A new podcast discussing some key articles from past years here at Headache and Migraine News that you might want to check out. A wide variety of topics – brace yourself! 🙂
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Is daith piercing something that you should try as a migraine treatment? Many people are saying yes.
Back in to 2015, a post I wrote criticized articles that touted the benefits of daith piercing, even though they cited little to no evidence. As a result, a huge discussing has started about the benefits and evidence behind daith piercing.
I’m starting off with some of the information shared in the comments on the original post.
This is a representative list – there were a few who said the piercing didn’t help (in one case made things worse), but in most cases the reports were positive.
If you have a story, positive or negative, please share it. If you are aware of any trials, or any doctors who have been reporting on patients who have had daith piercings, please share that as well.
There are a lot of you out there – and it doesn’t matter if it’s a multivitamin or a migraine medication – you dread taking pills. You choke, you gag, and it doesn’t matter what brilliant advice you get, the time comes and you have the same problem.
Or maybe you’re trying to help a child take a pill – something you feel they really need – and it’s a horrible disaster every time.
Believe it or not, wiser minds than mine have come up with some clever solutions to these problems. First, a spray.
The spray comes from a company called FLAVORx, which actually specializes in make flavours for medications for children – and, believe it or not, even pets!
Using their expertise, they created Pill Glide, which not only adds a pleasant taste, it also allows the pill to slide down your throat without making you gag.
It’s sugar-free, and each bottle is good for about 100 uses. Pill Glide is also recommended to care givers, who help patients who for various reasons have extra trouble swallowing important medications.
(By the way, they also have peach, grape, orange and bubble gum) The spray is also available in the UK here
Another clever invention is the pill swallowing cup. Oralflo has a small, portable cup especially designed to make taking pills easier.
You simply fill the cup half way with a drink of your choice. Then you snap on the lid, pop the pill or tablet into the top nozzle, and drink.
As one reviewer pointed out, there is a bit of a “technique” to this – not a hard one (it actually makes things a lot easier), but you do need to do it right. Check out the Oralflo Pill Swallowing Cup here.
If you’re looking for something even more portable, you can try the Easy Flow Pill Swallowing Aid.
Chalky pills, big gel caps, split pills – these items can make taking them a whole lot easier.
An increasing number of people are discovering new things about their triggers, using a simple but very unique app.
Many of us – maybe even most of us – could give a list of things that trigger our migraine attacks. But sometimes knowing the list makes us forget just how complex migraine triggers can be – and so we miss some of the subtle things that could be saving us a lot of pain.
And that’s why the Curelator app was developed by Dr. Alec Mian and his team.
Curelator is the migraine diary you always wish you had had. It’s simple, but it uses data in a powerful way to give you actually useful information.
First, it asks you some basic questions (this is optional, but obviously the more information you input, the more useful the reports will be at the end). Then, every day you take a few minutes (maybe 2 or 3 minutes once you understand the system) to enter basic information about your day. Were you exposed to any typical triggers? What symptoms did you experience? What treatments did you use?
You need to do this regularly for 2-3 months (whether you experience a migraine attack or not) so that Curelator can get a good overview of your symptoms, medications, possible triggers, and treatments.
Now as it is, this gives you great data on the frequency and duration of your migraine and headache attacks. But you can get a subscription which will give you much more powerful information. (At the end I’ll give you a tip to save some money on the prescription.)
According to the data this person has entered, bright lights, neck pain and soft drinks are highly associated with their migraine attacks, and so they are likely triggers. Anxiety, on the other hand, just has a vague association. She might want to check again in a couple of months to see if things have changed.
She’ll also see a similar map showing things that are probably not triggers, and also a map of things that seem to be “protectors” – when she’s exposed to these things, she’s actually less likely to have an attack.
Remember that list in your head? There may be one or two things on there you’ve been generally avoiding for years, and it may turn out that you’re avoiding them for no reason.
