Migraine News Network | RainGem |

Generic Imitrex Pills are not Triangular or Pink - What a Rip-Off

2009-07-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

Yours truly has gone generic - at least with Imitrex. We should probably call it Sumatriptan now, it being not-brand-name-like; on the other hand, GImitrex we can still pronounce.

The migraine is coming on as yours truly is typing it. The time for the big guns is here. This is the very first time yours truly will be loading on this generic goodness. Will keep you posted as to how well it works compared to the brand-name Imitrex.

For now, my gentle readers - the first impressions pictorial.

The box, airbrushed - yours truly does like some privacy:

More box, the other side. Generic at it's most generic:

Three pills per sheet, three sheets in a box. Have they heard of conservation?

The mysterious 223 pill. Has Dr. Ready's Labs ran out of food coloring? Or triangular shapes? Even a round pill would have been better. Everyone knows the oval pills don't work as well as the round ones. Also, if memory serves, yours truly has specifically asked to make these strawberry-flavored. And they ain't...

Well, now lets see if these actually work. Down the hatch. Stay tuned, my gentle readers.

Harry Potter had Migraines?

2009-07-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

Scientists from New England Center for Headache in Stamford have concluded that Harry Potter might have had migraines.

They tracked the progress of the headaches from the time Potter was 11 years old all the way to 17. The good scientists even published a paper on the subject in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain - "Harry Potter and the Curse of Headache."

These are the symptoms that led to the migraine diagnosis:

Headaches began around age 11
Severe stabbing pains in the trigeminal nerve
Headaches were one-sided

The paper does admit that the attacks lasted only a short time, however. Also, in the books, the only trigger Harry Potter had was Lord Voldemort.

link: Diagnosing Harry Potter's Headaches

Migraines and Birth Control Pills

2009-07-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Could birth control pills be a migraine trigger? According to Dr. Thomas Shieh's recent article in guampdn.com, the pill as a trigger for migraines is controversial topic. Some say yay, some say ney.

However, he does state pretty categorically that estrogen-based birth control pills do have an effect on migraines in certain women. Here's his advice:

"If you are experiencing severe migraines often, I would suggest stopping the pills. Take a rest period and see if your migraines subside.

You should know that women with chronic migraines are at higher risk of strokes compared to those without. Within this population of women with a strong history of migraines, adding estrogen pills adds to their risk of a stroke. Thus, I usually recommend them getting off of these pills, or switching to pills that don't contain estrogen.

I know you do not want to get pregnant, and I would suggest you talk to your doctor about contraceptive pills without estrogen, other methods and if desired, permanent surgical options as well."

guampdn.com

No MSG Added - a Little White Lie? Part Deux

2009-07-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

"MSG is one of the more common migraine food triggers. You might not find M, S and G on the label of whatever product you are buying at your local grocery store, but rest assured, it's most likely there. Even if it says - no MSG added." - starts the article No MSG Added - a Little White Lie? yours truly wrote a while ago about hidden dangers of MSG.

Here's some more MSG-in-hiding facts for my gentle reader's consideration from The dirty secret of MSG - it's everywhere, by Charlotte Law :

"A pesticide company called Emerald BioAgriculture uses an MSG type of "growth enhancer" which they have been spraying onto selected vegetables and nuts since 1999; the company is currently looking to get government permission to use the substance on organic produce.

Meats, seafood and poultry can be rinsed or injected with MSG before reaching your plate, and restaurant salad bars can get an MSG spritz, giving lettuce that perky look. This toxic additive can be found in vitamins, soaps, cosmetics, chewing gum and intravenous hospital fluids. It can be found in children's medications, and it might lurk inside your migraine prescription.

In short, MSG acts as cheap filler, a flavor enhancer and a cosmetic surgeon, fooling unsuspecting consumers into thinking aged, withered foods are fresh. It can hide unpleasant tastes. It has an addictive component much like nicotine, and recent studies in Spain have conclusively linked it with obesity. MSG means profits for the food industry and its powerful Washington lobbyists; and it is no surprise that proper labeling legislation remains elusive.

If any additive containing the essential active ingredient of MSG, glutamic acid or free glutamate, is an amount that is less than 78 percent, the government does not require it to be labeled MSG. This is deceptive because MSG itself contains over 78 percent of free glutamates.

