Dealing With Headaches

This is good news or bad news, depending on how much you like needles. Researchers in Greece and England have released promising results about an injectable medicine for migraines called sodium valproate (also known as valproic acid). It is thought that vaproate sodium reduces electrical activity in the brain, which may be a cause of migraines.

The Causes of Migraines

We actually don’t know what causes migraines. There have been many theories put forth from constricted blood vessels to serotonin levels, depending on what material you read or what doctor you talk to. This medicine is working on the assumption that some types of migraines are caused by glyceryl trinitrate nitrate (GTN) — especially induced migraines for the purposes of clinical studies on migraine medicines.

What is GTN? It’s a medicine that is more commonly used for treating angina, heart failure and pulmonary edema. You probably know it best as “Nitro”. It’s been around since 1870. As a medicine, it has to undergo a process called “denitration” to remove nitric acid.

As a side effect, it can induce migraines without auras. What bliss.

Study Specs

This wasn’t a huge study — only on about 45 human guinea pigs that have chronic migraines and 19 controls (lucky bastards that don’t get migraines). All test subjects were hooked up to EEG machines to check on brainwave patterns (a good indication of the electrical activity of the brain). Special notes were taken during the migraine and thirty minutes after getting the valproate sodium shot, when the effects were being felt.

Indications look good, and there have (so far) not been any reported side effects. Kinda makes you wonder what else they put in that needle besides 300 mg of valproate sodium? (Sorry — couldn’t resist.)

What Does This Mean?

Stay away from GTN, that’s for sure.

This isn’t an entirely new drug — valproaic sodium has been used for treating eplieptic seizures for years. However, that’s all it is approved for. There is an oral version for seizures, but so far the oral version hasn’t been tested for migraine treatment. Keep in mind that the FDA has just issued warnings about the mental and emotional side effects of anti-convulsants.

If valproic acid sounds familiar, that’s because the brand name anti-convulsant Stavzor (which is basically the same thing) is currently getting approval for migraine treatment in the US.

It is expected to be legally available in America for migraine treatment in July of this year. This European study looks promising for Stavzor. However, it’s not currently approved for migraine treatment in Europe. Not yet, anyway.

Now I have a migraine coming on. Until tomorrow, gentle readers.

I can’t remember if I ever mentioned this experimental abortive drug for migraines on this blog before now. That’s what enough migraines and blog posts will do to you over time, make your memory a little wacky.

Anyway, the drug in development that is getting a lot of promising buzz is called (wait for it) calcitonin gene-related peptide. Mercifully, it’s usually known as CGRP for sanity’s sake. This is a neropeptide (a little chemical ding-hooey in the brain that helps gets things done in the body) activated by a protein called RAMP1. (Let’s not go into what RAMP1 is short for.) It seems these two brain chemicals are great mates — if one gets excited, so does the other. The theory is that these two could be responsible for migraine pain and possibly for the pain of cluster headaches.

You Can’t Get It Yet

CGRP for migraines and cluster headaches is still in the clinical trial stage. Giant Pharma company Merck currently has a hold of it and calling it MK-0974. Although also known as CGRP in some media publications, MK-0974 actually BLOCKS CGRP from getting excited. It is currently thought that MK-0974 will have less side effects than current drugs like triptans.

MK-0974 is currently in the Clinical Trial Stage III phase and not looking for any more human guinea-pigs. The experimental drug is currently just be checked for migraines. Presumably, if they get the OK to market it for migraines, then they can do the whole clinical trial merry-go-round again for cluster headaches. This means Merck gets to hold on to the patent for another decade or so before it would be required to go generic.

Practical Upshot

Where there’s life, there’s hope. There is something waiting in the wings in a lab somewhere. In the meantime, work with your doctor to help tame your pain. That’s pretty much what most of the rest of the posts on this blog is about.

Nope this helps….whoops! That’s a typo!!! HOPE this helps. (Arrghhh)

Migraines are nothing new in the world of art. It is thought that Vincent VanGogh based some of his ground-breaking work on auras. (He also had a lot of head problems — not just migraines). A more level-headed artist that also was thought to have been cursed with Migraines was Claude Monet (you know — The Water Lillies guy?). Having migraines does not mean having to stop your creativity. If you have migraines, you’re in good company.

