I have suffered from migraines for years. I won’t say how many years, but let’s just say that it has been over 35 years! I have taken non-prescription medicine, put ice on my head and neck, tried to rest in a dark, quiet room and a few other things. Most didn’t work. The ones that did work didn’t work well.

Like you, I could feel the symptoms coming on, and no matter what symptoms I had, I knew that there was a migraine on the way. Lightheadedness, pain in the back or side of the head, nausea and more. No matter what the symptom, I always knew that these were not just regular headaches.

Since I wasn’t getting these headaches every day or even every week, I didn’t run to the doctor. In addition, isn’t it very iteresting that we almost seem to get all the big stuff at night – especially during the middle of the night – or at a party or wedding or important event. If it got really bad, I’d end up in the emergency room and they would give me a shot or two so I could go home and sleep it off.

Over the years, dealing with migraines for most people, there have been many changes and improvements in treatment and medications to choose from that can be used on a regular basis, either daily, weekly, or at the time of the headache. Sometimes I have had to use different medications because some do a better job than others. If you are suffering with these headaches don’t wait – see a doctor. It could be a migraine or other headache, but it could be a headache that could cause an aneurysm or a seizure.

Regardless, the best symptom of a migraine is the feeling of it fading away when the medication works.

I am a migraine sufferer and have been for years. Some weeks they are not too bad. Others, I have them most days or nights. If I get one during the day, I lie down in a darkened room, take some medication and hope I fall asleep so that when I wake up, usually the mgraine is over, or at least a lot better. That’s a wonderful feeling. The only problem is that once I have taken medication and sleep – especially deeply – during the day, I find myself sitting up in the middle of the night waiting to get tired.

The doctors have given me sleeping pills in the event that this happens, however, when taking a sleeping pill, it is hard to get up in the morning to do what I have to do. That starts a different cycle. Sometimes it creates another migraine, but usually it leaves me extremely tired and needing to sleep more.

When the situation happens backwards and the migraine happens at night, it doesn’t seem so bad. Trust me, it isn’t fun, but when you take the migraine medication and lie down in a dark room and the medication works, usually – at least if the medicine works – I am able to wake up in the morning usually feeling better. Sometimes I take a sleeping pill at the same time since the migraine pill (which is not meant to be a tranquilizer or sleeping pill), and that way I am able to sleep and wake up feeling better – ready to do what I have to do for the day.

Researchers have discovered that because of all the troubles the world is going through these days, especially because of the incredible financial issues that are affecting everyone, migraines are on the rise. People who never or rarely got migraines before are getting them a lot more these days simply due to stress, which then leads to lack of sleep. Working on both and trying to focus on the positive – no matter how small – will help keep the number and intensity of migraines down and your sleep more regular and peaceful.

Riboflavin is a type of B vitamin. All B vitamins are water soluble. It is extremely important in converting carbohydrates into sugar. The eight B vitamins, which are also known as vitamin B complex, are necessary to metabolize fat and proteins. They help keep the muscles in good tone and are necessary for the overall health of the digestive and nervous system. They are also necessary for the skin, hair, mouth and liver to stay healthy..

If we have a deficiency in vitamin B or riboflavin, there can be harm to the body, some of it extreme.
There are some serious impacts if we do not get sufficient riboflavin. Headaches, fatigue, visual disturbances, digestive problems, cracks in the mouth, and sensitivity to light are just a few of the impacts.

Riboflavin is found in a sufficient quantity in many foods. Green leafy vegetables, liver, legumes, eggs, milk, cheese, dairy products and fortified cereals are some of the food items which contain riboflavin. The most common reason of riboflavin deficiency is insufficient amount of the vitamin in the diet. Though it is best to get as much riboflavin from food as a source if possible. If it is not possible to do this through diet, a combination of food and vitamin supplements, or even just vitamin supplements without much riboflavin-rich foods will at least help avoid the dficiency or at least make it less severe.

