Dealing With Headaches

Stick with me on this. There is a point in here somewhere about how my past life as a hamster might help with my current headche. At least, that’s the point I’m trying to get across. How I’ll succeed is anybody’s guess.

I’ve had a headache of varying intensity for about three days. It’s not a migraine, because it’s not just on wone side of my head. I’m manifesting other signs of upper respiratory infection, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say I have a sinus headache. Currently, I’ve been dropped by Medicaid and can’t afford to go to a doctor in order to find out for sure.

At this point, I’m getting a little desperate. Over the counter medication isn’t helping, herbal tea isn’t helping, extra Vitamin C isn’t helping — I’m willing to try anything legal now.

Which brings us to the concept of past life regeneration therapy.

Hello, Slyvia Browne

Yes, I read the occassional Slyvia Browne book because there’s just something about them that really helps me feel relaxed and optimistic. I don’t agreee with everything she writes about, but for me, that’s not the point — I’m less depressed AFTER I read her than before, and sometimes that makes all of the difference.

In past life therapy, you figure out what the trauma in your past life was to give you the present pain. This only works for chronic pain hard to diagnose, apparently. If you currentl have a headache because you got hit in the head with a frying pan, then you don’t need to bother with this. You already know why you have a headache — unless you can’t remember getting hit in the head with a frying pan, in which case you better get to the emergency room … if you still remember what an emergency room is.

Anyway

So, I was a hamster in my previous life. It seems obvious to me. I spent a lot of time running on that little wheel. I also spent a lot of time stuffing my cheeks with really hard to chew food. Perhaps gnawing on a rock-hard seed gave me a tension headache which has somehow manifested in a past life.

There. Now that I’ve identified my problem, I can tell my subconscious and my cell memory that the problem my hamster self faced is no longer applicable to my current life. Let it go, baby.

So far, this approach is not working. But at least I managed to have a laugh looking at hamster movies. And I know who to blame in my past for my present headache.

If you’re taking Topamax (topimarate) to prevent migraines and finding that you are having trouble concentrating, remembering stuff and having troubles comminucating with others, it’s not just you. Reuters is reporting about an Italian discovery that Topamax might give a user language problems.

Or, could it be that the patient is so shocked at not having a migraine that they are speechless?

That was just a joke (I know — don’t quit the day job). Now for some facts.

The Facts

These charges of languauge and concentration problems with Topamax are coming from the University of Perugia, Italy, lead by Dr. Francesca Coppola (probably no relation). The problems with language and concetration with Topamax users seems to mainly hit in the first month of taking the drug. Dosages did not need to be adjusted because after the first couple of months, it cleared up on its own.

However, there were only thirty migraineurs who participated in the study, which is not a huge slice of the migraineur world population.

Problems with Topamax included difficulty remembering words, problems naming objects and making up words when the patients couldn’t remember the correct word to use.

So, What’s The Point?

This is not a cause for great alarm among Topamax users and can most likely be safely annoyed by long-time users, but for someone just about to start Topamax for the first time, they need to know this.

It’s thought that problems with language and concentration can greatly aggravate depression, or make someone stop taking Topamax when staying on it could prove benficial. There does seem to indicate that there is a period where the body adjusts to Topamax that can at first make you appear anxious and depressed.

If you already have anxiety or depression problems, Topamax may aggravate them for the first month. It should pass. As always, please talk to your doctor if you are taking any new medication and your depression worsens or you get suicidal thoughts. To get through it, you may find reading Mental & Emotional Health blog useful.

Hope this helps.

:: Rant Mode On ::

Right up front, let me say that I’m not for drug addiction of any kind. But it does seem very hypocritical of Those In Charge (whoever they might actually be) to be so blind as to the causes of drug addiction (and I’m including alcohlism with drug addicts, as well). According to a recently released report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), by 2017, one out every five dollars spent in America will be on health care.

And Those In Charge wonder why there is a rise in drug addiction. Could it be because getting street drugs or alcohol is a hell of a lot cheaper than going to the doctor? Naaaahhh, couldn’t be. Must be those terrorists and left-wingers, eh?