There are epidemiological studies, such as those brought to light by Dr. Adrienne Samuels, suggesting that up to 40 percent of the U.S. population suffers from adverse reactions to MSG with drowsiness, numbness, chest pains, nausea, facial pressure, difficulty in breathing or headaches. The FDA claims only 2 percent of the population experience a bad reaction, but even if this is right, it amounts to whopping 6 million Americans - more than the 3 million who are allergic to peanuts."

The dirty secret of MSG - it's everywhere

Migraine Safety Rules for Outdoor Celebrations

2009-07-04T16:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day holiday to all my gentle readers!

Here's some MIGRAINE SAFETY RULES that should prevent the celebration turning into a Migraine nightmare:

Do stay away from the sun - heatstroke and dehydration are among primary causes for migraine.
Drink plenty of water if you are outside, for the reasons mentioned above.
Don't forget your sunglasses - shades should limit flare and harsh light and keep your eyes from getting tired too fast.
Try not to inhale too much smoke from the fireworks - not only it's toxic, the smell is so strong it will trigger a migraine no time flat in those of us who are smell-sensitive.
If your party is planning fireworks, take some earplugs along. Unlike the normals, you'll hear the BOOM even with ears stuffed.
If you drink alcohol, pace yourself. Better eat something before you drink and get plenty of water in between your beers.
If there's a cookout, eat more meat (or veggies, if you are a vegetarian) and less of those tasty bans. This cheap variety of bread will jump your blood sugar sky-high and then flour it in fifteen minutes flat. That's a more guaranteed way to get a migraine that polishing a six-pack.

Have fun, my gentle readers!

Migraine Headaches and Reduced Academic Performance

2009-07-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

Suffering from migraine headaches as an adolescent leads to lower high school grades and decreases in the likelihood of graduating high school and the likelihood of attending college, according to Daniel Rees, economics professor at University of Colorado Denver, and Joseph Sabia, professor of public policy at American University's School of Public Affairs. These results were presented on Wednesday, July 1, at the 84th Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Professors Rees and Sabia analyzed data on sibling pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Parental reports identified siblings raised in the same household with different migraine experiences. The authors discovered that suffering from migraine headaches was associated with a five percent reduction in high school GPA, a five percent reduction in the likelihood of graduating from high school, and a 15 percent reduction in the likelihood of attending college. Thirty to 40 percent of these reductions could be explained by excused absences from school, difficulty paying attention in class, and difficulty completing homework. Non-migraine headaches were not associated with reductions in academic performance.

"By focusing on differences between siblings, we can rule out the possibility that family-level factors such as socioeconomic status are driving the relationship between migraine headache and academic performance," said Rees.

Professors Rees and Sabia were able to examine the migraine experiences and high school grades of 214 siblings from 105 families. Information on high school completion and college attendance data was obtained from 280 siblings belonging to 137 families. By comparing the educational attainment of siblings, this study was able to account for the influence of a variety of difficult-to-measure factors such the quality of the home environment. It is the first study to examine the effect of suffering from migraine headaches as an adolescent on future academic achievement.

"We know that migraine headaches can profoundly impact quality of life. Our study offers evidence that they are an important obstacle to long-term academic success," said Sabia, whose research focuses on health economics. "Our results show that migraine sufferers have trouble attending school and have trouble concentrating on the days they do make it to school," Sabia added.

To access the complete data for this study, please visit:

http://econ.cudenver.edu/home/workingpapers/Rees_WP_09-07.pdf

AScribe

Migraines, Erection and Butter Scotch

2009-06-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

Scientists at the University of Leicester are researching how Nitric Oxide (NO) acts to regulate brain function. Specifically, to see if there's any potential in NO for treatments of migraine, chronic pain, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease, sciencedaily reports.

Nitric oxide or nitrogen monoxide is a chemical compound with chemical formula NO. This gas is an important signaling molecule in the body of mammals, including humans. Its primary known function is that the inner lining of blood vessels use nitric oxide to signal the surrounding smooth muscle to relax, thus resulting in vasodilation and increasing blood flow.

This particular function of NO is exploited in the treatment of erectile dysfunction, notably by pharmaceutical drugs such as Viagra or Cialis.

