| Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement. Love Yehuda Lave Join my blog by sending me an email to YehudaLave@gmail.com | | | | | The Three Musketeers at the Kotel | | | | | The Oldest Wine in Europe Was Just Discovered in Greece | | | | | The oldest wine in Europe was discovered recently in ancient Philippi, northern Greece, the Department of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki announced. The University presented research that indicates that making and drinking wine in Europe originates from prehistoric Greece. Thousands of ancient grape seeds and pomace were found in ancient Philippi house whose contents were preserved in a fire that occurred in 4300 B.C. The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Department of Archaeology has been conducting archaeobotanical research for the last twenty years. The research began with the use of archeological flotation, an archaeobotanical sampling technique where an archaeological deposit is placed in a flotation tank with water that dissolves the deposit until fragments of plants and other material float to the top. Sultana-Maria Valamoti, professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, director of the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research in Archaeology/ EDAE and the PlantCult Laboratory at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation of the AUTH, said that "These first steps were the starting point that led to today's findings. "Thousands of liters of soil have been processed by the method of flotation and a variety of archaeological sites have already been or are being researched archaeobotanically. "Thanks to the work done at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, this data, often neglected by research, provides a wealth of information on the social and economic organization in northern Greece, the daily activities of people, their farming and agricultural practices, as well as specific symbolic activities from the 7th to the 1st millennium BC" Valamoti added. University has been researching prehistoric Greece for decades The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Department of Archeology, who conducted the research and where Valamoti is a professor of prehistoric archaeology, has been at the vanguard of archeological research in Greece. For years the department was led by George Hourmouziadis, the former Professor Emeritus of prehistoric archaeology, who led excavations in many prehistoric settlements in Thessaly and Macedonia (such as Dimini, Arkadikos and Dramas, etc.) In 1992 he started the excavation of the neolithic lakeside settlement of Dispilio in Kastoria, Northwestern Greece. A myriad of items were discovered, which included ceramics, structural elements, seeds, bones, figurines, personal ornaments, three flutes (considered the oldest in Europe) and the Dispilio Tablet. The discovery of the wooden tablet was announced at a symposium in February 1994 at the University of Thessaloniki. The site's paleoenvironment, botany, fishing techniques, tools and ceramics were published informally in the June 2000 issue of Eptakiklos, a Greek archaeology magazine. "I speak and I write using the soil as raw material… this soil is not similar to that which we put in our pots every autumn. It is the soil of a strange garden, a garden where, thousands of years before, people like us, walked on the marks of their toil, anger, and of their rush and calm which they left behind. They left the footprints of their lives," he noted on the occasion of the publication of his book "Logia kai Coma (Words and Soil)." Hourmouziadis passed away in 2013. | | | | The World's First Paleontologist? Shark Teeth Found in City of David Baffle Archaeologists Lying in the 3,000-year-old filler beneath a home in the Jerusalem site were bullae, pottery fragments – and an inexplicable collection of fossil shark teeth that turned out not to be from meals but from the Cretaceous
Ancient Jerusalem! City of magnetic attraction and religious ecstasy, home of great religions, kings and prophets - and, maybe, the world's first paleontologist. An international team of researchers in the city was studying the provenance of fish by the isotope signals of their teeth, as one does. And in the course of their study, they made a stunning discovery. In the garbage of a 2,900-year-old home were normal things such as fish bones, food waste, broken pottery – and 29 shark teeth. It is true that the ancient Jerusalemites in the First Temple period apparently didn't adhere religiously to the rules of kashrut. Recent discoveries have found bones from non-kosher fish such as catfish and sharks, though whether they were eaten by early Jews ignorant or defiant of the dietary rules, or somebody else, cannot be certain. The initial assumption was therefore that the shark teeth were food waste dumped nearly 3,000 years ago. - Advertisment - They were not. Dr. Thomas Tuetken of the Institute of Geosciences at the University of Mainz and colleagues submitted their groundbreaking paper "Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Analyses Reveal Late Cretaceous Shark Teeth in Iron Age Strata in the Southern Levant" for publication in the peer-reviewed Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. And one of the reviewers pointed out that one of the teeth came from a Late Cretaceous shark that had been extinct for at least 66 million years. Further investigation showed that all 29 of the shark teeth were fossils, the researchers say. In other