The New York Times reports that The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a medical device that offers new hope to patients incapacitated by rheumatoid arthritis.

The condition is usually managed with medications. The device represents a radical departure from standard care, tapping the power of the brain and nervous system to tamp down the uncontrolled inflammation that leads to the debilitating autoimmune disease.

The inch-long device is surgically implanted into the neck, where it sits in a pod wrapped around the vagus nerve, which some scientists believe is the longest nerve in the body. The device electrically stimulates the nerve for one minute each day.

The stimulation can turn off crippling inflammation and “reset” the immune system, research has shown. Most drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis suppress the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to serious infections.

According to S. Louis Bridges, Jr., MD, PhD, physician-in-chief and Chair of the Department of Medicine at HSS, “It’s still early days. The proof will be in the pudding,” he said. “I’m hoping they are correct, and this is a revolutionary new way to treat R.A. without drugs and without side effects. But I’ve heard this story before.”

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