HEADACHE

All of us have had headaches from time to time. In fact, stress so commonly produces headaches that it's become a cultural expression for worry. However, fifteen to twenty percent of our population suffers terrible headaches called migraine, women more often than men. These one-sided, sometimes two-sided, throbbing headaches associated with nausea, difficulty concentrating, moodiness, sensitivity to light and sound seem to be handled only by going into a dark room and going to sleep.

Millions of dollars of productivity are lost each year and tons of analgesics are ingested for migraine relief. In fact, when Tylenol, aspirin or other seemingly benign pain pills are taken on a daily basis, they result in rebound headaches which worsens the matter and produces a chronic daily headache on the top of the migraine syndrome.

Thankfully, treatment is available that begins with low dose tricyclic anti-depressants or beta blockers and, failing those, Depakote or calan, a calcium channel blocker. Complimentary procedures such as acupuncture, massage therapy, meditative arts, biofeedback and stress management are all helpful as are identifying the dietary environmental triggers that often precipitate the migraine attack. Anti-depressants have little impact unless there is depression present. All in all, the treatment of migraines these days is quite hopeful