However, the above mentioned scientists asked themselves a question: “Nitric oxide synthesizing enzymes are widely expressed in brain cells... Why is a molecule that can produce penile erections necessary in the brain?”

Apparently, nitric oxide produced by a cell ‘listening’ to its synapses (junctions between brain cells) can change the message received from the incoming ‘talking’ cell.

Too much or too little NO present in those synapses would alter that incoming message. If this brain cell communication goes wrong for a while, interestingly painful syndromes will occur. They include, but not limited to - migraine, chronic pain and epilepsy.

The good scientists have not shared with us more than their intention to learn more about "Understanding how brain cells communicate" by concentrating on Nitric Oxide since it does appear to be "a fundamental signaling molecule".

Here's hoping that their research will lead to something more that just Viagra 2.0. If they want to do that, they could simply add butter-scotch flavor to the darn thing.

link: Health Benefits Of Molecule Associated With Male Sexual Arousal Examined

Amitriptyline Directly Stimulates Brain Growth Factor Receptors

2009-06-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Amitriptyline (or Amitryptyline) hydrochloride (also known as Elavil, Tryptanol, Endep, Elatrol, Tryptizol, Trepiline, Laroxyl, Saroten, Triptyl, Redomex) is a tricyclic antidepressant.

Amitriptyline is used in the US and UK to prevent migraines. It is also used as sleeping aid and for treatment of major depression.

It works by by increasing the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain. But the delay required for antidepressants to work has led scientists to the idea that a secondary effect, pushing neurons to survive and grow, must occur indirectly.

The finding that amitriptyline can directly stimulate molecules that help neurons grow and resist toxins suggests a separate mechanism by which some antidepressant and pain relief compounds may function.

It appears that Amitriptyline can imitate NGF (nerve growth factor) protein in the brain. The research was performed by Keqiang Ye, PhD, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, and colleagues.

In laboratory tests, amitriptyline could protect neurons from oxygen and glucose deprivation or the toxin kainic acid. Only amitriptyline, and not other antidepressants, could duplicate NGF's ability to stimulate neurons to send out "neurites," small projections thought to be the beginnings of connections to other neurons.

Amitriptyline directly binds TrkA and a related molecule called TrkB, researches found. Amitriptyline could also bring together a mismatched pair of TrkA and TrkB.

How the findings translate to practical use is still unclear. NGF cannot cross the blood-brain barrier so finding a substitute with similar properties is highly desirable. On the other hand, since amitriptyline binds to TrkB as well as to TrkA while NGF bind two TrkA molecules, using amitriptyline as a substitute might result in unforeseen side effects.

The research shows promise but farther studies are required.

Reference: S-W Jang, X. Liu, C-B Chan, D. Weinshenker, R.A. Hall, G. Xiao and K. Ye. Amitriptyline is a TrkA and TrkB receptor agonist that promotes TrkA/TrkB heterdodimerization and has potent neurotrophic activity.
Chemistry and Biology, 16, x-y (2009).

link: Antidepressant Directly Stimulates Brain Growth Factor Receptors

Sleep Well, Ye Migraine Folk

2009-06-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Sleep well and you might reduce your migraines, says Anne Calhoun, MD and an associate professor of neurology at the University of North Carolina Medical School.

She conducted an experiment with sleep behavior-modification on women with transformed migraine - it's when episodic headaches become chronic.

Here are the guidelines participants had to follow:

schedule eight hours of time in bed each night
not to read or watch television or listen to music in bed
limit their fluid intake beginning two hours before bedtime
move dinnertime to four hours before bed

They also were taught how to use visualization to fall asleep quickly.

The result is - Migraine sufferers who slept well reduced their headache frequency by 29% and their headache intensity by 40% compared with those who didn't change their sleep habits (in the control group.)

As a sidenote, Dr. Calhoun was actually trying to prove that medication overuse as a factor in headaches becoming more chronic is less prevalent than lack or a poor quality of sleep.

Yours truly says that the neuroplasticity is a complicated issue and additional studies should be conducted. As in - please don't disregard medication overuse as being bad for you, my gentle readers. However, kudos to Dr. Calhoun for reminding us the importance of getting our Zzzs.

link: Improve Sleep Habits to Cut Migraines

Smoking - Good for Migraine People?