Curelator had a number of testers last year (I was one of them), and some interesting discoveries were made. For example, you know how everyone tells you to avoid caffeine and chocolate? Here’s the raw data. Out of 150 patients, caffeine only seemed to be a trigger for 2%. And chocolate? All right, a little higher – almost 7%. But that’s all! In fact, for over 9%, chocolate actually seemed to fight migraine (bring it on!).
The nice thing about Curelator is that it isn’t biased by past experience, or what a doctor says – it just calculates the cold, hard, numbers. So you just may discover some unexpected facts yourself.
I know this is a long article, but it’s worth the time to understand this app and what it can do for you.
Curelator is backed by an advisory board with some big names in the world of migraine treatment and research. This is not a fly by night group, but people who have spent a good part of their lives helping real migraine patients. When they see a chance to reduce medications and improve health, that’s what they’re all about.
Now, you also wanted to know how to save some money. As I mentioned, there is a free version of the app which does track your headache and/or migraine attacks (cluster headache too). The app needs 45-90 days to get enough data (by the way, the app is typically for people experiencing 2 or more headache and/or migraine attacks per month). What you do is get the free version and use it for three months, and get a good set of data first. Then subscribe to get your maps. Now you have 6 months to confirm the data or see if it discovers more. That essentially gives you 9 months of information instead of 6.
Once you have the data, stop and think about it, or talk to a friend about it. You’re likely to discover some things you weren’t aware of before. This article from the National Headache Foundation about Curelator provides some fascinating examples of how a “trigger” may turn into a “protector”, for example.
Curelator is hoping to come out with some more useful features in the future, so stay tuned!
Meanwhile, get the app now! (And by the way, if you want an Android app, click the link on this page to let them know you’re interested and to be updated when it’s available)
Don’t worry, it’s not necessarily a constant migraine attack. And you can worry even less – it’s only a game.
No, I don’t mean that migraine is a game – I mean that “14 Days” is literally a board game about migraine. And before you start typing angry emails to the makers of “14 Days”, take a moment to reflect on what may actually be a useful tool for discussing migraine disease with friends and family.
The game was created by lead designer Hannah Shaffer, designer and illustrator Evan Rowland, and editor Joshua Yearsley. Hannah actually has dealt with migraine herself for many years, and so the game is a personal one for her especially.
Now we know that migraine really isn’t something that can be simulated successfully, although it’s been tried. How do you really express migraine to those who don’t have it? The “Mind Over Migraine Campaign” actually created a “migraine ride” many years ago. There are excellent books like Migraine Expressions, which show migraine through art and prose, or movies such as Lily’s Mom. And there are simple tools that many people with chronic illness have used, such as the Spoon Theory (now available in posters and necklaces and clothing as well!).
So how is this migraine game different?
The game is “14 Days: A game about life with migraines”. It’s a two player role playing board game.
You pick a character, and head into the game with high hopes of conquering life.
Now you choose how you’ll spend your day, and what you’ll work on. But then – what if you have a migraine attack? Will it be possible to fulfill your plans? How will you prioritize?
The interesting thing about 14 Days is that it’s not all “game” (it encouraged discussion and reflection), it’s not all “positive” (it shows how difficult it is to live with migraine), but it’s not all “negative” either. It is possible to have victories, and even if these victories are small, you’ll see how important they are.
The second “week” (of the 14 days) also includes a special event that you need to try to get to.
Obviously no matter how complex the game is, it’s still very simple compared to actually living with migraine.
However, there are a couple of big benefits to a game like this. First, as a discussion starter. It’s certainly designed that way. It brings up a lot of issues such as use of medication, choices and priorities, dealing with advice from others, and pain itself.
There may also be another benefit – for a person with migraine, it’s an opportunity to think through some of these issues outside the pressure of real life.
And even if the game misses some things that are important in your life, this is a great chance to express those things: “Actually, drugs don’t work for me at all”. Or “When I have an attack, I especially avoid…”. Or “Actually, in my life it’s not like the game portrays it – here’s how it really is”.
14 Days, originally a successful Kickstarter project, is now for sale as a print & play. You can get an immediate download, print it out, and see how you do! To purchase or just learn more, visit the 14 Days page here.
