High blood pressure, or hypertension, is commonly treated with diet and exercise, or medications, or both. But new research suggests there may be yet another option when all the "old stand-bys" fail. A new pacemaker-like device is still undergoing evaluation, but so far the results look promising -- through small electrical shocks into your carotid artery it "tricks" your body into thinking your pressure is higher than it really is, and so your system takes action to lower it.

I'm all for life-saving technology, and people who suffer from drug-resistant hypertension have very few options, but I can't help but be really creeped out by a device that sends electrical shocks through the blood vessels in a person's neck. I keep envisioning Frankenstein.