a candid look at managing and living with headaches & migraines

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Archive for May, 2007

Working With Migraines & Headaches

Working with migraines or a headache disorder — any misunderstood chronic illness, really — can be grueling and humiliating. If you’re lucky, co-workers who lack compassion and are resentful is the worst you’ll face. Often, though, supervisors and higher ups don’t understand the severity of your illness, your performance suffers and you’re a major topic [...]

Tenderness on Thigh Related to Headaches?

When you have a headache, is the area on your thighs tender when you push on in the area where your arms hit? How about when you don’t? Your responses to my completely unscientific experiment gave mixed results. According to my acupuncturist, this area is more tender during a headache than when you’re headache free. [...]

Evaluating News on Medical Study Findings

Much like you learned in kindergarten, findings of medical studies get distorted as they go along the telephone chain. A journal article gets to a journalist who interprets it, highlighting eye-catching findings. Then an editor steps in and may jazz it up some more. By the time you hear the news, it’s distilled to soundbites. [...]

Aw, Nuts! Another Migraine Trigger?

Post-peanut butter, nuts have become a go-to food for me. When I’m hungry and can’t think about food, I put almond butter on a bagel. If I’m going to be away from home for awhile, I bring a bag of trail mix along. Turns out these good-for-you snacks aren’t so smart for me. Last Tuesday [...]

Reinterpreting Study on Migraine & Brain Damage

Headache specialist Dr. Christina Peterson‘s comment on Migraines Linked With Brain Damage points out that one study never reveals absolute truth. Nor are articles written for the general public usually preceeded by the analysis necessary to critically evaluate research findings. As Dr. Peterson writes, it is “distressing and somewhat irresponsible that every finding in the [...]

Migraines During Pregnancy Linked to Heart Disease & Stroke

Women who have migraines during pregnancy have a greater risk of stroke or heart disease than pregnant women who don’t. Using pregnancy discharge data from nearly 17 million women in the US, researchers found that almost 34,000 women had been treated for migraines. These women were 19 times more likely to suffer a stroke, five [...]

Teenagers With Chronic Daily Headache or Migraine Have Greater Suicide Risk

Young teenagers with chronic daily headache, particularly migraine with aura, have a six times greater risk of suicide than teens without headache disorders. This is according to a study in Taipei of 7,900 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 14. From Medscape (you can get a password from BugMeNot): “Young adolescents with chronic daily [...]