PARADIGM SHIFT

The discoveries we have made in neuroimmunology amount to a paradigm shift in understanding of brain dysfunction.  Instead of treating symptoms in the periphery, we are targeting the root causes of disorders, which are located in the brain and which are mainly in the relationship between the immune system and the nervous system in the brain.  As a paradigm shift, this changes the kinds of questions we ask in our research.  We will turn our research attention to elucidating this interactive relationship between the immune system and the brain.

There is nothing new about such a paradigm shift in science.  As the founders have written elsewhere, “Throughout history new ideas in medicine or science have met initial resistance by entrenched medical or scientific communities. Barriers to medical innovation fall into six main categories, as listed here in order of historical chronology: 1) theological, 2) academic, 3) scientific, 4) financial, 5) governmental, and 6) commercial. Despite these barriers, recognition of the therapeutic potential of targeting neuroinflammation for treatment of stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, spinal pain and a variety of additional brain disorders has accelerated in the past 10 years. Consequently, a paradigm shift in scientific thinking regarding neuroinflammation as a therapeutic target is now underway.”

https://www.painbreakthrough.com/tag/mechanisms-of-neuroinflammation/