Though it may come as a surprise to some, there are a number of gastrointestinal conditions that can be treated using electrical nerve stimulation. The stomach, for example, can be motivated to empty by neurostimulating the vagus nerve to treat gastroparesis in patients with diabetic autonomic neuropathy and others. While this has been known for a while, there hasn’t been a very convincing explanation for how this process works. Now researchers at Purdue University have used MRI scans to spot exactly how the stomach can be pushed to empty what’s inside.
The team put rats under MRI and stimulated the vagus nerve repeatedly while watching what happens to the stomach. Turns out that the pyloric sphincter, the natural valve controlling the passage from the stomach into the small intestine, seems to relax during treatment. The relaxation allows the stomach to clear out its contents and the small intestine can continue with proper digestion.
Here’s a Purdue video with more about the research:
Study in journal Neurogastroenterology and Motility: Vagus nerve stimulation promotes gastric emptying by increasing pyloric opening measured with magnetic resonance imaging…
Via: Purdue…