words, somebody in ancient Jerusalem, shortly after the legendary reign of King Solomon, collected mineralized shark dentition from the time of the dinosaurs. Their findings were presented at the Goldschmidt Conference on geochemistry by the lead researcher, Dr. Tuetken. This research is an international collaboration between the University of Mainz, Haifa University, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological research and Oranim Academic College of Education. New type of prehistoric human discovered in Israel: Homo Nesher Ramla A bird the size of your fist had a head like a T-rex Israeli archaeologists resolve ages-old evolutionary conundrum: Enter the elephant and the hand ax Where did the shark teeth come from? Not nearby, which makes the paleontological collection even more baffling. Jerusalem's City of David – found beneath the site formerly known as the Givati parking lot just beyond the walls of the Old City – and the entire area actually sit on a prehistoric seabed. Stroll the hills and in some spots you may find sea urchins, shells and other long-dead life forms from many millions of years ago. - Advertisment - Dr. Tuetken says that at first he, too, entertained the thesis that the shark teeth had originated in the sedimentary rock strata that comprise the bedrock in and around Jerusalem and beneath the City of David. Get breaking news and analyses delivered to your inbox Email * Please enter a valid email address "However, it seems that no fossil shark teeth finds are reported from the Jerusalem/City of David area. Furthermore, the Cretaceous sediments have a slightly different age from the fossil shark teeth. That does not fit," he explains to Haaretz. Similar finds of late Cretaceous shark teeth were made in Maresha and Miqne (Tel Ekron), in ancient Judea, the team adds, and their rationale is as baffling as this one. Artist's impression of a Squalicorax shark. Artist's impression of a Squalicorax shark.Credit: Dimitri Bogdanov The teeth may have come from the Negev, where similar fossils have been found, Tuetken suggests. "These fossils are not in their original setting, so they have been moved. They were probably valuable to someone; we just don't know why, or why similar items have been found in more than one place in Israel," he says. - Advertisment - We add that the teeth were subsequently identified as coming from multiple extinct shark species, including from Squalicorax, a fish that grew up to 5 meters in length and apparently only lived in the Late Cretaceous – the same period as the late dinosaurs. It was a reference point in dating these fossils, the researchers elaborate. A Squalicorax tooth in Erfoud (Arfoud), Meknès-Tafilalet Region, Morocco. A Squalicorax tooth in Erfoud (Arfoud), Meknès-Tafilalet Region, Morocco.Credit: Parent Géry / Wikimedia Commons A strange pool However prized the fossil fangs were to whoever collected them, they were found in the detritus, including household garbage, that was used to fill in a cavity hewn in the rock, on top of which a large Iron-Age house was built. Asked how they know it was a home, Tuetken reveals another oddity. There was a "pool" cut into the bedrock, but that was a misnomer, he explains: "Apparently, it never served as a pool, a water reservoir, as the bottom of this "pool" is at a higher level than the spring nearby. This large cavity was cut into the rock, about 10 meters deep, and its original purpose is still unclear." The rock-cut pool site was excavated by Professor Ronny Reich from Haifa University. Come the late 9th century B.C.E. or early 8th century, this pool, or cavity, was filled up with two meters of stuff and soil. "This fill contained different items including 10,600 remains of fish, hundreds of broken bullae (tin seals) and more. The fill was considered to consist of garbage collected nearby," Tuetken says. Then in the mid-8th century B.C.E., a house was built on the filled "pool." The pottery in the filling correlates with Iron Age IIA, which dates it to 1,000-925 B.C.E. "The structure built on the pool was filled after 925 B.C.E. with trash from a previous period and was part of a residential quarter, located on the lower section of the eastern slope of the City of David," he tells Haaretz. And now we may speculate why somebody in First Temple Jerusalem would collect fossil shark teeth. Tuetken says he isn't aware of any other fossil collections in ancient Jerusalem. There are no indications that the teeth were used in jewelry – for instance, there are no drill marks – and no indications they were used as tools, which would have worn them down. Could they have been seen as a rare, valuable oddity? Perhaps a sort of currency: You did an extraordinary job for the king, here, have a stone shark tooth? Tuetken doesn't think so, but does point out how rare they are: 29 out of 10,000 fish remains are shark teeth, and they don't appear together. One has to sieve through the sediment to find them. He has another theory, though: "We know that there is a market for shark's teeth even today, so it may be that there was an Iron Age trend for collecting such items. This was a period of riches in the Judean Court," he points out. However, Tuetken begs caution: "It's too easy to put two and two together to make five. We'll probably never really be sure." We add that a shark tooth is a thing to marvel at; maybe somebody 3,000 years ago in ancient Jerusalem was captivated by the bewildering mineralized versions. They may have seemed somehow miraculous, we say cautiously, and