(单词翻译:单击)
If you've ever had a migraine headache, you don't need me to tell you it hurts.
如果你曾经有过偏头痛的经历,就不需要我告诉你那有多痛苦 。
Doctors report that about twenty million people suffer from serious headaches, and ten percent of these have intractable pain-meaning it doesn't go away.
医生报告,大概有2千万人患有严重头痛,并且他们之中百分之十患有顽固性疼痛—那意味着疼痛不会消失 。
But here's asurprise: the problem isn't always a migraine.
但医生们有一个惊奇发现:问题不总是偏头痛 。
Sometimes verysimilar symptoms are caused by damage to a nerve of the face,which results in the nerve itself sending nonstop ouch signals.
有时,类似的症状是由脸部神经受损引起的,受损的神经会不间断地疼痛信号 。
What can be done?
我们可以做些什么呢?
A new treatment being tried out by a few doctors, including Dr. Robert Levy, a neurosurgeon atNorthwestern Memorial Hospital, involves zapping with electricity certain nerves that innervate theface.
有几个医生正试验一种新的治疗,包括罗伯特莱维博士,他是西北纪念医院的一位神经外科医生,参与到用电流破坏那些刺激脸部的神经 。
It's like a marathon in which thousands of runners are crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.
就像一场马拉松,数千名奔跑的人穿越布鲁克林大桥 。
Someone sends up a firework nearby and for a moment all the distracted runners stop and stare.
有的人在附近放烟火,这会儿所有的跑步的人都停下来看 。
By hittingthe nerves with a mild electrical jolt, you can distract the signal-carriers-that is, the pain signalsstop crossing the nerves for as long as the electrical charge is on.
通过一个轻度的电力震动击打神经,你就可以转移信号载波—就是说,疼痛信号停止穿越神经,只要电荷一直处于连接状态 。
So how to do that?
那么如何做到这一点呢?
Levy and others have inserted a little battery under patients' collarbones,connected it to a wire that runs under the scalp, and stuck the end directly into the misfiringnerve.
莱维和其他医生在患者锁骨下面插入了一个小电池,并与头皮下的电线连接,然后把末尾插入神经 。
Odd as it may sound at first, it works.
起初也许听起来有点奇怪,它能管用 。
Patients report that when the device is turned onthey are pain-free, sometimes for the first time in years.
患者报告说,当设备接通时,他们感觉不到疼痛,这是多年来第一次 。
This kind of nerve stimulation is still in itsearly days, but the results so far look very promising.
这种神经刺激仍处于初期,但到目前为止的结果看起来是很有前途的 。
For chronic headache sufferers, a little wirecan make for blessed peace of mind…not pain of head.
对慢性头痛患者来说,一小节电线得到内心的平静…而不是头痛 。