Posts Tagged ‘Migraine Prevention’

An article published in the 2012 March edition of the headache journal Cephalalgia, discusses a Taiwanese study that found a correlation between having erectile dysfunction (ED) and also having been diagnosed with migraines.

In over 5000 patients with ED, the odds of having also been diagnosed were 63% greater than in men without ED, and this was after adjusting for other risk factors that are associated with ED like heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and alcohol abuse.

An interesting aspect of this research was that this increased risk of having been diagnosed with both migraine and ED increased from 63% to 98% in men between the ages of 30-39, an age group not usually associated with ED.

For men who suffer chronic migraines, the need to stop the pain and avoid a life of taking pain pills is enough motivation to explore options that prevent migraines. The possibility that migraines are somehow related to ED only provides another reason to explore all of the options

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

To learn more about safe, effective, non-drug migraine options please go to www.MigreLief.com

Prescription pain killers such as Vicodin (hydrocodone) OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone) and methadone can cause significant rebound headaches in chronic migraineurs who use these drugs.

The over-use of these drugs is alarming. There were enough prescriptions written for these drugs in 2010 to medicate every adult in America, around the clock for a month. The drug companies are laughing all the way to the bank.

In 1999, 4000 deaths due to these drugs were reported. Just 9 years later that number increased more than 350% to 15,000.

We are the most medicated country in the world, yet our life expectancy is not even in the top 40 countries of the world.  Our medical insurance costs are the highest in the world, but we are nowhere near the healthiest people in the world.

Now additional studies are showing that triptan drugs like Imitrex, Zomig, Frova, Maxalt and Relpax, which are used to try to reduce the pain of migraines, are dangerous for people with heart disease.  The drugs constrict arteries which is a dangerous mechanism for people with heart problems.

Yet the study reports that physicians are prescribing these drugs to people with heart problems who shouldn’t be taking them. In fact the study reported that 22% of people with heart conditions were prescribed a triptan during one year.

A well-known headache physician, Stewart Tepper of the Cleveland Clinic reporting for WebMD states, “That figure is very upsetting, I never would have thought it was that high.”

Add this concern to the fact that if over-used, these drugs cause additional migraines to occur as rebound headaches due to medication over-use, and it becomes clear that getting off of these drugs and preventing migraines from happening in the first place, should be the goal of all chronic migraine sufferers.

Go to ww.migrelief.com  to start on your drug free pathway to finally controlling your migraines.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

Dr. Marc Siegel and Dr. David Samadi weighed in on Fox News Live this morning regarding a recent study that supports a connection between migraines and depression.  He stated, “90% of all headaches we have are migraines. It’s a very good study but we don’t know if it’s the fact that you have migraines that make you depressed… maybe your lifestyle changes, maybe it’s intractable, because you are so bothered by the headaches.  Or is there something that the migraine does to the brain that alters it and makes it more prone to depression?”

“It’s 80% more likely you’re going to get depressed if you have a migraine.  So the message for people out there is be on the lookout for depression if you get migraines,” Dr. Siegel concluded.

Dr. Samadi stated it was just an observational study, not cause and effect, nevertheless useful information.  “If you get migraines, talk to your physician because there could be signs and symptoms of hidden depression.”  The doctor can then discover the depression and treat both the depression and the migraines with medication at the same time he suggested.

Two things should be noted about this morning’s news cast commentary.

First of all 90% of all headaches are not migraines.  There are two types of headaches, primary and secondary.  90% of all headaches are known to be “Primary Headaches,” whose subcategories include tension-type headaches, cluster headaches and migraines, tension –type being the most common.

Primary headaches are merely headaches that are not caused by underlying medical conditions while secondary headaches are the end result of some other medical condition such as inflammatory headaches due to a brain tumor, infection, or trauma.

Secondly, I wanted to suggest that any migraine sufferers considering prescription drug treatment for both their migraines and depression should be aware of a possible danger known as “Seratonin Syndrome” which I’ll explain at the end of this article.

