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Topiramate (Topamax) is a drug used for the prevention of migraine headaches (and epilepsy) in adults and last year it was also approved for adolescent migraine sufferers. This drug is notorious for causing cognitive side effects, kidney stones...

Chronic migraine sufferers appear to be more likely to have dryness of their eyes, according to a study by ophthalmologists at the University of Utah, which was published in the journal Headache. The researchers used sophisticated techniques to...

Cluster headaches cause more severe pain than any other type of headaches. Some patients even call them suicide headaches because they provoke thoughts of suicide. The name comes from the fact that they occur in clusters – every day for a couple of...

Chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers have endured years of neglect and sometimes ridicule. The condition has even been called “yuppie flu”. Informal surveys indicate that half of the doctors do not believe that this is a true physical disease. This is...

Narcotics are not only ineffective for the treatment of headaches, but they can also make headaches worse and transform an episodic migraine into chronic. A study mentioned in a previous post showed that more than half of migraine sufferers who...

The existence of gluten sensitivity has been long denied by the mainstream medical establishment. A study described in a previous post over two years ago documented higher incidence of migraine headaches in people with gluten sensitivity than...

Doctors in St. Louis, MO examined how well headaches are treated in children. There has been little research about how well doctors in the US care for children and teens with migraine and if the treatment is consistent with evidence-based...

Several million Americans suffer from chronic migraines, headaches that occur on at least half of the days and often daily. A new study suggests one of the way to prevent this disabling disease. In the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention Study...

The new dietary guidelines issued by a government advisory committee have many positive changes from the old guidelines. These include a focus on food rather than nutrients. For example, there is no proposed limit on the intake of cholesterol...

The Journal of Nutrition just published a study that suggests life-extending benefits of taking vitamin and mineral supplements. Multivitamin with minerals products are the most commonly used supplements in the United States, followed by...

Eating more salt leads to more headaches, according to a study published in BMJ Open last December. In a multicentre feeding study with three 30-day periods, 390 participants were randomised to the DASH (a healthy diet that was expected to lower...

Epilepsy drugs Depakote and Topamax are two of only four drugs approved by the FDA for the prevention of episodic migraines (the other two are blood pressure medications in the beta blocker family, propranolol and timolol, while Botox is the only...

I recommend several supplements to my headache patients. However, the supplement industry is not regulated by the FDA and a few days ago another scandal has erupted. The attorney general of New York ordered Walgreens, WalMart, Target and GNC...

An email I just received, which is attached at the end of this post, prompted me to write again about magnesium. In my opinion, every migraine sufferer should try taking magnesium. It’s been 20 years since we published our first study of...

Many medical and pain conditions, including migraines, are more likely to occur in people who were abused in childhood. A new study by Richard Lipton and his colleagues compared the risk of developing migraines with the risk of developing episodic...

A study by Australian doctors led by Dr. Lyn Griffiths confirmed a previous observation that higher dietary intake of folic acid leads to lower frequency of migraine headaches. A 2009 study by Spanish doctors showed that patients with migraine...

Vitamin D deficiency has received wide attention and many doctors now check for this deficiency during routine check-ups. I’ve posted about the importance of vitamin D in migraine headaches and for general health. Vitamin D deficiency seems...

While being overweight doese not cause migraines, in those who do suffer with migraines there is an inverse relationship between person’s weight and the frequency and severity of migraine headaches. Weight loss, including that due to weight loss...

Vertigo and dizziness are more common in migraine sufferers than in people without migraines. A patient I am treating for migraines emailed me a few days ago complaining of vertigo. Dizziness is a term which can mean unsteadiness...

A report by Taiwanese doctors just published in the journal Neurology suggests that having migraine headaches may double the risk of Bell’s palsy. Several medical conditions, such as asthma, anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome...

Trigeminal neuralgia is a very painful and debilitating condition (Here is a review article I wrote for physicians). Fortunately, it is relatively infrequent – affecting 0.3% of the population, compared to 12% afflicted by migraines. This explains...

Cost is the only major issue with Botox injections, which is the only FDA-approved treatment for chronic migraines and which is now covered by almost all insurance companies. It is very safe and highly effective, relieving headaches in 70% of...

Cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) is usually seen in children. The attacks of vomiting often stop as the child gets older, but then they usually go on to develop migraine headaches. A recent report in Headache describes three adults with CVS...

Placebo effect is a well-documented phenomenon, which is particularly pronounced when treating migraine headaches. Intravenous (IV) infusion of saline water is a placebo commonly used in studies where placebo is compared to a medication also...

Considering that meditation can literally change your brain, it is not at all surprising that it can also prevent migraine headaches. A study by doctors at Wake Forest School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School published in the journal Headache...

Germany was just voted world’s favorite country, according to a report in the USA Today. It also may be the most advanced country in the area of medical rehabilitation. I just came back from Germany where I was invited to give lectures at two...

A new report by Drs. Gfrerer, Maman and their colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston entitled Non-Endoscopic Deactivation of Nerve Triggers in Migraine Headache Patients: Surgical Technique and Outcomes was recently published...

Fish oil, or rather omega-3 fatty acids, seem to reduce the risk of Lou Gehrig disease or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). An article in JAMA Neurology by Dr. Fitzgerald and her colleagues analyzed 1,002,082 participants in 5 different...

Cluster headaches usually occur once or twice a year for a period lasting from a few weeks to a few months. During those periods, they occur daily or more than once a day. Interestingly, these episodes of cluster headaches tend to occur at the same...

The first time I heard of the potential benefit of stem cells for migraine headaches was last year from one of my patients. This 55-year-old woman had been having some improvement from intravenous magnesium and nerve blocks, while Botox...