Do you have chronic migraine, and also trouble sleeping? This clinical trial may be for you!
Earlier this month, Bethany Martin, a migraine researcher at the University of Strathclyde in the UK, contacted me regarding a new clinical trial. This may be a great opportunity for you to further investigate your own migraine and sleep challenges, but it will also be a help to others.
Here’s the official summary:
Do you experience chronic migraines and sleep problems? We are currently recruiting participants for a research study testing two digital sleep treatments. The MISSION Study research team are looking for individuals aged 16 and over that experience chronic migraines and sleep problems. Participating in this research would include completing questionnaires, sleep & headache diaries throughout and wearing an activity tracking device. A screening process is necessary to ensure eligibility to participate. For more information or to take part, contact Bethany Martin at hass-research-missionstudy@strath.ac.uk or call +44 (0)7519 589266
Feel free to share this information with anyone else who may be interested.
Our informal motto around here is “it’s time to fight back”. It’s time to fight back against headache disorders, including cluster headache and migraine. It’s time to fight back against people who tell us “it’s just a headache”, or doctors who claim that there’s nothing they can do.
But sometimes it’s hard to fight back. And sometimes there is confusion about what fighting back really means. After all, does “fighting” mean that I will be constantly living with discontent and anger?
I don’t believe that it means that at all. Why? Because “acceptance” is not “fatalism”.
Yes, I believe that most people should be able to find major relief from the headache symptoms they suffer now. Yes, I believe that there are dozens of helpful treatments. (See 10 Critical Mistakes First Time Migraine Patients Make)
But I also know that the road to relief can be long and difficult. So, on one level, I believe that “acceptance” is important.
We need to learn to be content with our situation as it is now. We need to learn how to live at peace. Because anger and internal stress will not relieve headaches.
We need to accept that neurological conditions can take time and effort to treat. Acceptance means does not mean accepting that you will have headaches forever. But it does mean that you will live well now, without waiting until everything is better.
Because acceptance is not fatalism. One of the biggest challenges in headache treatment is when family members, doctors – even we ourselves – start thinking that headaches are just “normal”. “Our lot in life”. “I’ll just have to live with it”.
No. It is time to fight back. Even if that means taking a break once in a while. We’re not going to be fatalistic and give up. We’re not going to lose hope.
So yes – find contentment and peace in the present. But never give up, and never lose hope. It really is time to fight back. Let’s fight together.
Just how common are headache disorders? This is an extremely difficult question, in spite of the statistics that are thrown around as if they’re certain.
A new study out of Norway, published in The Journal of Headache and Pain, is giving us a new way to look at headaches and migraine from a global perspective.
Researchers took 357 publications, not just adding up the numbers, but looking carefully at how the study was done, to come up with some new estimates for 1961-2020.
Age & Gender
Here is just a sample of the findings of the study. First, 52% of the global population has suffered from a headache disorder of some kind this past year. Here’s what that looks like:
Global Headache Statistics
What I call “chronic headache” here is defined as a headache more than 15 days a month (H15+ in the study).
In agreement with many other studies, headaches are more common in women than in men. The difference is significant, if not huge, until you get to migraine. In migraine, about twice as many women had migraine than men (which means of course that we should ignore men’s migraine). Another interesting migraine fact was that, unlike many other headache disorders, it does tend to be lower if you’re under the age of 10 or over 65.
Geography
The study also looked at geographical location. A possible limitation of the study was that most of the research has been done in wealthier countries. However, from what this study could tell, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania was the best place to be, with lowest headache prevalence.
Headache is generally more common in the North Africa/Middle East region. Migraine, however, was most common in South Asia, as was chronic headache. Tension-type headache peaked in high income countries.
Headache today?
Do you have a headache today? On any given day, about 15.8% of the world population have a headache of some kind. Almost half of these – 7%, are migraine.
Progress through the years?
There hasn’t been a huge change overall in the prevalence of headache over the past few decades, which is not particularly encouraging. But there’s worse news. Migraine actually seems to be increasing.
Why would that be? Is it just that we are more aware of migraine, and so are diagnosing it more often? Or are there environmental factors (technology, pollution, change of diet, et cetera) that are making a difference?
The researchers did discuss this question, extensively. As with all of these statistics, in spite of careful research, it is very difficult to say with certainty exactly what the numbers are. But thanks to a lot of hard work, we do have some clues to help us more forward, and keep fighting back against headache. We still have a long way to go.
Do you experience stomach/gut symptoms with migraine? You’re not alone. But symptoms can vary.
Here are the results of our recent poll regarding stomach symptoms:
The “winner” is no surprise – nausea does not always accompany migraine, but it does tend to be a tell-tale symptom. Here are a few tips for fighting nausea.
Stomach pain is also common – in fact, in “abdominal migraine“, stomach pain may occur instead of the headache itself.
Every once in a while I like to point you to other peoples’ articles or videos on key topics. Usually I do this on Twitter or Facebook, but this article deserves a little extra attention, as does its author.
Professor Anne MacGregor is a specialist in hormonal migraine. She has 30 years of clinical experience, and continues to work at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London (where she teaches headache medicine), also lecturing at the University of Worcester. She is author or co-author of numerous books, including Migraine: Your Questions Answered. She has many journal publications, including Menstrual and perimenopausal migraine: A narrative review.
Recently Dr. MacGregor wrote an article for The Migraine Trust which I would like to point you to. In the article, she discusses why migraine can be a specific problem during perimenopause, and also how it can be managed. The article is available here: Migraine and perimenopause. There’s a lot of information in a short read.
She also has a previous article on menstrual migraine here: Menstrual migraine
