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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
 Posted - 03/14/2007 : 09:21:05
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Yesterday I was dickin' around on Skepdic and came across a link to this list of Myths and Realities about Migraines from MAGNUM (Migraine Awareness Group: A National Understanding for Migrainers) The myths debunked on the page include:
A MIGRAINE IS JUST A BAD HEADACHE.
MIGRAINE IS CAUSED BY PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS, SUCH AS STRESS AND DEPRESSION.
MIGRAINE IS NOT LIFE THREATENING, JUST ANNOYING.
ANY DOCTOR WILL RECOGNIZE AND PROPERLY TREAT MIGRAINE.
Here's the link: http://www.migraines.org/myth/mythreal.htm
I'm taking a special interest in this topic because I've recently faced up to the fact that I suffer, pretty badly, from migraines. Since I was 16 I thought I just suffered from occasional bad headaches caused by stress, but this passed November I had a headache which lasted the entire month and after 2 weeks of it I started getting auras in the form of little white lights in the corner of my left eye. My mom has gotten the auras before, and one Aunt (Dad's sister, so I get this from both sides of the family - *sigh*) get migraines so painful that they've prevented her from going to work. My own November monster didn't stop me from going to work, but it definitely hurt my work performance (I got testy with my students, and spaced out/slurred my words during some faculty meetings) and I missed a bunch of stuff with my Humanist group. I was messed up enough that they even brought food to my house one day to make me feel better.
I was pretty skeptical at first of Myth #2 because I've always correlated stress with my migraine symptoms. For example, I was purchasing a house in October and closed/moved in November. I had also just started a new job – so lots of stress. But after considering what this article says, it occurred to me that for my new job, I drive straight into the sunrise in the morning and the sunset when I go home. And I know that sensitivity to light is a huge trigger with me. My November monster migraine went away during Thanksgiving break, when I was not driving, and then the seasonal change made it so I was now driving in the dark to and from work. If this was a real contributing factor, I will find out soon, since the light is coming back. I might be in for a real world of pain in the coming months. Eesh. 
I'm glad I read this article because I want to know as much information as I can. But it wasn't easy. I can see why a lot of people go into denial about certain health problems. I got upset at several points while reading this, especially when symptoms, that I didn't even know were associated with migraines, applied to me. I was most upset while reading about the life-threatening aspects of migraines, such as this:
quote:
Twenty-seven percent of all strokes suffered by persons under the age of 45 are caused by Migraine. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in this country. In addition, twenty-five percent of all incidents of cerebral infarction were associated with Migraines, according to the Mayo clinic. Most recently the British Medical Journal reported that after evaluating 14 major Migraine & stroke studies in the U.S. and Canada that Migraineurs are 2.2 times greater risk for stroke than the non-migraine population. That risk goes up to a staggering 8 times more stroke risk for women Migraineurs on the pill!
I am on the pill, but happily, I've already made a decision to get off the pill by the time I'm 30 due to the increased health risks that increase with age. Let the man deal with the birth control for once! 
Another disturbing thing from the article:
quote:
Migraineurs are frequently dismissed as neurotic complainers who are unable to handle
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Edited by - marfknox on 03/14/2007 09:25:25
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 03/15/2007 : 00:42:48 [Permalink]
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I've had menstrual migraines in the past. Sometimes if I didn't take medicine soon enough I would be sick all day, nausea and headache. Because they did get better with tylenol the doctors were reluctant to call them migraines, but with the nausea and being unable to function, that fit the diagnosis. Anyway, I investigated on my own, kept track for a while and got to know the headache so I was better able to treat it.
If I didn't have enough sleep, it could trigger one. If I took pain meds (in my case about a gram of tylenol) before getting out of bed and waited an hour or so, I could abort the headache. If I got up first and waited to take anything for it, I'd be sick and laying down all day.
Keep track of whatever you can that might be related and how your headaches in particular work.
American Council for Headache Education quote:
About 60% of women with migraine note an increased number of headaches in association with their menstrual period. In 10% to 14% of these women, the migraine occurs around the time of the period and at no other time. The term "menstrual migraine" is often used to describe this type of migraine, but the term is not used consistently and it lacks a universally accepted definition. Many headache authorities think the term "menstrual migraine" should be restricted to migraines that occur in women that experience 90% of all their attacks between the two days before and the last day of their menstrual periods.
