Dealing With Headaches

From the “why didn’t I think of that” department: One of the most effective ways for treating migraines or headaches is with cold compresses. Some hydrotherapists (and conventional doctors) recommend alternating hot and cold packs. When you have a bad headache, you need to move as little as possible. And the packs can be kinda ugly and slippery.

Well, now you can microwave a small teddy bear or stick in a cold pack to stick on your head. You could also drape it on your neck to relax tense muscles which can contribute to headache pain. This Gelly Belly Grizzly Bear is originally for kids, but why should they have all of the fun? At least it’s reuseable, cute and closes with Velcro. And, it can be used for other owies other than headaches or migraines to help you “bear” with the pain.

The packs, which can be microwaved or stuck in the freezer (you do have to remember to stick them in the freezer!) are insterted into the back of the bear and then you place bear on needed body part.

(Ducks for cover.)

Does It Come With Jelly Bellies?

Unfortunatley, no. Despite the name, the Gelly Belly Grizzy Bear has nothing to do with the delectable Jelly Belly jelly beans. Come to think of it, has anyone ever tried taking Jelly Belly jelly beans for a headache? They need to come out with an “Excedrin” flavor…ewww, on second thought, maybe not.

Interesting gift combo idea for a headache prone friend or family member with a sweet tooth — Gelly Belly Grizzly Bear and Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Am I Getting One?

Well, let’s just say that I now have one less headache about getting a family member a Christmas gift! Off to get the Visa card. Hey, I’m not slacking off by shopping on the computer during time I should be writing a longer blog post — I’m multitasking. Yeah, that’s the ticket…

Hope this helps. Have a pain free weekend.

Perhaps the most common kind of headache is the tension type headache, where stress tightens our muscles, raises our blood pressure, makes our jaw clench and gives us a headache on top of our stress. Unlike other kinds of headaches or migraines, tension headaches can be sucessfully treated. You can take conventional medicine, use aromatherapy, get a neck masssage or you could try biofeedback.

With biofeedback, you consciously take control over some bodily functions once thought as uncontrollable. But you can learn to consciously lower your heart rate and relax, thus easing your tension headache. And there aren’t any negative side effects.

Biofeedback doesn’t work for everybody, but it does work for a lot of people with tension headaches. If conventional treatments don’t seem to be helping or if you are having trouble relaxing, then biofeedback would be worth looking into.

What Is It?

Basically, you get hooked up (without needles!) to a monitor that shows you your vital signs like your heart rate, brain waves or temperature. You consciously try to raise or lower your blood pressure (or your temperature, or whatever) through trial and error (usually breathing excercises). When you get it right, you can see that you are accomplishing. You then repeat this process when you need to without the machine.

There are even video games for your PC or Mac that teach you how to lower and raise your heart rate. The only one I’ve played is called Wild Divine, and I recommend it. You go on a Myst-type adventure, but do not get anywhere until you raise or lower your blood pressure. You do have to hook fingertip monitors onto your computer instead of using a joystick, but the games are a fun way of learning how to get your body to relax.

You could also try to find a biofeedback therapist (which has to have a liscense to operate). If your doctor can’t refer you to one, try looking here.

Hope this helps.

This is apparantly the findings of a study from Germany’s University Essen that reports teh cumlative findings 16 clinical trials done in Germany, Spain and Italy. The benefits are hoped that effervescent medicine can be work faster than standard pills or capsules AND be tolerated better by the body than “harder” migraine drugs like sumatriptan (known in America better as Imitrex, which you need a perscription for) or even over the counter ibuprofen.

What Did They Do?

First off, this isn’t straight aspirin that’s going “fizz fizz.” This dissolvable aspirin was used IN COMBINATION with metoclopramide (better known as Reglan). Reglan is used most commonly to treat intense digestive disorders such as gastric reflux, heartburn or slow movement of the stomach. Aspirin is notorious for giving your digestive system a beating if taken long term, which is why Reglan was chosen to help offset that possibility.

The 312 migraine-prone patients were given either the combination above, a placebo, ibuprofen or Imitrex. Then, they’d switch medicines, so the patients (and quite possibly the doctors) never knew who was getting what. The pateints would take one of the four mystery medications when a migraine hit.

