If you have migraines or know someone who does, you know just how debilitating they can be. A small device is offering relief for many who have tried everything else.
Ron Riegner started getting migraine headaches in his 20's. The pain became unbearable as he got older, "Two days a week I would be in bed. I wouldn't be able to listen to anything…wouldn't be able to see anything," says Riegner.
Riegner is now back running the family business and pain free because of a tiny electronic stimulator. The battery powered device, sort of like a pacemaker, is implanted under Riegner's skin. Two wires run to the back of his neck, sending signals through his skull to the nerves in his brain, in effect turning off the migraine before it starts.
Riegner is one of dozens of severe sufferers who tried the device in a clinical trial. Dr. Stephen Silberstein says the results are encouraging, "We had people who've had this who had no life, they couldn't leave the house, they couldn't work, and they've got their function back they've got their life back."
Migraines are still a medical mystery.
Silberstein says, "We do know it runs in families. It may be due to a hyper-sensitive brain, but we are searching for the answers."
Medications can help, but for Riegner, nothing worked until the implant, that switches on every morning.
Riegner says he feels a buzzing and tingling sensation when the implant turns on.
It's estimated that migraines cost the U.S. billions of dollars every year because of lost time, lost wages and medical costs.
