The Evidence

According to many holy texts, psychics and those who have experienced near death experinces, there are a lot of things on Earth that are not avilable on The Other Side. Two of these are food and bathrooms. Suppossedly, you don’t need to eat on The Other Side, but I really doubt this. Knowing human beings, we will eat whether we have digestive organs or not. And that food has to go somewhere.

Also, you don’t have to sleep on The Other Side because it’s always day or twilight and never night. I don’t like that. If I don;t get proper sleep, I’m certain to get a migraine. If no one sleeps, then there aren’t any comfortable places to sleep. Some spiritualities claim that we live in the clouds. I don’t trust sleeping on clouds. Quite frankly, I don’t trust doing much of anything on clouds. They’re so changeable. You can never depend on them. Besides, I really don’t know clouds at all.

In Conclusion

In reading all of this evidence, I have come to the conclusion that there are, indeed, migraines in the afterlife. On The Other Side, there is no place to sleep, no food to digest properly and no bathrooms. These can all lead to major migraine triggers. No wonder we reincarnate so often instead of just flitting about in paradise for the rest of eternity. We need the bathroom, something to eat and a lie down. Alll in all, migraineurs seem to have it better here on this side of eternity.

Nothing’s ever easy, is it?

“I don’t prescribe drugs,” said the surgeon, and then laughed at the absurdity of his statement.

Mom’s surgeon will still be able to get free food sent to his office by representatives of Big Pharma, but that’s about it. All of the free office supplies emblazoned with logos (making a pen, coffe mug or notepad look like it was ready for NASCAR). All of that has now been banned by the Phramecuetical and Research Manufacturers of America (The ban is, of course, just in America). The ban takes effect in January, 2009.

Why The Free Stuff?

Since doctors are the only legal people to prescribe drugs, companies make sure they court evey doctor they come across with the same ardour as Howard Hughes collecting actresses (except the doctors see the drug reps a lot more than Hughes was suppossed to see his harem). They shower doctors with all kinds of goodies — not just lunches and office supplies. Years ago, doctors were given such perks as free vacations, free concert tickets or even free small appliances. They got all of this whether they actually prescribed the company’s drugs or not.

Those more expensive gifts were dropped to legal pressure on Big Pharma to stop wasting on so much money pimping their drugs. That’s when the first annoying drug television ad campaign hit American airwaves. Big Pharma does anything it can to keep the costs of their drugs high — and that means big bucks spent in advertising. In this way, they can “justify” costs.

No Free Lunch

Gradually, the general public and lawmakers are catching on to all of Big Pharma’s tricks. This ban is the latest modification to start forcing Big Pharma to lower the costs of their products. It remains to be seen whether Big Pharma will actually lower their costs — chances are, they will just find some other way of blowing a huge bundle on advertising. I can just see Imitrex logos now on race cars.

The Non-Profit Group No Free Lunch offers a “pen anmesty program” where it offers to replace pens that doctors would otherwise receive from drug companies. The doctors have to send the drug-emblazoned pens to them in exchange for pristine pens that only have the brand of the penmaker on them. The group then donates the evil druggie pens “to a worthwhile cause”.

Just on a personal note, when my doctors discover that I am a freelance writer, I suddenly get showered with pens before I leave the office. The pen I’m using right now (when not on the keyboard, that is) has a Zaditor logo on it (Zaditor has nothing to do with treating any medical problem I have, sadly). My doctors are clearly as sick of free pens from drug companies as the Pharmecuetical Reasearch and Manufactuerers of America.

However, they won’t give me any of their coffee mugs.

However, if I made the mistake, then perhaps other readers out there in the blogosphere will, too. I’ve seen the terms used interchangeably in medical websites, and I’m sure I’m guilty of doing the same thing on this blog. I’ll be going back through some of my older posts to correct that mistake.

Anyway…

An abortive medication stops something once it already begins. Such a medicine would be Zolmig nasal spray, or Imitrex (sumatriptan), which is taken as soon as you feel a migraine coming on. (And remember — an abortive does NOT mean it will give you a sudden abortion. It’s just a name.)

On the other hand, a preventive medicine stops anything from even starting in the first place. In the wacky world of migraines, you would have to take this medicine every day, no matter how you were feeling. Such a medicine would be DHE. Another medication would be verapamil, which is actually a high blood pressure medication that (as a side effect) often reduced the frequency of migraine attacks in migraineurs.

Still, It’s Not A Cure All

No matter if you take an abortive or a preventive medication (or both), you still need other painkillers, ways of coping with stress and to identify and avoid anything that might trigger a migraine. Keeping a headache journal helps you identify your triggers.

Hope this helps.

This was posted by YouHerbal.com (which sounds a little like name-calling — “Hey, you! You herbal, you!”) which is a site that sells (ta da) herbal and food-related remedies for various ailments, as well as a lot of bottles of capsules. Keep in mind that just because something is natural, doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. You can get side effects from herbal remedies just as you can with prescription medicines. And never slam back an herbal remedy without talking to your doctor first. (However, aromatherapy you can tinker with without a doctor’s supervision.)