The Results

The test set the limit of deciding whether a medicine worked or not on a migraine attack at two hours after medication was taken. Here were the results for reducing migraine severity:

• 56% had Imitrx work for them
• 53% had the dissolvable aspirin/Reglan combo work for them
• 60% had ibuprofen work for them
• 27% had the placebo work for them

How well did the Fab Four work after two hours? Here are the results:

• 37% for Imitrex
• 33% for ibuprofen
• 27% for the aspirin/Reglan combo
• 12.6% for the placebo

What Does Any Of This Mean?

If nothing else, this study shows that ibuprofen seems amazingly effective, which reassure anyone taking it. And, for those of you who have to get and pay for perscription Imitrex, you also should have some assurance about the effectiveness of your medicine. And, once again, the power of the placebo effect proved to be just as powerful a force as ever.

However, if your body can’t tolerate those two medicines, then there does appear to be some hope for an other choice which apparantly has less side effects, espescially on the digestive system.

And, as always, more clinical trials are needed to prove or disprove this clinical trial, although the report did not mention when or if those clinical trials were going to happen.

The bottom line? Taking dissolveable aspiring and Reglan is certainly better for your migraine than a kick in the head.

There’s positive things about headaches? Well, yes, in very few instances — and I don’t mean faking one to get out of a family reunion or other horrible event — a headache can be helpful. Since I am headache prone (I get both headaches and migraines — lucky me) I have learned to recognise what some of the pains mean.

I get a peculiar headache about 2pm if I forget to take my Prozac in the morning. Now, I need my Prozac, and the rest of Western civilization needs me to as well (just trust me on this one). Prozac helps me to eat regularly and sleep regularly, which has made a tremendous headway on my recurring endogenous depression (which used to be called clinical depression).

In other words, remembering to take my morning Prozac is pretty important. And yet, somehow, I manage to forget.

Headache To The Rescue!

I can’t be the only Prozac-taker who gets a mild pressure over my right eye as a reminder to take my Prozac. (”Yes, Rena, you ARE!”) Do you get any peculiar symptoms that means you forgot to take your vital medicine (or remind you to eat, which is a malady that befalls freelance writers and video game enthusiasts a lot)?

Getting a headache because you forgot to take your medicine is a form of rebound headache, whish means your body is going through a withdrawal symptom. Rebound headaches are very complex and will later get posts devoted just to them. but they are cureable.

And, in my case, occassionally helpful.

And…oh God…there’s that pressure over my right eye. I couldn’t have forgotten to take my pill AGAIN, could I?

I better go!

It really should be no contest. They should both work together to bring down illnesses and things that suck like migraines and chronic headaches. But if you have migraines or chronic headaches, it might seem like you are caught in the middle of a medical battle worthy of WWE proportions. Both sides tend to say nasty things about the other, and this leaves a headache-prone patient with a distinct lack of patience.

But not all alternative or conventional medical practitioners see healing as a black or white issue. They have been able to learn from each other. Alternative medicine has learned to put up with being questioned and to face its limitations — while conventional medicine has gradually learned the exact same thing. They both need each other.

What Do You Do?

You obviously can’t go running to every doctor or alternative practitioner in the phone book whenever you get a headache or migraine, as you just don’t have that much time allotted to your life. If you get a headache or a migraine, try and treat it yourself. If you only get headaches or migraines once or twice a YEAR, then you really don’t need to worry that much about them.

But if you get them weekly, daily or they just don’t go away, then you better seek a convetional doctor. This is because they are more easily availble, usually more affordable in that health insurance tends to cover them. For emergencies or extreme pain that doesn’t go away, conventional medicine has yet to be excelled.

After a few months of following doctor’s orders and you feel still no improvement, then go seek an alternative practitioner. Accupuncturists and chiropractors are the alternative therapies most covered by health insurance (but check your insurance company to be sure). And you can do research on ways that herbs, aromatherapy, crystal healing and any other kind of alternative therapy may help you.

The Advantage of Alternative Medicine

The main advantages of any alternative therapy is that you feel that you have a hope of being cured. Going to an acupunturist, hypnotherapist or whomever can give you the reassurance that you are a human being and not an aggravating problem that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible and then ignored. Alternative practitioners take the time to get to know their patients and to help them seek the causes of their migraines or chronic headaches rather than just concentrate on alleviating pain.

More and more, conventional medicine is realizing the incredible untapped potential of our own bodies’ amazing capacity to heal itself. This seemed to be triggered when a patient is given some good, old-fashioned TLC.