Why Are We Not Rioting In The Streets?

Well, we aren’t rioting in the streets because of this insanity because we are too tired, in too much pain and are mainly too drugged up to do much of anything constructive. Believe me, you don’t want to ever try to organize a Million Migraineur March. You’ll be lucky if a baker’s dozen show up in dark sunglasses vomiting into buckets. Well, that definately would make somebody in Washington scared.

And yes, there are people who become drug addicts in an attempt to medicate chronic pain conditions such as migraines and severe chronic headaches. That’s kind of why I’m banging on about this. When you get into such chronic pain and discover that you cannot afford to go get treatment, you can wind up feeling so helpless that drug addiction sounds like a good deal.

Here’s a Thought

Hey, if we could lower the cost of stuff — mainly health care — do you think that might be a good incentive for people not to turn to illegal (and legal) drugs in the first place?

For example, there’s program for homeless alcoholics in Seattle that has decided to give housing first and THEN give rehabilitation. The effects have been that alcoholics drink a lot less — and has saved the city some two to three million dollars.

Health care is a basic need, just like housing and food. We should be able to get it legally through doctors instead of having no choice BUT to turn to addiction as a way to kill the pain.

:: Rant mode off ::

Man, it looks like the universe is really conspiring against me in order to make me see my dentist more often. First, I had a root canal in January, and now news of a dental implant approved by the FDA for migraine treatment is making big news in the blogosphere. This might mean I have to seriously work on my dental phobia.

What Is It?

It’s called a nociceptic trigomenal inhibitor (NTI) and works as a preventative to migraines caused by clenching your teeth. Clenching or grinding your teeth often happens in your sleep and is a sign that you are under a lot of stress. Obviously, your migraines need to be caused by clenching your teeth in your sleep for this dental implant to be effective.

Benefits

The NTI has not proven to have any significant side effects. It’s even been recommended for pregnant women. Also, some dental insurance plans will cover part of the costs, but you have to check with your dental insurance to be sure. If your health insurance doesn’t cover anything having to do with teeth, thean the odds are they won’t cover any of the cost. Again, you need to check with your specific health insurance company. It is thought one NTI dental implant can last from 5 to 10 years.

Have I Heard Of This Before?

NTI devices have been around for a while, but until now they were more trouble than they were worth. They often broke, tasted bad and were uncomfortable. Modifications from a migraineur who is also a dentist, Jim Boyd have made a more reliable and comfortable NTI.

How Do You Know If You Clench Your Teeth In Your Sleep?

Well, here’s the catch. Presumably, if you grind your teeth in your sleep, anyone who sleeps in the room with you will be able to tell you you are doing so. But clenching teeth doesn’t make a noise. This is difficult to diagnose. However, if you are constantly under stress, then there is a chance that you are also clenching your teeth while you sleep and do not know it. It is also thought that those who drink too much caffeine when they are a wake clench their jaws or grind them when they sleep.

Hope this helps.

Marijuana (cannibis) is an extrememly effective painkiller, although sometimes it’s effective in that it knocks you unconscious. When I lived in England, it was far easier to get street marijuana for a toothache than to get a dentist appoinment. Keep in mind that the cannibis laws are a lot less harsh in England than in America, especially for posession of a very small quantity. I self medicated for toothache, insomnia and migraine when I was in England.

I do not personally recommend marijuana for migraines. With toothaches and insomnia, it worked pretty well, provided that was the only reason I took it. My body would react in a very annoyed fashion on the few occassions I took cannibis “recreationally”. In fact, my migraines would intensify when I regained consciousness.

Self-Medication Is Dangerous

Taking marijuana for migraines is a bit like using a cannon to get somebody’s attention. This is powerful, powerful stuff that needs to be treated with the greatest of respect and NEVER make any assumptions about what it is going to do to you. My body happens to react badly to cannibis (I suddenly loose control of my bowels, among other things). I can’t be the only human being out there that this happens to (”Yes, Rena — just you!”)