The study referred to by Fox News was a recent Canadian study that concluded that people who get painful migraine headaches may be at a higher risk for developing clinical depression.

According to Reuters Health, Dr. Peter Goadsby, professor of neurology and director of the Headache Center at the University of California, San Francisco, said research linking depression and migraine headaches goes back several decades. He called the study a “useful contribution” to existing research.

Geeta Modgill, lead author of the study and her group gathered data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey, which profiled over 15,000 people and followed up with them every two years between 1994 and 2007.

Overall, about 15 percent of the people in the study experienced depression and about 12 percent experienced migraines throughout the 12 years of the study.

Cases of depression were significantly more common among people who had migraines at the beginning of the study – 22 percent of migraine sufferers got depressed, versus 14.6 percent of those who didn’t have migraines.

That made participants with migraines 80 percent more likely than people without the headaches to develop depression, and the link held up after adjusting for other influences like age and sex.

People with depression were also 40 percent more likely to develop migraines than the non-depressed.  The association disappeared when the data were adjusted for stress and childhood trauma, however.

The study also cannot determine cause and effect for the link seen between depression and migraine.

The research, published in the journal Headache, also implies that the relationship may go both ways, and people with clinical depression could have a higher risk of developing migraines.  The researchers conclude that the finding could have been due to chance.

Despite no evident mechanism, Modgill said, “Something is going on here.”

Migraine and depression sufferers should know the signs of both ailments since each might be at a higher risk for the other condition.

WHAT IS A MIGRAINE?

The frequency and intensity of migraines can vary among sufferers but commonly is characterized by

• a throbbing headache often localized to one side of the head.
• intense head pain usually gradual in onset, then progressively more painful.
• sometimes accompanied by a pronounced sensitivity to light and sound or nausea and vomiting.
• a dull, deep and steady pain or throbbing and pulsating if severe
• can occur any time of the day, through it often starts in the morning.
• pain in the temples or behind one eye or ear, although any part of the head can be involved.
• may be accompanied by a variety of sensory warning signs or symptoms, such as flashes of light, blind spots, temporary loss of vision or tingling in your hand or face (MIGRAINE WITH AURA)
• pain lasting a few hours or up to one or two days,
• occurrence varies – once or twice a week, or only once or twice a year.

WHAT IS DEPRESSION?

According to the DSM-IV, a manual used to diagnose mental disorders, depression occurs when you have at least five of the following nine symptoms at the same time:

• a depressed mood during most of the day, particularly in the morning
• fatigue or loss of energy almost every day
• feelings of worthlessness or guilt almost every day
• impaired concentration, indecisiveness
• insomnia or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping) almost every day
• markedly diminished interest or pleasure in almost all activities nearly every day
• recurring thoughts of death or suicide (not just fearing death)
• a sense of restlessness — known as psychomotor agitation — or being slowed down – retardation
• significant weight-loss or gain (a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month)

Because of the migraine-depression connection, I wanted to bring up a topic I covered in an earlier MigreLief Blog Post – the danger migraineurs face when attempting to treat both depression and migraine headaches at the same time with prescription drugs.

WARNING:  ANTI-DEPRESSANTS AND MIGRAINE DRUGS -
POSSIBLY A LETHAL COMBINATION!

Migraine sufferers should be aware of the dangers of combining some anti-depressants with prescription migraine medications.  Unfortunately, the mechanism of action of many antidepressants is to increase serotonin (a feel good neurotransmitter) levels in the brain. Triptan drugs like Imitrex, which are used to reduce or end the pain of a migraine attack also work by stimulating serotonin receptors.

This combination of antidepressants and triptan migraine drugs, can lead to too much serotonin in the brain. This is not a good thing and can result in a potentially life-threatening condition known as “serotonin syndrome.”

In some people, just the use of triptans drugs such as Imitrex or Zomig alone can result in unhealthy levels of serotonin, leading to serotonin syndrome. This risk increases substantially if these people are also taking an antidepressant like Pristiq or any other of several antidepressants known either as SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) or SNRI (serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors).