Mine were definitely in the 90% within 2 days premenstrual.
I never found diet mattered though what kind of alcohol and how much you have certainly might. Some people think a number of things from cheese to nuts play a role. But other studies have disputed that belief. From my own experience with the contradiction between going away with tylenol but having nausea and real interference with activity, I say phooey on anyone who is certain this or that is true. We providers only know what we have read and the research may just be inadequate. I definitely can relate to that "any doctor will" myth. But then I never needed medical care for mine, just a day in bed literally.
If you had a headache for days on end, it's time to call in sick and take care of it.
I kept tract of my headaches for a very long time and have no doubt I wasn't attributing cause to something that was just coincidence. Sleep and hormones were the biggest factors in my case. I also always had them just as I woke up. So I kept tylenol and water by the bed and as long as I could stop them from getting started, I was OK.
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2007 : 19:00:56 [Permalink]
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bgal, thanks for your openness and advice.
quote:
If you had a headache for days on end, it's time to call in sick and take care of it.
Yeeeah... after my headache that lasted all of November, I finally made an appointment to see a doctor in late December. She prescribed a medicine which costed over $100. for 2 days dosage. I walked out of the pharmacy outraged.
Part of my problem is that I have a severe phobia of all things medical (lucky me, eh?). I get light-headed just standing in hospital waiting rooms while picking up a friend. I'm dealing with it enough that I made an appointment to see an eye doctor and rule out vision problems. After that I've promised myself to see the GP again and ask if I can get a prescription for something a lot cheaper! |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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| Edited by - marfknox on 03/16/2007 19:01:45 |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2007 : 01:22:45 [Permalink]
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You bring up an important point. Health care providers don't all think about cost. They see the latest greatest (when that isn't even factual) and prescribe it. Let me guess, Imitrex? That's the latest treatment and new drugs are typically quite expensive until the patent expires. Here's the same drug over the counter which is probably cheaper even though it is still the same manufacturer. These guys have pricing down to a science and the OTC market price has to compete with other options. With the Rx, they just have to sell your doctor on the choice and not have generic substitution options.
Mayo-Clinic site listing drug options, there are many.
Go to the websites for the one you didn't want to pay for. Sometimes, like this one,
Topamax there are coupons for some free supplies on the website. It's to get you to take in and ask the doc for the Rx. You may have to give them info so they can bombard you with marketing offers but there are ways like sneakmail to get around it if you care.
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| Edited by - beskeptigal on 03/17/2007 01:28:28 |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 07:36:27 [Permalink]
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| Out of curiosity have you ever had your blood pressure checked when suffering from a mirgraine? The reason I ask is that diastolic pressure can increase while suffering from migraines. I have low grade migraines most of the time. To counter this, I'm on a preventative regimen of propranalol, a high blood pressure medication. This is a generic drug that is relatively inexpenive, approximately $15/month. It was actually the jump in diastolic pressure that prompted my doctor to prescribe the propranalol. Diastolic pressure is the pressure of blood in the vessels between beats - when the heart is at rest (or the bottom number that is read - normal is less that 80). My diastolic pressure will jump to the mid 90 mmHg while my ssytolic pressure remains normal or drops. Propranalol is actually commonly prescribed for migraine prevention, a low dose will usually prevent the low grade migraines for me and minimize the major attacks down to about two or three a year with a definite shortening in duration. |
...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and vile!"
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.
LtGen Thomas Holcomb, USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1943
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 07:49:39 [Permalink]
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bgal wrote: quote:
Let me guess, Imitrex?
I don't know. I was so disgusted by the price that I didn't even look at the container. I just refused to accept it and walked out of the pharmacy.
Thanks for the other advice - I will look into a lot of that.
Trish wrote: quote:
The reason I ask is that diastolic pressure can increase while suffering from migraines. I have low grade migraines most of the time. To counter this, I'm on a preventative regimen of propranalol, a high blood pressure medication.
I don't know if my blood pressure is connected to my problem or not, but I'll investigate that as well. I've never had a problem with high blood pressure at least according to me doctor, however.