Cannibis is one of the easiest drugs that you can attain because there are so many people offering to sell it. One of the reasons I’m writing about marijuana for migraines is that I once had a seller insist that cannibis was the best cure for migraines ever. His argument was really convincing, partially because when I have migraines, I feel pretty desperate and am willing to grasp at any life preserver.

Don’t be that desperate. Although getting cannibis is relatively easy, getting a consistent quality of cannibis is the big danger. And not all cannibis is alike. Some kinds not only taste foul (no matter how you administer it), but can have far more powerful and debilitating side effects.

And, in the United States, there is that tiny problem of cannibis being illegal to possess. In Canada, it’s a different story, but you ned a prescription. However, it’s INCREDIBLY expensive.

Whatever Happened To the FDA Study?

There was a lot of hoopla in 1999 about an FDA approved study about marijuana and migraines. After eight years, I haven’t been able to find any updates on this study. I’m asumming it’s still going on, but haven’t been able to discover anything definate.

If you are considering marijuana for migraines, no one’s going to blame you for being curious. But talk seriously to your doctor before you do any potentially dangerous experimentation. Cannibis will not make you evil. Since it’s such a misunderstood plant, not many people know what it can and can’t do (unlike a drug like aspirin, which is predictable). You could wind up harming yourself rather than helping yourself.

Yesterday’s post gave us a basic look at the two types of hemiplegic migraines (migraines with partial bodily paralysis, usually only on one side of the body). The cause of call migraines are mostly mysterious, but it is thought that genetics play a big part in hemiplegic migraines. A link from one of our readers touches on a theory that familiar hemiplegic migraines might be linked to cortisiol spredaing depression.

Obviously, something is going on in the brain that is darn uncomfortable. Since the brain doesn’t feel pain, the pain just merrily travels along the rest of the body in order to express itself.

No matter what causes hemiplegic migraines, the big question is — is it treatable?

Yes

Although it may take a little while to diagnose. The symptoms look and feel a lot like a stroke or epliepsy, so you will most likely be tested for those conditions before hemiplegic migraine. If other members in your family have hemiplegic migraine, then your doctor really needs to know this. This could be familial hemiplegic migraine.

The other kind — sporatic hemiplegic migraine — is a little more difficult to diagnose, but there is treatment for when it is finally diagnosed. Odds are, your regular doctor will have to send you to a specialist like a neurologist who will be able to help you better and quicker.

Both kinds tend to be treated with preventative medicines. These medicines are called abortive medicines, but don’t let the name get your worried — it has nothing to do with abortions. It just means stopping a migraine before it starts. These families of abortive medicines are called triptans and ergotomines. You might have to have regular heart tests to be sure that you’re not getting a bad reaction to the medicine.

There are also some pain medications which can help once the pain hits — however, if you are already taking the abortive medicines, then your choice of pain relief is more limited. Best go over your options with your doctor or specialist to be sure there won’t be any medicines that react badly to your preventatives.

Other preventatives getting some buzz are called a calcium channel blockers. The most recognizeable drug of calcium channel blockers is verapamil. There are a lot of precaustions with verapamil, so it’s not a drug your specialist will lightly let you take.

There is also a possiblilty that your neurologist or migraine specialist will put you on a combination of drugs, not just one or the other. Depending on yor circumstances, you may also be put on an anti-depressant, whether or not you are diagnosed with depression.

There Is Hope

Although I do not have hemiplegic migraines (knock on wood), from my research, it sounds like a pain that comes and goes, rather than a continuous pain. So, there are rest spells in between attacks. (Please feel free to reprimand me if I’m wrong!) The knowledge that my migraine attacks do have ending points does help me from aggravating the pain I’m currenly in. I survived one attack — I can survive another.

Fear and stress certainly can aggravate any migraine attack. Staying as calm as you can, with deep breathing, meditation, trying to think happy thoughts, mild massage — if it helps your body to relax, go for it. I find the sounds of my goldfish tank very relaxing, as well as the smell of peppermint. If you want to take herbs to help you relax, please discuss it with your doctor first to be sure the herbs won’t react badly with your vital prescription medicines. Relaxing your body and not panicing can help you float through a migraine attack rather than be dragged under with panic.

