Dealing With Headaches

See what you can accomplish when you focus on a problem? This seems to be the result from an Italian study of office aches and pains — namely headaches, neck and shoulder pains. Results of this interesting study were published in this months’s issue of Cephlalagia. This was called an “employee initiative” program, but apparantly, none of the employees were given any incentive to participate, except for the slim chance that they wouldn’t have as much pain when at work.

That seemsed to be enough.

Roll Out The Numbers

In case you let your subscription to Cephalalgia lapse, here is a really quick round up of the main points:

• 384 office workers in Turin volunteered, with about half beign a control group. 80% were women. The average age of a volunteer was 46.
• The study lasted eight months
• The employees in the non-control group kept a daily headache journal and did relaxation exercises every two to three hours of their work day. They also had twice dailt 10-15 minutes rest breaks just “sitting in an armchair with warming pads placed on their cheeks and shoulders”.
• Incredible results: 51% reported that they took less painkillers at the end of the study than when they began
• Also, 41% less headaches at the end of the study than at the beginning

• “Our study clearly shows that workplace interventions can reduce headaches and neck and shoulder pain. The methods adopted were relatively simple and the positive response from the employees, including the low study drop-out rate, suggest that it would prove popular in other workplaces. We also believe that employers would support this low-cost initiative as it would improve productivity in the workplace.” — Professor Franco Mongini of the Headache and Facial Pain Unit at the University of Turin

The Practical Upshot

If you get headaches, neck aches and shoulder pains iat work, move to Italy.

No, seriously — this is a very promising study with results to make people’s lives just a wee bit less stressful. This study centered on office workers, but I imagine it could also be used for food service, retail and teaching jobs. It would take a big mind-shift in the attitudes of employers to let their employees get up and stretch — which looks like goofing off. But, quite frankly, the managers probably need to do the stretching exercises as much as much as their underlings.

Following the study’s journal, heating pad and stretching regimen would be much cheaper (and a lot more legal) than giving your employees meth, which is what some Asian employees reportedly do to get intense (but breif) workloads from their new employees (at least, that’s what National Geographic says).

Hope this helps.

You know how in the conclusions of these clinical trials or medical studies, there is a call for more studies? Well, this is one of the results of a follow up study about the relationship between a woman’s migraines and her heart. All the gory details are in this previous post. Which gives us all even more proof for what we gals already know — it sucks to be us.

What’s This Study Say, Then?

3568 women with migraines (I wouldn’t like to be in that room) took part in the twelve year study, a part of an overall massive Women’s Health Study (say it with trumpets). Although only 3568 women migraineuers took part, over 27,000 American women health professionals did as well. (That’s about nine thousand doctors looking anxiously at each patient…in a way). During the study, some cardiovascular whoopsies happened to some of the volunteers:

• 706 cerebrovascular events (a fancy way of saying “stroke”)
• 305 heart attacks
• 310 ischemic strokes(where specifically an artery to the brain gets blocked. Not nice.)

The women who seemed to be the most prone to these cardiovascular problesm were woemen who had at least one migraine per week. (Damn — I’m screwed). And, as usual, the study recommend sthat more studies need to be done.

Although migraines are bad for my heart, I’ll take them ove any of my ex-boyfriends any day. They REALLY destroyed my heart. At least with migraines, I have some chance of getting high quality drugs after the heart attack. Hmmm, at least that’s something to look forward to.

It’s no surprise that often migrainers become extremely sensitive to sounds, light and sometimes tastes during migraine attacks. I had suspected that migrainers could get super sensitive to touch as well, because of my Mom’s unusual comment when she has a migraine that “My hair hurts.”

Well, Mom, You’re Not Alone

A recent study published in the April 22, 2008 issue of Nuerology found that migraineurs have yet another item to add onto their misery list. 16,573 people participated in the massive study, of which over 11,000 were diagnosed migraineurs, and nearly 1500 were “probable migrainerus” (ie — they hadn’t gone to the doctor yet, but display all the symptoms of migraines) and 3345 people just had “headaches”. About 68% of the lot had some skins owies when having a migraine or headache.

