HeadOn and an easy million?
Remember our discussion about the headache homeopathic remedy, HeadOn? Well, it’s still out there, and you could make a million dollars if you can prove it actually works! Check out this video from MoneyTalks:
Quick thanks to Sandy
Just for the record, I appreciate your comments and notes even though I don’t always have a chance to respond the way I’d like. I even appreciate your feedback about the site itself.
For example, Sandy from Australia emailed me a few weeks ago, pointing out the the font on the menus of the main site was horrendous – terribly hard to read! ANd boy was she right.
So, I’ve changed the font – you should find it much clearer and easier to read.
Thanks again, Sandy! And thanks all of you who share your comments and suggestions.
A reminder – share your medical history!
No, don’t share it with everyone, but do share it with your doctor, or those that might be treating you in the emergency room, for example! A recent story of a 38 year old who had some confusing symptoms reminded me of this.
I try to remind people that they need to talk to a doctor who knows their medical history. I can’t emphasize this enough. The more your doctor knows, the better she will be able to diagnose and treat you. If she is missing information, you could very easily end up with a wrong diagnosis, and treatment you don’t need (that could make things worse).
Or, you could end up with treatment that could harm you because, for example, it interacts with that natural remedy you’re taking, or that other drug, or that medical condition you failed to mention.
The story comes out of Toulouse, France. The 38 year old female patient came in with symptoms looking like serious cerebral stroke, and she was treated with this in mind. But it wasn’t stroke.
What she was experiencing was migraine aura – atypical aura. She hadn’t mentioned her history of migraine, and so she ended up being treated for the wrong thing. (see Migraine with atypical aura in the recovery room: a sometimes complicated diagnosis!)
Take the time to share your medical history. Have the pertinent information handy – maybe this means carrying around a sheet of paper, or having a medical USB drive. Keep it handy and get the treatment you need.
Oxygen therapy to stop cluster and migraine pain
Relieving the pain of cluster or migraine using oxygen is not a new idea. But there are various kinds of oxygen therapy, and we need a better understanding of just how well it works, what type of therapy works best, and whether or not this may be a practical treatment.
Michael Bennett and his team set out to review the studies that have been done on two different types of oxygen therapy. They discovered that there may indeed be some benefits.
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The two types of therapy we’re talking about are hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and normobaric oxygen therapy (NBOT). The latter involves breathing pure oxygen at normal pressure, and the former ("hyper") breathing pure oxygen at a higher pressure. HBOT therapy requires putting the patient in a specially designed chamber.
So the researchers pulled together 9 small studies that included a total of 201 people.
The reviewers didn’t find the evidence very strong, but there does seem to be some evidence that HBOT may help people with migraine and possibly cluster during the attack, and NBOT may help people with cluster. From these studies there isn’t any evidence of relief from future attacks.
In the end, Bennett says,"We believe that hyperbaric oxygen is also a reasonable measure for migraineurs who have not responded to other measures to treat an acute attack. However, the poor availability of hyperbaric chambers makes this an option only in a minority of health facilities."
So at this point it’s the practicality that’s the problem. Most of us don’t have a HBOT chamber around the corner that we can hop into when we start into a migraine attack.
You can read the details in the official review: Normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen therapy for migraine and cluster headache
Have you ever tried any kind of oxygen therapy? How did it work for you? Leave a comment!
More on the hand-held-migraine-zapper (if you have aura)
Noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, continues to be a topic of conversation in the medical world. At its 50th conference, the American Headache Society listened to a positive report out of the Ohio State University about the TMS devices.
The TMS is transforming from a large device in a specialist’s office to a handheld device that can be used in the home. The hope is that the TMS can be used early in a migraine attack to stop the migraine chain reaction without drugs. Apply it to the head and turn it on, and zap the migraine away. Could it work that well?
For some migraineurs, the results seem to be encouraging. In this study, migraineurs with aura. Out of 164 patients, 39% reported being pain-free two hours after using the device. That may not sound like much, but remember that no drugs were used. And 39% is a lot better than a placebo (in this test, 22% of the placebo-using patients found similar relief).
But these were patients with aura, who used the device during the aura stage of the attack. Would patients who don’t experience aura be able to use the device with success? Time and more study will tell.
For those that have seen the headlines about the TMS device, 39% vs 22% on placebo may not live up to the hype. Still, this looks like it may be a safe, effective alternative for some people. Especially since many don’t respond or can’t even take regular migraine medication. As one of the researchers said (himself a neurologist): "Because of the lack of adverse events in this trial and the established safety of the TMS device, this is a promising treatment for migraines with aura." (Dr. Yousef Mohammad)
Read more about this preliminary study here: Electronic device zaps migraine pain, study says