maybe thusly the first paleontologist was born. Why and how the precious, rare collection was then discarded remains fodder for couple's counseling. | | | | 50 Most Beautiful and Talented Actresses of Old Hollywood A countdown of the 50 most beautiful and talented Old Hollywood actresses (mostly from before the 1960's). | | | | | The section of the Torah (Numbers 20:2-16) that speaks about the laws of vows has a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning appears to be a general introduction about the obligation to keep one's word: If a man makes a vow to the L‑rd or makes an oath to prohibit himself, he shall not violate his word; according to whatever came out of his mouth, he shall do. The middle section includes a set of rules about the right of a husband or a father to object—under particular circumstances—to vows made by his wife or daughter. A couple of examples: the father can only nullify his daughter's vow on the day he hears of it, and he can only object to his wife's vow if it affects him. The section concludes with a summary: These are the statutes which the L‑rd commanded Moses concerning a man and his wife, a father and his daughter, in her youth, while in her father's house. Given that the purpose of this final verse is to serve as a summary of what came before, why is it focused exclusively on the middle part while ignoring the beginning? Surely the obligation to fulfill one's vows is more important than the ability to abolish them. And as such, the summary verse appears to omit the most salient point! In characteristic fashion, the Rebbe shows us that we need to shift our perspective. We assume that the opening verse – "he shall not violate his word" – is a commandment to honor our word, and thus we wonder how this important law is left out of the summary. But what if the opening verse is not a command at all? This is indeed the case, the Rebbe explains. This section of the Torah is entirely about nullifying vows – which explains why the summary is exclusively focused on this aspect. As for the first verse? That is merely an introduction that is stating the obvious. In other words: "As we all know, a person's word should be their bond, which normally means a sacred commitment to fulfilling one's vows. However, there are specific occasions when vows may be cancelled…" Our Torah portion is not introducing the obligation to do as one promised, as this is already well established. Rather, it is focused on the more surprising fact that it is possible to annul the vow. By now we have gone through almost four-fifths of the Five Books of Moses, in which the assumption has been that a person must act with integrity. The making and keeping of promises are a theme running through so many of the Biblical stories. When Jacob is cheated by his father-in-law, Laban, he scolds him, "And why did you cheat me?"1 Sticking with Jacob, we read how he made and kept a vow to be faithful to G‑d.2 Many of the previous sections of the Torah contain laws that are based on the core value of honoring one's word – from promises to donate the value of a person or animal for sacred purposes3 to the laws pertaining to a Nazarite vow.4 Moreover, the Ten Commandments declare "You shall not issue false testimony,"5 and we are urged to "distance yourself from anything false."6 By the time we arrive at the end of the book of Numbers, we have been reminded countless times about the need to keep our word. Thus, the opening verse here does not introduce a new obligation, it introduces the laws of annulling vows. The summary at the end therefore focuses on the ways in which a vow may be overturned. With this in mind, another difficulty is cleared up. At the very beginning, we are told that these laws were delivered to "the heads of the tribes." Rashi explains that this is mentioned to tell us that just as a father can annul a vow, so may a leading expert disqualify a vow. Since the Torah specifies that this section was presented to the leaders, it is reasonable to assume that the leaders have some sort of unique relationship with the issue. But why would Rashi think that this relates to the leaders' role in undermining the vow, rather than the more obvious idea that they have a special role in ensuring people adhere to their vows? But knowing that this section is entirely about annulling vows, it is easy to understand that the mention of the leaders as the recipients of the laws will also relate to their role in getting rid of vows. There is a powerful lesson in all of this. In the eyes of the Torah, integrity and honesty are not commands; rather, they should be seen as a way of life. The sacredness of one's word should be woven into the fabric of one's being, just as it is woven into so many of the stories and the laws of the Torah. It is so patent, it need not even be said. After all, what kind of world would we live in if we could give no credence to the value of a person's promise? Adapted from Likutei Sichot, vol. 13, Parshat Matot I. | FOOTNOTES | | 1. | Genesis 29:25. | | 2. | Genesis 28:20-22, 31:13. | | 3. | Leviticus 27. | | 4. | Numbers 6. | | 5. | Exodus 20:13. | | 6. | Exodus 23:7. | | | | | | | Lies, Statistics, and Outrageous Lies | by Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin
Aug 22, 2021 | | There's a famous saying that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. The idea is that statistics can be even more pernicious than lies, since they use information which is true but present it in a way which is completely misleading. 
