Posts Tagged ‘headaches’
January 18, 2012 | 
Author Stop and Breathe! Sounds so simple, yet it can have such an impact on headaches, stress and daily life. Susan Ginsberg, a certified yoga/meditation instructor, will be at Robbins Headache Clinic every Thursday morning by appointment to teach breathing, relaxation, and visualization techniques. This practice allows patients to relax and reduce anxiety, providing them with a positive effect on their health and well-being.
Please call Robbins Headache Clinic at (847)-480-9399 and make your appointment. You may also visit www.stopandbreath.org for additional information.
Posted in headachedrugs | 
Tags: breathe, headaches, meditation, relaxation, stress, Susan Ginsberg, visualization, yoga | 
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An article published online in the June 7, 2010 journal HEADACHE reported high consumption of alcohol, smoking, and lack of exercise were significantly associated with tension-type headaches and migraine in high school students. Questionnaires filled out by 1,260 adolescents regarding food and beverage intake, smoking habits and physical activity were submitted.
The study found that students who drank more alcohol were 3.4 times more likely to have headaches than the students who did not. The students who drank coffee had 2.4 times higher likelihood of headaches, and those who smoked cigarettes were 2.7 times more likely to have headaches.
“Diet and lifestyle are seen as factors which influence headache in adults.” “However, population-based studies on this issue in adolescents are rare,” the researchers noted. From Neurology Reviews, Volume 18
Nearly everyone experiences headaches from time to time, but it is often difficult to tell when a headache is serious enough to require medical attention. Occasional headaches can be normal, but some headaches can be indicators of more serious health problems which require treatment. This simple list of headache warning signs, courtesy of womenshealth.gov, can help determine when headaches warrant consulting a doctor.
- Headaches occur multiple times each month and persist for hours or days
- Headaches are so severe that work, school, and/or home life are affected
- Headaches accompanied by tingling or numbness, changes in vision, vomiting, or nausea
- Headaches accompanied by pain surrounding the ear or eye, convulsions or stiffness in the neck
- Losing consciousness or feeling confused during headaches
- A headache which follows and injury to the head
- Headaches that suddenly occur when you’ve rarely had headaches in the past
By keeping track of your headaches and checking them against these warning signs, you can help ensure that your head and body get the attention that they need.
A recent study pending publication in the journal Neurosurgery found that student athletes who experienced two or more concussions may experience early symptoms of post-concussion syndrome. For the study, 260 high school athletes with one previous concussion, 105 high school athletes with two previous concussions, and 251 high school athletes with no history of concussion were evaluated. After collecting data from these athletes, it was found that compared with athletes with either no concussion history or one previous concussions, athletes with two or more previous concussions were more likely to have a cluster of three types of symptoms; intellectual symptoms such as memory problems or mental ‘fog’, physical symptoms, such as headaches and problems with balancing or feeling dizzy, and sleep symptoms, such as sleeping more or less than the athletes normally would. It was not surprising that rates of concussion-related symptoms were higher among athletes with previous concussions, but the finding was particularly true for those with two or more concussions. No differences in emotional symptoms, such as irritability or sadness, were discovered among all three groups of athletes. The symptoms seen in high school athletes who had suffered two or more concussions are similar to those seen in retired professional athletes with a history of concussion. A recent autopsy of an 18 year old athlete with a history of multiple concussions also showed evidence of the degenerative brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Researcher Philip Schatz of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia stated that the study’s finding should “serve as a caution for parents, coaches, and sports medicine personnel supervising high school and other youth athletes with a history of concussion,” and additionally said “these study results support the recent surge in advocacy on state and federal governmental levels to establish youth concussion management programs and to better regulate the rules of youth sports,” in hope that greater awareness of the risks of multiple concussions will result in decreased numbers of athletes suffering from post-concussion syndrome.