Riboflavin deficiency is a problem for many people of various ages. It is also an unusually severe problem for the elderly.

Riboflavin can be destroyed by light, so any food which contains riboflavin or riboflavin supplements should be kept away from bright light. Also, since riboflavin is a soluble vitamin, it’s benefits can be lost in water when foods are cooked. This can be counteracted by retaining the water which is used to boil vegetables and use the water in cooking other items. There are a number of fortified flours which have riboflavin added to them, as well, however they do not help the body to the extent that whole foods and vitamin supplements do..

If you choose to take supplements, take them with food, usually a meal, so that your body can absorb and use the supplements better. Check with your doctor regarding the level of riboflavin to take, especially if you are taking medications, since various medications can affect the riboflavin and the riboflavin can affect whether the medications and how the medications work. Some of the medications that can have negative interactions with riboflavin include:

Tricyclic antidepressants
Anti-malaria drugs
Various antipsychotic medications
Birth control pills
Doxorubicin (chemotherapy used for some cancers)
Methotrexate
Phenytoin
Probenecid (for gout)
Selegiline (for Parkinson’s disease)
‘Sulfa’ medications – certain antibiotics
Thiazide diuretics
If you are taking riboflavin there are possibilities of allergic reactions. One main side effect (which is not harmful) is that riboflavin may result in urine becoming an orange red color. Allergic reactions in some patients may take place. Avoid overdosing yourself with any supplement containing riboflavin. Ask your family physician or a nutritionist on proper advice.

Studies and testimonies from patients and doctors are showing that there are many people who have been suffering from Migraines who, since taking riboflavin daily, have eliminated most -if not all – of these terrible, painful and debilitating headaches.

A stroke is not a sign of old age. My grandmother proved that. Anyone can have one, no matter your age — and, a new study says this is especially true if you suffer from migraines. Those who suffer from what’s called “migraine with aura” have double the risk of stroke or heart attacks. The headache’s preceded by slurred speech, forgetfulness, feeling hot or cold — and then aura. Out of 175 people, nearly one third of those with migraines had signs of blood vessel damage — which can lead to a stroke.

Beth Leslie had gotten occasional migraines for years. She thought of them as a painful imposition, nothing more. Then, one day two years ago, her world tipped sideways. “Everything was spinning. I just kept my eyes closed, because whenever I’d open them I’d get dizzy,” says Leslie, a 24-year-old veterinary technician who lives in Bowling Green, Ohio. “It really freaked me out.”

She went to the hospital, where a doctor told her she’d probably come down with some sort of virus. After two days, Leslie’s condition hadn’t improved, and her boyfriend started pressing the doctors. They agreed to give her a brain scan, and found she’d suffered a stroke, one that centered on her cerebellum, the part of the brain in charge of balance.

Leslie was shocked. Like most people, she’d thought of stroke as a disease of old age. But for those who get migraines, the rules appear to be different. Until recently, scientists saw migraine suffering as a physiological thunderstorm that left few lasting effects. But new research suggests some migraines aren’t so innocuous.
Recent studies show those who suffer from something called migraine with aura have double, or perhaps triple, the risk of stroke or heart attack, compared with people who don’t get migraines at all
In these people — Leslie is one of them — the headache is preceded by a range of symptoms: slurred speech, forgetfulness, feeling hot or cold, and ghostly lights blinking across the field of vision. That last one is the aura. A third of those who experience migraines have these symptoms; generally, this sub-group also has more frequent, and more excruciating, migraines.

“I don’t think migraine is seen as a serious disorder. That’s a mistake,” says migraine researcher David Dodick, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. “Headache is just one manifestation of migraine. It’s a systemic illness.”

The mysteries of migraines
Thirty-five million Americans — 1 in 10 of us — get migraines. They tend to occur regularly, with severe pain on one side of the head. Migraine attacks often include other symptoms, such as nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. Researchers disagree on whether people who get migraines without aura are at higher risk for strokes and heart attacks. So far, almost all of the research of migraine and cardiovascular risk has occurred in those who get auras.