2009-06-25T17:12:00.000-07:00

Tobacco can trigger headaches, specifically migraines, an article published in sciencedaily stipulates.

"The results show that 16% of students fulfilled migraine criteria, while 20% smoked. The percentage of smokers was higher (29%) in those who were also migraine sufferers and migraine frequency in those students who were migraine sufferers and smokers was clearly higher than in those who were non-smokers and migraine sufferers.

According to researchers, "smoking is a precipitating factor of this type of headache, as the prevalence of active smokers is one third higher in migraine sufferers and there is a direct relationship between the number of cigarettes consumed and the frequency of migraine attacks"."

Here's a thought, however - what if the it's the other way around? What if migraine people smoke more because they have migraines?

Tobacco is a mild depressant. As such, migraine patients who smoke do it (subconsciously) to slow their hyperactive neurons. More to the point - to numb the senses, especially the sense of smell.

Therefore, the more often people have migraines, the more often they'd smoke.

As you can see, my gentle readers, the results could be interpreted at least two ways. One would imply that smocking is bad for migraines; the other could be stretched so far as to hint it would actually be beneficial.

And so, the thought for today if - Correlation does not imply Causation. Research scientists should really remember this one.

:P

My gentle readers...

2009-06-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hello again, my gentle readers.

It seems it's been only a short while but I am sure there are topics that need discussion that have arouse in the meantime. Never fear, yours truly is here :P !

We'll still cover all the relevant migraine-related news, as we used to. However, yours truly feels that it's also important to start sharing more of a practical information as well. Like some of the discoveries yours truly made during the course of the "migraine experiments". Not really because they are really important but mostly because they are important to yours truly. Hopefully they would also be of some interest to you, my gentle readers.

In short, there are articles planned and news to be covered. It's a thankless job but someone needs to do it :P . So stay tuned, my gentle readers. And here's some kittens:

Raingem.com Hits One Year Mark

2009-01-04T23:38:00.000-08:00

Raingem.com has been up for one year exactly.

On January 4th, 2008 yours truly set out to post at least one article a day for one year. The articles had to be about migraine or at least migraine-related.

Here are the results of this undertaking:

396 articles published, including this one. Considering that each article is at least 250 words, it's 99000 words. Some of them are way longer so 100000 words is not an impossibility here.

At least 250 different kitten pictures have been posted, courtesy of Google Image Search :P .

Yours truly started the last year with a migraine every 2-3 days. Almost a chronic migraine, just not quite. The tension headaches compensated on the alternative days rather nicely though.

As it stands now, the last recorded migraine was 22 days ago. Yours truly has gone through the holidays without a single attack, despite a fair share of over-indulgences and all the stress.

One thing about writing on a certain subject for long enough - one learns a lot. The amount of useful information on this site could probably fill a book, or a couple. Hopefully my gentle readers have found the articles helpful for them as well.

Some experiments were conducted, a few of them recorded here. The ketogenic-inspired diet was a particular success as far as migraine prevention goes.

Now yours truly has to find something else to write about. Several subjects are of particular interest. Some would help with the next stage - what to do when one is no longer in almost constant pain. Some are of more practical nature - less pain means more time, might as well make good use of it. Yours truly will need to vegetate on that.

This site is going to continue - the Migraine has no cure, after all - but at a less crazy pace.

Will keep you posted and thank you for your support, my gentle readers.

Cheers,

Rain :P

Helping You Sleep - Eat Your Cherries!

2009-01-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

One does not usually think of cherries as a sleep aid. Well, surprise, they are. They have plenty of melatonin, a naturally occurring hormone that makes humans sleepy.

As a matter of fact, the cherries helped with the initial recognition of dietary, easily digested, naturally occurring melatonin by medical science.