The practical upshot of all of this is that migrainerurs often find normal tasks like wearing jewelry, brushing their hair or rubbing your head as “excruciating”. The technical name for this sudden extreme skin sensitivity is allodynia. This was seen to happen to those not only with chronic head pains but also to those who fell into these categories:

• Women diagnosed with migraines
• Obese people diagnosed with migraines
• People diagnosed with the double whammy of migraines and depression

So?

One of the good points of this study is that it vindicates my Mom’s statement that when she had a migraine “her hair hurts”. We teased her about that when I was a kid, and do I feel guilty about that now. Perhaps migraineurs with skin sensitivity will be taken seriously now by both doctors and family members. As to treatment for this symptom, no recommendations were made other than:

“More importantly, this condition may be a risk factor for migraine progression, where individuals have migraines on more days than not. Identifying risk factors for progression is a very important public health priority. For example, it may be that individuals with allodynia should be more aggressively treated in order to prevent migraine progression, as well as to decrease this sensitivity on the skin.”

Obviously, more studies need to be done, both to determine relief for the symtom and to see if skin sensitivity is a reliable factor in determining whether migraine disease is getting worse in an individual.

Off to take some Excedrin.

Roughly 50% of those with migraines also are prone to crippling motion sickness. Some medical experts think that, because of the high incidents of migraineurs also having motion sickness, there is a definate link between these two miseries. One of the theories is that low brain serotonin – also a suspect for a cause of clinical depression – is the culprit. So, if you have all three and then have kids, you can pretty much bet the bank that they will at least inherit the motion sickness from you. (”Gee, thanks Mom. Thanks, Dad.”)

Motion Sickness Sucks

Motion sickness and migraine pain are incredibly similar and in me, they are nearly identical. I get extreme pain in one or both eyes, incredible nausea, sometimes shake and sweat and have been told I turn white as a ghost. I also loose focus in my vision and often get extremely sensitive to light, sound and smell. Motion sickness hits people on various levels and severity. Fortunately, there are many inexpensive things you can do to prevent or lessen the severity of motion sickness.

Many animals get motion sickness, too, which is one reason why they scream bloody murder when in a moving vehicle. Cats, horses and dogs seem to be the most affected. There are some anti-motion sickness medications for these animals available from your veterinarian. I personally think some gunea pigs can get motion sick, but I don’t know of any medicines for them that are avialable. Fortuantely, they have enough sense to keep still throughout a car trip if they aren’t feeling their best. Never transport animals in the trunk of your car!!!

• If you know you are prone to motion sickness, take over the counter medicines such as Dramamine (in America) before you start moving. Check the package directions. There are patches as well. The motion sickness medicine I took in England had to be swallowed two hours before the trip. (!) It worked, though!
• Don’t eat a big meal before you travel. Please.
• Peppermints or candied ginger (or ginger nuts) can help ease nausea. For some people, they only need to smell essential oil of peppermint rather than stick a sweet in their mouths. Essential oil of lavender has also been reported to be effective at easing headache and nausea in some people (but not me, sadly).
• Don’t read or watch videos. Doing this will make things much worse.
• Don’t keep turning your head around to look at all the pretty scenery. Pick a point on the horizon straight ahead and keep your head still as much as possible.
• Breathe deeply and get fresh air whenever possible (not recommended on airplanes, though!)
• If somebody complains about you not looking around at the pretty scenery or not “being any fun”, puke on them. (Okay, that was just a joke…)
• If you know you are prone to motion sickness, try to plan your trip so you have time for a rest immediately after you get out of the vehicle. I usually have to lay down in a dark room. I take Excedrin only ater my stomach calms down, otherwise I’d just toss them back up.

One thing about motion sickness that I’ve discovered — gradually your body gets used to longer and longer periods of being mobile before symptoms start. So, if you ride the bus an hour a day and get motion sick, over time (if you ride regularly) your body gets used to moving about for an hour.

Hope this helps!

Yet another thing to blame your parents for. According to Health 24, if one of your parents has migraines, you have a 50% chance of getting them. If both your parents have migraines, then you have a 75% chance of getting them. You are probably getting them for the exact same reasons your parents got them. If your parents do get migraines, then ask them how they manage theirs or what their triggers are. This will save you a lot of time trying to figure out what triggers your migraines.

