Dealing With Headaches

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.