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18 August 2008

Your favourite Migraine or Headache Blogs

This is your chance to share with all the visitors of the Headache and Migraine News Blog your favourite related blogs (that’s favorite for you from the USA – spelled without the "u". But in this case, u r who we want!). But first, a little background and some ground rules.

Long ago I set up a page featuring a few of my favourites. You can see the page of migraine blogs and headache blogs here. Though the blogs in the aggregator are mostly still going and still excellent, the list is rather out of date. Many new blogs have started since then, some have grown, some have ended. It’s time to get together and find some new ones!

Ground rules

»Limit your list to your top 5 – the best of the best.
»Feel free to include your own blog – in fact, please do! Tell us it’s yours, and be proud!
»Include the words headache or migraine blogs (4 word phrase) in your comment – otherwise comments with a bunch of links might get sucked up by the filter. This way I can find them if there’s a "false positive".
»Finally, be sure they are generally focused around headache or migraine issues, or even general chronic pain issues. Personal blogs about personal experiences are great! However, if they only mention migraine once every six months, they’re probably not what we’re looking for. Especially think of blogs we all might find helpful.

I will probably close the comments after a while – we’ll see how it goes. Please share this post with anyone who might have a blog to share!

Now it’s all up to you – let’s see what happens!

12 August 2008

Carnival posts: When People Don’t Understand

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The August edition of the Headache and Migraine Disease Blog Carnival is up! This month’s list of recent blog posts feature the theme, How to Deal with People Who Don’t "Get" Migraine Disease. But as usual, there are a variety of posts and topics.

A couple of my favourites were the thoughtful Handling Migraine Challenges: Helping Others Understand, and the very appropriate Migraine for a day – how-to guide.

If you missed our submission, you can read it and add to it yourself – How to introduce a migraine.

Feel free to add your own thoughts here – how do you deal with people who don’t understand?

Some suggestions – for someone who needs to know the facts, check out the Migraine Quiz. A great coffee table conversation starter might be the new Migraine Expressions book. Or check out some of the migraine art right here (scroll to the bottom of the page to see submissions).

Let’s help people understand – let’s get the communication going!

28 July 2008

A Scientific history of Migraine

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If you want a good overview of where the science of migraine has come from and where it’s going, you might want to check out an article in this month’s Scientific American. It was written by Dr. David W. Dodick, a Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Dr. J. Jay Gargus, Professor of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of California Irvine.

The article provides a sweeping view of where migraine research has been, surprising developments in recent years, and where the research may take us in the years ahead. Here’s an excerpt:

Not only has the specific understanding of blood flow changed, but so has the prevailing view of the root of migraine. Migraine is now thought to arise from a disorder of the nervous system-and likely from the most ancient part of that system, the brain stem. This newer insight has come mainly from studying two aspects of migraine: the aura, which precedes the pain in 30 percent of sufferers, and the headache itself . . . The most common form of aura is a visual illusion of brilliant stars, sparks, flashes of light, lightning bolts or geometric patterns, which are often followed by dark spots in the same shape as the original bright image . . . Aura appears to stem from cortical spreading depression-a kind of "brainstorm" anticipated as the cause of migraine in the writings of 19th-century physician Edward Lieving. Although biologist Aristides Leão first reported the phenomenon in animals in 1944, it was experimentally linked to migraine only recently.

Read more about Why Migraines Strike from Scientific American.

23 June 2008

Migraine Expressions book – almost here!

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I’m excited to announce that the book Migraine Expressions is just about ready to be shipped – it looks like it will be out by mid-July. But don’t wait that long!

This book is a compilation – the creative efforts of many with migraine. Written works, art – 192 full colour pages – hardcover – this is a book you’ll probably want to have on hand to help people understand just how migraine impacts your life.

I haven’t read the book yet, but I did want to get the word out because you can get a deal if you order early. You can get it for less than 72% of the retail cost – that’s $10 off the price of US$35. Pre-order through World Metro Press before July 1st (Canada Day, of course) and you can get it for $25, and get a special matte dust jacket. Sweet.

I hope I’ll be able to write a review soon. I’m in the middle of a few weeks with almost no internet access – so thanks for your patience. I’m just connecting long enough to get this special message out to you because I think this will be a valuable resource, and it is big news for the migraine world. I think we’re going to see a book like we’ve never seen before.

13 May 2008

More on Exercise and Headache

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The May Headache Blog Carnival is out, and this month there are lots of great tips for keeping active with headache and migraine.

Here are some of the featured posts: my post from last week, Exercise and Migraine: 5 top tips for staying active, this excellent picture of what it means to "take baby steps" – Moving and exercising and migraine, challenges and tips in exercise: double-edged sword for migraineurs, more specific tips on grabbing those little moments of activity in 10 Ways for Migraineurs To Sneak In Some Exercise, and the canine helper in Walking Dog Helps Ease My Head Pains. There are more, some related to exercise and some not.

Check it out, and see if you can get just a tiny bit more active!