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An electronic device designed to “zap” away migraine pain before it starts may be the next form of relief for millions of people who suffer from the debilitating disease. Results of a study found that the experimental device appears to be effective in eliminating the headache when administered during the onset of the migraine.

The device, called TMS, interrupts the aura phase of the migraine, often described as electrical storms in the brain, before they lead to headaches. Auras are neural disturbances that signal the onset of migraine headaches. People who suffer from migraine headaches often describe “seeing” showers of shooting stars, zigzagging lines and flashing lights, and experiencing loss of vision, weakness, tingling or confusion. What typically follows these initial symptoms is intense throbbing head pain, nausea and vomiting.

Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist at OSU Medical Center who presented the results, says that the patients in this study reported a significant reduction in nausea, noise and light sensitivity post treatment.

“Perhaps the most significant effect of using the TMS device was on the two-hour symptom assessment, with 84 percent of the episodes in patients using the TMS occurring without noise sensitivity. Work functioning also improved, and there were no side effects reported,” Mohammad said.

The stimulator sends a strong electric current through a metal coil, which creates an intense magnetic field for about one millisecond. This magnetic pulse, when held against a person’s head, creates an electric current in the neurons of the brain, interrupting the aura before it results in a throbbing headache.

“The device’s pulses are painless. The patients have felt a little pressure, but that’s all,” said Mohammad, who is principal investigator of the study at Ohio State .

“In our study sample, 69 percent of the TMS-related headaches reported to have either no or mild pain at the two-hour post-treatment point compared to 48 percent of the placebo group. In addition, 42 percent of the TMS-treated patients graded their headache response, without symptoms, as very good or excellent compared to 26 percent for the placebo group. These are very encouraging results.”

It was previously believed that migraine headaches start with vascular constriction, which results in an aura, followed by vascular dilation that will lead to a throbbing headache. However, in the late 1990s it was instead suggested that neuronal electrical hyper excitability resulted in a throbbing headache. This new understanding of the migraine mechanism has assisted with the development of the TMS device.

NeuraLieve, located in Sunnyvale, Ca., provided the funding and equipment for the study. Mohammad has no other financial relationship or affiliation with the company.

The source of this article is http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060622072506.htm

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I went to visit a new internist last Friday. My current internist was a nice guy but he didn’t return phone calls for a while and that frustrated me. So I decided to go see a new internist.

I went to see him with the intent of talking about my chest pain with exertion and borderline high blood pressure that I have been experiencing in recent months. Upon arriving their I filled out the necessary paperwork and sat down. Next, I heard some commotion behind the door and heard that some one had passed out.  An old man passed out and was laying on the floor. Eventually, an ambulance was called and came to take him to the ER. I never found out what happened to him.

Eventually, I went back and met the doctor. He seemed like a good guy; however, he didn’t seem to know a whole lot about headaches. He tried to recommend the book Heal Your Headache. I told him that I own it, have read it, and didn’t find it to help me at all. He told me all his other patients had thought it was beneficial. 

Later on, the internist said I should take Prilosec Over the Counter, for a month, and then come back to see him. He also performed an EKG, which turned out to be normal, and took my blood pressure. Even though my blood pressure is border line high, he didn’t want to give me any medications at this point. Further, he wants me to have a stress echo performed, as he said heart burn doesn’t usually happen with just exertion, and perhaps there is something going on with blood flowing to my heart. I personally just think it’s from all of the medications I have taken for my head pounding and pain.

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I am currently reading Positive Words, Powerful Results by Hal Urban. Thus far I have enjoyed the book as it discusses simple ways to honor, affirm, and celebrate life. There is a small discussion on Norman Cousins and how he used laughter and positive thinking to cure himself of a deadly disease. He went on to be the first person not having an M.D. to teach medicine and wrote about his experience in Anatomny of Illness.

Many in the medical field have proved his findings offering a list of the therapeutic benefits of laughter.

• It activates and strengthens the immune sytem.
• It reduces at least four hormones associated with stress
• It’s aerobic. It provides a “workout” for the diaphragm and increases the body’s ability to use oxygen.
• It relaxes the muscles.
• It can significantly reduce pain for long periods.
• It lowers blood pressure and can prevent hypertension.
• It improves respiration by emptying the lungs completely of the air they take in.
• It has no negative side effects.
• It’s available free anywhere without a prescription.
• It’s free.

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September 10th to September 16 of 2007 is the National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week. It is a worldwide effort to bring people together who live with invisible chronic illnesses and those who love them. Organizations are encouraged to educate the general public, churches, health care professionals and government officials about the impact of living with a chronic illness that is not visually apparent.

Rest Ministries the sponsor of the week offers these statistics.

• 1 in 2 Americans (133 million) has a chronic condition
• 96% of them live with an illness that is invisible. These people do not use a cane or any assistive device and may look perfectly healthy.
• Sixty percent are between the ages of 18 and 64
• The divorce rate among the chronically ill is over 75%
• Depression is 15-20% higher for the chronically ill than for the average person
• Various studies have reported that physical illness or uncontrollable physical pain are major factors in up to 70% of suicides and more than 50% of these suicidal patients were under 35 years of age

Visit www.invisibleillness.com to find out more ranging from articles on 50 ways to encourage those with a chronic illness, sharing your story, learning about invisible illnesses, and learning how you can help spread the word. Further there are many workshops going on throughout the week that seem to be promising. Click here for the online conference schedule consisting of 20 workshops.

Find more videos like this on Illness-Disability-Healthcare-Caregiver Ministry Network

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Well on Friday I saw another new neurologist. I wanted to see what his thoughts were and what suggestions he had for my continuous head pounding.

This neurologist was unlike other neurologists I have seen. He made me feel very at ease and I felt like I could explain everything to him that had been going on. I talked with him, and he performed some neurological tests for over two hours. In fact, during this time he gave me a glass of water and showed me to the bathroom.

I went through all of my symptoms with the doctor and gave him my medical history. He also asked me several questions such as how much caffeine I consume on a regular basis, if I had sensitivity to light, the weather, and also several other questions.

After a very thorough examination, the neurologist arrived at a conclusion. [It is also important to note that I did not share with him the diagnosis from the other neurologist I saw last Tuesday, in which he thought it was occipital neuralgia.] This neurologist thought that there were a few different possibilities. He also arrived at a similar conclusion: he thought it was possible that due to the position I was in during the wisdom teeth removal on the dental chair, and the strong force applied by removing teeth, that this caused me to have occipital neuralgia. The other possibility was that I have new daily persistent headache, which has no known cure.

The recommendation for me to pursue was to get an occipital nerve block. Even though he said it appears I have the right occipital nerve as the problem, he said it might be in my best interest to have both nerves blocked. This is because if you just block the right nerve, the symptoms can sometimes move to the other nerve. He referred me to a pain management center.

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