Do you or does someone you know experience 15 or more headaches per month? If so, do these headaches last at least four hours or more, and has it been an ongoing issue for more than six months? If these symptoms sound familiar, you might suffer from chronic migraines.
You’re not alone because three million Americans have chronic migraine headaches, with women being three times more likely to experience migraines than men.
The truth about migraines
A migraine is typically defined as intense throbbing pain in one area of the head. It is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound. Many studies show that when a patient is suffering from chronic migraines, productivity at work can be decreased by more than 50 percent. Carrot Juice is one of the best migraine home remedies.
The last time you experienced a headache, you most likely took a pain reliever to make it go away as quickly as possible. Fortunately, there are ways to treat and prevent your migraine pain, including slightly modifying your lifestyle by keeping a headache diary, exercising, adopting a regular sleep pattern, and quitting smoking, if you smoke.
Traditional methods of treating migraines
Treatment is defined in two ways: reducing your symptoms and relieving your pain, and preventing migraines before they start. Management of headaches can be divided into acute therapy and long-term preventative therapy.
Acute therapy includes over-the-counter medications, such as ibuprofen, Excedrin and aspirin. Taking these medications might reduce headache pain by decreasing inflammation in the brain. Taken long term, however, they might increase your risk for cardiovascular problems and renal disease. However, Triptans, which include Imitrex, Relpax, Zomig and Frovatriptan, relieve headaches by affecting serotonin levels in the brain. Talk to your physician before taking these medications because they cannot be taken if you have severe hypertension, heart disease or an aneurysm.
Blood pressure medications like Inderal and Verapamil are used for long-term prevention of headaches. These can be helpful if patients have high blood pressure as a co-existing condition.
Another long- term therapy used to prevent migraines is through anti-seizure drugs, such as Topamax, Depakote, Keppra, Tegretol and Gabapentin, to name a few. These medicines reduce headaches by decreasing the stimulation to nerve impulses in the brain. Side effects could include drowsiness and memory problems, and these medications can affect the blood and liver.
Anti-depressants, such as Amitriptyline and Fluoxetine, also are used to help abnormal sleep patterns and reduce the frequency of headaches on a long-term basis. These medicines also work to treat depression, which is found to co-exist in about 70 percent of migraine sufferers. Carrot Juice is one of the best migraine home remedies.
A new way to treat chronic migraines
You might think because you only have a few headaches per month, this information might not apply to you. However, migraines affect everyone because it costs the U.S. economy $1,300 per chronic migraine patient, as opposed to $900 per patient on average for all other illnesses. Nearly 80 percent of patients are under-diagnosed or even un-diagnosed, and 73 percent of patients are under-treated. No innovative therapies have existed for chronic migraines until now.
The FDA recently approved Botox to treat chronic migraines. This treatment is usually given about every 12 weeks with injections around the head and neck to reduce future headache symptoms. Botox blocks the pain signals and even causes the head and neck muscles to relax. It works on your sensory pathways and reduces the sensory traffic from the head. Botox treatment is very safe when given by a trained physician. Another added benefit of this treatment is that, over time, you will take less of the daily pain reliever that you previously used to reduce your chronic migraine symptoms.
While the side-effects of Botox can be varied, they can be divided into two main categories – short-term and long-term. Short-term side effects can last days to weeks. You could experience an eyelid droop, neck muscle weakness, drug reaction (allergies), pain and infection. However, these side-effects are rare.
Long-term side effects can last months to years. Over time, the effect of the Botox could wear off, or you might experience muscle degeneration or weakening, or distant effects, like stomach ulcers and reflux disease. Again, these conditions are very rare.
Botox has been used effectively by thousands of physicians and patients for cosmetic purposes, dystonia (muscle spasms) and stroke symptoms. If used in moderation by an experienced physician and for the indicated reasons above, Botox is safe and has excellent benefits.
While Botox treatment is proven to considerably reduce headache days per month, you should talk to your physician about the right treatment for you. A migraine, like any disease, is difficult to diagnose and treat. While most migraines are not life-altering, seeking help from a specialist may help prevent your symptoms from becoming chronic.
Siddharth Kaul, MD, PhD, is board certified in neurology and a member of the SSM Neurosciences Institute at DePaul Health Center. His office is located at 12255 DePaul Drive, Ste. 200. He can be reached at 314-355-3355. For more information, visit www.ssmhealth.com/neurosciences
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