A disturbingly powerful example of that is making the rounds at the
moment. People are spreading a chart showing the percentage of seriously
ill Covid patients in Israel that are vaccinated. It's the majority!
This is used to send a powerful message that the vaccine does not work,
or is even harmful. Of course, if you have a better understanding of the topic, you'll realize why this is backwards. It's like saying that since the majority of car crash victims are wearing seatbelts, this shows that wearing seatbelts is dangerous. Whereas the truth is that since 99% of people in cars wear seatbelts, then obviously most crash victims are wearing seatbelts, and it doesn't mean that they don't help.
 The
overwhelming majority of people in Israel are vaccinated. So of course,
even when the vaccine greatly reduces your chances of getting seriously
ill, there will still be more vaccinated people who are seriously ill.
The relevant statistic is not how many sick people there are in
absolute terms, but rather how many sick people there are as a percentage of that sector of the population. And what we see is that being vaccinated drastically reduces your chances of getting seriously ill and dying. But I wonder if there's another problem here. We've been taught that statistics can be so pernicious because they take technically true information and distort its significance. Yet there seems to be an assumption that in general, information which is presented - especially if it looks impressive - is true, or at least arguably true. But I've seen a few cases in which people happily spread absolutely outrageous flat-out lies.  This
morning I saw a screenshot of an article from the British Medical
Journal about the danger of vaccines. Being from England myself, I have
benefited from how the word "British" lends anything an air of prestige,
and when it's put together with "Medical Journal," the effect is
particularly powerful. The reactions of numerous people showed that the
article had made a big impact on them. The only thing is, a simple Google search showed that it wasn't actually from the British Medical Journal at all. It was actually from "The Light Paper," a bonkers far-left British conspiracy theory rag associated with Piers Corbyn (a man who makes his brother Jeremy look sane). But how many people actually bother to do that Google search? Most people will just assume that the "British Medical Journal" has shown there to be serious concerns about the vaccine! A few weeks ago, I came across an even more bare-faced example. A friend was given a recommendation for a highly accomplished doctor, a psychoneurologist who is very successful at helping people with various problems. They passed on the recommendation to me for my opinion, and I agreed to look into it. The first thing that I did was Google his name. There were about 900 results, which instantly set off alarm bells. After all, between all the cross-links and so on, most accomplished people have many, many thousands of Google hits. I then went to his personal website, which had an impressive list of his accomplishments. He served as the U.S. Liaison for the Middle East Peace Process. He co-authored the Jerusalem Spiritual Peace Accord. He earned the coveted title of the UK's Most Influential Speaker. He is the founder and dean of a university. He is the Chief Psychoneurologist for the American Board of Psychoneurology. And he also received rabbinic ordination and is a kabbalist! It sounded amazing. And once again, a few minutes of Googling revealed that it wasn't actually true! Not that it was entirely fabricated, but rather that meaningless things were being given grandiose titles. There is no record of any "U.S. Liaison for the Middle East Peace Process" online whatsoever. He awarded himself this title.
There is no record of any "Jerusalem Spiritual Peace Accord" online whatsoever. It was nothing more than his own ideas. There is no "coveted title" of "the UK's Most Influential Speaker." It's an award given by a Jewish students' group at a university. The university of which this person is founder and dean has precisely one person on staff; himself. The "American Board of Psychoneurology" does not have anyone at all listed as actually being on the board, and as far as I can make out, it is actually just one person - this person.
Then I suddenly realized that the word psychoneurology was different from neuropsychology and was an unfamiliar term to me. So I googled that too. Google was pretty sure that I actually meant neuropsychology, and kept giving me results for that word (which has 32 million results), but when I insisted that I really meant pyschoneurology, I discovered that the term does not exist in either the dictionary or Wikipedia, and every one of the paltry instances of it online is associated with this person. But how did he get his Phd? Incredibly, in a YouTube video, he freely admits that he gave it to himself, because there was nobody else qualified to give it to him! Now, it's entirely possible that this person is very good at improving people's lives, and I wish him success with that. Still, I would be wary about giving money to somebody who makes such utterly fraudulent claims about their accomplishments and qualifications. And how many people are actually going to research his claims to see if they are valid? A friend of mine, who shares various articles which I consider to contain pseudo-science and other distortions, asked me if I'm against sharing articles and letting people draw their own conclusions. I answered yes, absolutely. The fact is that most people are not capable (or willing) of doing the necessary research required to evaluate the truth of what they read. And so all of us have a responsibility to only share information that is credible. These days, it's a matter of life and death. | | | | | | | | | It's Time To Understand That You Don't Understand | by Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin
Aug 23, 2021 | | Social skills are really not my area of expertise, to put it mildly. I've committed faux pas like you wouldn't believe; I cringe just to even think about them. I accept my shortcomings in this area, which is why I accept guidance in it from people with greater social skills than I. I'm also very ignorant about archeology, among many other fields of knowledge, and I'm terrible at parallel parking. And I'm ready to admit all this both to myself and to others. Why are some other people so reluctant to accept their shortcomings in particular areas?