Here's an abstract of the study that was made some time ago by Department of Cellular and Structural Biology, University of Texas Health Science Center and Institut für Zoologie und Anthropologie, Universität Göttingen:

"The antioxidant melatonin was recently identified in a variety of edible plants and seeds in high concentrations. In plants, as in animals, melatonin is believed to function as a free radical scavenger and possibly in photoperiodism. In this study, melatonin was detected and quantified in fresh-frozen Balaton and Montmorency tart cherries (Prunus cerasus) using high-performance liquid chromatography. Both cherry species contain high levels of melatonin compared to the melatonin concentrations in the blood of mammals. Montmorency cherries (13.46 ± 1.10 ng/g) contain 6 times more melatonin than do Balaton cherries (2.06 ± 0.17 ng/g). Neither the orchard of origin nor the time of harvest influenced the amount of melatonin in fresh cherries. The implication of the current findings is that consuming cherries could be an important source of dietary melatonin inasmuch as melatonin is readily absorbed when taken orally. Also, previously published data and the results presented here show that melatonin is not only endogenously produced but also present in the diet."

So, for a larger dose, go for Montmorency tart cherries. Wonder if they are addictive? :P

link: Detection and Quantification of the Antioxidant Melatonin in Montmorency and Balaton Tart Cherries (Prunus cerasus)

The Great Vegan(ish) Experiment - Macrobiotic Diet

2009-01-02T23:46:00.000-08:00

Becki Withani, aka Ms. Norris is conducting a most fascinating experiment - using a diet to try and find relieve from her migraines. This was her reasoning:

"A few weeks ago, in the middle of one of my tougher migraine periods (translation: 3 or more in a week), I said to D,

"Hey, I'm thinking of radically changing my diet. Any time I've read about anti-headache diets, they focus a lot on staying away from certain meats and cheeses, and on eating more fresh food and fewer additives. I wonder if it would work for me."

To her surprise, D, her husband, has agreed. After several days of contemplation, granted.

Thus the new migraine diet experiment was born. She choose macrobiotic diet (with some modifications) as something that would be a good balance between a radical change in eating habits and what is doable.

Here's a quick background on what Macrobiotics is:

Macrobiotic diet is a dietary regimen that involves eating grains as a staple food supplemented with other foodstuffs such as vegetables and beans, and avoiding the use of highly processed or refined foods. Macrobiotics also address the manner of eating, by recommending against overeating, and requiring that food be chewed thoroughly before swallowing.

source: Macrobiotic diet

There are lots of guidelines and philosophies intertwined in Macrobiotics. One of the greater influences on it (interestingly enough, by accident, since it became very popular in Japan at some point) is Japanese traditional cuisine. My gentle readers might want to glance through the above referenced link for more info, it's actually interesting.

And so, on January 1st 2009 the great Vegan(ish) Experiment has began. My gentle readers, the ever-inquisitive minds, might choose to follow it's progression. Yours truly most certainly will.

link: Day 1: The Experiment Begins!

Headache before stroke more common in migraine patients

2009-01-01T23:33:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study of stroke patients indicates that those with migraine are much more likely to experience a headache prior to the onset of stroke than are similar stroke patients with no history of migraine or serious headaches, Italian researchers report in the current issue of the journal Headache.

As senior investigator Dr. Paola Sarchielli told Reuters Health, "Headache is a common clinical symptom preceding or accompanying stroke, and migraine patients have a greater probability of complaining of headache, often with migraine-like features, before and during acute stroke than non-migraineur patients."

Sarchielli of the University of Perugia and colleagues also note that there are limited data available on the characteristics of headaches associated with ischemic stroke and their relationship to the symptoms and neuroimaging evidence seen in patients with a history of migraine.

To further investigate, the researchers analyzed data from 146 ischemic stroke patients, 70 of whom had a lifetime history of migraine and 76 who did not. Ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, is the result of a blockage of a vessel in the brain. The blockage cuts of the supply of blood and, subsequently, the supply of oxygen to surrounding brain tissue, which begins to died, a process referred to as ischemia.

Nearly 80 percent of the migraine patients had a headache in the 24 hours before their stroke or at its onset, compared with 20 percent of those without migraine.

This "suggests that cerebral ischemia lowers the threshold for head pain more easily in these 'susceptible' patients," the researchers point out.

The researchers also found the ischemic area was located in the brainstem in 16 percent of the migraine group, significantly more often than the 4 percent seen in the control group. Brainstem strokes are the most devastating because this area of the brain controls involuntary life-support functions such as breathing, blood pressure and heart rate.

"The more frequent involvement of brainstem in migraineur patients with ischemic infarction supports the hypothesis that vascular events preceding the clinical stroke...can cause a dysfunction of this structure, which may be more predisposed to be abnormally activated," concluded Sarchielli.

