painrelief
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A French hospital is using VR as a drug-free pain solution
The use of virtual reality (and even video games) as an alternative form of pain management isn't exactly unheard of. Researchers are well aware of VR's potential to distract patients at the dentist and combat phantom pains, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see VR turning up in the emergency room. Graduate students at St Joseph's Hospital, France, have designed an immersive virtual program that is being used to help patients relax and increase pain tolerance without painkillers.
Graphene 'stimulation' could selectively kill off cancer cells
A chance lab discovery is opening up the possibility for wide-scale improvements in drug screening, application of selective painkillers, and selectively nuking cancer cells. The mystery material? Graphene, a semi-metal that's composed of a single layer of carbon atoms. It's already being used to make flexible OLED displays and reduce the energy costs of desalination, but its potential benefits for the medical field look promising too.
Quell wearable promises to relieve your chronic pains
As expected, wearables are all the rage at CES 2015. And while most of them are about looking fancy and sending useful notifications to your wrist, there are also others whose goal is to keep you feeling healthy. Enter NeuroMetrix Inc.'s Quell, a wearable that attaches to your upper calf and promises to make chronic pains go away within 15 minutes of putting it on. Quell's OptiTherapy electrode-driven technology uses non-invasive nerve stimulation to make this possible, allowing it to provide "100 percent" prescription-free relief to anyone who uses it. NeuroMetrix says that Quell is capable of relieving different types of chronic aches, from nerve pain to lower back problems.
Philips aims to relieve persistent pain with smartphone-controlled devices
Philips will soon launch a couple of iPhone- and iPad-controlled devices, but they're not the company's usual phone docks or Hue smartlight models -- they're gadgets designed to help suppress persistent pain. The first device (above) called PulseRelief uses Transcutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulation or TENS technology, which delivers electric pulses straight to your nerves. That's supposed to prevent pain signals from reaching your brain and to release endorphins, chemicals that make you feel good and happy. There are tons of similar gadgets out there (search for "TENS device" on eBay and Amazon to see what we mean), but Philips' version lets you choose from 60 intensity levels through its smartphone app.