The symptoms of “Serotonin Syndrome” are:

Rapid heart rate and high blood pressure
Agitation or restlessness
Confusion
Dilated pupils
Loss of muscle control or twitching muscles
Heavy sweating
Diarrhea
Headache
Goose bumps
Shivering

In severe cases of serotonin syndrome life-threatening symptoms can occur:

High Fever
Seizures
Irregular heart beat
Unconsciousness

If you and your physician decide to use this combination of drugs, you must be monitored very closely for any of these signs and symptoms of serotonin syndrome.

If your migraines are bad enough, your physician may decide to stop the antidepressant so that you can use the triptan drugs with less risk (though as mentioned above, they alone, in some users can cause serotonin syndrome).

A win-win solution for many migraine sufferers who are also suffering with depression is to switch to the all-natural migraine prevention supplement, MigreLief.  There is no additional risk of Serotonin Syndrome when using MigreLief.

Prevention is clearly the best option to a lifetime of treating the pain.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

When the number of migraine days per month is under 15, the patient is diagnosed with episodic migraine.  If 15 or more per month, the patient is considered to have chronic migraines.

The women in this study originally had episodic migraines that over a course of years converted to chronic migraines.  (This is called transformed migraine.  i.e. transformed from episodic to chronic).

It is believed that transformed migraines can come about due to multiple factors like: poor sleep habits and/or pain killing medication over-use.

86% of the women in the study reported non-restorative sleep.  In simple terms this means they still felt tired when they awoke in the morning. 80% of them watched TV or read in bed.  70% awakened between 1-6 times a night to urinate.

The women were instructed to:

• Move dinnertime to 4 hours before bed time
• Limit fluids taken 2 hours before bedtime
• Allow for 8 hours a night of sleep and not to vary their bedtimes more than 30 minutes
• Not to listen to music, read, or watch TV in bed
• Not to over-use migraine medications
• Stop taking naps (even though they were tired from poor sleep)

Improvements in migraine frequency happened rather quickly after implementing the “better” sleeping habits.  Within a month and a half, 35% of the group reported fewer migraines.

By the end of 3 months 58% of the women who implemented the recommended sleep changes went back to being only episodic sufferers.

The good news is that these recommendations work and that all except one of the women who implemented ALL of the recommendations reverted to being episodic from chronic.

The bad news is that women kept three or more of the bad sleep habits they didn’t improve.

So discipline is important.  Implement all of the recommended sleep changes, they are really not that hard.

What may also prove to be very exciting is to implement these sleep habit changes and combine them with doing 3-4 days a week of moderate exercise (i.e. brisk walking, moderate weight-resistance with dumb bells). Recent studies have shown that moderate exercise 3-4 days a week can prevent migraines as well as a prescription medication.

Do both of the above and don’t forget to take your MigreLief (www.migrelief.com ) and your migraines may very well be a thing of the past.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S

We just wanted to remind you about some helpful hints that can reduce your chances of developing a migraine:

1. Stay well hydrated. An 8 ounce glass of water every couple of hours.
2. Scents and odors can trigger migraines. Don’t hang around people who smoke and ask your fellow employees to go easy on the cologne of perfume.
3. Bright or flickering lights can also trigger migraines.  If you work a lot on a computer use an anti-glare screen/filter.
4. Healthy snacks every hour or so can prevent drops in blood sugar than can also serve as triggers to migraines.
5. Pay attention to prodromal symptoms (symptoms like dizziness, visual or speech impairments) which occur prior to the pain of the migraine striking. Sometimes taking an ibuprofen during this period can prevent the full migraine from occurring.
6. Small amounts of caffeine may help with migraine pain, but large amounts will cause more migraines to occur.
7. If you suffer from several migraines a month, or have 15 or more headache days a month, you are a good candidate for preventive therapies. The best all-natural and proven one is MigreLief.   www.MigreLief.com

Do you find yourself taking more and more medications to try to keep your migraines/headaches under control? Do you find that one or two days after taking your medications that your headaches return?  Do you use more than three triptan drugs a week?  Are you taking OTC drugs 15 days or more out of every month?

