- Shoulder Pain

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

After being around here for a while, this subject has come up numerous time. One theory and it is only a theory is that the pain can be associated with the vagus nerve.Often pain in the shoulder can be associated with pressure on the vagus nerve. Often when you are full, pressure on the vagus nerve can cause discomfort, I even know of someone who has discomfort when they get hungry. The vagus nerve seems to have a lot in common connecting the brain with the gastrointestinal tract. This nerve seems to have quite a hefty job and controls all sorts of things, it even affects asthma, sleep apnoea etc. Weight is a contributing factor to problems associated with the vagus nerve.

It seems every time I eat or drive for long periods of time I get really bad shoulder pain. Am I stupid or is this a sign of being full? When I get the pain when I am eating I don't feel like I am full. Actually there is still some hunger there. If I burp the pain subsides slowly. Do you think it may be like the shoulder pain you can get when you have the op?. Never had that pain so not sure what it feels like.

Hope that helps a teeny bit.

Cath

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Nerve Connects to Upper Torso OrgansThe vagus nerve helps the brain communicate with the organs of the upper torso, such as the heart, lungs and gastrointestinal tract - and vice versa. The nerve also connects to a way station in the brain that "talks" to the limbic system, which controls sleep, appetite, mood, weight, concentration and memory, explains Dr. A. Rush, professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwester Medical Centre at Dallas, one of the pioneers in testing the device. He published a small study of 30 patients in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Psychiatry in February. At the time, he and colleagues found mood had improved by at least 50 percent in 40 percent of the patients. And of these, half no longer felt depressed. Side effects of the stimulation phase of the treatment included voice changes, a sense of something being caught in a patient's mouth and difficulty breathing during vigorous activity, says Rush. Doctors are advising patients of these potential adverse reactions during this new trial, he says. Surgical complications could also ensue.

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded three grants to Pennington Centre scientists. The first will analyse how the brain helps to control functions of the gastrointestinal tract, while two others will assess innovative approaches to weight management.

First, Dr. Hans-Rudolf Berthoud was awarded a four-year, $800,000 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study how the brain transmits signals to the enteric nervous system.

Together with Berthoud's current work examining the flow of sensory information from the gut to the brain, this newest project will contribute toward understanding how the brain and digestive system communicate.

The enteric nervous system is a network of nerves that are essential in the control of the gastrointestinal tract-from the oesophagus to the colon. In addition to being a key player in the transport, digestion, and absorption of food and nutrients, the enteric nervous system plays a key role in the body's defence against dietary toxins and allergens.

As a result, the enteric nervous system is implicated in a number of gastrointestinal diseases. While the enteric nervous system can act independently, many of its functions are controlled by the central nervous system through the vagus nerve.

Berthoud explains that messages travelling through the vagus nerve from the brain keep the gastrointestinal tract functioning properly. However, physical and emotional stress can interfere with these messages and lead to such problems as stomach ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and gastric reflux.

To better understand this system and to gain insight into preventing gastrointestinal disorders, Berthoud and his colleagues will explore how and where messages in the brain that regulate the gastrointestinal tract are initiated and translated into gastrointestinal functions.

"We'll trace the different fibres in the vagus nerve from their source in the brain to their ultimate destination in the gastrointestinal tract and then label them according to their function," he says.