About once a month, usually around my period, I start feeling sort of?off. My neck gets tight and achy, and I can?t think as clearly as usual, like my mental gears are gummed up. That slow-brain feeling, I?ve learned over the years, is not a good sign. It means I?m about to get a migraine. It?s my cue to be careful? ? to steer clear of red wine and sugar, two sure triggers when I?m in that sensitive state, and to get enough rest since lack of sleep can tip me over the edge, too.
Even so, if anything in my routine is out of whack ? ?if I don?t eat often enough, or if I become overly stressed ? ?I can count on one or two days of misery. Head-pounding, nauseated, verge-of-tears misery.
Sound bad? Compared to many of the 30 million migraine sufferers in the U.S., my experience is fairly mild. Several years ago, the massive American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention Study found that half of those who struggle with migraines can?t do household chores and a third forgo family or social activities. That?s a whole lot of agony, and it affects three times as many women as men, largely because the ups and downs of our hormones seem to make us more susceptible, according to Andrew Charles, MD, professor and director of the UCLA School of Medicine?s Headache Research and Treatment Program.
A migraine isn?t just a headache; it?s a neurological disorder, often inherited, in which triggers ranging from stress to certain foods to even changes in the weather set off a chain reaction in the brain that results in intense pain.
Most migraine sufferers are between the ages of 20 and 50? ? women in full-speed-ahead career/family/juggling mode. We?re talking about multitaskers who definitely can?t afford a day or two (or more) of feeling cruddy. And yet most don?t get effective treatment, even though there are plenty of options. ?Many people still don?t know what migraines are or that there?s good help available,? says Stewart Tepper, MD, a headache specialist at the Cleveland Clinic?s Center for Headache and Pain.
In fact, many women don?t even realize that they?ve got migraines in the first place. The truth is, most bad headaches ? ?the ones that make getting through the day a chore or make you feel nauseated or sensitive to light ? ?are the Big M. ?They?re more common than we used to think,? Dr. Charles says. ?Nearly 48 percent of all women will have a migraine at some point in their lives.?
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Migraine Relief
Date:10/19/2011Duration: 001:0010Video By: HealthDay
Exercise may work as well as medicine to reduce painful headaches.
Although tension headaches affect more people, they?re far less debilitating and easier to deal with. Studies have found that most people who complain to their doctors about headaches have migraines? ? as do nearly 90 percent of people who think they have sinus headaches.
That?s why it?s so important to understand migraines ? ?why we get them, what triggers them, how to prevent them, and the most effective ways to treat them at every stage.
Pre-headache: Prevent it
The best migraine defense is a good offense? ? stopping it before it starts. ?One of the most effective things you can do is maintain regular habits and try to keep your life on an even keel,? says Peter Goadsby, MD, director of the University of California?San Francisco Headache Clinic. Eat, sleep, and exercise regularly (studies have shown that both cardio and stretching are effective at reducing headaches), and try to control your stress, since that is the number-one migraine trigger.
Lifestyle changes.? Two options proven to help: biofeedback and cognitive behavioral therapy. With biofeedback training, technicians attach electrodes to your head and neck to measure muscle tension and relaxation, so you not only learn to recognize those states but to control them. And in cognitive behavioral therapy, you learn relaxation strategies, like meditation.
?You get about a 55 percent reduction in headache frequency, on average, with behavioral approaches,? says Donald Penzien, PhD, director of the Head Pain Center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, ?so long as you make an effort to put the techniques into practice.?
Training costs between $70 and $250 a session, but it?s usually covered by insurance. And when Penzien and his colleagues studied the cost of behavioral therapies a few years ago, they found that most people learn the techniques in just a few sessions.
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