Inspiration from Aggravation

Art therapy has been around to help people deal with crippling emotional and physical problems since people learned how to scribble (think those cave paintings in Fance might have been the result of a really anxious hunter who was facing being eaten if he couldn’t come up with the game? Well, just a theory). Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung encouraged their patients to draw or paint mandalas or images they saw in dreams in order to help them with their problems.

And getting inspiration from a physical aggravation like migraines can produce some incredibly fascinating images. The National Headache Foundation held an art contest in 2001 based on the theme of migraines done by professional and amateur migrainers. There have been other migraine art competitions over the years, including those held by drug companies to help sell migraine drugs. The New York Times popular Migraine Blog recently set up a slideshow of migraine art collected from The Migraine Action Association in the UK.

And you don’t have to experience migraines in order to produce migraine art. Artist Olea Nova gets her inspirations merely from verbal descriptions from migraineurs. She has a deep interst in psychology and wants to help those suffering from migraines (or gambling addictions, or other problems) to be able to convey to the world what they have to go through.

When you have a crippling chronic condition like migraine disease, you often feel completely helpless. Creating some sort sort of art can help you not only vent your frustrations, but prove to yourself that you are not just your migraines.

Hope this helps.

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.

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.

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.

I’ve been suffering from sticker shock this week, which has stressed me out and made me more headache-prone than usual. Medicaid forgot to send me a crucial form, which of course I neve could fill out because I never got it, and I was dropped. I have to have Prozac (fluoxetine) in order to keep from turning into a stark raving nutter.

“Oh, well.” I thought, “I’ll have to pay $35 this month before this all gets sorted out.” Last year, the price of generic Prozac was $35 for 30 capsules.

This year, it’s jumped to $80 per 30 capsules.

My Point, And I Do Have One

I’ll save the rant against greedy Big Pharma for now and go on to my point.

Medicines are incredibly expensive for any condition. When I was homeless, getting over the counter painkillers to help with my migraines was a big luxury. Since I knew my most severe migraines were from a combination of sleep deprivation and caffeine withdrawal, I chose medicines with caffeine in them. I then took half the recommended dosage. If I still had pain in a half hour, then I took the other half dose. But often I didn’t need to.

I still do that today with over the counter medications. It does help save me some money — so I can afforf Prozac, apparantly. You could try it for over the counter medications and see if it works for you. Remember — I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.

I don’t recommend trying this for prescription medications unless you’ve discussed this with your doctor. And, of course, you can’t split capsules like you can pills or tablets.

Hope this helps. Because the way the American economy is going, we’re going to need to save every penny we can so we can start rioting in the streets comfortably.

A “simple” surgical procedure being developed in South Africa is showing some promising signs of helping people to relive migraine pain. No, you don’t go for the surgery every time you have a migraine — this is a preventative. The procedure involves cauterizing selected blood vessels in the scalp. (Cauterizing means they burn it away.)

The Gory Details

The scalp surgery for migraines was developed at The Headache Clinic in South Africa by Dr. Elliot Sevel, a surgeon who specializes in head, face and jaw procedures. The scalp sugery for migraines was performed on 42 women and 13 men. The patients report imporvement of their migraines up to a rather head-scratching 250%.

Obviously, only 55 people do not represent a large part of the migraine-suffering population, so firther studies are going to be done. These studies will be backed by the Italian government (what’s left of it, anyway) and the South African governement. A multi-national team of neurologists will be put together to further pursue buring blood vessels in the scalp.

The good news is that this is a quick procedure that does not usually require an overnight stays. The 55 human guinea-pigs also dod not have a lot of scarring from the scalp surgery for migraines.

Why Am I Not More Enthusiastic About This?

And it’s not just because I haven’t had breakfast yet. Granted, I’m not a neurlogist or even a person who ever got an A in Chemistry, but this surgery does seem to be based on the premise that migraines are caused by the dilation and contraction of blood vessels in the head. This is an older theory that has recently fallen out of favor in the medical community.