However, if your parents do not know why they get migraines, then you’re on your own.

WebMD reports that 4 out of 5 migraine sufferes are from families with a history of migraines. I guess the family that pains together stays together, eh?

But why does anyone get migraines in the first place? That is still unknown. One theory is that we inherit an abnormal brain from our parents. Gee, and all I wanted was a pony…

If you have migraines, really think carefully before having kids (if you can help it. Sometimes kids happen beyond the plans of mice and men). If you have kids, you have a HUGE chance of given them the same lifetime of suffering as yourself.

Which raises an interesting question — if all of the people who currently have migraines in the world stopped having kids, would migraines then become a bad dream?

I know, I know — it’s like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop.

And then again, could the theoretical “brain abnormality” only be activated when in the presence of children or people who act childishly? Hmmm —

And science stumbles onward.

Women have it rough. Not only do they get more migraines than men, they can be at more risk of getting a stroke. A new study, which reconfirms a 2002 study, finds that women who have auras with their migraines are more susceptable to have a stroke — even more than women who have migraines without auras.

They also note that women who are especially vunerable to stroke don’t only have migraines with auras, but smoke and used oral contraceptives.

Here are some of the numbers, which studied about a thousand women in the United States with and without migraines:

Women with PMVA (that’s shorthand for Probable Migraine With Visible Aura) had a 50 per cent greater risk of ischemic stroke compared to the no migraine group.
The risk was highest among those with no history of high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes or heart attack (myocardial infarction).
Women with PMVA who smoked and used oral contraceptives had a 7-fold increase in ischemic stroke risk compared to women with PMVA who did not smoke or use oral contraceptives.
Also, women who had their first PMVA attack in the preceding year had a 6.9 fold increase in ischemic stroke risk compared to women with no history of migraine.

Reading Auras

Auras are often seen before a migraine, but do not have to be present for a migraine to be diagnosed as a migraine. Often, you see flashes of various shapes or even small bright hallucinations a few minutes before the migraine pain kicks in.

For example, my first killer migraine happened when I was 24 and at my job. In my left eye, the weirdest thing began to happen. If looked as if the lower half of my left eye was under water, although the top half was completely fine. I polished my glasses to no end and even had other employees look to see if something was on or in my eyeball. They couldn’t see anything wrong.

And then about a half hour later the migraine hit. That funny underwater effect was an aura. My Mom, for example, used to see flashing C’s travel across her eyes before a migraine hit.

Usually, am aura happens before the pain. They can be a mixed blessing. Although you know a migraine is coming, if you have any medication around, take it immediately. You might cut the migraine off at the pass ort reduce the severity of an attack.

Back To The Stroke Warning

It does not seem to be clear why women with auras and migraines are more at risk of stroke than others. Perhaps smoking and oral contraceptives in combination make your body more vunerable.

This information is not meant to depress you. It is meant as a warning signal so you can take suitable precaustions that will not only make your heart healthier, but perhaps your overall body. First off, quit smoking. And use low-dose contraceptives…or have him get a vasectomy. And switch to more heart-friendly low-cholesterol diet.

If you have migraines with auras and haven’t had a check up in years, do try and get a check up — or at least keep your blood pressure monitored. Since you are more to a stroke, it is best to prevent one rather than recover from one.

Hope this helps.

Well, isn’t that just like Murphy’s Law (or Sod’s law, for those who live in the UK)? You get migraines which can be too painful for breathing, let alone sex, and yet your sex drive may be more intense, according to the findings of a 2006 Wake Forest University study. This stonger sex drive happens in people with migraines, not tension headaches. The study found that men and women with migraines have a 20% stronger sex drive than those without migraines.

How did they come to this conclusion? The scientists gave out questionnares to 37 women and 31 men and asked them about their migraines and their sex drive. They had to answer whether they thought they had a bigger sex drive than the average person. So, if migraine sufferers don’t actually have a stronger sex drive, they either

• think they do
• or lie really well (no pun intended)

Granted, a mere 68 people is hardly an accurate representation of not only the human population, but of the population of migraine sufferes. Perhaps all of the other people given questionnares were too busy either having a migraine or doing the Wild Thing in order to reply.

