"It's easier to put your elbow in your ear" is a time-tested way to describe the impossibility of any given task.
But the route to easing knee pain might indeed wend through the ear, a new study says.
Stimulating the vagus nerve through the ear improved knee pain for some patients, according to early trial results published recently in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage Open.
The vagus nerve plays an important role in the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the body's ability to rest and digest, researchers said. It is countered by the sympathetic nervous system, which manages the "fight-or-flight" response.
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