Now, the theory is that serotnin levels coupled with a suddenly active hypothalamus are the culprits for migraines and severe headaches. The fact is, no one knows why we get migraines, which is why they are so notoriously difficult to treat.

Now, hopefully, all of the new theories are wrong and the cause of migraines DOES turn out to be dilation and contraction of blood vessels in the head. Otherwise, there are going to be a lot of people who get this surgery and still have migraines.

However, at least 55 people in the world are migraine-free and that alone is worth celebrating and blogging about.

One of the more interesting new health-related web sites that have popped up recently is NutrtionMD.org, which is part of the Physiciain’s Committee For Responsible Medicine (PCRM). What makes this of particular interest to Migraine sufferers is that they offer a comprehensive and understandable overview of migraine treatment, both conventional and alternative.

Alternative therapies for dealing with migraines during pregnancy is often a woman’s only option. Many man-made drugs (as well as natural herbs and aromatherapy oils like rosemary) have proven to give harmful effects to the fetus. The alternative is either be extrememly miserable for nine months and never let let the child forget it for the next 37 years, or look into gentle alternative therapies, such as nutritional therapy for migraines.

What Is It?

You control or lessen your symptoms through your diet when you are on nutritional therapy for migraines in pregnancy. Ideally, you would start this diet before you get pregnant, but very few of us are lucky enough to live in an ideal world. If you have been keeping a headache journal, then you might know already what foods to avoid that may trigger a migraine.

Other nutritional therapy hints include eating what’s called a “baseline diet”:

• Brown rice
• Dried or cooked fruits for any fruit that is NOT a citrus fruit
• Water (plain or carbonated)
• Gradually taper off caffeinated beveraged to avoid caffiene withdrawal migraines and to not expose the fetus to the harmful effects of caffeine.
• Plenty of cooked veggies
• Condiments only in moderate amounts
• Absolutely NO alcohol!

After a couple of weeks, the migraines should diminish. If they do, add one food to this baseline diet per week and see what happens. Nutritional supplements are still a throny issue as to whether they are necessary for pregnanct women or not.

As with everything else you read on the web, please don’t use it in the place of a qualified doctor or obstetrician’s advice.

For more tips on handling headaches while pregnant, check out this post.

One of the alternative therapies that has some definate clout in pain relif is color therapy (colour therapy to those of you in the UK). I’m going to say up front that I do not recommend color therapy as a COMPLETE replacement for conventional medicine. But there is a large body of evidence to suggest that color therapy for migraines used in conjunction with conventional medicine can help ease migraine pain and the stress that goes with it.

Do I Use Color Therapy?

I do use color therapy for migraines, to a point. I do still take over the counter medicines, watch my caffiene intake, my diet and meditate to manage my stress levels. I also find complaining a lot helps the intensity of my migraine pain, but I have a feeling that only works for me. (”Yes, Rena — ONLY you!”)

I find pastel colors and dark colors help decrease the intesity of my migraine pain and help me deal with any panic attacks I may get as a result of the migraine. All I do is either change my clothes, put on sunglasses, handle a pretty crystal or gemstone of the desired color or even think about the color I’d rather be looking at.

There are many variations on color therapy for migraines, of which I only do a few. The advantage of color therapy for migraines is that there aren’t any side effects. The disadvantage is that in no way replaces the need to go to a doctor and follow his or her advice. There are many reasons why you can have migraines, and you need to be sure your migraines are properly diagnosed in order to get the best treatment.

Know Thyself

Another disadvantage of color therapy for migraines is that there are no hard and fast rules for what color works best for what condition. This is because we all have individula associations with each color. Although I find black to be an extrememly soothing color (especially for migraine pain), black can be a scary or off-putting color for some people. It all depends on your past experiences with that color.

You need to experiment with colors to see which ones are soothing to look at for you, both physically and mentally.

One of the reasons you might select colors the way you do could be because of your chakras. If you are studying Paganism, Eastern philosophies and healing, Hinduism or have read about them before for other health and spritiual purposes, then you might want to try choosing colors that promote your head chakra’s well being. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it. Colors for your head chakras (depending on what system you study) include indigo, dark purple and white.