Remember, where there is life, there is hope. I learned that Jon Pertwee’s Doctor Who instead of my pediatrician, but the saying still applies.

Yes — you read that right. Bee venom therapy for migraines, MS, arthritis and other chronic pain has been around for decades. According to Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld’s Dr. Rosenfeld’s Guide To Alternative Medicine, in the mid 1990’s, over 4000 people in the United States was on bee venom therapy (officially known as apitherapy). The best way to get bee venom is — you guessed it — to get stung by live honeybees. The stinging sites are the same as accupressure or accupuncture points.

However, according to apitherapists, you can also get the good stuff from bee venom from eating honey or other bee products like royal jelly. You can also get an injection of honeybee venom, but that’s not considered as potent. However, considering the international honeybee shortage, you are probably lucky to get a hold of anything you can get.

Apitherapy is performed both by licened practitioners and lay practitioners (usually bee keepers). They do have their own parent groups depending on what country you live. America has The American Apitherapy Society. Therapuetic essential oils are also used in combination with the apitherapy.

By the way, if you are allergic to bee stings, chronic allergies that are hard to control, have insulin dependent diabetes, heart problems, open tuberculosis or use beta-blockers, you CANNOT use apitherapy unless you want to die. Also, some medicines to have a negative reaction when combined with apitherapy, so talk to your doctor FIRST before going into apitherapy.

The Multiple Sclerosis Society has even awarded grants to research apitherapy for MS patients, so they take this very seriously.

Who Thought This Up?

Apitherapy is a form of folk medicine that is mentioned in ancient Chinese medical texts (that usually talk about Traditional Chinese Medicne and accupuncture)as well as that Greek guy that apparantly took a lot of oaths, Hippocrates. In other words, don’t expect your medical insurance to cover this. And, apitherapy has been approved by the FDA in America “for desenitization purposes only”.

Does It Work For Migraines?

Injesting bee venom infused honey in preparations like Actiflex to ease migraine pain has been around for about 11 years. There is no proof that can is reliable and can be reproduced that bee venom therapy does anything for migraines. Most of the literature available on bee venom therapy for migraines is usually anectodal.

The only medical condition scientifically proven to benefit from bee venom therapy is “post herpectic neuralgia”, which is a nerve disorder. The MS studies are still going on.

When you have migraines, you can get pretty desperate to try anything that eases the pain. If conventional methods do not work — and your doctor approves – then it couldn’t hurt to try bee venom therapy.

But I’m not going to.

And this is not meant as an insult. Those with migraines have a thicker brain cortex by as much as 21%, according to a study from the Martinos Center of Biomedical Imaging at Massachussetts General Hospital in (no, not Boston), but Charleston, MA. Their findings have been published in the November 20th online issue of Neurology.

Is This A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing?

Actually, the researchers do not know yet. They do not know if the thicker brain cortexes lead to migraine attacks — or migraine attacks lead to thicker brain cortexes. Most of the human guinea pigs who volunteered to undergo MRI’s for the researchers said they had migraines since childhood.

The researchers suggest that those who get migraines are naturally more sensitive to stimulation. (This leads to some intersting mental images). They also suggested that repeated attacks of migraines can change the structure of the brain, including the somatosensory cortex (which is basically another way of saying “brain cortex”.)

For those with a thinner cortex, you need to look at those with Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s Disease. They have noticeably thinnner cortexes in the place that controls movement. Apprantly, even those with MS or Alzheimer’s can thicken their cortex back up with “extensive learning and motor training.” (The article does not go into detail into just what “extensive learning and motor training” means).

Now What?

The researchers have a next step for future studies planned. They want to find kids of one or both parents with a history of migraines and MRI their brains as they age. Remember, you have a 75% chance of getting migraines if Mom and Dad had them, too.

Then, hopefully, some practical use can come out of all of this. Perhaps thinning the cortex through “extensive unlearning and lack of motor training” could help migraine sufferers? Who knows. Right now, this is in the realm of science fiction writers as how to apply this knowledge to their craft.

But the brain is so mysterious (truly, the final frontier) that ANY information about how it works and can be changed by illness (or lack thereof) is sure to help future generations.

Hey, I just noticed on the little blurb about this site (which I didn’t write — it just materialized one day!) that I’m suppossed to be posting about support sites every now and then. I guess you noticed that I haven’t really done too many posts about Headache and/or Migraine Support Sites…as in, this is the first post on the subject.