Also, as an English major, I couldn’t help but notice some capitalization and grammatical errors. If that gives you a headache, then you’d best skip this clip and check out one of my older posts on folk remedies for headaches. Otherwise, enjoy!

Normobaric and Hyperbaric Therapy

There are two kinds of oxygen therapies. Sadly, just breathing in and out like usual doesn’t count. Anyway, normobaric oxygen therapy refers to breathing pure oxygen from an oxygen tank. Buy hyperbaric oxygen therapy (the one considered so promising) involves going in a chamber and breathing pure oxygen. Why the chamber? The chamber is put under pressure.

No, I have no idea what this means, either.

Which Leads Us To The Problem

Finding an oxygen chamber is just about as hard as trying to comprehend oxygen therapy. Critics of the Oz study point out that the migraine or cluster headache might even be over before the patient can begin snorting the pure oxygen. Also, oxygen tanks are highly flammable (not that this hasn’t stopped us from driving cars). However, this could be a first step in finding a far more practical solution.

Meanwhile, keep on taking your usual medicine.

Anyway, American Migraineurs…

A petition to Congress has been started by Diana Lee of Headache Blog Carnival and Somebody Heal Me fame. It’s currently up on iPeteitions.com. This is a non-profit site, so expect to be asked for a donation after you electronically sign the petition.

This petition is to ask Congress to rethink the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007, which suggests all public places replace their lighting with CFL bulbs. (I’m really paraphrasing the Act here, so if I painted the picture of potential public lighting with too broad a brush, I apologize.) These bulbs have been proven to trigger migraines in the headache-prone.

Although the makers of CFL bulbs constantly say their bulbs do not flicker, they sure do. It’s very slight, but it is enough to make my life and the lives of many other American migraineurs miserable. I can’t have them in my house. I hate to think I’ll be trapped in my house because I can’t tolerate the lighting anywhere else. I think they’re a great idea, but needs a design overhaul to elimnate the flickering.

What About the Planet

Considering all of the crap things we humans are doing to the planet, lightbulbs are really far down the list. Cutting out human overpopulation, strengthening public transportation, curbing our ridiculous buying habits, dropping our consumption of red meat and taxing the tar out of Big Oil will should be far up on our priority list because they have far more impact ont he planet than trying to these little piddling things like ban cigarette smoking, ban trans fats and change out lightbulbs.

There is no magic bullet to climate change and the environmental crisis. Heck, in the state of Pennsylvannia, you can’t even get the citizens to agree that there IS such a thing as a climate crisis. But making everyone in the country use light bulbs that make us sick is not going to help anything exept get the 30 million or so American migraineurs really ticked off.

Thank you and good light…I mean, good night!

But, as anyone prone to chronic headaches knows, museums can be a potential trigger for massive pain. You have to prepare in advance to thwart a headache to not end your day hunched in the road by the side of the car moaning in pain and nausea. I don’t know about you, but that always spoils my museum trips a bit.

Be Ruthless

My best advice to avoid headaches at museums is to not try to see everything in the museum. Don’t even try to scrutinize every single detail on one floor. This leads to severe eye-strain that can and usually does trigger severe headaches, if not a migraine. Plan in advance which exhibit or floor you want to concentrate on and then take all the time you want there. If you’re not sure which floor to concentrate on, just let your instinct take you to the floor.

One of the reasons the Brandywine River Museum is so close to my heart is that it is small enough not to trigger a migraine. The Philadelphia area is thick with museums, including the world famous Art Museum in center city (most famous for the steps Slyvester Stallone ran up in Rocky.) However, the Art Museum is a definate migraine or headache trigger just for the visual overload. Pick one type of art or a specific exhibit and leave the rest alone.

Eat Breakfast

Going to a museum is exciting and mind-expanding (or, at least, it is for me). You will use up a surprising amount of energy going through the museum, even though you are going at a snail’s pace. It could be the senosry overload that wears you out. You need to eat a good breakfast (or lunch, depending on the time you visit) in order for your body to have the calories to get you through.

Otherwise, you will get a bad headache from being so darn tired.

Pack Painkillers With You

Keep them in your pocket, your purse or wherever, but be sure to take them. I also take a dose right before I leave the house. I use an over the counter painkiller to take the worst of the pain off, but you might need to take a nasal spray or other kind of medication, depending on your headache history.

Get Somebody Else To Drive

You might not be able to avoid this one, but if you can, it takes so much stress off of you. You don’t have to tense up worrying if you have the strength to drive safely home — thus, triggering a headache. Take public transportation if you can and trains over buses, since trains tend to swifter and smoother.

