Tag Archives: migraine

Single Parents with Migraines

It is hard being a single parent. So what happens when you have a migraine and need help watching your child? Luckily for me, I live with family members who are usually able to help with my son when I’m sick. I have disabling migraines and it is very difficult to watch my son when it hurts to open my eyes. I woke up this morning with a horrible migraine. My head was hurting. My eyes were stinging. My neck was hurting and burning. I was absolutely miserable. I got up and made my son’s breakfast. I tried to take … Continue reading →

The Headache that Just Won’t Quit

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I’m no stranger to headaches. When I was in high school and college, I had one sinus infection after another — and a sinus headache just about all the time. Once I had sinus surgery to cut away the infected tissue (and fix a deviated septum), the first morning I woke up without a headache was like a miracle. My problems with sinus infections have been few and far between since then. Alas, sinus headaches aren’t the only type of headaches I get. Every once in a while, I wake up with a real whopper. When I was still in … Continue reading →

Migraines during Pregnancy can Increase Stroke Risk

A study from Duke University Medical Center looked at the connection between migraines during pregnancy and an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Study authors started with the assumption that women who have migraines tend to also have vascular disease. And if you are at risk for one (migraines) or the other (cardiovascular disease), then you should be working to modify, control, or reduce your risk factors while pregnant. The study looked at pregnancy discharge data for nearly seventeen million American women over a four year period (2000-2003). Out of those seventeen million women, nearly thirty-four thousand women had … Continue reading →

I Hate Migraines

For most of my life I have suffered from migraines. They were particularly bad when I was a teenager. Throughout my early 20s, I suffered maybe 1 or 2 at most. I thought I was in the clear – perhaps in some small way I had actually managed to outgrow this annoying and painful affliction. During my pregnancy, I had the first migraine in over 7 years. It was brutal and exhausting. In the six and a half years since my daughter was born, I get a migraine or two a year. Migraine Pain Unless you’ve ever had a migraine, … Continue reading →

Taking your Headaches to the Doctor

Most of us have occasional headaches; we have learned to expect them as a normal course of life. It has become such a typical complaint that most of us will hesitate even mentioning that we have a headache. Unless it’s bad- really, really bad. Then the old saying “misery loves company” kicks in and we want everyone to know so they’ll leave us alone, baby us, bring us a cup of coffee, whatever we think will help. Not all headaches are created equal some are very mild and others are, well, more memorable. When are these headaches serious enough to … Continue reading →

Chronic Headaches Linked to Depression

A recently published study from the University of Toledo has found that women who suffer from chronic headaches are at a greater risk for depression. Approximately eighteen million women in America suffer from headaches. The University of Toledo-Health Science Campus study had more than a thousand participants from five states who visited headache clinics for treatment. More than half the women in the study (593) reported less than fifteen headaches per month; this is classified as “episodic” headaches. The rest of the participants (439) reported more than fifteen headaches in a month. More than fifteen headaches each month is classified … Continue reading →

Migraines and Magnesium

Some recent research from a team at the State University of New York shows that magnesium may have an impact on your migraine suffering. Migraines affect a lot of people in the United States — approximately eighteen million women and five million men. I can remember my mother being practically incapacitated by occasional migraines when I was a child; she would lie in a dark room and we couldn’t turn on the lights or make too much noise. Eighty percent of patients in the study done by the State University of New York responded positively to magnesium within fifteen minutes … Continue reading →

Managing Headaches

Some headaches, you just can’t avoid. Others are preventable, or at least more manageable. The best thing you can do for headache management is keep a headache diary. Write down the time and conditions when you first notice your headache. Be sure to note how severe it was, whether or not you took medicine for it, and how long it lasted. By knowing more about the conditions that result in headaches, you may be able to avoid some of the triggers. Maybe it’s something you ate. Maybe it’s bright light. Maybe you walked through the perfume section of a department … Continue reading →