When I talk about support groups here, I am NOT talking about 12 step programs for addicts. That’s a different animal. If you are an addict, go to the 12 step progams and KEEP GOING.

I’m Not Against Support Groups, But…

You need to be a certain type to benefit from any kind of support group, whether it’s in the real world or online. If you are prone to get obsessed about anything, then you need to be careful. Also, if you have problems saying “No,” you need to be DOUBLY cafeful, or soon you’ll have the responsibilities of the support group dropped in your lap before you know it. Now that will be a MAJOR source of headaches, both literal and metaphorical.

The best way to deal with support groups for physical ailments is to go only a few times, take the literature home with you, read the literature often and then not go to the group again for at least a year.

My current main support group is composed of my relatives who also get a variety of head pains. For me, that’s the best kind of support group.

The Pros

Support groups let you know that you are not alone. They also can make you feel better knowing that you don’t have it as bad as other people. They also are an ever changing resource of tips and tricks for coping with headaches and migraines. And, it’s always nice to talk to people who know and can sympathise what you are going through.

You can find Headache and Migraine Support Groups in your local paper, in the phone book, or go online and enter “headache support group” into your favorite search engine. For example, if you have cluster headaches, then you can find resources, sympathy and some good laughs from Cluster Headaches Worldwide Support Group.

Basically, if you can think of any medical condition, there’s a support group online out there somewhere.

The Cons

Sometimes, support group meetings (whether online or in real life), start to turn into contests or “Who Has The Worst Pain.” Although it is a great source of stress releif to complain, there should be limits on it. Hearing new symtpms that sound frightening can plant some nasty suggestions in your subconscious and suddenly you are experiencing new symptoms, too. You always need to take these meetings in perspective.

Keep your personal space. Don’t make yourself the only means of finacial or emotional support for the other members of your group. Although it sounds selfish, you need to follow this for yor own survival — YOUR HEALTH MATTERS MOST. Don’t be afraid to tell any other member to bugger off and leave you alone.

And if you are on an online support group, it’s much better for computer’s security if you stay away from peer to peer networks and ANY kind of file sharing. Any peer to peer network just does not have the security of one admin on a regular internet site that can filter out spyware or other kinds of malware. Not that you need to be paranoid about this, just keep it in mind.

Hope this helps.

Caffeine withdrawal is a major trigger for those of us with killer migraines. The best way to get rid of the frequency and intensity of these incapacitating migraines is to cut back on your caffeine consumption. This can be scary, because cutting back means you put yourself right in the line of fire for pain. However, this is a temporary pain and after a few days goes away. By gradually cutting down, you will go through a minimum of pain. This is the road to take for those of us who still want to drink tea (or whatever) and yet have a more healthy life in the long-term.

Problems With High Caffeine Consumption

One of the other reasons I discovered I had to cut back on my caffeine consumption was that other areas of my health was being greatly effected. Those main reasons were sleep problems and tummy troubles. Lack of sleep combined with an upset stomach makes your entire life miserable.

Other problems include an inability to concentrate, sudden and rather unpredictable bouts of irritablity (if you see people diving for cover when you enter a building, you know you have these swings or a scorpion riding on your unknowing head), high blood pressure, birth defects, heart problems (because of the high blood pressure), osteosprosis, dehydration (ironically enough) and miscarridges. There is some schools of thought that high caffeine consumption (over 500 mgs a day) will make you prone to some cancers and fibrocystic breast disease, but the jury is still out on that.

The Tips

Going cold turkey is incredibly painful and not recommended unless you have a serious health issue that any ammounts of caffeine can aggravate. The thing I did was to consciously cut down gradually AND keep at it (that’s the hard part).

• Are there kinds of caffeine that don’t aggravate your stomach so much? For example, I had to drop Coke and Pepsi, but stuck with tea.
• If your painkiller has caffeine, take only one pill instead of two — that might be all you need.
• Remember that decaffeinated coffee and decaf tea usually contain traces of caffeine (and in America, the decaf tea is VILE. If you are in England, you are in luck.
• No caffeine one hour before bed the first week. Two hours before bed the next week. Three hours the next and keep at that. Go to four if you can.
• Drink (or, with chocolate, eat) your caffeine mindfully. Don’t gulp! Savor it. Bring your full attention to every drop or morsel. It’s like a meditation, and tends to make your daily decreasing quota taste better.
• Drink a glass of water (at least 6 oz) between cups of caffeinated beverages.

