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02/12/2013 06:49 PM

Healthy Living: Neuro stem

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Every day millions of Americans complain of chronic pain, but for some people pain can derail their lives.

"I was 14. I know the day exactly. It was March 14, 2004. A headache just came on randomly," Cassie Moore said.

That was seven and a half years ago. The headaches were excruciating.

"It's worse than a migraine," she said. "It's a throbbing, stabbing, burning pain."

She loved to play soccer, but running made the headaches worse. Her life was curtailed.

"I had to dropout of college. It was really sad," Moore said. "Bad thoughts going through my head, like, there's no hope."

She tried nearly everything to get relief.

"I used narcotics, over the counter medicine, nerve blocks, steroid injections," she said.

There was one more option which involved pain management specialist Dr. Marty Ferrillo.

"As a pain management doctor, I generally see people who have very bad headaches, people who have failed conservative treatments. I am at the top of the treatment ladder. I have got to think out side the box and offer them something different," he said.

And different it was. It's considered experimental. From experience he knew when spine stimulaters are placed over nerves in the back, back pain sufferers get relief. Why not try it on nerves in the head? So he did.

Learn more about it in the video above.