Although there are such professionals as color therapists, you don’t really need to go to one if you spend the time to do some basic research through books, websites and articles such as this blogpost.

Color therapy for migraines is not for everyone, especially for people who don’t believe it can help. There is quite a bit of mind over matter needed for this alternative therapy to be in any way effective. But don’t worry if you don’t like the sound (or sight) of color therapy for migraines. There are many other therapies to choose from.

One of the reasons I like color therapy is that it makes me feel that I have more control over my own health. Hope this helps.

Calm down — it will take some years before the drug can be available to the general public, if further tests go well. The results of the first human guinea pig short-term study done by POZEN, Inc (in cooperation with Giant Pharma Giant GlaxoSmithKline (nee: SmithKline Beecham)) were sent to the FDA. The exact results have not been made availble to the general public.

This time, the drug in question has been given the tentative brand name of Treximet (nee: Trexima), which is a combination of sumatriptan (85 mg) and naxoproxim sodium (500 mg). The plan is to give this medicine in tablet form.

So?

Apparantly, this short-term test on humans was done at the request of the FDA over the findings of ANOTHER test done last year. (The plot gets more convoluted than a soap opera’s, doesn’t it?)

That test showed the result of in vitro studies done on Chinese Hamster ovaries (commonly called CHO). (I’m not making this up — I sware! This is acutally a common process to test on animal cells in test tubes or other cases to see what happens. This is hoped to eliminate the need for any entire hamster or other animal to be used in medical research. Don’t get me started on animals in medical research.) The FDA had concerns about “genotoxic potential” of Treximet. In other words, that means the FDA was concerned about damage to a patient’s DNA by taking the drug. Pretty serious stuff.

In the current test, people’s blood lymphocytes were examined after a week of use. Apparantly, no change happened to them. So now, perhaps, the ball will keep rolling for this new acture migraine drug to be released hopefully before 2009.

Why 2009? Well, as Migraine Blog reports, the patent for Imitrex (another migraine drug) expires and so generic Imitrex is projected to “flood the market”, making no one really eager to try a new costlier prescription acute migraine drug. Real compassionate folks in Giant Pharma, eh?

In other words…same old, same old. I’m looking forward to another Topamax study after all of that.

Buyman Guyuron, MD, a professor of plastic surgery with Case Western Reserve University and for the American Migraine Center, has concluded the first study of using plastic surgery as a new migriane treatment. His results have been published in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

What Up?

Sometimes in the messy world of medical science, you can find something that you had no intention of looking for. This is what apparantly has happened to plastic surgeons. Guyuron says that patients who underwent facial surgery often reported a relief in migraines and headaches. He was able to determine two plastic surgery for migraines. They both involve needles, Botox, needles, forehead muscle incisions and needles in your head.

First, you get back or facial injections of Botox to help the surgeon determine which facial muscles get the snip. The Botox will trigger a migraine. Thanks, Doc! And I have to pay for it, too. Thank you, sir; can I have another? Then those muscles are snipped.

All together now: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME.

All Kidding Aside

Granted, I’m skeptical, but the findings in this study are hard to sneer at. And the study was smart enough to check up on the patients on year after surgery. 92% of surgery patients had a drop of migraine intensity and frequency by 50%. They also had to call out of work an average of 73% less than a control group of migraineurs.

Considering the cost of medications, doctor visits and lost time at work, it is thought that plastic surgery of the forehad is the cheaper option in the long run.

Before you go booking an appointment at your nearest anti-aging clinic, keep in mind that even Dr. Guyuron is NOT labeling plastic surgery for migraines a “cure”. Only about 100 people had the procedure and 25 didn’t (they were the control group). That’s not enough of population sample to approve a surgical procedure.

However, this study certainly paves the way for more studies and does off a glimmer of hope for those with migraines and, apparantly, those suffering from chronic tension headaches.

What the heck is guided imagery and is it covered by most major health insurance companies? I’ll answer the second question first : No. However, there isn’t any cost to reduce headaches with guided imagery, anyway.

Guided imagery is a fancy term for your imagination. Another term is “creative visualization”.