Here’s some other advice from an herbal “coffee” company, so keep in mind they’ll try to sell you stuff. I have been able to substitute some herbal teas for my evening teas, but still need real black tea in the morning.

Hope this helps.

When you read about medical studies on new medicines, or evaluating the effectivemness of alternative therapies, you hear about this “placebo” thingy a lot. I’m sure you know what it is. It is a fake medicine or therapy, designed to look like the real deal. The human guinea-pig is even told “Hey, this is suppossed to be the bee’s knees,” in order to get the effect to kick in.

The curious thing is not why placebos are used. It’s that they can be suprisingly effective in the short term — even as much or more than the new medicine being tested!

What’s All That About?

The mind is an incredibly annoying thing at times. Henry Ford said, “Whether you bel;ieve you can do a thing or not, you’re right.” Placebos have such a startlingly high initial effect because , in the words of Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld, MD:

Any health measure or intervention dispensed to a randomly selected group of individulas who are assured that it will “work” may result in improvement as often as half the time.

In other words, just by trying a new medicine or therapy, you may get some measureable pain relief because your hope and attitude help reduce the pain. Weird, isn’t it? And yet, quite welcome to anyone who suffers from pain.

Not A Cure All

There are limits to the power of placebos. There (sadly) hasn’t been a proven placebo yet that could spontaneously put cancer into remission or regrow a lost limb. But placebos can give releif to aches and pains, digestive problems, chest pains, skin conditions, headaches and migraines.

And, as pointed out in a previous post, there is a very good reason why we experience pain. It means the body is telling us “Stop! There’s something wrong! If you don’t stop, things’ll get worse! I can promise you that!”

For example, the afore mentioned Dr. Rosenfeld talks about a placebo study for angina in his best selling Dr. Rosenfeld’s Guide To Alternative Medicine. One patient lost all pain on the placebo alone. However, his ECG tests still showed a big problem. The patient, not feeling any pain, began resuming a normal activity level. Unfortunately, this could wind up killing him with a sudden heart attack, so he was taken off the placebo and told what was going on.

So, although a placebo lives up to it’s name, (Latin for “I shall please”), it’s more for a one-night stand rather than a committed relationship. For some of us, though, we’re thankful to get whatever we can get!

Hope this helps.

Caffeine withdrawal migraine is yet another item on the long list of proofs that life is not fair. Caffeine is found in deliscious beverages like tea, hot chocolate, fizzy soft drinks and that other popular drink coffee. Caffeine is also found in chocolate and in certain over the counter painkillers like Excedrin (America) and Panadol (England).

Caffeine is a natural substance tht occurs in some botanicals like Kola nuts, coffee beans and tea leaves. Even decaffinated coffee and black tea contains trace ammounts of caffeine. Some scientists think mankind began the love-hate relationship with caffeine during the Sone Age (or Stoned Age, whichever you prefer). Back then, our species needed any excuse to get out of a nice warm pile of leaves and face the rigourous tasks of survival. Not much has changed since then, has it?

Over The Counter Drugs With Caffeine

Monitoring your caffeine intake is very important to keep healthy — and to prevent caffeine withdrawal migraine. I nicked this list from this site.

OVER-THE-COUNTER PREPARATION CAFFEINE (mg) per tablet
Stimulants
NoDoz tablets 100
Vivarin tablets 200
Pain Relievers
Anacin 32
Excedrin 65
Excedrin P.M. 0
Midol 32
Vanquish 33
Cold Remedies
Coryban-D 30

This list is for American over the counter drugs — sadly, I could not find an equivelent for UK drugs. Basically, if it is listed as a painkiller, check the ingredients — odds are, there is some caffeine in it. It is usually mixed with paracetamol.

The Pain, Oh The Pain

Caffeine withdrawal migraines are right up there in the pain department with stomach flu. You shake, you’re dizzy, your eyes have the distinct sensation that they are leaking hot blood (even though they are not), you cannot tolerate light, you are incredibly nauseasted, vomiting, rib and abdomen pains, you can’t tolerate sounds, light or tastes — basically, you wish you were dead.

