Quick & Dirty Research

A Little (BIG!) Medical Miracle

A Little Medical Miracle

Innovation and medical miracles often go hand-in-hand. However, I’ve never had my body in a front row seat before. And a big deal has happened and I want to share it with you.

Readers, you might think that I’m writing about me. Instead, I’m letting you know about a major development in medicine. About what happens in the background when scientists and physicians and nurse specialists and physicists and biomedical engineers brainstorm to solve the unsolvable. When brilliant minds come together to produce a cutting edge device with a healing purpose. How it happens, the phases of development, and where it all started matter—so here goes.

In order to look forward, we step back in time. To America in 1906 when The Pure Food and Drugs Act was enacted. Under the purview of the Bureau of Chemistry, known to us now as the FDA or Federal Drug Administration, all ingredients, including ones like cocaine and morphine, were mandated to be included on labels. Those labels were also required to be exact. In addition, no snake oil salesperson could legally declare a cure or treatment without proof of the claim.

For example, a bottle of Bayer’s 1898 cure for cough and headache, which contained heroin, had to be labeled correctly or it was confiscated. It’s unclear where the contraband went once taken but the procedure was to destroy the products. The internet does not confirm or deny destruction of cocaine, heroin, opium, etc.

Next came the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Its broad-reaching statutes mandated testing of drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices for safety and most things that could be consumed or used in medicine were targeted, including those containing radium.

Medical devices were then studied more comprehensively in this time frame, with a medical amendment to the law. Breast implants, vitamins, and food preservatives, among scores of other products, were added to the ever-growing list of regulated items.

Clinical trials, ones conducted by scientists under controlled settings, have surprisingly been in existence since Biblical times. It is much easier to track the progression from later, in the 1500’s, when battlefields produced wounds which needed innovation to treat or heal. Experimentation might be a better word for those trials.

The idea of using a standard testing protocol expanded in the 1700’s with one example recounting a study of scurvy among sailors. In one group a citrus diet was followed and brought recovery. The other groups had to exist on diets of vinegar, seawater, or nutmeg and did not recover, as expected.

The use of proper scientific investigations, clinical trials, protocols, and best practices exploded in the 20th c., giving birth to all sorts of experimentation but under specific conditions to make things safer for all.

Many of you know I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, or RA, having been diagnosed at the age of thirty-four. That was a really long time ago, now decades. I’ve written about it in essays about knitting and referred to it in journal articles about hiring disabled nurses. After thirty years of suffering through medication side effects, I searched for a different treatment. When a clinical trial was announced that fit my needs specifically, I investigated it. I qualified so I enrolled.

My trial is with Setpoint Medical which you can read about in this interview I did. There are a number of other versions of my experience on my website so if you haven’t visited yet, please do, and I hope you click around the site. I have links to essays and articles there, all free, including a short one about my best friend and me hanging out together that will make you smile.

During my trial, all my RA meds were tossed and four years later, I’m doing great without them. I still have RA but the swelling and joint damage that results, plus the risk to my organs and future, have been zapped away by a little device implanted in my neck in the clinical trial.

Again, this column is not about me. It’s about the news of late 2025. An article in the New York Times reports the good tidings. The device that has mitigated most of the effects of RA for me is now approved by the Federal Drug Administration. The same technology is being studied for the treatment of all sorts of conditions and diseases. Diabetes, Stroke, Covid-Induced Fatigue, and Spinal Cord Injuries are among the possibilities. And there are many more. It’s my own personal medical miracle and one I hope you share with others who might be suffering from Rheumatoid Disease or another inflammatory autoimmune disease. I expect the vagal nerve stimulator will be one of the many treatments people with chronic disease sample along with pharmaceuticals to find the right fit for them in the future.

If you have any questions or need clarifications, please contact me at nancy@nancyjfagan.com. I am happy to speak with you or your family members and give insight into this process that has been so beneficial for me. I’ll tell you the drawbacks too. It’s not for everyone, but it is for some. Keep your health and hug it tight!