Migraines: what really triggers them and how research is bringing relief

The specialist: Dr. Alan Carver on migraines

http://www.nydailynews.com

An assistant professor in the department of neurology at Mount Sinai, Alan Carver has spent the past 10 years helping patients with problems of the nervous system – the brain, spinal cord and nerves throughout the body.

Each week, he sees about 60 patients with migraines.

Who’s at risk

Migraine headaches affect 28 million Americans, almost 10% of the general population. “Migraine is a severe, episodic headache that is characterized by light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, nausea and vomiting,” says Carver. “You don’t have to have all the characteristics, but you have to have at least one to put your headache under the migraine umbrella.”

Migraines are often associated with women, who make up two-thirds of migraine sufferers. But millions of men have symptoms, too. Most patients are diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. “This is a younger adults’ disorder, though there are children with migraine, and elderly people with migraine as well,” says Carver.

Twenty years ago, doctors thought migraines were due to too much blood flow in the brain. Now, they believe that migraines are a brain disorder. “The blood-flow problems are secondary to neuronal inflammation, a problem at the level of the brain cell itself,” says Carver. “Neurons are brain cells, and they are releasing a lot of inflammatory peptides, brain molecules that are linked together – and they are what drives the pain of the problem.”

The majority of migraine patients are genetically predisposed. “It’s a hereditary disorder of the brain,” says Carver. “When I see someone with a migraine, 70% of the time they have a first-degree relative with migraine – a mother, father or sibling.”

Signs and symptoms

The primary symptom is the headache itself. “People describe the pain as pounding, screaming, awful,” says Carver. “And there’s a huge variation in debility.” Some people have one or two migraines a year; as long as they take their medicine, it’s not a big deal. For other patients, migraines can be incredibly disabling; they might miss three days of work and major events. Because some headaches are quite benign, sufferers often meet with skepticism and lack of sympathy. “Sometimes, there is discrimination involved,” says Carver. “‘Oh, it’s just a headache, get back to work.’ So the patient can end up suffering in more ways than one.”

Research suggests patients with migraines have a nervous system that is set differently than the general population. “The nerves are firing at a somewhat increased rate,” says Carver. “People with migraines have been found to have a hypersensitivity in general.” This sensitivity can manifest in many ways: wearing sunglasses a lot, finding rock concerts uncomfortably loud, being bothered by things like video games and computer screens. “That’s a common trigger,” says Carver, “They’re more likely to have a migraine when presented with a lot of stimuli.”

“People with migraines have trouble with irregularity,” adds Carver. Common triggers include: a change in sleep patterns, either too little or too much; changing eating patterns, either allowing yourself to get too hungry or thirsty; a change in exercise routine, not exercising at all, or way more than normal; weather changes; certain foods and alcohol, especially red wine, aged cheeses, and the MSG in Chinese food; having difficulty with smells like perfumes; for women, menstruation, and for everyone, emotional stress.

Migraine pain can be located anywhere in the head: the right or left side, the cheeks, the back of the head. “It’s important that patients not be fooled into thinking it’s a sinus infection just because of the location,” says Carver. “Patients often mistakenly start treating themselves.”

Traditional treatment:

In the past, the only treatment available was nonspecific pain medication. “This medicine was as good for a headache as for a sprained ankle,” says Carver. “It was okay, and it took the edge off – but it wasn’t migraine-specific.” Then, in the mid-’90s, Triptans were developed. “These meds specifically go after the neurovascular elements: causing overly dilated blood vessels to shrink, and stopping the neurons from releasing the peptides that cause pain.” Patients take Triptan after the onset of a migraine to control its symptoms.

Somewhere between 65%-75% of patients respond “beautifully” to Triptans, says Carver. But that leaves out about 30% of patients or 28 million who are still symptomatic.

For patients who get debilitating migraines several times a month, doctors often prescribe preventative therapy. “Many patients are on Triptan every time they get a migraine, and on a daily medication to make these incidents more rare,” says Carver.

Some have found relief in alternative therapies like acupuncture and vitamin therapy. Carver always recommends migraine-specific therapy first; for patients who fall into the 30% who don’t respond, he recommends trying alternative approaches, taking them on a case-by- case basis.