That being said, if you ever get a migraine that results in you being uncoordinalted or partialy paralysed, please call an ambulance or have somebody drive you to an emergency room, just on the off chance that you might be having stroke or an epliepsy attack.

These two posts only scratches the surface of a very complicated and rare form of migraines. Still, I hope it helps.

Today’s scary word is “hemiplegic.” Sounds a bit like “paraplegic”, doesn’t it? There’s a reason. A hemiplegic migraine is an attack that can give you seizures and leave a limb or part opf your face partially paralyzed or numb. Oftentimes, the attacks are so bad that you convinced you are having a stroke. You do need to be hospitalised if you get a hemiplegic migraine; there is NO option.

The Good News

Hemiplegic migraine attacks happen VERY rarely. They come in two variations:

* Familial Hemiplegic Migraine (FHM)
* Sporatic Hemiplegic Migraine (SHM)

As FHM’s full name suggests, you need to be lucky enough to have the genetic material to have it. There are tests that can diagnose whether you have epiliepsy, FHM or another nuerological condition. You need your doctor and/or nuerologist to look at your family’s medical history to help diagnose what you have and get the proper treatment.

With SHM, you have all of the fun of FHM, except for knowing who to blame. This is the trickier of the two to diagnose.

Symptoms

• Auras that last days or weeks
• Fever
• Paralysis in part of your body
• Big problems trying to coordinate your movements (ataxia)
• Headache (duh)
• Symptoms that seem a lot like menegitis
• Nausea and/or vomiting

Why Am I Mentioning This?

I’m blogging about hemiplegic migraines today to remind myself that I could be a lot worse off. As I type this, I am currently experiencing one of my “usual” migraines. But I can’t get out of work today (even though I work at home). So, I’m trying to do the best I can, taking Excedrin, rolling on Head-On, trying not to vomit and counting what’s left of my blessings.

Some more about hemoplegic migraines tomorrow.

Going to any doctor is no fun, contrary to what certain represenatives in Congress might think. You have to struggle to get the appontment, struggle to get time off of work to go to the appointment, then struggle to find the doctor’s office, find a parking spot or ticket system (rememeber to get your ticket stamped!), sit in the office, fill out forms, wait forever and that’s just before you get to actually see the doctor. By then, all you want to do is go home, pull the blankets over your head and whimper. But you need to try and make the most from your doctor’s appointments – otherwise, you’ll have to go through this happy dance all over again next year (ideally, sooner, but who has the money for that?)

Write Questions Down Ahead of Time

You’ve got a lot of questions and not a lot of time with your doctor, nuerologist or whatever. Don’t trust your memory. You’ll be so frazzled by the experience of getting to the doctor’s appointment that all of your questions will fly out of your head at just the crucial time. Write them down before hand and bring the list with you.

Note When The Problem Started

You will be asked when your chronic pain started, so know the answer before your doctor’s apponintment.

Bring a List of All Medications, Vitamins and Herbal Supplements You Are Taking

The doctor will ask you that, too, so you better have the list ready in advance. Vitamins and herbal supplements and any altenative treatments can mix badly with certain prescription medications. This is why you need to let your doctor know what you are taking.

Try Not To Take The Doctor’s Attitude Personally

All medical professionals are severely overworked for one reson or another. Sometimes, the emotional strain of feeling a person’s pain leads them to seem very cold. You will often be referred to as a set of symptoms rather than your name. Don’t take it personally. They are doing the best they can.

If The Doctor Recommends A New Treatment

Remember to ask if there are any adverse reactions you should know about and when you should expect positive results.

Doctors Are Your Servants, Not The Other Way Around

You don’t like them, tell them that point blank and ask for a recommendation for another doctor. They have to tell you. You don’t owe a doctor anything except the current bill. You do not owe them loyalty. The doctor will most likely be just as relived as you are to have you under the care of someone else. There’s no need to be rude or threatening to a doctor, but it is best to be honest.

Use your common sense, though. If you are stuck with one doctor becuase of insurance or Medicaid, then ask them, “What can I say or do to get through to you what it’s like to have my pain?” I’ve even asked a doctor, “You don’t believe I have migraines, do you?” and he confessed that he had been lied to before by patients and couldn’t trust anyone claiming to have a migraine. This helps clear the air and relieve stress, if nothing else (but with headaches, sometimes less stress is a great pain reliever).