Don’t roll your eyes. Your imagination is a powerful tool and a great ally in helping you help yourself. Remember how Albert Einstein came up with his equations and theories, especially Brownian motion theory? (Well, pretend you once knew, anyway.) He figured them all out by use of his imagination (and a really really good grasp of mathematics).

Does It Work?

The results of a study using guided imagry to reduce headaches, stress and other chronic pains was recently published in January’s Mayo Clinic Health Letter. What? You let your subscription laspe? Click here for the summary. The practical upshot is that you certianly can reduce headaches with guided imagery. If you know that you get tension headaches, or that your headaches can worsen due to stress and worry, then guided imaegry can help you eliminate the stress that might trigger or worsen your head pains.

How It Works

With imagination, you let yur mind go all over the place. This has positive and negative results, depending on what your imagination fastens on. If you keep imagining that you are going to get fired because you keep getting headaches, this will NOT help your headaches one bit. However, if you imagine that Jedi Knights go into your head after little Stormtroopers that are setting off bombs to make you have a headache, then that can help ease your headaches and possibly your stress (depending on how much you like Star Wars.)

You can get professional guided imagry tapes, CDs or downloads. There are also clinics or classes that teach you the basics. This can help relax people who might be worried that they are “doing it wrong”. But basically, you imagine yourself getting better or relaxing in any way that appeals to you. You might want to:

• Imagine some Good Guys in your body getting rid of the Bad Guys.
• Imagine yourself in a cozy hot bath or on your own private island without a care in the world.
• Imagine yourself surrounded by healing white light (or whatever color you want).

Like anything else, it takes practice to reduce headaches with guided imagery. At least there are no known side effects to worry about.

Hope this helps.

Appropriate topic for the last day of the year, eh? Well, this year I’ve had write do no less than twenty articles on the topic of colon cleansing (fifteen so far have been published — perhaps it’s for the best that the other five are floating around in an obscure patch of cyberspace). I’m a freelance writer who has to pretty much write about anything anyone will pay me to write. Perhaps that’s one reason why I get a lot of headaches and migraines. I couldn’t help but notice all of the claims made by makers of these colon cleaning products — one of which was that colon cleansing can cure migraines.

Don’t You Believe It

Since no one knows for sure what causes migraines, it is not reasonable to believe that colon cleansing can cure migraines. There is a time and a place for colon cleansing, but if you expect colon cleansing to cure migraines, you will be in for a rude shock. Colon cleansing helps your digestive system and not much else.

And PLEASE, before you do any colon cleansing or any fasting, talk to your doctor. A lot of colon cleansing programs require fasting, which can be dangerous for some people, including diabetics, those with low blood pressure and those who have to take essential daily medicines with food.

Why Colon Cleansing?

Now, I know colon cleansing has a lot of supporters, and I really don’t want to receive any more hate mail than I already get. So let me say this in support of colon cleansing. When would a colon cleanse be beneficial?

• If you have extreme constipation (pooping should not be a weekly event).
• As part of a closely monitored detoxification program for those getting off drugs, nicotene or alcohol. It makes you feel like your body has a fresh start. Psychologically, it can help people struggling to overcome temptation on occassion.
• You’ll often have to take a colon cleanse medication or some other powerful laxative before surgery, depending on your condition.
• If you are really, really, really into poopping.

The Healing Crisis

If you do any kind of detoxification or colon cleansing program — even a juice fast — you will most likely get a killer headache, as well as feeling like you have the flu. Some people’s symptoms vary. This is called a “healing crisis”, and is usually explained as your body’s response to purging toxins from itself.

However, I have not been able to find out what toxins are suppossed to be purged in order for for something like colon cleansing to cure a migraine.

The killer headache seems to be from screwing around with your usual diet. Even when you cut out foods that are bad and drinks for you, you may get a killer headache. This is more of a withdrawal response than a cleaning out response. This headache will eventually go away on it’s own…after about three days. This is similar to caffeine withdrawal migraine.

In conclusion, colon cleansing can’t cure migraines. Don’t fall for this rather wacky claim. If you have migraines, you need to go to your doctor, keep a migraine journal and treat the pain as best you can.

Hope this helps.