Now this brings up something that makes me question the original article again. Can't high blood pressure be affected by stress? I know that when my dad is going to the doc to have his blood pressure tested, he always goes to bed early, relaxes and does some meditation beforehand, and then he tests normal. (This is very bad of him to do because the doctor is not reading his typical blood pressure.) I've always correlated my migraines with periods of increased stress. The one I had for most of November was correlated with a new job, buying a house, and then moving while no money left in the bank. But the explanation after Myth #2 insists that psychological factors don't matter. Anyway, if stress can affect blood pressure, and blood pressure can affect the onset of migraines, couldn't increased life stress be part of the equation in terms of prevention?
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 09:18:06 [Permalink]
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I've been getting migraines since adolescence. They are pretty much of the garden-variety kind. There are no symptoms leading up to one that I have been able to recognize. They just hit. Also, in all of these years, I have not been able to single out the triggers in a way that they can be avoided. There have been activities or a kind of malaise that have preceded them but not necessarily together and sometimes not at all.
It usually starts with my noticing that there is a small blind spot at the center of my vision. For example if I was reading this sentence, the letters of the words I am reading, right in the center of my field of vision would be hard to make out. Soon enough that “blind spot” becomes bigger and turns in to an arch of sorts and moves slowly from the center, spreading out and ending eventually outside of my peripheral area of vision. During this process, I usually gain the center back but there is a zig zagy light show (often called a migraine aura) going on that makes looking at anything very uncomfortable. Eventually, say in a half hour, that part ends. But it leaves me kinda wasted and certainly very photo sensitive. About twenty or so minutes after the light show is gone, the headache officially arrives. These days they vary in intensity to extremely mild to annoyingly bad. The pain is effectively treated by a large dose of ibuprophen. But that was not always the case. And again, I am always left with a feeling of malaise.
When I was younger the headaches were much more intense and almost always involved some serious nausea. I was given codeine for the headache and, well, nothing stopped the nausea. Later, after finally being taken to a neurosurgeon, I was given cafergot. Problem with migraine medications is that you have to take them very early on in the episode, which was hard to do. Anyhow, I hated cafergot.
I have tried Imitrex but it makes me sick. And since the pain isn't as intense as it used to be, again, Ibuprophen handles it nicely. (That is a pharmuctical dose by the way. At least 1000 mg.)
I also sometimes wake up with screamingly bad headaches that do not come with the lights and such. Those have recently been diagnosed as another form of migraine. Lucky me…
Episodes vary from one every several months to several in a week's period. And it looks like I am stuck with them for life…
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 10:10:39 [Permalink]
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quote:
I don't know if my blood pressure is connected to my problem or not, but I'll investigate that as well. I've never had a problem with high blood pressure at least according to me doctor, however.
Now this brings up something that makes me question the original article again. Can't high blood pressure be affected by stress? I know that when my dad is going to the doc to have his blood pressure tested, he always goes to bed early, relaxes and does some meditation beforehand, and then he tests normal. (This is very bad of him to do because the doctor is not reading his typical blood pressure.) I've always correlated my migraines with periods of increased stress. The one I had for most of November was correlated with a new job, buying a house, and then moving while no money left in the bank. But the explanation after Myth #2 insists that psychological factors don't matter. Anyway, if stress can affect blood pressure, and blood pressure can affect the onset of migraines, couldn't increased life stress be part of the equation in terms of prevention?
It's more the relation between the systlic pressure and the diastolic pressure that you need to be aware of. A lowered systolic pressure or raised diastolic pressure is indicative of a migraine, not just raised pressure in general. With Hypertension both systolic (the first reading - the pressure of the blood as the heart pumps) and diastiolic (the second reading - the pressure of the blood as the heart is at rest) will increase. Beta blockers (of which propranalol is one) are shown effective in migraine prevention. The primary concern that my doctor has in prescribing the propranalol for me is that my Bp is normal when I'm not having a migraine and my systolic pressure actually drops when suffering from a migraine. A migraine is typically caused when blood vessels expand and the resultant headache is from the pressure to the surrounding tissues, from what I understand of the explanation given to me by my doctor. Which is somewhat opposite of Hypertension or vascularconstriction. I actually aggravate my migraines by clenching muscles and top the whole problem with a raging tension headache. Which runs down my back and shoulders.