No one knows for sure what accounts for the higher rates of strokes and heart attacks in those who do suffer from migraine with aura, but scientis have several theories that may offer insight. Some researchers blame migraines on chronic exposure to certain neurotransmitters. Most scientists think migraine sufferers’ brains are hyper-excitable — that is, their neurons tend to start firing uncontrollably, with the outburst spreading across the brain over the course of a few hours. This electrical storm causes the brain to release several neurotransmitters, including two chemicals called Substance P and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP), that produce inflammation and pain in the blood vessels surrounding our brains.

Researchers suspect that over years of repeated migraines, the inflammation from Substance P and CGRP may weaken blood vessels, not only in the head but throughout the body. This damage may raise the risk of stroke or heart attack. During a stroke, the vessels that supply the brain rupture or become blocked; during a heart attack the same thing happens to the vessels around the heart.

In a study of 175 people completed last year, University of Toledo neurologist Gretchen Tietjen — who treated Leslie after her stroke — found that nearly a third of those with migraines had signs of blood vessel damage, almost five times higher than the controls. Tietjen says that while there’s no conclusive proof that Leslie’s migraines played a role in her stroke, they easily could have.

But another group of scientists think the culprit isn’t neurotransmitters, but the vascular system itself. Dodick and others argue that the blood vessels of people who get migraines are inherently dysfunctional, contracting and expanding abnormally in reaction to physical and emotional stress. “People with migraine probably have unusually reactive blood vessels,” says neurologist Richard B. Lipton, a leading migraine researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. In the head, these vascular spasms could trigger migraines. When the veins and arteries in the temple and skull expand and contract too much, they may press on nerves, leading to the excruciating pain. In people who get migraines, these blood vessel seizures may occur throughout the body, without patients much noticing. Over years, these spasms may damage the vascular system.

Over the past five years, scientists have found that PFOs seem to occur in more than half of people who get migraines. In some migraine patients, closing the PFO with surgery seems to lead to a disappearance of headaches. Some researchers suspect the unpurified blood leaking through the PFO contains inflammatory molecules, which set off that electrical storm when they travel up to the brain. (This may be why people with migraine get headaches after eating certain foods like red wine, olives and chocolate. These “trigger” foods may contain the offending chemicals, which in normal people are constantly removed from the blood.)

Kurth, who has spent several years examining connections between migraine and stroke, thinks there may be several lines of connection between stroke, heart disease and migraine.

At the same time, he says, even those who get frequent migraines shouldn’t panic. In the general population, stroke and heart attack are quite rare. They’re even less common if you’re young and healthy. While the stroke risk might double from 15 per 100,000 in the general population to 30 per 100,000 for those who experience migraine with aura, the risk is still relatively small, pointed out Lipton in the journal Neurology Today.

But if you get migraines, and you smoke, are overweight, or have untreated high blood pressure, then your risk climbs significantly. And each risk compounds the others exponentially. In a 2007 study published, Kurth found that women who have migraine with aura, smoke and take oral contraceptives (also a stroke hazard), were 10 times more likely to have a stroke than women without these risks. Leslie, for example, was taking birth control pills when she had her stroke.

Even without a clear causal link, the new findings may change how doctors treat migraines. Rather than seeing the condition as a painful but harmless hassle, doctors are increasingly trying to prevent it, just as they do obesity or high blood pressure. A range of medicines, including blood pressure drugs and antidepressants, can help prevent headaches. And many patients also find relief through changes in lifestyle and diet.
But if you get migraines, and you smoke, are overweight, or have untreated high blood pressure, then your risk climbs significantly. And each risk compounds the others exponentially.

