Congratulations to our HeadWay subscriber – Sally Anne, from the USA – who won a copy of…
The Healthy Brain Book: An All-Ages Guide to a Calmer, Happier, Sharper You: A proven plan for managing anxiety, depression, and ADHD, and preventing and reversing dementia and Alzheimer’s
Don’t you love books with short, catchy titles? 😀 Of course, the book has two authors Drs. William Sears and Vincent M. Fortanasce), so I guess that’s a good reason for an extra long title.
Anyway, this book is packed with tips for a healthier brain.
If you’re not a HeadWay subscriber, you can sign up right here for free. Not only can you be involved in giveaways like this, you will also have a special say about the topics we focus on, through your input in the HeadWay MailRoom.
When migraine goes from the occasional attack to an attack every other day or worse, we’re right to ask – what caused the change?
Writing about the question back in 2017, I suggested that genetics may actually be the biggest factor. Why? Because, in spite of typical environmental factors that seem to go along with migraine chronification (that is, the change from a once-in-a-while migraine attack to frequent attacks), some people just seem more susceptible. It seems that two people can be in the same environment, but one person’s migraine becomes chronic, another person’s doesn’t.
I say “seems”, because this is a very tricky thing to test. How do you make sure two people have the exact same environment? Impossible! So we look at typical suspects, such as physical trauma, poor use of medication, obesity, depression, sleep disorders, and so on.
But a new study decided to take a different approach.
This study from Denmark was published online this month by the European Journal of Neurology. The researchers took a large group of people – some in “migraine families”, some not related at all, and looked for common and rare genetic variants. Then they compared the information with the diagnoses of episodic migraine and chronic migraine.
Would they find specific genetic variants that make people more susceptible to chronic migraine?
No, they didn’t. There didn’t seem to be any relationship at all between genetic variants and chronification of migraine.
So, at this point it looks like genetics may be less of a factor then we thought. Which means a lot more research needs to be done into the environmental factors, and the comorbid conditions (other conditions that tend to make you more likely to progress to chronic migraine, such as obesity and depression).
And now for some of the recent articles that have been most popular here at Headache and Migraine News. Basic information and resources, more about new medications, and news about migraine-fighting devices.
The Migraine 101 Masterclass – Would you like to sit back and pop a YouTube video up on the TV so you can learn or relearn some of the basics of migraine?
Chronic Migraine: Developing another Device to Fight It. – Another device is being developed specifically to help chronic migraine sufferers. It should provide another option for patients who are looking for new ways to fight the pain.
What Is Surprising Us About The New CGRP Prevenatives? – Really, all the CGRP related drugs are still extremely new, when it comes to prescription drugs for migraine. Long term trials are still a future hope. And we’re just starting to guess at some trends that we may be seeing from patients.
Emerging Treatments and Sleep – Research from the past few years had led to a sudden influx of new pills and injections for migraine, with many more under investigation. But there could be an interesting connection between some of these treatments – your body’s regulation of sleep patterns.
Nerivio Device: New Approval and Real World Evidence – More good news about Nerivio (formerly Nerivio Migra), an electrical neuromodulation (REN) device to fight migraine attacks. We have some new information from real-world usage, and we have a new approval in the USA thanks to some other positive trials.
And just for fun, I’m going to highlight a popular older article that you might have missed (“from the archives”). This one from 2018:
The “10-Second Tension Headache Remedy” – At least a couple of articles have been circulating promoting a tension headache remedy that is quick, and free. And certainly worth a try.
A recent study took yet another look at migraine patients and their diet. This time, the focus was “dietary diversity”.
Research has shown again and again that diet is a key factor when it comes to migraine – and fighting migraine. New studies continue to try to find ways to explain the connection, and find the quickest ways for us to fight back using our daily food choices.
So what exactly is “dietary diversity”? No, it doesn’t mean (necessarily) that you have different colours of vegetables on your plate, or that you eat more than three kinds of apples each week. Basically, your diet is broken down into categories.
Think, for example, of the “MyPlate Plan” in the USA, or Canada’s “Food Guide“. In their simplest form, the idea is to encourage you to eat from a variety of “food groups”, and not just focus on high starch and sugars, or only dairy, and so on.