Posted in headachedrugs | Tags: headaches, memory problems, post concussion syndrome, sleep symptoms | No Comments »
A recent study published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that facial surgery can be used to provide long term relief from migraines. For the study 69 patients were examined over a five-year follow-up study with 88% experiencing an improvement in symptoms, 59% experiencing a substantial decrease in symptoms, and 29% experienced total elimination of migraine symptoms. Prior to the surgery, patients were given exploratory Botox injections to identify which trigger sites contributed to the headache pain they were experiencing. Based on the findings of the Botox injections, surgeons then disrupted either the frowning muscles in the forehead, temple trigger sites, or sites on the back of the head in order to relieve pressure on key nerves responsible for migraine symptoms. The average cost of this surgery was approximately $4,000 and the side effects included some immobility of the face, but “the immobilization only involves the frowning muscle, which not only is not detrimental to the face, it actually makes the face younger and happier,” said Dr. Bahman Guyuron, chairman of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at University Hospitals at Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Dr. Guyuron also led a study in 2009 in which a control group received a sham surgery while the experimental group received one of the three trigger point inhibition surgeries previously described. In this study it was found that 57% of the treatment group reported complete elimination of migraine headaches as compared to only 4% of the sham surgery group. As with all surgery there are potential complications including unfavorable scarring, bleeding, infection, facial nerve injury, blood clots, numbness, and intense itching. Patients in the five-year follow-up study reported side effects including skin numbness, hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, and mild neck weakness or stiffness as well as occasional itching. Neurologist Dr. Jack Schim, of the Headache Center of Southern California, explained that patients with chronic migraines often suffer from terrible headaches, and are desperate for relief, but he believes that facial surgery should only be used as a last resort, and not as a first line of treatment for migraines. Dr. Schim noted that there are many alternatives to this surgery including multiple oral medicines, nerve blocks, and Botox injections. According to Dr. Schim 70% to 75% of patients experience significant reduction or complete elimination of headache symptoms from botox injections a result similar to the more invasive surgery. “If someone has tried everything, including avoiding medicine overuse, and addressed their lifestyle issues that could help or hinder headache problems, I would talk to the patient [about this] as an option,” said Schim.
A recent study by Lin et al. attempted to clarify the link between migraine and cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS). The group decided to pursue this study because of the high prevalence of migraine in children with cyclic vomiting syndrome and because CVS is considered a precursor to migraine. Cyclic vomiting syndrome is an episodic nausea with non-bilious vomiting disorder characterized by recurrent stereotypic symptoms with disease-free intervals. For the study, thirty years of records for a chosen hospital were reviewed for cases of pediatric CVS. Clinical evaluations, including age of onset, sex, family history, symptoms and duration during attacks, frequency, trigger events, electroencephalogram data, treatment and subsequent development of migraine were assessed from chart records and telephone interviews. Thirty five children were enrolled in the study and their age of onset ranged from 2 to 17 years while their frequency of attacks ranged from 1 to 36 times per year. A subgroup of twenty children was then assessed for migraine development. a total of seven children in the subgroup later developed migraines while the remaining thirteen did not. It was found children in the migraine-positive group had an average CVS onset age which was younger than that for the migraine-negative group. Children who later developed migraine had a CVS onset age of 5 ± 1.7 years while those who did not develop migraine had an onset age of 8.9 ± 3 years. It was also found that co-morbid headache during CVS attacks was more common in the migraine-positive group. These findings led the group to conclude that children with younger onset age and headache during CVS attacks may have increased risk of migraine development. The group also stated that large-scale prospective studies are warranted to further clarify the relationship between CVS and migraine.
Posted in headachedrugs | Tags: children, cyclic vomiting syndrome, headaches, migraine | No Comments »
The question always comes up.. how much does clenching/grinding add to people’s headaches… and the answer is quite complicated. Some feel it often IS the problem, while others feel it is vastly overstated as a contributing factor for headaches. I believe that in certain headache-prone individuals clenching, and more importantly grinding (bruxism) does complicate matters, and splints may help. There is a newer splint, developed by Dr. Jim Boyd (dentist), that is an anterior splint (over the front teeth). It is fairly comfortable, and is usually worn only at night. The important thing is to see a very competent TMJ specialist, orthodontist, or dentist good with clenching and splints. A lot more on this important subject later. LR
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: bruxism, headaches, teeth clenching, teeth grinding, TMJ | No Comments »
I will be discussing this important subject quite a bit in the next few months. In addition, we will have a lot on the very important subject ‘What to do when Nothing works’. Long-acting opioids (Kadian, methadone, oxycontin, MS Contin, Duragesic patch) sustain relief, for at least 6 months, in about 17% of patients put on them. For those patients, they can greatly enhance quality of life and functioning. While 17% may not seem too high, it is actually not bad considering that, in this population of headache sufferers, basically nothing else has ever helped. L.Robbins
Posted in headachedrugs | Tags: duragesic patch, headaches, kadian, methadone, opioids, oxycontin | No Comments »