Over
the last few days I have been involved in discussions and arguments
with several people who are not all-out anti-vaxxer conspiracy
theorists, but who are either opposed to taking the Covid vaccine or are
very skeptical about it. All these people are intelligent (well, most
of them) and they are certain that they are demonstrating informed
skepticism. Yet with each of them, I have demonstrated to them that they
have fallen for outright lies and/or have made ridiculous errors of
understanding. The correct conclusion for them to draw is that while
they may be accomplished and intelligent in many areas, they are not
capable of drawing intelligent conclusions about Covid and the vaccine,
and that they should defer to experts, and cease spreading information
and opinions on this topic. Here's some examples from today. Someone insisted to me that six thousand people in the US were killed by the vaccine - and also insisted that this was attested to by none other than the CDC! Of course, this is not at all true. What the CDC actually said was that six thousand people were reported as having died after taking the vaccine, not from the vaccine. And since nearly two hundred million Americans have been vaccinated, it is inevitable that many thousands of people die in any given period. Any deaths can be reported to VAERS, even by family members with no medical expertise, and are duly logged and investigated. Only three of these 6000 were found to be linked to the vaccine (and in a way that can be prevented in future). The rest were just the thousands of deaths that were absolutely due to occur anyway during that period, vaccine or no vaccine, and it would be inexplicable if they didn't happen!
The claim that the CDC reported six thousand dead from the vaccine was not only false; it was utterly ridiculous. Yet it took a while for me to finally convince the person of that. Here's another. Someone else insisted to me that he is not a layman and that he analyzes and understands all the information that he reads. This was right after he forwarded a message urging everyone to listen to the testimony of a doctor about how the vaccine changes your DNA! But this "doctor" was a psychologist rather than a physician, and the vaccine most certainly has absolutely zero effect on DNA. I pointed this out, along with other blatant nonsense that this person had fallen for - such as regarding the statistic discussed yesterday that most people in Israel currently sick with Covid are vaccinated, and that Bill Gates paid trillions (!!!) of dollars to try to stop a stupid anti-vaccine video. Shouldn't this cause the person to re-evaluate their claim that they are not a layman and that they analyze and understand all the information that they read?
One more. A person told me that it's not unreasonable to be against the vaccine, since there are "many, many virologists, immunologists, and doctors" who are against it. I replied that this just isn't true, whereupon the person said that "huge numbers" do exist and I'm just not aware of them. So I said, Fine, what's the evidence that there are "huge numbers" and "many, many" such professionals against it? And they responded that they've seen lots of videos! I pointed out they certainly hadn't seen videos of thousands or even hundreds of virologists, immunologists, and doctors who are against the vaccine!
So the person added that "a team of over ten thousand (sic!) medical experts led by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich have begun legal proceedings against the CDC." It took me just a few seconds to discover and point out that Reiner Fuellmich is a lawyer rather than a doctor, and more significantly, there are not ten thousand medical experts saying that they are on his team; the claim of ten thousand medical experts is stated by nobody other than Fuellmich! If there were thousands of virologists, immunologists, and doctors who are against the vaccine, then there would be a list of their names. No such list exists, because there are no such thousands of experts who exist. A claim that there are thousands of experts in support of a position is not evidence that there are thousands of experts in support of a position! In fact, over 98% of physicians are in favor of the vaccine (the evidence for my claim is here). And the percentage of immunologists, virologists and other specialists who are much more qualified than random physicians is doubtless even higher. In other words, the number of relevant experts who are in favor of the vaccine is not "many" or "most" - it's close to one hundred per cent! The number of relevant experts who are against the vaccine is negligible, and it makes absolutely no sense to choose to side with them.