In a 2007 study published, Kurth found that women who have migraine with aura, smoke and take oral contraceptives (also a stroke hazard), were 10 times more likely to have a stroke than women without these risks. Leslie, for example, was taking birth control pills when she had her stroke.

Changes in treatment
Even without a clear causal link, the new findings may change how doctors treat migraines. Rather than seeing the condition as a painful but harmless hassle, doctors are increasingly trying to prevent it, just as they do obesity or high blood pressure. A range of medicines, including blood pressure drugs and antidepressants, can help prevent headaches. And many patients also find relief through changes in lifestyle and diet.

Although there’s no clear proof, some scientists, including Tietjen, suspect that in migraineurs, preventing headaches could lower the risk of stroke and heart attack.

“I think there’s ongoing, progressive damage to the cardiovascular system,” she says. “If you can treat patients early on, maybe you can keep it from progressing.”

Leslie, who has since fully recovered from her stroke, is now in this minority. She takes Elavil, an anti-depressant, for migraine prevention. She no longer takes oral contraceptives, and last year she had surgery to close a PFO doctors discovered after her stroke. She almost never gets a headache. “It still surprises me that I had a stroke,” she says. “But I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy now. I’ve come a long way.”

more information about DST Health Solutions, contact 800.272.4799, e-mail inforequests@dsthealthsolutions.com or visit www.dsthealthsolutions.com.

Web Site: http://www.dsthealthsolutions.com/

My grandmother had several strokes while I was growing up. This was in the early 1960′s and I had no idea what a stroke was and why she was so sick. The problem is that the doctors didn’t now what the do either. Somehow, they managed to keep bringing her around, get her stable, bring her home let her rest for a few weeks and then hope for the best. They would keep her on a bunch of medication – some for her heart, some for her blood pressure and a few other pills that were for other things that I was never knew what it was for. They looked like a stack of skittles. My grandmother started having strokes when she was in her 50′s. She died of a stroke and a massive hemmoraghe at age 62. She was active until the day she died. The day before she died, whe was on a ladder hanging curtains, happy and singing. You would never know that there was anything wrong with here for a day in her life – certainly not a history of strokes.

A stroke is not a sign of old age. My grandmother proved that. Anyone can have one, no matter your age — and, a new study says this is especially true if you suffer from migraines. Those who suffer from what’s called “migraine with aura” have double the risk of stroke or heart attacks. The headache’s preceded by slurred speech, forgetfulness, feeling hot or cold — and then aura. Out of 175 people, nearly one third of those with migraines had signs of blood vessel damage — which can lead to a stroke.

Beth Leslie had gotten occasional migraines for years. She thought of them as a painful imposition, nothing more. Then, one day two years ago, her world tipped sideways. “Everything was spinning. I just kept my eyes closed, because whenever I’d open them I’d get dizzy,” says Leslie, a 24-year-old veterinary technician who lives in Bowling Green, Ohio. “It really freaked me out.”

She went to the hospital, where a doctor told her she’d probably come down with some sort of virus. After two days, Leslie’s condition hadn’t improved, and her boyfriend started pressing the doctors. They agreed to give her a brain scan, and found she’d suffered a stroke, one that centered on her cerebellum, the part of the brain in charge of balance.

Leslie was shocked. Like most people, she’d thought of stroke as a disease of old age. But for those who get migraines, the rules appear to be different. Until recently, scientists saw migraine suffering as a physiological thunderstorm that left few lasting effects. But new research suggests some migraines aren’t so innocuous.
Recent studies show those who suffer from something called migraine with aura have double, or perhaps triple, the risk of stroke or heart attack, compared with people who don’t get migraines at all.

In these people — Leslie is one of them — the headache is preceded by a range of symptoms: slurred speech, forgetfulness, feeling hot or cold, and ghostly lights blinking across the field of vision. That last one is the aura. A third of those who experience migraines have these symptoms; generally, this sub-group also has more frequent, and more excruciating, migraines.