Research breakthroughs:

Migraine research has been revolutionized in the past 15 years. “Triptan is certainly the most important breakthrough we’ve had,” says Carver. “The second most important was discovering the role of time in managing migraines.” Researchers found that the brain in migraine becomes activated in stages. Patients often told doctors that Triptan worked great – as long as they took it within the first 20-30 minutes of getting the migraine. “We found that if they wait, many more brain cells have gotten into the act, and that’s bad,” says Carver. “When they finally take the pill, you’re asking that one little pill to reverse the process, which has grown much bigger.” So early treatment is key to good care. Another new discovery is that migraines are a stroke risk factor. “Women with migraine with aura [visual symptoms] or a lot of headaches are more likely to have strokes than the general population,” says Carver.

A question for your doctor:

If you’ve been suffering from what you thought was sinus pain, ask your doctor, “Could this be migraine?”

And don’t avoid sharing severe headache symptoms out of fear of a brain tumor diagnosis.

It’s helpful for patients to know that headaches are not necessarily a sign of brain tumors, says Carver.

Know your family history

70% of migraine cases are hereditary, so ask your relatives to see if anyone suffers from debilitating headaches accompanied by the characteristic symptoms.

Get informed

The National Headache Foundation has helpful information, including a physician finder and patient surveys, at their Web site, www.headaches.org.

My note: there are ways to cure migraines forever and not have to turn to medecine for treatment.

Magnet therapy for migraines

Here’s an interesting post I found on the net on treating migraines naturally. I haven’t tried it myself but would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has and found it to work!

(NaturalNews) As with many natural treatments magnet therapy has a long list of skeptics ready to jump on its back and push it in to the realm of pure mumbo jumbo. But the truth is that magnet therapy has a growing number of people who not only swear that it works, but that rely on it to live fuller, pain free lives.

The concept of using magnets for health reasons is not a new one. Greek philosopher Aristotle discussed the healing property of magnets in 300 BC, but the earliest recorded mention of magnets within medicine came in around 2000BC. The Yellow Emperor`s Classic of Internal Medicine is one of the earliest medical books ever written. Within its pages there are mentions of many sophisticated and modern day therapies including the use of magnets to control pain.

The scientific theory behind magnet therapy did not appear until the late 1700s, when it was found that the body produces its own magnetic impulses. Many studies around this time led to the belief that placing magnets on an affected area of the body will help align these impulses and therefore ease any pain. With Hospitals now reporting that magnets have a pain relief success rate of around 80%, it is looking like these early studies were on the right track.

Magnets and head aches

Many of the thousands of people who suffer from regular headaches and migraines swear by the use of magnets rather than using any medicinal treatment. It is thought to be such an effective method because magnets help increase blood flow around the body. More blood flow means that more oxygen is able to reach the affected area, which will in turn help relieve pain and reduce any inflammation. This is also great news for people with tendonitis as well as for arthritis sufferers, many of whom live in constant pain.

Magnets and broken bones

While the success of using magnets to ease pain is seen by many people as nothing more than a placebo, results of studies printed in the Journal of Electro and Magnetobiology may help change their minds. The study found that using magnets not only increased blood flow and eased pain, but they also aid in healing bones, regenerating spinal disk tissue and may even help prevent the violent allergic reaction in the lungs that is characteristic of bronchial asthma. While these results have seen a sharp rise in the use of magnets within hospitals to help heal stubborn fractures and to treat tendonitis, in India and China the results came as no surprise as they have used the method for centuries.

http://www.naturalnews.co/026838_magnets_magnet_therapy_blood.html

Understanding Migraines

It is estimated that approximately 12 million people experience migraines on an almost daily basis. It is also estimated that the majority of those sufferers are women. As sufferers know, migraines aren’t just everyday old headaches, they are an extremely debilitating neurological issue. Migraines include a variety of symptoms generally accompanied by an intense throbbing pain on one side of the head (in few cases both sides are affected).

Some common symptoms of migraines include, nausea, vomiting, aura (“A sensation, as of lights or a current of warm or cold air, preceding an attack of migraine or epilepsy,” as defined by dictionary.com), sensitivity to light, smells, or sound, and numbness or tingling of the extremities or face. Migraines can also cause one or both eyes to lose vision on a temporary basis. However, if you experience permanent vision loss be sure to contact your doctor or go to an emergency room, as this can be a sign of stroke.

The exact cause of migraines is unknown, but research shows that they are related to the contractions of blood vessels in the brain. It has also been suggested that migraines may be hereditary. Migraines are often triggered by some kind of external issue. Doctors have been known to recommend that migraine sufferers keep a diary listing what foods they ate, their sleeping patterns, weather changes, and levels of stress on the day they experienced the migraine. This can help narrow down factors of what is contributing to the onset of a migraine. Some of the foods that are known to trigger migraines include chocolate, cheese, bananas, citrus fruits, and foods with Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) such as, soy sauce, pre-packaged soups and stews, as well as many Chinese and Mexican take out dishes.