If your answer to any of the above questions is “YES”, then you may very well be suffering from Medication-Over-Use-Headaches.  The drugs you are taking are actually causing you to experience more headaches, even if they temporarily help the headache at hand.

Triptans, ergot drugs, opiates (morphine, codeine, meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (Oxycontin) (Butorphanol) and OTC pain pills can all cause medication over-use headaches (MOH). If people use 3 or more triptans a week they will probably get rebounds, the same for opiates and if they are using Excedrin or other OTC pain pills 12-15 days a month or more, they will definitely get rebound headaches as well.

Research has shown that withdrawing (detoxing) from these drugs can in many cases reduce the total number of headaches you experience as well as the intensity of those headaches.  Withdrawal is not easy and the symptoms of withdrawal can be challenging, but the results are definitely worth it for most sufferers.

For triptans, the detox period during which there may be withdrawal symptoms, like continuing headaches, nausea, vomiting, and disrupted sleep will last about 4-5 days on average. 

The symptoms may last up to 8-10 days for withdrawing from opiates, ergots or OTC drugs.

The literature and research states that it is important to start taking a preventive product prior to or at the same time you start the detox program. (SEE WWW.MIGRELIEF.COM) We recommend starting MigreLief one week before withdrawing from the drug that is being over-used.

There seems to be little difference in the ultimate results and success whether people withdraw “cold turkey” or gradually.

Keep a rescue pain medication available that is different from the medication that has been over-used, for emergency situations, only!

So if you are withdrawing from triptans or opiates, keep ibuprofen or Excedrine Migraine available, BUT JUST FOR EMERGENCIES WHERE THE PAIN CAN NO LONGER BE TOLERATED.  USE THE RESCUE MEDICATION VERY SPARINGLY; YOU DON’T WANT TO SWITCH FROM OVER-USING ONE DRUG FOR A NEW ONE. (THAT WILL GET YOU NO WHERE!).

If withdrawing from OTC medications, keep a triptan or opiate drug available for an emergency rescue situation only. 

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO STAY VERY WELL HYDRATED. DRINK AS MUCH WATER AS POSSIBLE.

At the end of 5-10 days, depending upon what medication you are withdrawing from, you should find that your rebound headaches have significantly diminished or disappeared.

Your use of the offending medication should be either eliminated or substantially reduced.

MAKE SURE TO KEEP TAKING THE MIGRELIEF DAILY BECAUSE PREVENTIVE PRODUCTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE SUCCESS OF THIS PROGRAM.  CONTINUE TO TAKE THE MIGRELIEF TO MAINTAIN YOUR GAINS.

45% OF SUFFERERS WHO GO THROUGH THIS PROCEDURE MAY RELAPSE.  IT IS IMPORTANT TO CONTINUE USE OF THE PREVENTIVE AND KEEP THE USE OF RESCUE MEDICATIONS TO AN ABSOLUTE MINIMUM TO PREVENT RELAPSE.

Best of Health,

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

RELATED ARTICLE:  DANGEROUS SIDE-EFFECTS OF MIGRAINE MEDICATION OVERUSE

WARNING: The above recommendations are based upon review of some literature discussing detoxing or withdrawing from drugs causing Medication-Over-Use-Headaches. It is for education purposes only. It is not a substitute for medical advice. It is necessary to discuss your particular situation with your physician before starting on this kind of program.

Thousands of people take allergy and sinus medications because they believe the pain they are experiencing are due to sinus headaches. These people often do not get relief because in fact they are having migraines and not sinus headaches.

This article published in Health Central helps to clarify what the source of your headaches may truly be.