“I don’t think migraine is seen as a serious disorder. That’s a mistake,” says migraine researcher David Dodick, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. “Headache is just one manifestation of migraine. It’s a systemic illness.”

The mysteries of migraines
Thirty-five million Americans — 1 in 10 of us — get migraines. They tend to occur regularly, with severe pain on one side of the head. Migraine attacks often include other symptoms, such as nausea and sensitivity to light and sound. Researchers disagree on whether people who get migraines without aura are at higher risk for strokes and heart attacks. So far, almost all of the research of migraine and cardiovascular risk has occurred in those who get auras.

No one knows for sure what accounts for the higher rates of strokes and heart attacks in those who do suffer from migraine with aura, but scientis have several theories that may offer insight. Some researchers blame migraines on chronic exposure to certain neurotransmitters. Most scientists think migraine sufferers’ brains are hyper-excitable — that is, their neurons tend to start firing uncontrollably, with the outburst spreading across the brain over the course of a few hours. This electrical storm causes the brain to release several neurotransmitters, including two chemicals called Substance P and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP), that produce inflammation and pain in the blood vessels surrounding our brains.

Researchers suspect that over years of repeated migraines, the inflammation from Substance P and CGRP may weaken blood vessels, not only in the head but throughout the body. This damage may raise the risk of stroke or heart attack. During a stroke, the vessels that supply the brain rupture or become blocked; during a heart attack the same thing happens to the vessels around the heart.

In a study of 175 people completed last year, University of Toledo neurologist Gretchen Tietjen — who treated Leslie after her stroke — found that nearly a third of those with migraines had signs of blood vessel damage, almost five times higher than the controls. Tietjen says that while there’s no conclusive proof that Leslie’s migraines played a role in her stroke, they easily could have.

But another group of scientists think the culprit isn’t neurotransmitters, but the vascular system itself. Dodick and others argue that the blood vessels of people who get migraines are inherently dysfunctional, contracting and expanding abnormally in reaction to physical and emotional stress. “People with migraine probably have unusually reactive blood vessels,” says neurologist Richard B. Lipton, a leading migraine researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. In the head, these vascular spasms could trigger migraines. When the veins and arteries in the temple and skull expand and contract too much, they may press on nerves, leading to the excruciating pain. In people who get migraines, these blood vessel seizures may occur throughout the body, without patients much noticing. Over years, these spasms may damage the vascular system.

Link between migraine and heart defect?
Then there’s the hole-in-the-heart theory. Researchers have known for years that having a gap in the wall between two chambers of the heart — a surprisingly common defect (it occurs in 10 to 20 percent of people) — increases the risk of stroke. It’s not clear why: The defect, known as a patent foramen ovale, or PFO, may allow blood to bypass the lungs, which constantly filter small clots and impurities from the blood. These clots may end up lodged in veins and arteries in the head, triggering strokes.

Over the past five years, scientists have found that PFOs seem to occur in more than half of people who get migraines. In some migraine patients, closing the PFO with surgery seems to lead to a disappearance of headaches. Some researchers suspect the unpurified blood leaking through the PFO contains inflammatory molecules, which set off that electrical storm when they travel up to the brain. (This may be why people with migraine get headaches after eating certain foods like red wine, olives and chocolate. These “trigger” foods may contain the offending chemicals, which in normal people are constantly removed from the blood.)

‘A very complex system’
But none of these hypotheses have been proven, and the links between migraine and cardiovascular disease remain murky.

“There’s no clear mechanism that convinces me,” says Tobias Kurth, a neuro-epidemiologist at the Harvard University School of Public Health. “It’s likely a very complex system.”

Kurth, who has spent several years examining connections between migraine and stroke, thinks there may be several lines of connection between stroke, heart disease and migraine.

At the same time, he says, even those who get frequent migraines shouldn’t panic. In the general population, stroke and heart attack are quite rare. They’re even less common if you’re young and healthy. While the stroke risk might double from 15 per 100,000 in the general population to 30 per 100,000 for those who experience migraine with aura, the risk is still relatively small, pointed out Lipton in the journal Neurology Today.

But if you get migraines, and you smoke, are overweight, or have untreated high blood pressure, then your risk climbs significantly. And each risk compounds the others exponentially. In a 2007 study published, Kurth found that women who have migraine with aura, smoke and take oral contraceptives (also a stroke hazard), were 10 times more likely to have a stroke than women without these risks. Leslie, for example, was taking birth control pills when she had her stroke.

Even without a clear causal link, the new findings may change how doctors treat migraines. Rather than seeing the condition as a painful but harmless hassle, doctors are increasingly trying to prevent it, just as they do obesity or high blood pressure. A range of medicines, including blood pressure drugs and antidepressants, can help prevent headaches. And many patients also find relief through changes in lifestyle and diet.

“A doubling of risk sounds scary, but in absolute terms, it’s still low,” says Dr. Stephen Silberstein, a migraine specialist at the Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia.

But if you get migraines, and you smoke, are overweight, or have untreated high blood pressure, then your risk climbs significantly. And each risk compounds the others exponentially.

In a 2007 study published, Kurth found that women who have migraine with aura, smoke and take oral contraceptives (also a stroke hazard), were 10 times more likely to have a stroke than women without these risks. Leslie, for example, was taking birth control pills when she had her stroke.

Changes in treatment
Even without a clear causal link, the new findings may change how doctors treat migraines. Rather than seeing the condition as a painful but harmless hassle, doctors are increasingly trying to prevent it, just as they do obesity or high blood pressure. A range of medicines, including blood pressure drugs and antidepressants, can help prevent headaches. And many patients also find relief through changes in lifestyle and diet.

Although there’s no clear proof, some scientists, including Tietjen, suspect that in migraineurs, preventing headaches could lower the risk of stroke and heart attack.

“I think there’s ongoing, progressive damage to the cardiovascular system,” she says. “If you can treat patients early on, maybe you can keep it from progressing.”

Leslie, who has since fully recovered from her stroke, is now in this minority. She takes Elavil, an anti-depressant, for migraine prevention. She no longer takes oral contraceptives, and last year she had surgery to close a PFO doctors discovered after her stroke. She almost never gets a headache. “It still surprises me that I had a stroke,” she says. “But I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy now. I’ve come a long way.”

For more information about DST Health Solutions, contact 800.272.4799, e-mail inforequests@dsthealthsolutions.com or visit www.dsthealthsolutions.com.

The following is a story of one of the people who has not found the right treatment or cure yet. She is working with two doctors at the Wasser Pain Management Center. Here is her story, partially reprinted from the communications team at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada.

At times, Mary-Anne McDermott’s crippling migraine pain gets so bad that it invades almost all her senses. “I used to mostly suffer from light sensitivity. Now it’s light, sound, smell and I become very nauseous which on occasion leads to vomiting,” says McDermott, a patient of the Wasser Pain Management Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital. “I now have six to seven migraines a month, most lasting between three to five days.”

McDermott has suffered from migraine pain since elementary school. Now 30, she has endured a significant increase in the pain she experiences. After a recent visit to the emergency room following five straight days of pain, McDermott decided it was time to see a headache specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital.

The Wasser Pain Management Centre sees 800 to 1,000 new patients each year for everything from nerve pain to pelvic pain. Women make up about 70 per cent of its patients.

Migraine headaches, which affect approximately three times more women than men, can be devastating and lead to disability, dysfunction, missed work or even the loss of a job. Migraine is one of the most common types of pain and yet, physicians can only speculate why women are disproportionately affected.

“At present, we don’t know exactly why migraines are more prevalent in women than in men,” says Dr. Allan Gordon, Director of the Wasser Pain Management Centre and a specialist in the treatment and management of migraine pain. “A number of studies found that pre-pubescent males and females experience a similar rate of migraines, leading to the conclusion that hormones are a significant factor in the cause of the pain.”