SOURCE: Headache, November/December 2008.

link: Headache before stroke more common in migraineurs

Happy New Year Every One!

2008-12-31T23:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Every One!

Cheers, Rain :P

Myofascial trigger points in cluster headache patients

2008-12-30T23:45:00.000-08:00

Active myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) have been found to contribute to chronic tension-type headache and migraine. The purpose of this case series was to examine if active trigger points (TrPs) provoking cluster-type referred pain could be found in cluster headache patients and, if so, to evaluate the effectiveness of active TrPs anaesthetic injections both in the acute and preventive headache's treatment.

Twelve patients, 4 experiencing episodic and 8 chronic cluster headache, were studied. TrPs were found in all of them.

Abortive infiltrations could be done in 2 episodic and 4 chronic patients, and preemptive infiltrations could be done in 2 episodic and 5 chronic patients, both kind of interventions being successful in 5 (83.3%) and in 6 (85.7%) of the cases respectively. When combined with prophylactic drug therapy, injections were associated with significant improvement in 7 of the 8 chronic cluster patients.

Our data suggest that peripheral sensitization may play a role in cluster headache pathophysiology and that first neuron afferent blockade can be useful in cluster headache management.

Author: Elena P Calandre, Javier Hidalgo, Juan M Garcia-Leiva, Fernando Rico-Villademoros and Antonia Delgado-Rodriguez
Published by Head &Face Medicine 2008

link: Myofascial trigger points in cluster headache patients: a case series.

Do you agree with this list of tips for dealing with migraines?

2008-12-30T00:11:00.000-08:00

CureTogether (something-something start-up, Google it if curious) has put together a list of tips for dealing with migraines, allegedly suggested and ranked by CureTogether members:

1. Reduce stress
2. Sleep
3. Ibuprofen
4. Avoid dietary triggers
5. Avoid caffeine
6. Imitrex
7. Don't stare at a computer/screen too long
8. Stay hydrated
9. Neck massage
10. Maxalt
11. Chiropractic treatment
12. Magnesium

Do my gentle readers agree with the order of priorities in this list?

BTW, yours truly was trying to investigate a bit farther into this CureTogether service but they require a sing-up and yours truly does not swing that way. If any of you are members, please do share your experience with it.

link: Migraine Sufferers Share Top 12 Tips for Dealing with Post-Holiday Headaches

The Fifteen Most Potent Herbal Sedatives

2008-12-28T23:36:00.000-08:00

With all the jolly and well, stress, of the Holidays, we desperately need to chill once in a while.

Loading on good old Valium or boozing our way through all the commotion is one way. No judging. However, Dr. Nicole Sundene, one of yours truly's most favorite health blogger put together a nice and comprehensive (doesn't she always?) list of Best Natural Herbal Sedatives. All of them are legal and readily available in your local grocery shop. And the best part - they actually work.

Here's the list for a quick reference:

Passionflower
Ashwaganda
Schisandra
California Poppy
Hops
Kava Kava
Lavender
Lemon Balm
St. John’s Wort
Red Clover
Catnip
Valerian
Motherwort
Skullcap
Chamomile

For the the details, check Dr. Nicole's most fascinating article:

The Fifteen Most Fabulous Herbal Sedatives

Chocolate Migraines and How to Eat Around Them

2008-12-28T01:27:00.000-08:00

Now that we have covered booze, it's high time to move on to the next guilty pleasure - Chocolate.

Chocolate is considered one of the migraine triggers. How true is it? No one really knows. One study by British scientists tried to tackle the issue:

"Patients with migraine who believed that chocolate could provoke their attacks were challenged with either chocolate or a closely matching placebo. In a double-blind parallel group study, chocolate ingestion was followed by a typical migraine episode in 5 out of 12 patients, while none of the 8 patients challenged with placebo had an attack. The median time to the onset of the attack was 22 h."

So the science-types concluded that chocolate is actually able to trigger a migraine attack in patients who believe themselves sensitive to it. Not exactly a big help.

OK, you need that chocolate fix but are afraid of the consequences. What's one to do?

