Thousands of years ago, one therapy used to reduce symptoms of arthritis and other pain, involved sitting in a tank of electric eels!
How bad would your pain have to be for you to consider doing that?
Some 70 years ago electric shock therapy was sometimes used in psychiatric hospitals to alleviate symptoms of severe depression.
Don’t fancy that either?
Well, it seems that a low voltage version, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is making a comeback – by popular demand!
Used for a whole variety of medical conditions such as stroke and brain damage, a team of scientists at Oxford University, in 2010 discovered that tDCS improved most participants maths skills!
Dr Sidney Wolfe, director of the lobbying organisation, Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, admits that while the treatment sounds promising, there may also be a downside. Obviously, more research is needed.
Ludovica Labruna, a Berkeley University psychologist has used tDCS hoping to help people learn languages more quickly.
Results there though have been disappointing. It seems you really need to know how to use the device properly. So while you can get a tCDS device for about $800, it’s probably better if you don’t try this at home!