It is estimated that you have approximately 20 minutes after the onset of a migraine to administer some sort of abortive medication for treatment before the migraine becomes full blown and debilitating. Chronic (re-occurring) migraines often require a medication taken daily for prevention. Migraine sufferers who have migraines less frequently (a few times a month) generally will not be prescribed an ongoing preventative treatment, but instead an abortive medication therapy used only at the onset of a migraine. Often times chronic migraine sufferers will be prescribed both a preventative medication and an abortive medication. Click here for a list of the abortive and preventative medications out there and how they work courtesy of WebMD.

Many people who are migraine sufferers do not realize that migraines are considered a medical illness and require treatment. Often times migraine sufferers end up being seen in the emergency room for the intense pain when they have not actively been seeking treatment. These emergency room visits can end up being rather costly compared to the cost of prescription medications. While over-the-counter medications such as Tylenol, Excedrin, Aspirin, and Ibuprofen can be somewhat helpful for migraines, they are not recommended for chronic use. It is recommended that if you have been experiencing migraines that you schedule an appointment with a hospital’s neurologist or with you family doctor who is able to refer you to a specialist if necessary.

source: The Migraine Foundation

Migraines and the importance of keeping a journal

While the exact cause of migraine headaches hasn’t been determined, some experts believe that a migraine is the result of fundamental neurological abnormalities caused by genetic mutations in the brain.

After a major onset, migraine headache relief does not generally take place until after a few hours or even days from the start of a serious episode.

Treatment of this common and often debilitating problem should be tailored to the invididual, taking into consideration factors to include duration, frequency and severity.

Migraine symptoms can be diverse, and may include pain on one or both sides of the head, nausea or vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound, dizziness, mood changes, and visual changes.

For people who experience migrained less frequently, simply taking over-the-counter analgesic medications or anti-inflammatory medications has been found to offer significant relief in pain (some use prescriptions medications as well). A relatively new class of prescription drugs developed specifically for migraine treatment works by increasing the serotonin level in the brain— which falls during migraine attacks— and interrupting the blood vessels from spasms, thus aborting the headache. Taken in the form of pill, injection or nasal spray, this type of medications can bring relief in as little as 2 hours or so.

However, migraine prevention is the best treatment strategy for frequent sufferers. Work toward consistency in proper diet, exercise and have a consistent sleeping pattern. In addition, look for patterns of substances or certain foods that can bring on an attack; some of the most talked about are chocolate, wine, aged meats, and foods that contain tyramine.

Keeping a migraine diary can aid in identifying the cause or trigger of migraine headaches.The process of elimination of triggers or causes in each invididual case can lead to migraine prevention and pain relief indefinitely.

Nonsense and a natural way to relieve migraine pain

I think it’s fascinating to see a surge of articles lately suggesting that having a plastic surgery will relieve migraines. I’m not going to post them on my blog but I wonder how many migraine sufferers have bitten as a result of these articles. I do think there is an easier way.

In any case I also don’t understand why a lot of people are suggesting dehydration as THE cause of headache? It is one but there are many causes–tension, sinus inflammation, neck out, pulled muscle, stress, various energy blocks and so on.

Anyway, most headaches and migraines can be kicked down a notch if not eliminated by the application of a drop of pure essential lavender oil to the source of pain–above the eyebrows, at the temples, base of neck. If it is a sinus headache started on either side of the nose, prepare to kick back in the lounge chair with eyes closed for a few minutes, as the fumes will burn your eyes. Almost every headache can be relieved with this or with lavender mixed with a teeny amount of peppermint oil.

Often don’t apply this topically, just inhale from the bottle.
If it is a sinus headache, drink a cup of rosemary tea. If sinuses are infected, add a capsule of goldenseal root or barberry root 3x daily for 10 days. If it is tension, drink chamomile tea and take a valerian root capsule. If hypertension, use lemon balm tea and a diuretic like dandelion root. If the pain is on top of your head, take 4 capsules of white willow bark.

And yes, increased water consumption can aid the body to get rid of toxic waste and eliminate several causes of headache.

Migraines – a financial drain

Migraine headaches are draining, not just physically but financially too for the estimated 30 million Americans who suffer from them, but on the economy, too. Because pain and other symptoms caused by migraine headaches can be quite severe, it is projected that nearly $13 billion is spent every year in headache treatment and loss of time from work, which no one can afford these days.