Dietary diversity tests use food groups such as fruits, roots and tubers, oil and fats, cereals, fish and seafood, dairy, and so on, to evaluate just how “diverse” a person’s diet is. How many different categories would you hit in a day, or a week?
So, back to the study. This study was specifically focused on women. Patients were professionally assessed for migraine, and then their migraine symptoms and disabilities were evaluated, along with some physical characteristics and so forth.
The study found that the dietary diversity score didn’t make much of a difference in migraine attack frequency. However, it did make a significant difference in headache severity, disability, and duration. In other words, attacks were worse in patients who didn’t eat regularly from a wide variety of food groups.
Also, patients with a higher dietary diversity score were more likely to have a slimmer waist.
This study doesn’t necessarily encourage a more “balanced” diet as compared to a diet more weighted towards vegetables or fats or meats – such as a vegan diet, or a keto diet. For one thing, the study didn’t go into that much detail. For another thing, even vegans and ketos (is that a word? Can I say that?) usually eat from a wide variety of food groups. And certainly the “official” dietary guides from various countries have had their share of criticism!
Remember, people serious about a healthy diet (whatever that looks like for them) will differ drastically from the person who eats at the same restaurant on the way home every day, or who buys the same canned food every week.
To make a conscious effort to look at labels and cook for yourself may be half or three quarters of the battle!
So what the study does seem to tell us is that eating a variety of foods on a regular basis is connected with less severe migraine attacks. It’s just another way to think about how to improve the way we eat, just a little bit at a time.
And, of course, I’ll explain who my little “friend” is.
A quick search on Amazon for children’s books about migraine will convince anyone that there was a gap to be filled. Material about migraine especially for kids is rarer than it should be.
Enter Ryan Williams. Someone with the title of Marketing Director at StudyKIK would seem like an unlikely candidate for a children’s book author, but this actually isn’t his first book.
It will help to know that Ryan actually helps to connect patients to clinical trials, and so has a lot of contact with patients with all kinds of struggles. And so he has successfully Kickstarted books on Alzheimer’s Disease and Crohn’s Disease, as well as migraine.
So let’s get into the book! It’s a high quality large hardback, glossy, lots of colour – so far so good for young children!
And looking at the cover below, you’ll see two creatures – a cuddly fuzzy green one, and a nasty toothy red-eyed purple one.
So without giving away the whole story, here’s what happens. A young adventurer sails to a mysterious island, and adopts several mysterious creatures, which he calls migrans.
But early on, he discovers that these creatures can be “irritated” in various ways, turning them into the scary purple monsters. And so he finds ways to keep them green and cuddly.
By now you’ve probably guessed that the green creatures represent a happy, healthy head. The purple ones represent a head in the midst of a migraine attack. And so the book the children about triggers and simple ways to calm the migraine beast.
You might guess what the challenge of the author is here. First, not everyone shares the same “triggers”. Migraine attacks, even for a single person, may get started because of one thing one day, and one thing another day.
The other challenge is that the focus on triggers means that there’s no time to talk about some of the wider issues, such as preventative treatments and lifestyle changes.
But, after all, this is a children’s book with a single purpose. Let’s not make things too complicated.
Let’s put it this way. This book is not a medical treaties. Neither is it a replacement for a talk between an adult and a child. It’s a conversation starter. It’s a way to start talking about migraine. And a way for young kids to learn how they might even be able to help Mom or Dad when the migraine monster hits.
After all, it’s easy enough for the parent or adult friend to say, “It’s different for me. For me, this would be more helpful.” Or, “Sometimes this food doesn’t bother me.”
And so I give this book a thumbs up for opening the door to what sometimes might be a difficult conversation. It’s colourful, fun, and would look great in a doctor’s office or on your own coffee table.
Ryan kindly sent me this book to review, and also sent me the actual migran shown in the picture. Which so far, thanks to careful care, has remained his green, squishy self.* Or – is it a girl? How do you tell with migrans? Never mind, I don’t need to know.
Anyway, you might be able to catch a copy of Why Mommy’s Head Hurts on Amazon (and by the way, this is not a “board book” as the listing currently says. It’s a hardcover). But to get the full-meal-deal with the cute migran and all, go to Etsy.
* No, the stuffed creature actually does not change colour or become a monster, no matter what you do to it. It stays just the way it is in the picture. I just like to pretend. 😀