I get these is I do not have caffeine at least once every 21 hours. I used to be worse — I used to get them every 12 hours. Ironically, cutting down on caffeine gradually reduces the frequency of caffeine withdrawal migraines. I say ironically, because the fasted way to get is of a caffeine withdrawal migraine is — you guessed it — ingest some caffeine.

People have successfully gone off for three or four days incapacitated in bed until the symptoms ease off, as reported by best selling author, Dr. Andrew Weil, (who is from the Philadelphia area like myself). Afterwards, whenever a migraine seemed to come about, a quick cure was a cup of coffee.

Quite frankly, I’m too much of a wuss too purposefully face a few days in agony. So, I worked on cutting my caffeine consumption. Instead of taking two Excedrin pills, I take one. Instead of drinking the equivelent of three liters of Pepsi a day, I know only drink four or five cups of black tea.

Yes, this is very complicated issue!

“Who goes there?” calls the guard to the Castle of Your Head out to the newcomer riding up to the gates.

“Caffeine!”

“Friend or foe?”

“Um…” and really, it all depends on the circumstances, doesn’t it? But I’ll let you in on a little news about my head (and the heads of many others) — the main trigger or my migraines is caffeine withdrawal.

Which means I’m dependent on caffeine. My Lord, technically, I’m a drug addict!

The World’s Most Popular Drug

When I was a kid in the ’70’s, no one considered caffeine an addictive substance (except maybe the Mormons). We popped Hershey’s Kisses, washed them down with Coke and wondered why we couldn’t get any sleep. Our parents weren’t morally deficient — they just didn’t know.

However, caffeine seduces the brain — but in a nice way. Like everything, you need moderation. There are people who cannot tolerate ANY caffeine, and then those who can have a cups of coffeee a day, stop coffee cold turkey and nothing happens to them. Caffeine seems to extablish a different relationship with each person.

And, caffeine is an ingredient in migraine medicines like Excedrin. So, when you get a migraine and only Excedrin can cure it — it could be a big neon sign that you are caffeine dependant.

Johns Hopkins Clinical Study

I managed to curb my caffeine use when I finally figured out that the worst of my migraines were from caffeine withdrawal. Ten years ago, I consumed the equivelent of three liters of Coke per day. Now, I have four cups of tea per day. Hey, it’s an improvement.

Fortunately for my health, I don’t need to completely eliminate caffeine. But some people need to. There’s a clinical study going on trying to help people quit caffeine once and for all put on by Johns Hopkins University’s Bayview Center in Baltimore, MD. It might be worth a try.

In the meantime, check out how many milligrams of caffeine are in your favorite drinks and try to cut down.

Hope this helps. More on caffeine and migraines tomorrow.

One of the most common painkillers used for all kinds of headaches (as well as other pains) is acetaminophen (best known under the brand name Tylenol and a major ingredient in my personal fave, Excedrin) has long been known to be harmful in large doses. But if you wash your doses of acetaminophen with a caffeinated beverage (especially coffee or colas), you risk liver damage. This is the finding of a study done this autumn in the University of Washington in Seattle.

You really need to be wary of mixing the two drugs if you drink alcohol at all (since alcohol puts your liver through a loop anyway.)

In every other country in the world except America, acetominophen is known as paracetamol. I’m just going to continue calling the drug acetaminophen throughout this article for the sake of my tired typing fingers.

What They Say

Quite frankly, I’m not entirely sure how a mixture of large doses of caffeine and acetaminophen harm the liver, so I’ll just quote from the press release about the study:

Chemist Sid Nelson, Ph.D., and colleagues, of the University of Washington in Seattle, tested the effects of acetaminophen and caffeine on E. coli bacteria genetically engineered to express a key human enzyme in the liver that detoxifies many prescription and nonprescription drugs. The researchers found that caffeine triples the amount of a toxic byproduct, N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI), that the enzyme produces while breaking down acetaminophen. This same toxin is responsible for liver damage and failure in toxic alcohol-acetaminophen interactions, they say

So, Basically

You can still take acetominophen, if you follow the label’s directions or your doctor’s recommendations. It’s best to take it with water or milk, however.

You can still drink caffeinated beverages (cola, coffee, tea, hot chocolate), but moderate your intake, try to drink a glass (or at least a coffee mug full) of water between drinks.

Try not to take anything with caffeine and acetominophen together.