Hope this helps.

In case you need yet more proof that those in Congress are out of touch with reality, Greenville, South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis (Reuplican) has blamed the high cost of health care in America — due to people OVERUSING health care by people who have any kind of health insurance:

“The problem is that someone else (our insurance company) is picking up the check,” said Inglis, later adding: “If I’m spending someone else’s money, I’ll spend freely.”

Apparantly, Inglis thinks that it’s a barrel of fun going to the hospital for a battery of nuerological tests. Of course, all of us with headaches and migraines think, “Hmm. I’ve got a day off coming up. How shall I use it? I could go shopping, get drunk or –hey! I know what — I’ll get an unnecessary colonoscopy.”

What planet is this guy from? It surely isn’t ours. Perhaps he was born in a parallel world and somehow crossed between worlds without knowing it. Perhaps he shaved off his goatee, like the goatee like Mr. Spock sports in the Mirror Universe. As writer Paul Hyde points out, South Carolina has over 700,000 people who can’t afford health insurance at all — and yet health care costs are just as bad in South Carolina than in any other stste that has less than 700,000 who can’t afford health care.

The reason the cost of health care is completely out of reach for the average American is due to the greed of Big Pharma and insurance compnaines who make doctors and hospitals take out incredibly expensive claims in order to practice medicine. And I say that as someone who is currently in the midst of a battle with Medicaid just to pay for my Prozac (the most prescribed medicine on the planet). I made only $5100 last year. Yeah, I’d love to go blow twelve hours getting a CAT scan to help better determine what’s going on with my migraines just to be told that everything looks normal.

The American public LOVES to do that. I wonder if anyone else in Congress believe this nonsense?

Right. I’m taking a deep breath now. Trying to get a grip.

If you want to let your Congresspeople get in touch with the reality of having chronic pain, click here.

Back to the usual tomorrow.

I’m not a big clothes person. When I was homeless, I did not care about what clothes I wore — as long as they were comfortable. I’m still like that. For many, the cost of clothes is the leading cause of pain. For others, any material made from fur or skins can cause a major anxiety attack. However, in Sweden, one daycare worker has discovered that certain patterns on clothing can trigger painful migraines.

Ban Horizontal Stripes!

Although I’d love to see a ban on horizontal stripes on clothing (and not becuase it triggers any migraines), sadly any kind of striped or polka dotted clothing was found to be the trigger to the Swedish daycare center worker, who has remained anonymous. The worker’s employer then banned kids or employees from the migriane causing clothing. If a kid showed up with the migraine trigger clothing anyway, they were given clean, solid-colored clothing to wear, instead.

Overreaction?

Some, such as the head of the Swedish Home and School Association, do think this is a bit of an overreaction. However, if it makes the worker able to perform a good job, isn’t it a small price to pay? And really, you’re doing your kids a big favor by making them wear clothes now that they won’t be embarrassed by decades later when family albums are cracked open at reunions and weddings.

But can clothing patterns trigger migraines? You betcha. Migraines still are a mostly misunderstood beast, so automatically ruling out visual patterns as triggers is not wise. Personally, I’ve discovered that those Magic Eye artworks where an image is hidden in a seemingly abstract poster a 100% trigger for migraines. Also, so do 3-D movies.

Dr Alex Shepherd of Birkbeck College in London states that, just as flickering lights can cause migraines, so can stripes in some migraineurs:

“Stripes, flickering lights, bright reflections — these are all the sorts of things that people report will set off their migraine. If you think for a moment about how many times you meet these things in your daily life, you get some idea of how precarious life can be for someone whose migraines can be triggered by visual patterns.”

So, if your co-worker with the loud clothing seems to be a walking migraine trigger for you, tactfully talk to your boss. If your workplace bans certain perfumes or colognes for causing headaches, then why not certain pattens? You better be sure you are a good worker so you are worth the fuss that your co-worker will kick up.

