Dealing With Headaches

Hey-ho. I’m having an attack of short attention span, so instead of deeply going into one topic, let’s look at a whole heapin’ helpin’ of headache and migraine news from around the web. So, pop your favorite painkiller, clean off your glasses and let’s get clicking.

• November’s incredibly abbreviated headache blog carnival is up at Pain in the Head. Why are there only five selections this month? Go figure. This month’s topic is Art and Migraines.
• President Bush wants to cause even more headaches for President Elect Obama and perhaps retaliate to the millions of Americans who voted for Obama. He has quickly signed many horrible laws, including weakening the endangered Species Act, lowering enviromental regulations for older nuclear power plants and making it now next to impossible for any American to qualify for Medicaid. This guy isn’t going to be happy until he has this country under multiple mushroom clouds. And I bet he sleeps like a baby, too.
• A rather incomprehensible report about rat’s brains and Imitrex (sumatriptan) appeared today in Molecular Pain. I’m honestly not sure if it’s good news or bad news for people’s brains taking sumatriptan. Obviously, it was bad news for the rats.
• Voters in Michigan have approved the use of doctor-supervised prescription medical marijuana. For crying out loud — if we can’t have a sensible health care plan, at least let us have acess to pot. I feel a little smug about the propostition passing because I ghostwrote an article for the pro-marijuana side (and got a whopping $3 for). However, growing cannibis in your basement and selling it from your home is still illegal.
• Should you completely avoid chocolate when you are a migraineur? Admitedly pro-chocolate Chocolate Zoom states that chocolate triggers migraines is a myth, so migraineurs — eat up. And even if it were proven tomorrow that chocolate DID cause migraines, I’d rather stick with the migraines than give up chocolate. Besides, what are the people in Michigan going to do when they get the munchies? (Sorry — couldn’t resist).

On a personal note, my insurance company still won’t cover Imitrex. I’m waiting very impatiently for the arrival of generic Imitrex in December. What do you want to bet that on November 30, GlaxoSmithKline announces that the whole deal is off?