Kevin | 
03 26th, 2005| 
All membranes are different. None of them is indestructible.
Mar
24
This is a further review of material provided to painonline by McGivern and McDonough. We thank them deeply for their input. For what it is worth, they are experts on sodium channels as well, but we review only their publications on calcium channels. And once again, we are glad a company such as Amgen has this caliber of researchers on board.
Mar
21
We continue with a review of information supplied by McGivern and McDonough. Once again, we thank them for their kind support.We attempt to use nociceptin as an example of why pain blockers outside the opioid pathways are desirable. We attempt to explain why this is relevant and necessary in the hunt for the paths of central pain. We especially encourage your reading about bypassing of the cord by various routes of the autonomic nervous system and why N-type calcium channel chemistry hints at a role for the autonomic system/visceral afferents and compares opiate counterfeiters (NOF/Q) in CP. As before, we acknowledge the input by McGivern and McDonough, cited above.
Mar
19
Here is a real shocker. Histamine, a pain player, can inhibit pain. Those of you who have completed the survey informed us aspirin and acetaminophen don’t help your central pain. Turns out you were ahead of your time.
Mar
18
Central pain in post stroke is especially good for radiologic study because one can compare the good side to the bad side. Now, it has finally been done.
Mar
16
The shortness of this article should not belie its seriousness. This discusses one of the most frequent comments in the surveys.
Mar
16
We continue an adaptation of the materials provided to painonline by Joseph McGivern, reflecting research by himself and Stefan McDonough.
Mar
13
Thanks once again to McGivern and McDonough for providing the materials on which this series is based. The culprits in central pain, the calcium ion channels (complicated pores) in the membrane of the neuron, are further described here. For simplicity’s sake, it may help to think of a channel as a very long lens shaped tubule, containing angles and many series of shutters, in which the leaves of the shutters open and close in sequence to “squeeze” calcium through the neuronal membrane, with other structures able to slow or increase the calcium flow by keeping the leaves of the shutters in wider or narrower position.
Mar
9
Tusitala, the nickname of Robert Louis Stevenson, means “Teller of tales” in Samoan. Tales are things imagined that never happened. They can still lift the heart.