As always, keep a headache journal to help you determine what triggers your migraines and headaches so you can avoid them.

OK, perhaps you never those to see the words “comatose locusts” together in a sentence, let alone think that they would appear on a blog about dealing with migraines (and headaches). But science is stranger than science fiction. Either that, or perhaps Mother Nature should win this year’s Hugo Award. But researchers at Queen’s University are saying that how locusts react to extreme stress may help further human migraine treatment.

Say, WHAT?

Queen’s University is studying how locuts respond to extremem heat and oxygen deprivation. In the sources I read, the study was using “locust models”, which I assume means they are not using actual locusts. However, I’m not sure about about that.

Anyway, when the enviornmental conditions around a locust’s body becomes too harsh (stressful), the locusts first breathe quickly, then automatically goes into a coma. In this way, they survive the bout of extreme heat or lack of oxygen and revive when conditions are more optimal for locust happiness.

The thory is this — could migraineurs have a similar bodily response to THEIR stress? The body throws a switch, you get a migraine powerful enough to force you to stay still and regroup. Perhaps the body knows when to throw this switch through a combination of genetics and a surge of extra-cellular potassium ions. When there is more potassium inside a nerve cell than ourside of acell, it does not work properly. Nerve cells are what controls breathing and the coma response in locusts.

“We found that we could precondition the locust system to be more stress-tolerant. If the mechanisms are the same as those in humans, then similar manipulations could help to protect brain function under stressful conditions, such as those leading to migraine,” says Dr. Robertson.

The Queens team plan to do two more tests based on the results of this one.

So, What Does This Mean?

Well, not much, practically, but it can help to relieve any self-blame you might have about getting migraines. You can blame your parents and an overactive stress adaptation system. That your migraines may actually be trying to help you is a concept that we all might have to take a while to wrap our throbbing heads around.

And not necessarily in that order. Well, if a title like “Sex, Orgams, Headaches” doesn’t get this blogpost high on Google’s PageRank, I’m not sure what else will (that I can ethically try).

Annyway, let’s get it on with the details, shall we?

In yet another proof that love stinks, some people can get one of two types of headaches directly as a result of sex with or without orgasms (apparantly, with good sex, then, as oppossed to some anatomical gymnastics in the throes of passion that resulted in falling out of the bedroom window).

Coital Cephalagia

Ooo, doesn’t that sound like it can put you in the mood? But seriously, what happens here is that you get a terrible headache in the body’s build-up to orgasm. This is a variation of what is called an exertional headache, where you basically get a headache whenever you do some strenuous exercise. You could try taking a painkiller before you engage in the desired activity.

But if that doesn’t work, you really should see your doctor. Although coital cephalagia is usually not a sign of a more serious condition, it sure can affect the quality of your life.

BUT if you get these symptoms along with your sex, orgams and headaches, then you better call your doctor immediately:

• Very stiff neck
• Nausea and/ or vomiting
• Going unconscious (not just falling asleep. You better let your partner be aware of this so he/she can call 911 in case you black out, since you obviously can’t).
• If the headache lasts anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours.

Orgasmic Cephalagia

This kind of sex, orgams, headache domino effect happens to men more than women. This is a powerful headache usually felt around the eyes that happens immediately before orgasm, no matter how athletic the sexual activity was. It is thought that this might be an indication that you have high blood pressure or that your body may react very negativly to a certain spike in your blood pressure.

This is also considered a benign headache that tends to go away quickly on it’s own (like most of my boyfriends). However, the same cautions apply to this headache as to coital cephalagia.

I’m so glad I’m single.

Perhaps the label has faded on your bottle of pills. Or, perhaps you found some suspiscious looking pills in a corner of Grannie’s purse. Most likely, you just like looking at cool internet sites that are interesting as well as informative. Previously, in order to identify mysterious pills, I’d ask a Magic Eight Ball. Now, I can go to Drugs.com’s Pill Idenitifier.

The Ususal Disclaimer

Before you can use Drug.com’s nifty Pill Identifier, you have to agree not to sue them if things go horribly wrong in the misidentification of a pill. It’s the usual “I Agree/ I Disagree” sort of thing. In other words, you promise to use your common sense. If you know you are severely lacking in common sense, then don’t take ANY pills you can’t at first recognize.