As remarked on before in an earlier post on this blog, orgasms are considered good for relieving any kind of body tension. It’s not the sex that’s important here for treatment — it’s the orgasm (no pressure there, fellas).

It has been thought that a person’s serotonin imbalance, thought to affect not only headaches but depression, also triggers a stronger desire for sex. In yet another study (science is suddenly getting more interesting), Dr. James R. Couch, MD PhD (that’s his name — go figure) discovered that nearly 20% of migraine sufferes found relief from an orgasm.

I can tell you right now that neither of these studies ever got in contact with me. And I can tell you right now that I’m one of the 80% who does NOT find any relief from an orgasm…well, I can’t even get in the mood, let alone climax becuase of the pain. So I have no idea who these scientists are studying because they sure don’t seem to be from this side of the rainbow.

Now that this post is done, it’s time I lock myself in my bedroom with my Peter Gabriel album covers. Until next time!

Studies done in UCLA confirmed what women have known for millenia — that females get more migraines then males. 29.5 million Americans have migraines — and two thirds of them are women. To know about the difference between a headache and a migraine, click here

So, WHY do women get migraines more than men? The theory is that females have “a more exciteable brain” and therefore are more open to migraine triggers than male brains. This is true in lab mice, anyway. The female rodents’ brains could be easily stimulated into brain wave patterns that indicate migraines. This condition is called cortical spreading depression. Male rodent’s brains took more jiggling. Apparantly this is because they wouldn’t stop and ask the scientists for directions on where the experiments were going.

Seriously though, it thought cortical spreading depression is what mechanicaly fires up migraines. It is still not 100% known just what causes migraines. The earlier theory that migraines were a contraction and dialations of blood vessels has been scrapped. Work is concentrating now on stopping these cortical spreading depression brainwaves with a drug called memantine. This drug is still in the experimental stages.

It’s not entirely sure just why women have “a more exciteable brain” than men. Women do have to deal with the tidal flow of the menstral cycle, which may cause a constant chemical change in the woman’s body. Women then go through more changes than men. When you add stress, an unbalanced diet and insomnia, then you have a brain more disposed to getting migraines.

Could it be that women think too much? Well, that still has yet to be determined. But making sure the toilet seat is down can help ease the minds of any women in your life.

For more deatils about the UCLA study, click here.

Hope this helps.

The chances are if you have migraines, you also have panic attacks. The panic attack can happen before or after the migraine. You don’t necessarily have to have a depressive or other psychological disorder in order to suffer both panic attacks and migraines. Dealing with panic attacks, no matter when they happen, can greatly reduce the severity of your migraine pain.

My Personal Story

I started getting seemingly inexplicatble, unpredictable migraines to the point of vomiting when I was 24. I found out my Mother also started migraines when she was 24, but her triggers for severe migraines turned out to be different from mine. When the migraine started, so did the panic attack.

The panic attack felt like an insult to injury. I was positive a tiny terrorist had moved into my head and randomly set of migraine bombs. I feared that for the rest of my life I would never know when a crippling migraine would hit and for how long it would last. I became scared to do much of anything, lest I not be able to get into a dark room and whimper when a migraine hit.

I rarely told anyone about the panic attacks, becuase I was ashamed of them. I didn’t even tell my doctor. I felt the panic attacks were a sign of weakness or some sort of twisted character flaw. I did not then know that migraines can trigger panic attacks — and possibly the other way around.

Nearly ten years went by when I would try to live a normal life, but was constantly interupted by the migraine bombs. Various boyfriends and employers were completely unsympathetic. But after ten years, I began to recognise the signs of an oncoming migraine and so could take medicine and effectively cut the migraine off at the pass. And I learned another thing — the panic attacks eventually went away.

When I finally discovered the trigger for the worst of my migraines (caffeine withdrawal), the severity of the panic attacks seemed to subside. I knew what caused them and I knew how to deal with it and — most importantly — I knew I wasn’t about to die. I could safely ignore and even laugh at a panic attack when I would get them during a headache.