Here's a couple of pointers that should let us have our cake and eat it too:

Moderation, as always, is the first and the last thing one should remember when indulging in something that is considered a trigger. Migraine triggers are cumulative - the more you eat, the more likely it to affect you.
Dark chocolate should be preferable to milk chocolate. A recent study in Denmark has demonstrated (and they know their chocolate over there) that "dark chocolate is far more filling than milk chocolate, lessening our craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods." Good to know.
If my gentle readers themselves really sensitive to chocolate, consider this - it could be not the chocolate itself you are reacting to but the sugar in it. Try experimenting - backing semi-sweet chocolate is sweet enough to eat and has low level of flavoring additives. If nibbling a small cube of it doesn't send you to a migraine land, there could be some hope yet.

Enjoy your holidays, my gentle readers, and whatever you do - don't overdo it.

Migraine-Free - Hopefully - Alcohol Drinking

2008-12-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

The Holidays are there for a reason - to be Merry. For some of us that "merry" feeling means Liquor, and lots of it. The inner peace, escape from problems, etc, etc.

One could opt for a more enlightened feeling but you know how it goes - Gandhi is dandy but liquor is quicker. So true.

The problem with drinking alcohol is it's 2-fold toxicity.

First one comes from sugar alcohols.

The common thinking is that they are pretty harmless - if they are not fully digested and absorbed by the body, what harm would they do?

According to Dr. Nicole, "Despite fewer calories per gram, Sugar alcohols can raise blood sugar anywhere from 50-100% of the amount expected from table sugar alone. This means that some sugar alcohols may contribute to blood sugar swings & crashes normally associated with “traditional” sugary snacks & treats."

They are also "Allowed to pass to the colon; an area sugars are normally never allowed to enter. These sugars can pull extra water into the colon via osmosis, leading to diarrhea and cramping. They can also be fermented by the bacteria that normally inhabit this area of the digestive tract, leading to increased flatulence. The “threshold” or amount required to produce this effect varies from person to person."

Second problem is Congeners . They are toxic chemicals that are formed during fermentation of alcoholic beverages. Note the "toxic" part.

So, drinking puts 2 different toxins in your body - alcohol sugars and congeners that need to be detoxified. Your liver has to work pretty darn hard. Considering the amounts of medicine most migraine people take, the livers are overworked as is and alcohol just adds up to the workload.

Has any of my gentle readers have gotten a headache while they were drinking? The normals have to deal only with hangovers. We have to deal with 2 headaches - one during and the other one after.

So, what's the solution? According to Dr. Briffa, the following steps might help:

Moderation, pretty obviously, no need to spell it.
Avoid drinks high on congeners and other impurities. Port, brandy and cheap red wine are full of that stuff. For beer-drinkers, stick with "German varieties such as Holsten and Becks: the lacing of these beers with potentially toxic additives is strictly verboten."
Take Milk Thistle. This herb (Silybum marianum) is "renowned for its ability stimulate and protect the liver, and taking 500 mg of this even just a few hours before a serious session can buy some grace."
"Matching each alcoholic drink with a glass of water is another prime tool for reducing internal toxicity as it helps to dilute alcohol and other toxins in the system, and speed their elimination from the body."
Drink "a fruit smoothie or perhaps some tomato juice before going to bed after drinking," to keep the blood sugar up while you are asleep.

And the last recommendation comes from yours truly:

Drink expensive. Cheap stuff is laced with toxins. Migraine people have heightened senses, use them to you advantage. Might as well enjoy life instead of tripping over every single migraine trigger. Sometimes all it takes is developing a good taste.

link: Is there really no help for hangovers?

link: The Five Hidden Evils in Nutrition Bars

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing a very Merry Christmas to all my gentle readers :)

And those of my gentle readers who are not into that sort of things, Happy Holidays . The point being - stay Merry, everyone :)

Headaches Make People Unhappy. No Kidding...

2008-12-25T00:27:00.000-08:00

What is it exactly National Headache Foundation (NHF) trying to do?

They've conducted an online survey to confirm the connection between headaches and depression:

"The survey found that 42 percent of respondents believe their headaches and depression are linked and 53 percent believe that their headaches came before the developed depression. The correlation between headache and depression has been documented extensively; however, researchers have yet to find evidence as to how these conditions are related.

According to the survey, 80 percent of respondents indicated they suffer from symptoms of depression but only 52 percent have been diagnosed by their healthcare provider with the condition."

