Progressive muscle relaxation is an integral part of biofeedback training, but can be used by itself for the treatment of migraine and tension-type headaches. A group of researchers at the Ohio State University published an article in the journal Pain which reports the effect of progressive muscle relaxation on experimental pain in healthy volunteers. A single 25-minute tape-recorded session of progressive muscle relaxation resulted in a higher pain tolerance and reduced stress from pain. It can be safely assumed that regular practice sessions will result in even better results and all pain patients, including those with headaches should be encouraged to learn this simple technique.
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Migralex is an over-the-counter medication for the treatment of headaches, which will become available in November of 2009. Results of the first study of Migralex were presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society in Boston. In an open-label study 50 patients with headaches who were being treated at the NYHC compared Migralex with their usual medication. Half of the patients found Migralex better or much better than their usual treatment and 27 were willing to take it again. In 31 of 50 patients the usual medication was a triptan ( a prescription migraine medication) and in 19 it was a prescription or over-the-counter pain medication. Migralex was well tolerated, with only one patient reporting upset stomach.
Read MorePatients who faced delays in the treatment of their chronic pain were found to have worsening of their condition, according to a recent review published in the journal Pain. The review of 24 trials showed that patients had a significant deterioration of their health-related quality of life and psychological well being. This was true for patients who waited for six or more months to receive treatment. Studies looking at shorter wait times were less conclusive. The authors conclude that waiting for treatment of chronic pain for six months or longer is medically unacceptable. While our medical system is often to blame for such delays, many patients delay their treatment for a variety of other reasons as well. It is important for friends and relatives to urge someone who suffers from chronic pain (including headaches) to seek medical attention from a qualified specialist.
Read MoreFor many years headaches were thought to be triggered by elevated blood pressure. Evidence had suggested that only very sudden increase in blood pressure triggered a headache in some patients, but the myth of high blood pressure headaches has persisted. Norwegian researchers published a very surprising finding in the April issue of journal Neurology. They looked at the data on 120,000 people and found that increasing systolic blood pressure was associated with a decrease in migraine and non-migraine headaches. Even more striking was the inverse correlation with the pulse pressure (difference between systolic and diastolic pressure, for example blood pressure of 110/80 means that the pulse pressure is 30). Patients with higher pulse pressure had fewer migraine and other headaches. It can be speculated that hardening of arteries that occurs with elevated blood pressure makes them less likely to constrict and dilate, which is part of a migraine process.
Read MoreBotulinum toxin injections relieve tension headaches, according to a study just published in the European Journal of Neurology . Most of the previous studies had been conducted in patients with migraines or chronic migraines (more than 15 days of headaches a month). There is much less evidence that Botox also helps tension headaches. Our experience at the NYHC treating patients with tension headaches with Botox injections has been also very positive. In this European study doctors used Dysport – a version of botulinum toxin type A that is not available in the US. However, Dysport is very similar to Botox. On the other hand, Myobloc, which is botulinum toxin type B, is a very different version of botulinum toxin and in several aspects is inferior to Botox.
Read MoreMigraine and cluster headaches that do not respond to the usual treatments, may improve with injections of histamine. Dr. Seymour Diamond of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago has pioneered the use of histamine in cluster headaches. We have found that in cluster headache patients for whom nothing else works histamine often provides excellent relief. A recent study published in the journal European Neurology suggests that histamine injections may also help migraine patients.
Read MoreGerman researchers showed that acupuncture relieves back pain significantly better than combination of medications, physical therapy and exercise. They enrolled over one thousand patients with chronic back pain in a study that compared traditional Chinese acupuncture (where acupuncture sites selected based on pulse diagnosis and other traditional methods and needles are placed along specific meridians on the body) with sham acupuncture (needle are placed superficially and outside the traditional points) and conventional approach. It turns out that 10-15 sessions of both traditional and sham acupuncture treatments were better than conventional treatment, providing relief in 47.6%, 44.2% and 27.4% of patients respectively. This large study clearly proves the efficacy of acupuncture in back pain, regardless of the acupuncture technique. Similar results have been found in headache patients.Â
Read MoreBotox has been shown to relieve migraine headaches in another two studies published in Headache. One study compared the efficacy of Botox and an epilepsy drug, Depakote and found them to be equally effective. However, Depakote caused more side effects, which resulted in more patients taking Depakote dropping out of the study. The second study was done in patients who had difficulty complying with daily preventive medications. Half of them were injected with Botox and the other half with saline water. Neither the doctor nor the patient knew who received which treatment (double-blind study). The impact of migraines on patients’ lives was significantly improved by Botox. These two studies by leading headache specialists provides additional proof that Botox is effective for the relief of migraine headaches.
Read MoreMany patients tell me that monosodium glutamate (MSG) gives them headaches, but we never had a scientific study to explain or support this observation. A study by Brian Cairns and his colleagues in the November issue of journal Pain reveals possible mechanism by which this happens. The researchers found that rats given MSG had an elevated level of glutamate in their muscles and that MSG made the muscles more sensitive to pressure. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that promotes pain transmission in the nerveous system and therefore the authors concluded that MSG could increase pain sensitivity in humans as well. The bottom line, if you are prone to headaches or have chronic pain, stay away from MSG.
Read More“Anne Frank’s headache” is the title of an article just published by RF de Almeida and PA Kowacs in the journal Cephalalgia. This is an abstract of the article: “There are a significant number of famous people who suffered from frequent headaches during their lifetime while also exerting an influence of some kind on politics or the course of history. One such person was Anneliese Marie Frank, the German-born Jewish teenager better known as Anne Frank, who was forced into hiding during World War II. When she turned 13, she received a diary as a present, named it ‘Kitty’ and started to record her experiences and feelings. She kept the diary during her period in hiding, describing her daily life, including the feeling of isolation, her fear of being discovered, her admiration for her father and her opinion about women’s role in society, as well as the discovery of her own sexuality. She sometimes reported a headache that disturbed her tremendously. The ‘bad’ to ‘terrifying’ and ‘pounding’ headache attacks, which were accompanied by vomiting and during which she felt like screaming to be left alone, matched the International Headache Society criteria for probable migraine, whereas the ‘more frequent headaches’ described by Anne’s father are more likely to have been tension-type headaches than headaches secondary to ocular or other disorders.”
Read MoreMigralex – A Breakthrough in the Treatment of Headaches.
Migralex is a headache medication developed and patented by Dr. Alexander Mauskop, Director and Founder of the New York Headache Center. Migralex is a product of 15 years of research and development. It will become available for purchase at the end of 2009 at www.Migralex.com and www.Amazon.com.
Read More“Old Drugs In, New Ones Out”, a story in the New York Times on July 1, 2007 reports on a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry where two existing generic drugs are combined into a new more effective product. “Old Drugs In, New Ones Out”, a story in the New York Times on July 1, 2007 reports on a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry where two existing generic drugs are combined into a new more effective product. One example is Trexima, a drug developed by Pozen and GlaxoSmithKline, which contains sumatriptan (Imitrex) and naproxen (Aleve). Combining drugs with different mechanisms of action results in an improved efficacy, although side effects could also add up. The New York Headache Center has participated in the trials of Trexima, which is expected to be approved by the FDA in August of this year.
Another example of combining two old ingredients is Migralex, a medication for the acute treatment of headaches, which is being developed by Dr. Alexander Mauskop. Migralex is expected to be available to patients by the end of 2009. It will contain a combination of aspirin and magnesium. Migralex will have an improved side effect profile because magnesium has a protective effect on the stomach lining.
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