Women More Affected

The world isn’t fair, is it? Women already have to put up with menstration, menopause, bad hair days and now are more prone to having migraines and panic attacks together. Read the findings of a 1997-2003 article here.

It is also reported that lower income women were more likely to get panic attacks and full blown migraines than women who made a lot of money. Perhaps the rich women hire the poor women to have their migraines and panic attacks for them? (Only kidding!)

Both panic attacks and migraines are though to be tied in to some malfunction of the production of serotonin, in either sex. Just how and why is still unclear.

Dealing With Panic Attacks

Whether linked to your migraines or not, tell your doctor if you get panic attacks out of the blue. Panic attcks are usually the feeling of impending doom (often a hideous death), accompanied with breathing problems, heart palaptations, sweating and shaking. Panic attacks can also be the signs of other medical disorders such as hypoglycemia, so don’t be ashamed like I was to get them checked out.

When you hae a panic attack, look around you. Try to shut off your imagination and concentrate on what you are currently seeing or hearing. You need to breathe deeply, too. Keep reminding yourself that you are safe, and the feelings of dread and panic will pass.

This is, of course, easier said than done. You need practice. You could also tell your trusted friends and loved ones that you are prone to panic attacks. If they see you begin one, they could remind you, “Take a deep breath,” or “What do you see right in front of you? Tell me every little detail.”

Other remied that have helped me with panic attacks were:

• holding on to a stuffed toy, a small smooth marble egg, my necklace (if I happen to be wearing one), or a sympathetic person’s hand. The power of a soothing touch is greatly underestimated.
• Taking a few drops of Bach’s Rescue Remedy.
• Inhaling an aromatherapy oil like frankinscence or lavender, which encourages the body to take deep breaths even when paniced.
• Making and drinking a cup of tea — any tea. Tea soothes me and just doing the familiar ritual seems to distract my attention from the panic attack. If you are really shaking badly, don’t attempt this.
• I don’t do this, but my Mom does — she chants the rosary to help calm her down.

You will most likely instinctively find a way to comfort and distract you when you are feeling frightened. Your way of calming down from a panic attack may be different from the meathods I described above.

When you calm down, your body relaxes a bit. You also have the assurance that if you’ve survied one migraine, you can survive it again. And life goes on. When you are not afraid, your pain doesn’t seem to be able to bite as deeply. This can lessen the severity of a headache or migraine.

Hope this helps.

The results of a study published in the July 3rd issue of Neurology shows a correlation between household income and migraine prevalence in adolescents. This article explains that though genetic predisposition plays the main hand at whether your adolescent may become a migraine sufferer, when there is no genetic predisposition, household income may be a predictor.

Households where there were incomes of less that $22,500 showed 4.4% prevalence rates, whereas those with incomes of $90,000 or higher showed only 2.9% rates. Stress due to economic worry, poor diets and lack of medical care can contribute to these rates difference.

This study also mirrored previous findings in adults, suggesting that those in lower income brackets and without higher education were more likely to suffer from migraines than those who were post-secondary educated and are more financially stable.

migraine, economic stress, low income, top income bracket, higher education, adolescents

sta·tis·tic (stə-tĭs’tĭk) (American Heritage Dictionary)
n.

1. A numerical datum.
2. A numerical value, such as standard deviation or mean, that characterizes the sample or population from which it was derived.
3. One viewed as a nameless item of statistical information: got laid off and became another statistic in the slumping economy.

Imagine searching for statistics on the amount of people regularly affected by headaches. You knew you weren’t alone, but you didn’t know that many people suffered, too. Such is the nature of statistical data on headaches - it’s so grandiose, it’s unbelievable.

This article lays out the author’s point of view. He intrigued me by humourously starting off with the classic patient offering their symptoms of three attacks a week, each lasting four days. When did the 12-day week start? I should be accomplishing a lot more!

This site’s article mentions that ’studies’ have shown that roughly 45 million American suffer from chronic headaches annually; women make up 44% of those affect, men the remaining (obviously). Mathematically, this means that (more…)