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Pregnant women who take NSAIDs such as naproxen (Aleve), ibuprofen (Advil), diclofenac (Volaren, Cambia), celecoxib (Celebrex), and other are two and a half times more likely to have a miscarriage. This is a finding of Canadian researchers who...

The FDA approved Botox for the treatment of chronic migraine because of the two large double-blind and placebo controlled trials which involved close to 1,400 patients (in which we, at the NYHC also participated). These studies showed that Botox...

Hypertension appears to increase the risk of trigeminal neuralgia, according to a new study published in Neurology by Taiwanese researchers. They looked at 138,492 people with hypertension and compared them to 276,984 people of similar age and...

Cyclic vomiting in childhood is often a precursor of migraines in adulthood. Usually a child has attacks of vomiting with or without a headache that can occur 10 – 20 times in a 24-hour period. Most children have family history of migraines and...

High blood pressure is not a common cause of chronic headaches. The pressure has to suddenly increase (from say 100/70 to 150/90) or to be very high (like 170/110, or higher) to cause a headache. Mild hypertension is called a silent killer because...

Cluster headaches are relieved by steroid injections in the back of the head, according to a study by French doctors, published in The Lancet. 43 patients with chronic and episodic cluster headaches were recruited into this blinded study where some...

Having migraines with aura increases the risk of having increased total cholesterol and triglycerides. This was found to be the case in a population-based study of 1,155 older people (average age 69) presented by Dr. Tobias Kurth at the International...

Difficulty thinking and speaking is not unusual at the onset of a migraine attack. It is not always severe as with the reporter Serene Branson who jumbled words and appeared confused on camera. Many patients report that they have difficulty finding...

Risk of irregular heart beat, heart attacks, and death increases in people taking NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen (Aleve), diclofenac (Cambia, Voltaren, Cataflam), and celecoxib (Celebrex). The risk with these drugs in people who suffer...

Yet another study finds that exercise is as good for the prevention of migraines as drugs. The research report in journal Cephalalgia by Swedish doctors shows that 40 minutes of exercise three times a week was as effective as taking topiramate...

Aspirin is the first-line treatment for migraine and tension-type headaches regardless of headache intensity, according to a report published by three leading headache experts (from Austria, Germany, and Norway) in the journal Headache. Some...

Merck discontinued the development of telcagepant, a promising new drug which represents a new class of migraine drugs, so-called CGRP antagonists. These drugs appear to be as effective as sumatriptan (Imitrex) and other triptans in aborting...

At the NYHC, just like at all headache clinics, we see many patients with severe disability. A very interesting study just published in the journal Pain seems to tell us how to predict which of these disabled patients will respond to treatment...

Chronic cluster sufferers may benefit from sodium oxybate (Xyrem), according to a report in the leading neurology journal,Neurology. Xyrem is a drug approved for the treatment of narcolepsy but it is also being evaluated for the treatment of pain...

Botox has been shown to relieve headaches of low spinal fluid pressure in a case reported at the last annual scientific meeting of the American Headache Society in Washington DC. Low spinal fluid headache usually occurs after a spinal tap...

Abdominal migraine was the subject of a study by a group of doctors from a children’s hospital in Norfolk, VA was just published in the journal Headache. The physicians examined the records of 600 children with recurrent abdominal pain. They found...

Dissection of the cervical artery is a dangerous condition which can lead to a stroke and even death, although in some it can be a benign condition with no lasting effects. A recently published study by Germain researchers in the journal Cephalalgia...

Trigeminal neuralgia is an excruciatingly painful disorder which affects about one in a thousand people. Patients describe the pain of TN as an electric shock going through the face. The pain is brief, but can be so frequent as to become incapacitating...

Migraine and epilepsy drug Topamax is being recalled by its manufacturer, Ortho-McNeil Neurologics, a division of Johnson and Johnson. This recall affects only two lots of 100 mg tablets. This recall does not affect topiramate, generic copies...

Obese people are more likely to suffer from more frequent and severe migraine headaches. The question that remained unanswered was whether losing weight helps relieve headaches. A new study just published in the leading neurology journal, Neurology...

Migraine headaches are very common in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) sufferers, according to a new study just published by researchers from Georgetown University. Migraine headaches were present in 84% of patients with CFS (60% had migraine without...

Temporo-mandibular joint disorders (TMD) have long been known to be associated with headaches. A very interesting study conducted in Brazil and published in the Clinical Journal of Pain examined this association in 300 patients with TMD...

Topiramate (Topamax) increases the risk of birth defects, such as cleft lip and palate, warned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Topiramate is an epilepsy drug which is also approved for the preventive treatment of migraine headaches...

Migraine prevention is most effective when a preventive medication and behavioral management are combined together. A study by Dr. Holroyd and his colleagues published in the British Medical Journal showed that a beta blocker alone and behavioral...

Everything you do – eat, drink, sleep, move, sit, stand, think, feel, interact – adds up to how you feel and function. In a body-mind program, as with one for diet or exercise, by changing your daily practices, you will get a different result...

Taking two different triptans (drugs such as Imitrex, or sumatriptan, