Treatments

18 September 2017

Migravent: Migraine Preventative (Supplement)

Recently I was reading an article which listed the remedies that 19 different people used to fight migraine. Although I wouldn’t recommend all the remedies listed, the article is worth it, just to see the animated gifs! (Check it out – 19 People Dish On The One Thing That Makes Them Feel Better When They Have A Migraine)

One of the preventatives certainly deserves a little space here because it has helped a lot of people, and that is Migravent.

Migravent is one of many supplements taken to prevent migraine, although it is one of the more popular ones. It is designed to be taken with food, 2-3 times a day.

The ingredients are mostly well known for their migraine-fighting properties. Riboflavin (vitamin B2), magnesium (oxide and citrate), coenzyme Q10, and butterbur. It also contains piperine (BioPerine), an extract from black pepper, which helps with nutrient absorption (and may also be a mild antidepressant). Migravent is gluten free.

There has been a recent concern with butterbur products, but the company notes that the butterbur has been tested for safety by a 3rd party lab.

Although these ingredients are certainly available in individual supplements, researchers try to find special blends and delivery methods that will have maximum impact. Migravent is one of those products.

As you will see from the reviews on amazon, this product doesn’t help everyone. But the reviews are generally very positive.

As with most supplements like this, I would recommend that you check with your doctor, and keep a headache diary so you know if it’s helping. Usually 90 days is a minimum amount of time to see if something like this is really making a difference.

Have you tried Migravent? If so, leave a comment with your experiences.

New Study Suggests that Botox is working for Chronic Migraine, but …

James Discoveries & Stats, Treatments 8

1160 patients across Europe were a part of a recent study to see just how effective onabotulinumtoxinA (sometimes sold under the brand name Botox) was in treating patients with chronic migraine. We all hear stories, but if you take a large sample, what are the results?

First, a little background. This group was 15.8% male and 84.2% female. The mean age was 46.6 years old. About half of them had used Botox before. The study had data from over 4000 treatments.

The basic good news was that most patients – 74.4% – were satisfied or even extremely satisfied with their treatment.

This tells us that the treatment is helping, but not how much it’s helping. But for those who are curious, the treatment usually involved about 31 injection sites and a dose of 155 U. Treatments tended to be about 13-14 weeks apart, or just over 3 months.

The most commonly reported side effect was neck pain.

As we have talked about before, onabotulinumtoxinA treatment is helping migraine patients, but there is reason to believe it could be helping a lot more. There are a lot of variables that we would like to know more about. Which type of migraine is most responsive to this treatment? Which injection sites are the best? Could we get the same results with a lower dosage?

Now that we’ve seen the data, what’s your experience? Leave a comment!

10 August 2017

Pioneering Stem Cell Research for Migraine

James Discoveries & Stats, Treatments 0

A study published earlier this year is raising questions about the use of stem cells for the treatment of migraine. Although the results weren’t spectacular, they do show promise. Let’s see why.

This was only a small open-label study. 9 people (8 women and 1 man) were enrolled. Stem cells were taken from the patient, tested for viability, and then injected into the temporalis, occipitalis, neck, and trapezius muscles.

Stem cells & Migraine

Now, this is going to be one of those good-news-bad-news things, so bear with me.

Obviously this was just a small study. However, the good news is that 7 of the patients did see a decrease in their MIDAS score. MIDAS is a test designed to measure the disability caused by your migraine attacks (read more about MIDAS here). Scores decreased overall by almost 28%.

So that’s great news. However, for most of those patients, the improvement was fairly small. And for all of them, it was temporary (although the study only lasted three months).

For two of the patients, the improvement was quite significant.

But don’t worry, there is more good news. These were patients who generally had suffered with migraine for a long time, and had tried many other treatments. The mean age was 48, and the mean number of years with migraine was 16. They had all tried at least three preventative medications and also had tried onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox).

So these 9 patients were not the easy-to-treat kind. The fact that two saw significant improvement is important.

We’ve talked about stem cell research for migraine and headache before. If this treatment could help even a quarter of hard-to-treat patients, it would be a major breakthrough.

You can read the full study here: Stem Cells in the Treatment of Refractory Chronic Migraines

7 August 2017

Earplugs for Weather Migraine?

James Treatments 1

Last year Cirrus Healthcare released a new type of drug-free migraine treatment. Building on their experience with products related to barometric pressure, Cirrus is promoting earplugs to fight weather-related migraine.

The earplugs, made from “soft, hypoallergenic, latex-free silicone”, are designed to help regulate the pressure in your ears. They’re actually similar to their popular “Earplanes” (made for both adults and children), which help travellers avoid ear pain during airplane flights.

This product, called MigraineX, is designed to be worn usually for 2-4 hours when there are significant changes in barometric pressure. These are actually specially-designed earplugs, which means they will block a certain amount of noise as well (though not as much as some other plugs). This could be an additional selling point, depending on your situation. But for most people, if they can avoid the pitfalls of weather changes, and lower the volume in the environment, all the better.

The manufacturer does refer to a very positive study that was done with their product, although I was unable to find the details. But you will see that there are a lot of positive reviews (although, like any migraine treatment, they by no means work for everyone).

Have you tried MigraineX, or Earplanes? What was your experience like?

31 July 2017

In Search of a Simpler Botox Treatment

James Treatments 0

Researchers are still interested in finding the “best” or more effective way to administer Botox, or onabotulinumtoxinA. There is a typical way of administering the Botox, but research has been limited into variations.

A typical procedure for chronic migraine would be 31 injections in 7 areas. But a study published last month in The Journal of Headache and Pain is opening the door to other options, and to a different understanding of how Botox works.

Muscles in the face The study included 63 patients with chronic migraine. The injections on the face and trapezius muscles used a “follow-the-pain” approach, with a fixed number of injections per muscle. The total Botox used was less than would be used in the more “traditional” treatment (in quotes, because all of this is still pretty new).

65.1% of patients experienced at least a 50% reduction in headache days. For over 70% of those, the improvement was greater – a 70% or greater reduction in headache days. Most patients were happy with the treatment.

That’s a significant improvement. Not only does this open up possibilities for a simpler treatment, it also raises questions about how the treatment works.

The researchers favoured “myofascial” sites of pain. If you’re familiar with myofascial trigger points, that’s what we’re talking about here. It could be that those trigger points play a role in migraine becoming chronic, and also in relieving chronic migraine.

A significant use of Botox is a mission to seek-out what areas of your face and neck are most related to migraine, or other types of headache. Research needs to continue to give us more information, and better treatment.

Read the study abstract here: OnabotulinumtoxinA injections in chronic migraine, targeted to sites of pericranial myofascial pain