Headaches

Sleep Deprivation and the Biological Mechanisms of Chronic Migraine Headache

by

Scientists from the Missouri State University’s Center for Biomedical & Life Sciences have found new research to suggest sleep deprivation leads to changes in the levels of key proteins that facilitate events involved in the underlying pathology of migraine. “Previous clinical data support a relationship between sleep quality and migraine,” said Paul L. Dunham, Ph.D. “so we used an established model of sleep deprivation to measure levels of proteins that lower the activation threshold of peripheral and central nerves involved in pain transmission during migraine. We found that REM sleep deprivation caused increased expression of the proteins p38, PKA, and P2X3, which are known to play an important role in initiating and sustaining chronic pain.” “So little is known about the biological mechanisms that underlie how certain factors trigger a migraine attack,” said David Dodick, M.D., “This is important work … Read more

Living with NDPH

by

On my website I discuss New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH) . I have also previously posted some NDPH chronic headache articles. Recently I found a website called Living with NDPH. The site is written by Amy, a mother of 3, who has suffered with a chronic persistent headache for 4 years, and has been blogging about it since last August. If you suffer from NDPH her website is a good resource. Another great resource is MDJunction as I have posted about before. I recently read an interesting story of Amy’s Living with NDPH website about a Young Boy Cured of NDPH after suffering from 5 months. Essentially in the story which I encourage you to read on Amy’s website the young 11 year old boy had a headache start near the start of 2010. He had several tests done and … Read more

Headache Causes Difficulty Tuning out Visuals

by

A recent study from researchers from Scotland’s Glasgow Caledonian University has come out with implications for headache sufferers. The research suggests migraine sufferers even when they do not have a headache may process visual cues better in an environment with few visual distractions. The researchers asked migraine sufferers to pick out a small disk of light with visual noise was present which severed as a visual distraction. Without the visual noise, people prone to migraine could identify the light disk about as well as the control group. When the noise was added, migraine sufferers performed significantly worse. The study demonstrated migraine sufferers with auras were the actually the most affected by the addition of visual noise. This research has practical implications for those who suffer from headache and migraine. It may thus be best to avoid environments with a lot … Read more

iHATEheadaches.org – Ira Shapira

by

Recently launched is a new website http://www.ihateheadaches.org/. This website is run by Dr. Ira Shapira a dentist in Gurnee, Illinois.  People should take CAUTION when viewing this site. First, the site serves as a promotion tool for Dr. Ira Shapira and other neuromuscular dentists in the U.S. Of course, since Dr. Ira Shapira is located in Illinois his practice is the only one listed when you select you live in IL. Currently the site only has one or two dentists at the most for different states. Some states such as Florida currently have no “doctor’s” listed. Secondly, the site is attempting to aid in the dentists ‘cashing’ in on the headache epidemic. In a press release by Dr. Ira Shapira he addresses a article in Medical Hypothesis (2009) “Migraine, neuropathic pain and nociceptive pain: Towards a unifying concept.“ This article … Read more

NDPH – Chronic Headache Articles

by

I found some useful articles on NDPH and chronic headache that may be of interest to you if you suffer from new daily persistent headache or have frequent headaches. There are also some key take-home points even if you do not currently suffer from any headache condition. The first point is that surgery has been shown to trigger 24/7 headache in children in at least a handful of cases. This has occurred in extra-cranial surgery, meaning surgery that is not of the brain. The pathophysiology of this is currently unknown… Thus this should certainly be weighed when considering whether or not to undergo wisdom teeth removal as it is surgery. The other important take-home point is that this 24/7 headache often does not respond to any treatment. Thus the goal of treatment in the short term is often to reduce … Read more