When a patient asks if Botox will help them, the usual response is along the lines of, “Quite possibly, but you’ll have to try it to find out.” A patient’s blood levels of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) could predict whether a person with chronic migraine will…
We all know that stress can be a cause or a trigger of illness, but we rarely hear about the inverse — that illness itself is a major stressor. In a national poll by the Harvard School of Public Health, the Robert Wood Johnson foundation…
New daily persistent headache (NDPH) is “rare” and “poorly understood;” there is “no known treatment for NDPH.” These statements, which are from abstracts of two studies that were presented at the American Headache Society’s conference in June, succinctly capture the frustrations of people living with…
People sometimes criticize me for saying I have a chronic illness or calling myself sick. They tell me it’s disempowering, that I’m being negative and limiting myself. I get the pop psychology behind the critiques and understand it may be helpful for many people to…
Medical marijuana stories tend to fall into one of two categories: “OMG, it’s so amazing!” or “Marijuana is the worst thing ever.” Reality, as well all know, tends to be a bit more nuanced. A reader left her story on my most on medical marijuana…