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With preparations for Christmas now in full swing, don’t let shopping for gifts and putting up decorations keep you so busy you don’t have time to take care of yourself. For migraine sufferers, the holidays can be a particularly challenging time, with so many triggers present it’s hard to avoid them all. With some advance planning, however, you may be able to enjoy your family time and prevent the dreaded headache from taking over.
Few Americans are unaware of the Flint, MI water challenges, and most people know tap water has a less-than-perfect rap at the best of times. And who can possibly forget Julia Roberts in the film Erin Brockovich, fighting for the rights of her community?
"I can see clearly now the (mig)rain(e) is gone," sang Johnny Nash back in the day, and many migraine patients will no doubt agree with him. That's especially true for sufferers who experience visual disturbances during an attack. While a classic migraine accompanied by lights and patterns is usually a regular migraine with aura, many patients also develop other visual symptoms before, during or after an attack. These headaches are known as retinal, ophthalmic or ocular migraines, depending on...
Finding an effective medical treatment for your migraine attacks is a blessing, but if it’s medication-based it could be a two-edged sword. Many migraineurs get temporary relief from headaches through a variety of therapies, including preventive medications such as triptans, ergotamine and caffeine combination drugs, opioids, glucocorticoids and over-the-counter painkillers. Many of these medications become less effective over time, or cause unpleasant side effects after long-term use. ...
Over the past few years, medical marijuana has been touted as a miracle cure for any number of healthcare conditions, sparking the interest of the migraine community in using it for relief. While it’s not considered a miracle cure exactly, a new category of products based on cannabidoil have been shown to have benefits for a wide range of medical conditions.
Silent migraines may sound like a paradox, but they can be just as debilitating as regular migraines. For patients suffering from chronic silent migraines, the impact on their quality of life is equal to those who experience chronic migraines with headache pain. Some migraineurs have been known to experience a constant silent migraine for indefinite periods of time. In some instances, these attacks can last for years.
Medical science never rests, and that’s good news for migraine sufferers. While a range of medications exist that are capable of treat migraines, many are only effective for some patients and several have unpleasant side effects. Researchers are exploring new brain insights and other options in an effort to find innovative therapies, and some of these were discussed at the American Academy of Neurology’s April convention in Boston. We rounded up a few of the most exciting developments in 2017...
A number of medical conditions have confusion or “brain fog” as a symptom or side effect, including migraines. Acute confusional migraines, known as ACMs, are still in the early stage of medical research, and only a small number of cases can be found for study purposes. These typically affect children and teenagers, but you don’t have to have an actual ACM to experience confusion.
With Halloween on the way this month, it’s likely your kids are planning their haunted house and Trick or Treating trips already. For migraineurs, however, this fun, festive activity can be a traumatic event filled with triggers. Fall already carries migraine risks of its own, and Halloween adds another layer of potential problems for patients. With careful advance planning, however, you can enjoy it and possibly even avoid a migraine attack.
Around 15 percent of the U.S. population currently experiences migraine headaches, which affect both genders and all age groups. In children, similar numbers of boys and girls suffer from the disorder, while after 65 years of age the headaches diminish equally in both genders. During the reproductive years, however, women make up more than twice the number of patients than men, and hormones are believed to be a major reason for this.