Every day, there are hundreds of people dying painful, tragic, senseless deaths, because they were influenced by misinformation spread by people who thought that they understood the topic of vaccinations and the existence of expert disagreement better than they actually do. Why can't people admit that they are just not very good at evaluating information regarding Covid and vaccines and doctors? There's no shame in that. It would be the appropriate, honest and humble conclusion to draw. And it would prevent them being complicit in loss of life. (I ran all this by a PhD immunologist with twenty years of experience and a PhD pharmacologist with 25 additional years of molecular biology research, and everything that I wrote can be easily corroborated. Unless you think that I'm lying, you can share this post with those who are subject to misinformation.) | | | | | | | Israeli breakthrough migraine treatment 'zaps' away pain - new study - The Jerusalem Post At two hours post-treatment, pain freedom was achieved by 37% of participants with REN compared to 9% of the participants who took oral triptans and over the counter analgesic medications. Breakthrough Israeli technology for treating acute migraine headaches has been found to be more effective than standard-care medications for adolescents, according to a new study published in the Oxford Journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.Nine percent of children and adolescents worldwide suffer from migraines. The affliction has been associated with poor academic performance, reduced school attendance and as having a negative impact on social interaction and quality of life.
Nerivio, a remote electrical neuromodulation (REN) device developed by Netanya-based Theranica, activates the body's native conditioned pain modulation mechanism to treat headache and other symptoms associated with migraine by stimulating the free nerve endings in the upper arm.
A breakthrough Israeli technology has been found more effective than standard-care medications at treating acute migraine headaches in adolescents (COURTESY).At two hours post-treatment, pain freedom was achieved by 37% of participants with REN compared to 9% of the participants who took oral triptans and over-the-counter analgesic medications.In addition, pain relief was achieved by 71% with REN versus 57% with medications, consistency of pain freedom was achieved by 40% with REN versus 9% and consistency of pain relief was achieved by 80% with REN versus 57%.Moreover, REN has no side effects, studies have shown. In the adolescent study, only one participant reported a mild device-related adverse event – a temporary feeling of pain in the arm, which was resolved after the treatment without requiring intervention.Those who take triptans often report drowsiness, fatigue and difficulty concentrating for up to 24 hours after taking a pill. The study included 35 adolescents who were treated in two phases. In therun-in phase, migraine attacks were treated with medications. In theintervention phase, they were treated with REN.Anadditional, large-scale, blinded comparative effectiveness andtolerability study would still be needed to confirm results. However,previous studies have shown similar effectiveness in adults.THEDEVICE is Food and Drug Administration approved in the United States and approved for use by the Health Ministry in Israel, where it is available through one's health fund.Nerivio has treated more than 100,000 migraines in over 14,000 patients, the company said. It is treating about 100 patients every month in Israel.It was developed with research and guidance from Prof. David Yarnitsky, head of the Neurology Department at the Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology. The company's CEO, Alon Ironi, an electronics engineer, decided to develop the device when his daughter began to suffer from migraines. Migraines are one of the most common and debilitating conditions in the world. The headaches often render those who get them unable to work and negatively affect productivity."Migraine is the third most prevalent disorder in the world and affects approximately one billion people," said James Johnson, managing director, MedTech Breakthrough.Nerivio won the "Best New Technology Solution" award in the Pain Management category at the MedTech Breakthrough Awards in May. There were 3,850 nominations for the award from 17 countries.Ironi walked The Jerusalem Post through a standard treatment, explaining that users turn the device on at the onset of an attack – either a headache, or other related migraine symptoms, such as vision deficiency and nausea, and hypersensitivity to sound, light or smell.Patients place the device on their upper arms and start the treatment, which is meant to take 45 minutes, but can take less time."During treatment, people can continue with their normal activities," Ironi said. "The only two things they cannot do are swim, or take a shower since this is an electronic device."When the session is over, patients simply return the device to its box and store it for the next attack.Nerivio comes with an application that makes the treatment more personalized, he said. An interactive migraine diary tracks treatment sessions and symptoms that can then be shared with one's doctor. The device also provides recommendations for how to optimize treatments for better personal results."There is nothing like it out on the market for migraines," said Dr. Shira Markowitz, an independent general neurologist and a headache and facial pain specialist with Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Maccabi Health Services.She told the Post that "what is fascinating is that it does not give stimulation to the nerves around the cranium that are generally thought to be involved in migraines." Rather, "it is sort of like when something hurts and we punch ourselves in another place – and then our body forgets the other pain or releases chemicals that cause pain relief."Technion UK CEO Alan Aziz added that "Nerivio could help keep future migraines at arm's length." | | | | | | See you tomorrow bli neder We need Moshiach now! Love Yehuda Lave | | | | | | |
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