Which raises the question — what about drugs like Excedrin, which mix the two drugs (along with aspirin)? Panadol in England also has this mix. Well, you’re still OK as long as you don’t take Excedrin by the handfull and don’t chase them down with a two liter bottle of Coke. For example, when I feel a headache coming or get a warning sign for migraine (aura, senisitivity to light and sound, pressure in my right eye) then I only take one pill.

Basically, everything in moderation, which I guess is not exactly news, but is still good advice that helps you in everything, not just in health matters.

Alright, so I didn’t make up that title. I stole it from a book called The Gift of Pain by Dr. Paul Brand and Phillip Yancy. Although that book is written from a Christian viewpoint, you can easily insert any belief system you want into it. The following is not a review of the book — I just nicked the title.

Gift? Why A Gift?

Remember how yesterday when I was dicussing migraine pain that I said, “It could be worse?” In case you wonder how much worse can you get than migraine pain, you can have been born with the capacity to not feel pain at all.

In one sense, that sounds like a gift. However, pain is a warning system that something in the body needs attention. Those who cannot feel pain tend to die young and loose a lot of body parts on the way. Leprosy is one of these diseases where you loose feeling in your extremities. On the one hand, you’re not suffering. On the other hand, you don’t have another hand to do any comparisons with.

Another disorder is CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain and Anhidrosis), an extremely rare genetic disorder that kills alomost all sensation in your body. You don’t feel any pain — and you don’t feel much in the way of pleasure, either. Another oddity is that you can’t sweat, either. So, you keep getting infected and having to go to the doctor’s. That’s probably more painful than migraines, at least with the doctors I wind up seeing.

Could More Effective Painkillers Be Found In Those WHo Can’t Feel Pain?

The gene for pain seems to have discovered in the corpse of a 14 year old boy from Pakistan who could clearly had CIPA. He made his living with an entertainment fiesta that you do not want to try at home — he punctured himself with knives. How did he die? For some reason, most likely for a bet, he jumped off the roof of a house. Since he didn’t feel any pain, he probably was suprised to discover that he was mortal.

Not only that, but Paris scientists think they can make a new powerful group of anesthetics based on the information in the boy’s genes. Not only is the boy’s genes being used, but the genes of six other Pakistanis who are also afflicted with CIPA.

It is hoped that painkillers can be made using this knowlegde which won’t cause so many side effects like those currently available.

Ahh, brave new world…to be free of migraine pain so we have time to worry about the enviornment and other man-made disaters.

Hmmm…on second thought, maybe I’m better off worrying about the migraine pain…

Over the decades I’ve had headaches and migraines, I’ve been very good at spotting them from a distance and cutting them off at the pass before the pain sets in. But every now and then, one flies in under the radar. Just such a one hit me this morning. I was lucky it only lasted a few hours, and I’ve now gotten to the point where I can eat dry toast and sit up without risk of throwing up. Thank God for small favors, huh?

That Helpless Feeling

The problem with migraine pain is that it efects your entire body. My senses, my sense of balance, my coordination even my taste buds are all knocked for a painful loop. Although I like researching alternative and natural methods to deal with pain, they do all have one major disadvantage — I have to move in order to get the alternative remedy together. At least with a pill, all I have to worry about is crawling to the medicine cabinet and then try to keep it down. That’s about all you can ask of me when I have a full-on migraine.

The worst part for me and for many others is not the physical pain, but the feeling of utter helplessness that comes over you at these times. That can lead to panic attacks, but fortunately I did not get one today. Here I am, in my late 30’s with two college degrees and in business for myself as a freelance writer, and I’m curled up in bed crying for my Mommy because I can’t get myself a glass of water.

Fortunately, I live with my Mom, who has medical problems of her own. I’M the one who is suppossed to be taking care of HER. It’s her time to rest and goof off — and I do get a sense of well being knowing I can help my Mom out. I like helping Mom out and taking care of her. She shouldn’t have to be doting on me like I was three years old.

But, Mom did take care of me and made me dry toast and tea and took care of my dog and here I am at work (albeit a few hours late). Perhaps the best alternative medicine is to have Mom take care of you when you are sick.

It Could Be Worse

Here are some things I do in the midst of migraine pain that serves to keep me from that helpless feeling:

• Listen to very quiet instrumental music, like Bach or New Age.
• Pet my dog or even a stuffed animal or smooth rock or something to give me a reasurring touch
• Realise that I could have it a lot worse. At least I have a head connected to my body!

Hope this helps.