During pregnancy, for example, hormonal changes can affect the frequency and severity of migraine headaches in women. About two-thirds of migraine sufferers endure the same level of pain or worse during their pregnancy, while one-third will experience decreased pain or none at all. Like the hormonal ups and downs however, these changes are temporary. For those with reduced pain, migraine symptoms almost always return after pregnancy.

Treatment options for women considering pregnancy are severely reduced. “Many of the pharmacological treatments available for migraines should not be used during pregnancy or for anyone contemplating pregnancy as they may affect fertility and the health of the fetus,” explains Dr. Gordon. “Men do not have to worry about fertility issues and the impact of medication during conception, pregnancy or breastfeeding.”

While women may face more obstacles than men in managing migraine pain, the Wasser Pain Management Centre offers a variety of pharmacological and alternative treatment options such as relaxation therapy, mindfulness and biofeedback. “In managing patients it’s important to address a person’s overall health,” Dr. Gordon says, highlighting the centre’s focus on mental, emotional and physical health.

Dr. Gordon started McDermott on new medication in January 2009 that has helped reduce the number of episodes. For now, this treatment is working well for McDermott and she finds encouragement in Dr. Gordon’s successes. “I’ve heard from many other patients that he is very good and I’m feeling hopeful about my situation,” she says.
Kalin Moon and Michael Power are members of the communications team at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

One of the most current migraine studies has taken a close look at fat around the middle of the body and how it might be triggering migraine headaches. The study shows that overweight people between the ages of 20 and 55 who are overweight – especially around the middle of the body – have a higher risk of experiencing migraine headaches.

Over 22,000 individuals who were part of the research and who were overweight, were asked if they had migraine headaches. In the age range between 20 and 55, those individuals who had larger waistlines also experienced many more migraine headaches than the people of the same ages but with smaller waistlines.

To measure obesity, measurements were taken by circumference and total body obesity. This was calculated by using a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI) using weight and height.

Thirty seven percent of women between 20 and 55 with excessive abdominal fat reported getting regular migraines compared to 29% of those without excessive abdominal fat. As for men in the same situation, 20% with excess abdominal fat reported regular migraines vs. only 16% of those without excessive abdominal fat reporting migraines.

These results strongly suggest that it would be helpful for those men and women who have excess abdominal fat and get migraines to try to lose weight, thereby eliminating the number and the severity of migraines they experience. If you find yourself in this situation, trying to lose some weight might be your greatest source of relief.

There are the usual home remedies a person can use to help relieve the symptoms. These include various herbs and spices, ice packs. accupressure and more. Other treatments include chiropractic care, accupuncture and lying down in a dark, quiet room.

In addition there are those prescription meds. Prescription meds for migraines have become better and better. Many of the meds have improved during the last few years. Some meds that took an hour or more to start working in the past now take 10 or 15 minutes to start turning the syptoms around and stopping them.

Researchers have started the process of putting together the figures showing how much money could be saved in many ways if migraies were diminished or eliminated. When an individual gets a severe migraine and has to miss work, it costs the employee part of their paycheck and it costs the employer time and money to get the work done or to get it caught up. In addition, there are doctor’s expenses.

There is continuous research being done to try to find adequate medication and treatment for migraines. Having suffered from migraines myself, I know that treatment is getting better because my migraine episodes are fewer and further between. Hopefully this is happening in your case, too or it will be soon.

In a survey of large employers released by the non-profit Midwest Business Group on Health, 91 percent of respondents recognize that migraine headaches impact productivity. Most of these employers also stated that they have not gauged how much money is lost because of absences from work due to migraines and they don’t know how well their health plans are managing migraines for their employees who have to deal with them.

The National Headache Foundation (NHF) has come up with some figures estimating that U.S. industry loses $50 billion per year due to absenteeism, lost productivity and medical expenses caused by migraine headaches, especially chronic ones.

