The Migraine Relief Center Blog

Few things can temporarily disable someone like a migraine headache. From visual disturbances, like blind spots or flashing lights, to physical weakness and difficulty communicating, migraine can debilitate its sufferers for hours – even days – at a time.

And with 1 billion people worldwide – including 18% of U.S. women and 6% of men – suffering from migraines, it’s more important than ever to understand the symptoms, triggers and treatment options for these chronic headaches.

Frequent sufferers will confirm that few things in life can compare with a full-blown migraine, and that relief is often elusive and only partial at best. Alternative treatments are showing signs of promise, however. Migraine surgery is a fairly new option that is gaining ground as an effective treatment for patients when almost everything else has failed. If this describes your situation, you might be a candidate for surgery.

If you’ve decided to take the plunge and go for migraine surgery, it’s important to know what to expect after the procedure. Most migraine surgeries are performed as outpatient operations, and you’ll be able to go home afterwards unless you have a long distance to travel. The process is done under general anesthetic and typically takes between 1 and 5 hours, depending on the number of trigger sites you have.

It’s not easy to explain what it feels like to people who have never dealt with the debilitating pain of a migraine. Often in our society, a person is encouraged to “tough it out”, and the pain dismissed as an excuse. People that experience chronic migraines aren’t just dealing with the physical effects of the condition, but also the social and psychological fallout. Migraine sufferers often have to accept the devastating loss of consistency, or the ability to engage in work, recreational...

How do you know if the physician who is treating your migraine condition is the right specialist for you? 

In late 2014, the Montana State Board of Medical Examiners was busy prosecuting one of its members who was allegedly too generous when it came to prescribing narcotics to his patients, some of whom suffer from migraine headaches.

In the 21st century, intranasal medications for the treatment of migraines have been increasingly prescribed to certain patients. The intranasal administration of migraine medications is often considered to provide faster and more efficient relief, but a 2004 study by researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York suggests that most patients prefer oral medications when it comes to the reactive or preventative treatment of migraines. Still, there is one peculiar intranasal...

When medical researchers study the migraine condition, they often focus on systemic issues. Migraines are caused by vascular and neurochemical irregularities, but there is also a strong behavioral factor associated with migraine episodes.

The idea of “dropping acid” or ingesting hallucinogens and psychedelics to treat headaches is not exactly new, but it has been undergoing a resurgence over the last few years. This is a trend related to both medical research as well as to shifts in societal attitudes, and we can credit the ongoing efforts to legislate the medicinal use of marijuana in various jurisdictions across the United States for this renewed interest in psychedelics as therapeutic aids.