To ameliorate the effacts of a migraine I take ibuprophen and coffee or chocolate. Of course, my doctor said I'd probably do just as well with a caffiene pill. I'm not sure she's entirely convinced that my solution is effective or practical - but it works for me. I'll do anything that will stop one of the monster migraines I can get.
edited because I can't master using quotes... |
...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and vile!"
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.
LtGen Thomas Holcomb, USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1943
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| Edited by - Trish on 03/19/2007 10:12:16 |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 10:46:55 [Permalink]
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Trish wrote: quote:
To ameliorate the effacts of a migraine I take ibuprophen and coffee or chocolate.
I read about caffeine helping after I had already discovered on my own that coffee was helping. I had stopped drinking coffee (I've never been an excessive coffee drinker, but I used to drink a little daily) after I was diagnosed with low blood sugar because it was advised against. But I love the taste of coffee, and decaf was giving me weird stomach cramps. So I switched to drinking a cup a day and found that it did seem to help with my headaches - so long as I didn't overdo it.
I really appreciate all this technical medical info so I can bring it up with my doctor. Thanks. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 15:19:44 [Permalink]
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This guy has a whole book on Caffeine and Migraines and I don't know how qualified he is but his paper on the subject is well referenced. He claims to have reviewed PubMed abstracts. That's where I'd go next to look at this issue. It's my understanding caffeine withdrawal headaches are well established. I don't know how long they occur after stopping a daily habit but lasting a month wouldn't be completely unreasonable.
http://www.batnet.com/spencer/theory.html
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| Edited by - beskeptigal on 03/19/2007 15:22:04 |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2007 : 18:46:30 [Permalink]
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quote:
I really appreciate all this technical medical info so I can bring it up with my doctor. Thanks.
I know blood pressure and noticed it while in school and learning to read vitals. I'd noticed that my pressures were different with a migraine and without. So I checked with the doctor I had at the time.
I heard about some studies but hadnt the time to follow up on them. I'll have to check the link. |
...no one has ever found a 4.5 billion year old stone artifact (at the right geological stratum) with the words "Made by God."
No Sense of Obligation by Matt Young
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and vile!"
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
They (Women Marines) don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.
LtGen Thomas Holcomb, USMC
Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1943
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ferhad
New Member
Iran
17 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2007 : 01:20:58 [Permalink]
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| Hi- in this message I am writing about propanolul drug only because I have not migraine problem .I have a brother that 20 years ago had problem in palm of his hands in which perspired so much (ozzing water)he showed to doctors .in university consulting committee doctors told to him . we have the sympathetic and para sympathetic nervous system in the all over the body .this nervous have three kind first nervous for diagnose the heat and second for coldness the thing and third sharpness .this nervous are so much small that we can see in microscope. they had told to my brother your heat nervous have become active and in the receip wrote the propanololu drug only .this drug will effect to your sympathetic system in long time .how ever .many factors can cause migraine .Iam sorry for your problem .in my book about vitamins have writen . vit B1 - if this vit be carence-total in the body causing polynevrite (swelling some nervous in internal problem after poisoning and infection become appear )(garnier delamare.professore 1012 ) vitB2 - for curing skin problem (seborrhee)-optical problem -swelling the intestine -asthme-migrane - children growth . in using vit our habit is we are using multyvitmine this method is not suitable if we use a food that have our necessary vit and cooking in suitable method that protect his property would be good better than using multyvitamine .vitamins have big role in controling the food and health in the body absence cusing carence if be complet become carence- total cusing avitaminose and deficit cusing hypovitaminose and if be increased cusing hypervitminose .so vitB1 is in rice seed -vegetable-corn-beerferment-egg-milk-root and tumor vegetable such as carrot .vitB2 is in milk - egg -liver-beerferment-barly corn malt -please search in vitamins thanks ferhad |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 04/03/2007 : 03:01:23 [Permalink]
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Trish, pain can increase your blood pressure so you have a chicken and egg dilemma there with the migraine.
Very high blood pressure definitely causes a headache, and it can be severe. In addition, there are hypotheses that local pressure changes within the brain's blood vessels are part of the migraine mechanism. But your average hypertension is not typically a source of headache by itself. It can be but it isn't typical. |
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Myths about Migraines