Oct 28th 2011

~ Did you know that nearly 90% of what people think are sinus headaches are actually migraines? These are some of the symptoms that make people think they have a sinus headache:

• * Runny nose or nasal congestion5
• * Teary eyes
  * Red or puffy eyes
  * Facial pain or pressure

Trigeminal Nerve

All of those can be migraine symptoms. A migraine can inflame the trigeminal nerve. The trigeminal nerve has branches in the face. One runs above the eyes, one runs along the sinuses, and the third runs along the lower jaw. As a result, the pain may be felt near the sinuses, which are air pockets between bones in the lower forehead, cheeks and behind the nose.  Sinus headaches rarely occur unless you have a sinus infection.  ~

If these headaches are occurring many times a month and you have 15 days or more a month that you have headache symptoms, you may be experiencing chronic migraines and are a good candidate for prevention. 

You may be able to eliminate or reduce the number of headache days you have and/or reduce the intensity of your headaches. You may also be able to significantly reduce the amount of medication you take as well.  Visit www.migrelief.com for mor information.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 3 million Americans went to emergency rooms trying to get relief for headaches or migraines. 81,000 of these people were admitted into the hospital.  1/3 of the emergency room patients and 2/3’s of the hospitalizations were due to migraines.

Women made up 75% of both the emergency room visits and hospitalizations. (To me this indicates a hormonal component to the headaches, and I suspect that the 1/3 of the emergency room visits believed to be migraines, is a very low percentage and that in reality, the percentage was probably much higher.)  Migraines were about 4 times more common in women than men.

Going by age, the most likely to make an emergency room visit were in the 18-44 year old range.

Geographically, – The Midwest and South had the highest emergency department visit rates for headache, 1,158 and 1,131 per 100,000 people. The Northeast showed 809 visits per 100,000 people and the West had 744 visits per 100,000 people. (People in the West either have fewer migraines or they just couldn’t get to the emergency room because of the traffic!)

We believe, that for most migraine sufferers, the answer to controlling your migraines and staying out of emergency rooms and hospitals, is prevention.   Visit www.migrelief.com to learn more about our #1 doctor recommended natural migraine supplement created to correct the underlying nutritional deficiencies and imbalances common to many migraine sufferers.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

The bacteria helicobacter pylori are thought to be the cause of ulcers and also possibly lead to stomach cancer.

A group of Iranian researchers have reported that after studying 105 chronic migraine sufferers, they found that patients who were diagnosed to have helicobacter pylori infection (which is done using a simple breath or blood test), suffered on average, 3 days a month more from migraine attacks.

This may not sound like a lot, but for those of you with migraines, you know how debilitating and painful pylori patients suffer more migraine days, but the researchers found that their migraines were more intense, as well.

If you are a chronic migraine sufferer, you may want to discuss with your physician testing for helicobacter pylori infection via the simple tests that are available. Though many people with helicobacter pylori infection have NO symptoms, others will experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• ·         Pain or discomfort in the abdomen

• ·         Vomiting

• ·         Bloating

• ·         Burping

Should you be found to be positive for the bacterial your physician can recommend a combination of antibiotics to treat the infection.  For those of you who are found to be positive for the infection and would first like to try natural ingredients, (instead of antibiotics) that may help eliminate the helicobacter pylori and/or its symptoms, (if you have any), try eating broccoli sprouts (not the mature heads which don’t have enough of the sulfur containing phytochemicals that are thought to help eliminate the symptoms and possibly the bacteria themselves).  Discuss this choice with your physician, so that he or she can monitor your results.  If it doesn’t work then the antibiotic regimen will probably be necessary.

Curt Hendrix M.S. C.C.N. C.N.S.

A new study published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, confirmed the findings of a smaller study published last year that revealed that women diagnosed with migraines had a 26 percent lower risk of breast cancer than women who did not suffer from migraines.

The reduction in breast cancer risk applied pretty much across the board:

• ·        Whether or not the women were pre or post menopausal
• ·        Regardless of the medications they took
• ·        Regardless of the age at which they were diagnosed
• ·        Regardless of which migraine triggers they tried to avoid

Though it is known that both breast cancer and migraines have hormonal factors that are involved in their etiology, the researchers could not explain why having migraines would decrease the risk of getting breast cancer.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.