Body of Research

Is transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) supportive in cases of  inflammatory bowel disease? This proof of concept study suggests it can —attenuating signs and symptoms with mild to moderate inflammatory bowel disease. Read more at NIH PubMed.

Read more about a successful study to determine the effective anti-inflammation capacity of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) through development of a stimulating electrode system of transcutaneous auricular VN. Citation: Go YY, Ju WM, Lee CM, Chae SW, Song JJ. Different Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Parameters Modulate the Anti-Inflammatory Effects on Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Inflammation in Mice. Biomedicines. 2022;10(2):247. Published 2022...

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has shown positive effects on a variety of diseases. Considering that decreased heart rate variability (HRV) is closely associated with morbidity and mortality for a variety of diseases, it is important to investigate the effect of taVNS on HRV. The studies suggest that taVNS could increase HRV, it may help taVNS in the treatment of low HRV related diseases. However, taVNS may not have parameter-specific effects on HRV. This study show...

This original research, a clinical trial investigating the effects of laser acupuncture for Bell’s palsy, suggests that using laser acupuncture treatment may have clinical effects on long-term complications of Bell’s palsy.  Read the full abstract, and link to full article access, at the Journal of Lasers in Medical Sciences.   Reference: Ton, G., Lee, L.-W., Ho, W.-C., Tu, C.-H., Chen, Y.-H., & Lee, Y.-C. (2021). Effects of Laser Acupuncture Therapy for Patients With Inadequate Recovery ...

Acute inflammation can turn chronic, as shown in studies such as reported by Harvard Medical School in a special report on Fighting Inflammation: How to stop the damage before it compromises your health. In fact, an exacerbated inflammatory response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is believed to be one of the major causes of the morbidity and mortality of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, inflammation that turns chronic can become a re...

Dr. Jihong Liu, MD, at the Preventative Treatment Center of the Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Foshan, China, et al. have studied the auricular stomach point of rabbits with acute and chronic gastritis to observe the changes in histological and ultrastructure of the auricular point against those in control groups. Results showed histological changes, including mast cells infiltration, hyperplasia of epidermis and dermis and loosed dense connective tissue, were observed in ...

The auricular branch of the vagus nerve runs superficially, which makes it a favorable target for non-invasive stimulation techniques to modulate vagal activity. For this reason, there have been many early-stage clinical trials on a diverse range of conditions. This systematic review on quality of evidence and clinical effects shows evidence supporting the potential in aVNS. See full text at Frontiers.  Reference: Verma N, Mudge JD, Kasole M, Chen RC, Blanz SL, Trevathan JK, Lovett EG, Willi...

The Psychological Health Center of Excellence of the Defense Health Agency in the Department of Defense has released a Psych Health Evidence Brief on the use of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although the 2021 brief falls short of recommending VNS for treatment of PTSD, it shows recognition of a treatment approach that is gaining rapid momentum even just since 2020.[1] In fact, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is treatment ap...

A review of the potential of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), concludes that targeting the anti-inflammatory properties of the vagus nerve with VNS could be of interest in the management of patients with IBD involving the digestive tract through a non-drug therapy. About 1.5 million Americans and 2.2 million people in Europe are affected by IBD. There is a rising incidence of IBD in Western countries, supporting the hypothesis that “Westernization” of our li...

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is a severe side effect of chemotherapeutic agents. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) attenuates neuro-inflammation by activating the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway and thus may attenuate CIPN. CIAM note: Although this study focuses on direct VNS at the cervical vagus nerve, the research supports a relatively large body of research surrounding related to other VNS, as well as non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS), t...

The American Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched a national initiative to train providers in Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA) treatment as a non-pharmacological approach to pain management, and performed a research project over a 2 year period (2016-2018) to evaluate its effectiveness on immediate pain relief. This project took place at 57 VHA medical centers in the United States. A total of 11,406 veterans were treated with BFA at least once, in some cases 3 times.  More than 75% expe...

Tinnitus can become a strong stressor for some individuals, and lead to an imbalance of the autonomous nervous system resulting in reduced parasympathetic activity which may manifest as sleep disturbances, anxiety and even depression. Transcutaneous auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) has been shown to activate the vagal pathways, and a therapeutic alternative in health conditions such as tinnitus-related mental stress (TRMS). In a retrospective study of 171 TRMS patients, suffering fro...