Also, the Pill Idenitfier is for an American audience. Sorry, every other country in the world (including Canada). You could try the pill identifier at RXList.com, but it doesn’t look as easy to use as Drugs.com’s.

Easy, Peasy

All pills have some sort of number or letter or combination thereof on them. These are quite small, so you may need a magnifying lese in order to see them. You enter this code into the pill identifier. You can enter the color and the shape of the pill, but that info is optional.

Not only are you given the name of the drug, but photo “mug shots” as well. You are also given a list of the drugs codes most searched for, which can be amusing when you are in a certain frame of mind. If you still can’t find out what your mystery pill is, you can try the Perscription Drug Forum and cross your fingers.

And if you do not know how old the pills are, just assume they are past their expiration date and throw them out. Please don’t take any pills that are past their expiration date.

At least, that’s the conclusion drawn in the latest issue of Nuerology that comes out today. It was hoped that oxcarbazepine (which is officially classified as an anti-epileptic drug and sold under the brand Trileptol) could prevent migraines. The bad news is that oxycarbazepine is no good for migraine prevention. The good news is that it still works well for epiliptics. Unfortunately, this not a blog about epliepsy.

How’d They Come To This Conclusion?

“They” in this case is the fine researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. (Can you tell that I come from the Greater Philly area?) The study took about five months with human volunteers from clinics all over the country. All told, 170 human guinea pigs took part, of which I am grateful, because no real guinea pigs were harmed in this particular study.

All of the human guinea pigs had at least three to nine migraine attacks a month. Half took a placebo while half took the oxcarbazepine. The results? There was no difference whatsoever between those that took the placebo and those that took the oxcarbazepine.

Why Did They Think It Could Work In The First Place?

Drugs for epilepsy have been able to help prevent migraines in a lot of people in the past. Unfortunatley, this one doesn’t join the ranks. There was a particular hope for oxcarbazepine to be a migraine preventative as it has very mild side effects.

The epliepsy drugs that do help prevent migraines (and have side effects harder on the body) are:

• Topiramate (the ever popular Topamax)
• Divalproex
• Gabapentin (brand name Nuerontin)

Ironically, this study was funded by the very makers of oxcarbazepine, Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Hmmm, I guess they didn’t pay the researchers enough (Cheap joke — sorrry!)

Here’s a quick reminder of the FDA’s recent warning about all anti-convulsants or medicines for elipetics (including Topamax and Nuerontin).

Hope this helps.

Is there any topic more appropriate on a migraine blog than love? Love and migraines just seem to go together “like a horse and carriage” (as the old song goes). However, those with migraines just can’t seem to help getting involved with other people, having kids, needing to go to work, that kind of painfully inconvienient stuff.

Diana Lee once again helps out those headache prone and migraineurs who have to deal with other people by offering her third edition of the Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival. This month, the theme is (mainly) “love & romance with migraines.” That doesn’t mean you court your migraines (”I’m in love with my migraines!”), but are in relationships with other people while you also happen to have migraines.

Highlights

Although all of the entries in this blog carnival is worth your valuable time, here are the ones that particularly caught my interest:

• The Migraine Girl’s “Single Migraineur Finds Her Match“. Although the match is new, it’s still a rather hopeful article even for the most jaded of us.
• Headache Advisor’s “Valentine Headaches” is a short and sweet article on maintaining relationships when you have chronic pain.
• James from Headache and Migraine News Blog offers up “9 Aphrodisiacs for the Romantic with Migraine”. None of these suggestions are for really rare or hard to get items. And most of them are delicious. So, worse comes to worse, forget the date and just tuck in to the food.
• Oh, yeah, and one from me about the consequences of Valentine’s night.

  Next Month

  Diana is bravely carrying on hosting these blog carnivals. Next Month’s topic is “Maintianing friendships when you have migraines and headaches.” Submissions are due Friday, March 7th. You need to have a blog in order to submit and have the post be about living with massive massive head pains or chronic pains.