In other words, people with migraines have a "better" chance of being diagnosed with depression than people without migraine.

Well, duh -

-migraine patients have an incurable neurological disease they are very likely to pass on to their children
-the pain is of the charts
-modern medicine helps only half the times at best if at all

"Experts say this unhappiness can be avoided," the press release states. Which basically translates to - more pills, the fun kind.

As some of my gentle readers know first hand, the doctor's answer to depression is Prozac. Or whatever is the more fashionable alternative at the moment.

Have you seen a migraine patient on Elavil? It's terrible - they are in pain but they just don't care.

Or is it a good thing? It's a personal choice but if yours truly had to choose between pain and being zombiefied 24/7, pain it would be.

link: Headaches make people unhappy, survey finds

Seeing the Pain Away: How Perception Rules the Reality

2008-12-24T00:05:00.000-08:00

Simple manipulation of the visual image of one's body can significantly alter the perception of pain.

This comes from a study published recently in the journal Current Biology by G. Lorimer Moseley, of Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, University of Oxford, UK.

10 participants, all of whom suffer from chronic pain in their right arm were asked to perform a set of movements with their right arm, under different conditions. In one condition, they observed their limb through a pair of binoculars, which magnified their hand to twice its normal size; in another, the binoculars were inverted so that their hands appeared smaller than they actually were.

Each study subject reported that the pain they felt became markedly worse when they moved their limb. Surprisingly though, every participant also reported that the extent to which their pain increased depended on how their vision had been manipulated. They reported the greatest increase in pain when they saw a magnified view of their hand, and the smallest increase when their hands were minified.

These findings clearly demonstrate that the mere appearance of a limb—making it appear larger or smaller than normal—can directly modulate our experience of bodily pain. Exactly how distorting the body image in this way affects the perception of pain remains unclear.

One possibility is that magnifying the view of the hand enhances the sense of touch, whereas minifying it has the opposite effect.

Alternatively, the authors suggest that manipulating the image of the hand may have altered the participants' sense of "ownership" of their painful limb. Viewing magnified images of their hands may have made the participants more aware that the limb belonged to them, thus increasing their sensitivity to the painful sensations.

It is not yet clear whether similar visual distortions could be applied to manipulate perception of pain from other parts of the body other than limbs.

In the case of migraine people, a trick mirror, perhaps, that would make our heads appear smaller? Or could the principals be applied as a variation on a visualization technique, where one could see parts of his or her body through the "inner eye"?

link: Distorted Body Images: A Quick and Easy Way to Reduce Pain

Estrogen Increases Frequency of Familial Hemiplegic Migraine in Women

2008-12-23T00:20:00.000-08:00

Familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) is an inherited form of severe migraine that is accompanied by visual disturbances known as aura. As with other types of migraine, it affects women more frequently than men. Most cases of FHM are caused by mutations in the CACNA1A gene, but whether these lead to spreading depression, the event in the brain that suppresses nerve cell activity and that has been linked to nongenetic forms of migraine with aura, has not been determined. However, Cenk Ayata and colleagues, at Massachusetts General Hospital, have now generated data in mice that address this issue as well as provide insight into the reasons why FHM affects women more frequently than men.

In the study, mice expressing either one of two different CACNA1A mutations that lead to FHM in humans were found to have an increased susceptibility to spreading depression. Interestingly, the mutation linked to more severe FHM caused a greater increase in susceptibility to spreading depression than the mutation linked to a milder form of FHM. As with humans, female mice were more susceptible to spreading depression than male mice. This difference was reversed if the female mice had their ovaries removed, and then partially restored by replacement of the hormone estrogen. The authors therefore conclude that both genetic and hormonal factors modulate an individual's susceptibility to migraines with aura.

In an accompanying commentary, Takahiro Takano and Maiken Nedergaard, at the University of Rochester, Rochester, explain the importance of these data, highlighting the implications for the serious complications that can accompany FHM.

TITLE: Genetic and hormonal factors modulate spreading depression and transient hemiparesis in mouse models of familial hemiplegic migraine type 1

AUTHOR:
Cenk Ayata
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=36059

ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Deciphering migraine

AUTHOR:
Maiken Nedergaard
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=38051

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