15 Sep

Posted at 18:32h in News to Know, Reader's Mail by
Q. My father has a variety of medical conditions, including Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. He has severe headaches almost every day. His doctors continue to prescribe more and more medications, which are not working. He has had every test imaginable to rule out any serious medical issue that may be causing the headaches. He has tried acupuncture and Botox, which provide minor temporary relief. I have read many articles on oxygen offering relief for chronic headache pain. For some reason, none of his many doctors are willing to even attempt this therapy. They just continue to prescribe more medications and, as you can imagine, he is using many medications already. Do you have any recommendations on how to convince any of his doctors to try oxygen treatments? My father’s headaches are completely debilitating. He often can’t even hold his head up.

15 Jan

Posted at 18:37h in News to Know, Reader's Mail by
Q. I need some advice. Over four years ago, I was thrown from my car, despite wearing a seatbelt, and landed on my head. I have read that most post-concussive headaches resolve within weeks or months. I, however, have had a headache all day, every day since the wreck. I have tried countless medications and treatments with little to no relief. Do you have any suggestions?

15 Sep

Posted at 18:44h in News to Know by
Children who frequently suffer from headache may benefit from biofeedback therapy, which a recent study showed decreased pain and headache frequency. Biofeedback is a technique in which people attempt to control some bodily processes that normally occur involuntarily, such as heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and skin temperature.  For this study, researchers evaluated 132 youth, ages 8 to 18, who attended two or more biofeedback sessions between 2004 and 2008; the median number of sessions was seven. Between the first and last visit, headache frequency dropped from 3.5 to 2 headache days per month, and the median severity of pain decreased from 6.5 to 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

15 Oct

Posted at 21:51h in News to Know by
Q. I am a frequent migraine sufferer and have had no luck in finding a treatment that works for me. I've had massage therapy, acupuncture, and been to my primary care doctor and a neurologist. I've been on a daily preventive (Topamax®), which did nothing for the headaches, but did make me sick! I now take Maxalt® when I feel a bad migraine coming on, but it doesn't work as well as it did when I first started taking it. Is there something else I can try? I'm ready to bang my head against a wall!

15 Aug

Posted at 22:22h in News to Know by

A 30-minute massage can improve the psychological and physiological state of people with chronic tension-type headaches, according to a study published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. In a small study, 11 people with chronic-tension type headache received either head-neck massage with a...

15 Jul

Posted at 22:47h in News to Know by
People with chronic headache have a high prevalence of insomnia and other sleep disorders, such as daytime sleepiness and snoring, according to a study published in the journal Headache. The incidence of insomnia is so high—almost 68% as compared to 39% of people with occasional headaches—that it may even be a risk factor for developing chronic headache. Meanwhile, a separate study, presented at the American Headache Society meeting, has uncovered a possible biological reason for the link.

07 Jun

Posted at 20:51h in Reader's Mail by

Can Lidocaine Patches Be Cut to Smaller Size?

Q. Though they help with my chronic headache pain, lidocaine patches can be cumbersome to apply. My local pharmacists are in disagreement: One says patches cannot be cut, but the other said I could cut my lidocaine patch to a size more suitable to my needs. Who is correct?

22 Jan

Posted at 19:18h in Headache Education by
When you think about someone having a headache, you probably think of an adult. But many kids have headaches, too, and for some of the very same reasons that adults have them. Children and teens generally experience tension-type or migraine headaches. Among school children ages 5-17 in the U.S., 20% (10.3 million), are dealing with chronic headaches. Approximately 15% of these kids experience tension-type headaches and 5% are coping with migraines.