New York Headache Center

Migralex is an over-the-counter medication for the treatment of headaches, which will become available in November of 2009.  Results of the first study of Migralex were presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society in Boston.  In an open-label study 50 patients with headaches who were being treated at the NYHC compared Migralex with their usual medication.  Half of the patients found Migralex better or much better than their usual treatment and 27 were willing to take it again.  In 31 of 50 patients the usual medication was a triptan ( a prescription migraine medication) and in 19 it was a prescription or over-the-counter pain medication.  Migralex was well tolerated, with only one patient reporting upset stomach.

Vitamin D deficiency has become a very popular topic in lay and professional literature, and deservedly so.  Vitamin D is important not only for bone health, but for normal functioning of many organs.  Its deficiency appears to be much more common than it was previously suspected.  Dr. Steve Wheeler has found vitamin D deficiency in 42% of 55 patients with chronic migraine headaches.  He presented these findings at the recent meeting of the American Headache Society.  We do not have evidence that taking vitamin D will help relieve headaches, however if a deficiency is present correcting it can certainly improve overall health of the patient.  One possible cause of what appears to be increasing incidence of vitamin D deficiency is widespread use of prescription and over-the-counter antacids.  Reducing stomach acidity helps relieve heartburn and other symptoms of reflux, but it may also interfere with absorption of vitamins and minerals.

A study conducted by one of the leading headache researchers, Dr. Richard Lipton looked at possible factors that worsen migraine headaches.  The study looked at people with frequent migraines (15 or more days with headache a month) and found that these patients were more likely to be female, overweight, depressed, have a lower education level and overused medications.  The overused medications included narcotics, barbiturates (Fioricet, Fiorinal and Esgic) but also over-the-c0unter drugs such as Excedrin.  The only exception was aspirin - it appeared to be protective, that is people taking aspirin were less likely to develop chronic headaches.  Dietary caffeine and stresful life events were also more common prior to development of chronic migraines.