. “Migraine is a serious, neurological, chronic condition that non-sufferers often view as only stress-related and easily treated. The reality is that it results in lost productivity and causes significant disruptions to migraine sufferers’ work and personal lives, according to Larry Boress, MBGH President and CEO.

According to the NHF, nearly 30 million Americans — or one in eight workers — suffer from migraine, which is often accompanied by a variety of symptoms, including sharp throbbing pain on one or both sides of the head, nausea or vomiting, visual disturbances and sensitivity to noise and light. With the help of a health care provider, migraine headaches can be effectively managed and patients can identify and alleviate their symptoms with an appropriate treatment regimen.

When doctors are at a loss as to what to do about migraines and your doctor basically throws up their hands in frustration, it is difficult for both of you.  More and more medications have become available to offset migraines, but finding the right one can often take months, and there are questions regarding the safety of many of the medications.  Sometimes there are no medications that work well for a person at all, making the situation even more frustrating for all involved. 

Many individuals suffering with migraines prefer natural treatment but aren’t always able to find them, so they resort to prescription medication when there is no other alternative.  They are worried about side effects and drug interactions.  Plus, not all treatments work for everyone, so it becomes a case of hit or miss.

It is estimated that in the UK alone, there are nearly 200,000 migraine headaches suffered every single day.  Over 6 million people suffer from migraines in the UK on a regular basis. 

Research in conjunction with Migraine Action, the national migraine awareness organization in the UK has revealed the results of studying thousands of migraine sufferers and found that ginger has helped relieve symptoms in 63% of the people studied.  Ginger is natural and it has been used for many ailments.  Ginger – as in ginger ale – has been proven to help alleviate stomach problems including nausea and stomach pain from flu, food poisoning and other digestive issues.  Ginger is also said to help control blood pressure, ease sinus problems and help alleviate headaches, so using it for migraines isn’t a stretch.  In fact, since nausea often accompanies migraines, even if ginger doesn’t stop the headache, it can help with the nausea.

With so many questions about migraines unanswered, and with so many individuals looking for relief from migraines, ginger could be a remedy to try. It couldn’t hurt.  After all, it just might help get rid of the pain and help your health at the same time.

Migraines are also debilitating, and there have been a variety of treatments suggested to deal with them, especially in the past when medication was scarce.  There was ice, aspirin, lying in a dark, quiet room and a few other ideas, including somehow trying to get some sleep.  Of course, usually the doctors that suggested these ideas probably never had a migraine headache themselves.

Migraines are confused for eye problems and other health issues.  Sometimes eye problems do cause headaches, and often, misdiagnosis of eye problems results in the individual getting glasses only to find that the headaches continue.

Many times a migraine sufferer hears that “it’s just a sinus headache” which can be partially true.  Clogged and aching sinuses can cause severe headaches.  People talk about sinus problems and allergies as the cause for the headaches, but even after using sinus remedies to clear the sinuses, the headaches often still persist, pointing to a different cause for the headaches.

Hormones are also another easy thing to blame for migraines.  Sometimes they are part of the cause of headaches, however, when hormones are erroneously blamed for migraines, not only are the migraines not eliminated with hormone treatment, but, in addition, the hormone treatment can do long lasting harm to the body.

Quite often, if a person is under stress this is singled out as the cause of a migraine.  Medication is prescribed and may take the edge off; however, usually the headaches do not stop.

Because there are so many misconceptions migraines can often continue, increase in frequency and worsen over time.  It is important not to ignore these severe headaches because they can be a symptom of migraines or of other serious health issues including high blood pressure, possible aneurysm or a precursor to a stroke. 

If you find yourself at the point where your routine is disrupted on a regular basis or you can’t stand the pain any longer, it’s time to call your doctor in order to get help from a professional who is experienced in the diagnosis and treatment of migraine headaches.