Archive for the ‘Migraines/Headaches’ Category
Sunday, August 24th, 2008 |
Migraine sufferers are turning to non-pharmacological options to reduce the number of headaches they have. Prophylactic drugs aimed at migraine prevention can have many unpleasant side effects and do not work at all for some migraineurs (people who have chronic migraines).
A migraineur’s lifestyle impacts the severity and frequency of the attacks and lifestyle changes, like those mentioned below can prevent migraine recurrence.
Sleep:
Migraineurs need to learn how much sleep they need and make sure they do not get too little sleep or too much more than they need. Patients who do not get enough sleep during the workweek who try to make up for it over the weekend may trigger a headache.
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Monday, August 18th, 2008 |
Hypnosis is not just an entertainer’s trick to please and amuse crowds. Hypnotherapists are helping migraineurs ease their pain. Sometimes they are even able to relieve other migraine symptoms like vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound, too.
The hypnotist’s goal is to relax patients into a trancelike state in order to access their subconscious mind. A good therapist will then place gentle suggestions in the subconscious that will help migraineurs deal with their pain by changing how they perceive it.
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Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 |
When a migraine strikes, many migraineurs head for home and settle in to wait out the excruciating headache. This may be the problem. While current genetic studies of rare migraines types show the condition to be about sixty percent inherited, the other forty is environmental. If someone already prone to migraines is exposed to an environmental trigger, fireworks, or at least a few prodromal symptoms, will ensue.
How can migraineurs make sure their homes aren’t giving them headaches? Clear out known offenders, one at a time. Things to look out for:
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Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 |
Phonophobia, an extreme sensitivity to noise is one of the most unpleasant side effects of migraine headaches. Doctors can’t help with this sensitivity, but there is hope. The phonophobia most migraine patients experience is particularly sensitive to very loud noises or sudden noises. White noise can help.
What is white noise? If you’ve seen Pollyanna, you know that white light is actually composed of light from every color of the spectrum. White noise is a combination of all audible frequencies. The sounds are spread evenly across the frequency band so that no one single sound or frequency stands out. When the frequencies are mixed they cancel each other out and create a deadening effect.
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Friday, August 1st, 2008 |
A rebound headache, also known as a medication overuse headache, is one of the most unpleasant side effects of migraines for many sufferers. These headaches are often blindingly painful, and are sometimes migraines in their own right.
How do people get rebound headaches? Put simply, they try just a little too hard to find relief from their migraine pain. The migraineurs is in pain and takes medication. They are still in pain later and take a little more. That does not help, so they try more medicine to relieve their suffering.
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Friday, July 25th, 2008 |
Being in pain so fierce that the only recourse is to hide in a dark, quiet room until it is over several times a year would make anyone sad. Migraineurs, though, are five times more likely to develop clinical depression than people who do not have these debilitating headaches. Conversely, people who are depressed are three times likelier than happy people to become migraineurs.
Many scientists view the intertwining of migraine and depression as a chicken or egg situation. They are patently comorbid, but does one cause the other? If so, which one starts the process, the migraine or the depression? The answer is not that simple. Migraines, depression, and, unsurprisingly, insomnia, a state associated with both conditions have something in common. All three are associated with neurotransmitter deficiencies in the brain.
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Monday, July 21st, 2008 |
Many migraineurs feel very alone in their still misunderstood suffering, but they are not alone. There are a number of support groups where migraine sufferers can find understanding, information resources, and encouragement.
The American Council for Headache Education (ACHE)
You can find ACHE online at www.achenet.org. Their mission is to educate patients and health care providers about headaches, including migraines. Their website has a wealth of information about migraine diagnosis and research as well as an “Ask the Expert” section staffed by physician volunteers, all of whom are headache specialists.
The World Headache Alliance (WHA)
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Friday, July 18th, 2008 |
Science can’t explain why so many migraineurs claim that there is a link between certain foods or beverages and their headaches, but they do. Sadly, the food triggers are different for each migraine sufferer—it’s not like someone who needs to lower their cholesterol and the doctor tells them to eat egg whites and lose the bacon, migraineurs have to figure out their triggers on their own. The best way to do this is with an elimination diet.
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 |
One out of every eight people suffers from migraine headaches. There is currently no treatment available to eliminate the condition; doctors merely help patients manage the symptoms. A new treatment is being tested that may offer more pain relief than any other method to date for migraine sufferers.
In September 2006, reports began surfacing about a surgical procedure that may help migraineurs. Dr. Sandeep Amin, an anesthesiologist at Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, Illinois, is pioneering a radical new treatment.
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Saturday, July 12th, 2008 |
Migraines develop in four stages. Patients with migraines with aura, also known as classic migraines, are most likely to experience all four stages. Patients who have common migraines, migraines without aura, will have the same stages, but are not consciously aware of them. The interval between migraines is sometimes referred to as the fifth stage of a migraine.
Stage One – Prodrome
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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 |
No one knows for sure what causes migraine headaches. The most likely to answer to-date is that a serious of small irritations or reactions pile up until, finally, a migraine headache is triggered. Migraine triggers are different for each individual, but many migraineurs claim that a particular food or combination of foods will push them over the edge into a headache.
Keep in mind that most science disagrees with migraineurs when it comes to food triggers. There are no conclusive studies indicating a link between certain foods and migraine headaches, so all information is anecdotal. The thing is there is a lot, tons in fact, of anecdotal evidence for the link.
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Saturday, July 5th, 2008 |
Migraines can be more than just a pain in the head. Basilar migraines, once known as basilar artery migraines or BAMs, are an extraordinarily rare but potentially life-threatening variant of the classic migraine with aura.
Basilar migraine symptoms are caused by constriction of the basilar artery, which supplies blood to the brain stem. BAMs were originally thought to affect only young women and adolescent girls, but research shows that while they are primarily a problem for these groups they can occur in people of all ages and genders.
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Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 |
Some migraineurs are fortunate enough to experience prodromal symptoms that let them know a migraine is coming. It isn’t much, but it allows them to plan for the down time they know they are about to enter into. A migraineur who has learned cognitive behavioral therapy can utilize the same prodromal symptoms to short circuit their migraine headache.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for migraineurs is aimed at recognizing at consciously manipulating the role that a patient’s behaviors play in the development of their headaches. Together the patient and therapist will determine how the patient behaves when they feel a headache coming, or when the pain starts for those who do not experience prodromal symptoms. They then develop alternative behaviors to try in the same situation in hopes that changing the behavior will change the migraine.
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