridge wearable device has attracted a fair amount of media coverage. It’s an interesting product that claims to help opioid users bypass the discomfort of withdrawal by sending electrical signals to the brain that lessen the pain an addict feels withdrawing from a substance.

According to the America in Rehab site, the device is “groundbreaking” and that once it’s installed behind the patient’s ear it only takes 15 minutes before, “patients describe the relief of pain, a reduction of sweating, shaking and anxiety, as well as feelings of calm and relaxation”.

The website features a testimonial (kind of) from Jeff Mathews, a director for the Union County Opiate Treatment Center in Indiana. He says the device is “phenomenal”.

Last month News 5 Cleveland reported that the LCADA Way recovery clinic had tested the device on recovering addicts. Heroin addict Candace Strautihar told the news site: “It was like instant relief within 20 minutes.” 

The benefits of the device have extended to the legal system. Earlier this year a judge at a court in Indiana offered heroin addicts a drug treatment programme using the Bridge, instead of going to jail.

The device has FDA clearance. It’s worth pointing out however, that Dr Arturo Taca, an early adopter and proponent of the device, is one of the co-authors of the only peer-reviewed study on the product which found that 89% of the 73 people on the trial were “successfully transitioned to medication assisted therapy”. The trial concluded that “neurostimulation with the Bridge is associated with a reduction in opioid withdrawal scores”.

Devices of this type aren’t that new – who hasn’t heard of a TENS machine or fitness products designed to improve stomach appearance? And while this wave of devices may seem to be utilising a new form of technology, are they really?

Apparently the technology is old hat. Devices using this science – neuromuscular electrical simulation – were first hit upon by ancient Greeks and Romans who used electrical fishes to create shocks to treat ailments. Back in the day Scribonius Largus, doctor to Emperor Claudius, liked to treat head pain using electric jolts from electric ray fish.

In the book Electrical Stimulation for Pelvic Floor Disorders, edited by Jacopo Martellucci, we learn about the Baghdad Battery, the use of electrical stimuli for muscle contraction and how the first recorded observation of the use of electricity for medical purposes in Europe was during the eighteenth century and “was attributed to Christian Kratzenstein, professor of medicine at Halle. The patient was woman who suffered from a contraction of the little finger; after a quarter of an hour of electrification the condition was reported as cured.”

It also notes that the first recorded electrotherapist was likely to have been Jean Jallabert as in 1747 he used the technology to improve the condition of a locksmith’s paralysed arm.

It makes for fascinating reading. There is clearly a lot of potential in the tranche of devices that use this form of stimulation. Whether or not the technology has been around for centuries is largely irrelevant. It’s the potential it offers that counts. In an age when obesity and drug addiction are becoming increasingly complex problems, solutions that look to address and tackle these issues have got to be seen as a positive step.