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 Solution
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.
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.
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.
How Curelator Works
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.)
Sample Curelator Trigger MapWith the subscription, you’ll be able to see “trigger maps” and “protector maps”. You can see an example of a trigger map to the right.
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.
Interesting Findings
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.
A Few More Things You Need to Know
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”.
Is it possible to have perforated septum head pain? Is a perforated septum actually causing your headaches – and should you be looking into surgical solutions?
Your nasal septum is, of course, that bit of cartilage between the right and left parts of your nose. And it’s not just there to make you look beautiful or hold up your nose. Your nasal septum helps the air flow properly from the tip of your nose to the back, where it gets carried to the lungs. A well functioning septum helps your nose stay clear and keeps air moving where it should.
However, some people do develop holes in the septum. They might not even notice, depending on the size and location of the perforation.
This hole might be caused by complications from surgery, cocaine use, certain diseases, or even excessive nose picking (more common than you think!).
(Yes, there can also be a direct perforation caused by a nasal septum piercing for a nose ring. I’m not getting into that – daith piercings was enough for one month – but do your research about the risks, and proper care after piercing. A small nasal septum piercing may close entirely on its own eventually.)
Again, there may be no symptoms at all, or they may be minor ones. Commonly examples of symptoms – nose bleeds, crusting, and nasal obstruction (including a “stuffy nose”).
You also may experience pain in your nose.
Although it may not be common to get headache directly from a perforated septum, obstruction and pain in your nose would likely trigger a headache attack.
So yes, it’s probably entirely possible to have perforated septum head pain. But that doesn’t mean that the perforated septum is the only trigger – it may be a combination of factors that triggers your headache or migraine attack.
If you are experiencing significant symptoms from a perforated septum, you are entirely justified in connecting that with your head pain. So yes, it is worth talking to your doctor about possible solutions.
Your doctor may recommend you simply try regular rinsing with salt water, and applying lubricating gels. This may be enough to ease the problem.
Surgery is an option, but not an easy one. There is a high rate of failure in this type of surgery, and the larger the perforation the harder it is to close.
You are wise to do your research, and find a doctor who has experience in this type of surgery – and who will be honest with you about the possible outcomes.
Just how common is sleepwalking? Estimates range quite a bit, although a study in 2012 suggested that almost 30% of us walk in our sleep sometime in our lives.
Those who sleepwalk on a regular basis do tend to complain that they’re sleepy during the day. But there may be a lot more to the condition than we realize. Sleepwalking is closely related to other disorders, including depression, headache, and migraine.Photo courtesy Herzi Pinki
The relationship between sleepwalking and migraine is a complex one. For example, depression and migraine are also linked. Magnesium levels are linked to both migraine and sleepwalking. Changing sleep schedules are linked to both. Certain medications may affect both, such as antihistamines, mild tranquilizers and a few antipsychotics. Obstructive sleep apnea is also strongly related to both.
This spring a report on a fascinating sleepwalk study was released. The authors of the study confirmed that migraine and headache were highly associated with sleepwalking. (This doesn’t mean that most migraine patients walk in their sleep. It does mean that if you sleepwalk you are much more likely to have migraine.)
But a fascinating twist is that patients were very unlikely to experience pain while sleepwalking. In other words, banging your knee on the table while you’re sleepwalking is unlikely to even wake you up. In fact, one patient fell off his roof and broke his leg, but didn’t wake up until the morning!
There are obviously many mysteries about pain still to be solved. However, there are some key things you can do about sleepwalking, especially if you have migraine as well:
Get into a regular sleep schedule, and dedicate more time to sleeping/getting to sleep. Take some low-stress, low-light, low-technology time in the evening.
Focusing on your sleep may actually help relieve migraine and stop sleepwalking. It’s funny in fiction, but it needs to be taken seriously in real life.
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!
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.
And that’s why 