If you have to drive yourself, then pack a light lunch in the car and leave it in a thermal lunch box in the car. That way you can relax and recharge in the car. A car is your own little territory, which is easier to realx in than a public space like a cafe. And take all the time you need driving home.

Hope this helps.

Welcome to the Real World

Unfortunately, James wasn’t kidding and my own Dad became a NASCAR fan. Although I have had to bitterly accept the latter, part of me still holds out hope that ear-candling is the world’s biggest online hoax. However, I had a client ask me if I was intersted in writing a series of How To articles on ear candling to treat vertigo and sinus headaches. I had to say no, but was astounded that the request was serious.

I’m Not Against CAM Therapies, But

I do happen to be proponent of complimentary and alternative therapies, especailly those I have tried myself. However, I can’t get behind ear candling. Now, how do you tell if a CAM therapy is probably a bunch of crap and better left alone?

• You stick something inside of your body and then SET IT ON FIRE
• You are given a scare tactic that you have poisons inside of your body that need to come out. Unless you just chugged cobra venom, you really don’t have much to worry about. These poisions are usually just called “toxins” and are rarely, if ever, given specific names.
• You’re told it’s a Native American tradition and all the Native Americans you know are asked about ear candling, reply with, “Say WHAT?”
• You stick something inside of your body and then SET IT ON FIRE. I realized I’ve repeated myself there, but it can’t be stressed enough — fire and your body do not mix.

Hope this helps.

Can You Say ‘Transdermal’? Sure You Can!

One of the suppossed breakthroughs in modern medicine is the creation of the transdermal patch. That’s one of those white bandage doo-hickeys you tape to your body and then absorb the medicine bit by bit through your skin. This really isn’t much different than the medicinal poltices or herbal compresses native healers have used for thousands of years. However, it wasn’t hip until the success (read=lots of money made) on the nicotene patch.

Why am I not keen on transdermal patches? Because I have realtives who can’t have them because for some strange reason their bodies soak up all of the goodies in the patch IMMEDIATELY. This has lead to some very sick relatives. However, those that used the nictoene patch when they tried to quit smoking were pretty happy until they found out why they were so happy.

The Latest Future Star

NP101 is the trail name of the transdermal patch for acute migraines that has done well so far. It is put out by NuPathe, Inc, a very small pharmaceutical company reported to be “privately held” (sounds painful.) The patch is a combination of sumatriptan (the active medicine in Imitrex) and “NuPathe’s SmartRelief™ proprietary iontophoretic transdermal technology”. (No, I don’t know what that means, either, but it sure sounds impressive, doesn’t it?)

The Nitty Gritty

NP101 was tested against Imitrex nose spray, tablet and injections. There were 23 human guinea pigs descibed as “healthy”. I assume that means the subjects were not prone to migraines if they were “healthy” and that the migraines were chemically induced. I could not find details of that fact on the Internet or in NuPathe’s press release.

The big hope is that the patch can give you the same relief as with triptans, but without the wacky side effects. It didn’t give any serious side-effects to the 23 volunteers except swelling of the skin at the patch site. Although some reports say this patch will be availbale in a year, odds are with the way Phase II and Phase III Trials have gone for other drugs recently, that it will be at least two years.

Whoops. That’s all the time we have for this episode, boys and girls. Time to go back to real world where all your dreams are clouded by a haze of blinding migraine pain and splintering dry heaves. Bye for now!

My Top Picks

Personally, I feel that this is one of the strongest carnivals yet of the series. There’s nothing like trying to attach some meaning to your suffering in order to help you bear the pain. Although not all of the posts dealt with the specific topic, they did tie in and are interesting reads in and of their own right.

The best title for this month’s blog carnival goes to Rain Gem for Visualization Techniques for Migraines, Headaches, Pain and Increasing Breast Size. For some people, the female breast is certainly a religion. For females like me, they are merely twin sources of headaches. Check out the fluffy kitten picture.

The best common sense for those with migraines goes to Rhymes with Migraine’s On Migraines and a Path to Harmony. Don’t let the title fool you. It’s a very down to earth post that probably could apply to a lot of people today.

The Me, Me, Me award goes to my own Could Migraines Try to Help Us Cope with Stress? from one of the other blogs I write for, Where We Relax. Remember, if you are looking for a name for a band, why not try Comatose Locusts?

And the best post that sums it all up is yet another brilliantly written post from Megan at Free My Brain from Migraine Pain called God Grant Me the Serenity to Accept the Migraines I Cannot Change.

If I didn’t mention your post here, it’s not because it was poorly written or anything like that. It just didn’t catch my fancy today. Not your fault — mine.

Next Month

The theme for August’s Blog Carnival is yet another good topic, “Handling People who Don’t Get Migraines or Headaches”. Entries are due Friday, August 8th. You don’t get paid, but you do get mega publicity and access to information you might otherwise miss. Your blog does not have to be about head pains in particular, but the post should be related to headaches or migraines in some fashion.

See you next month!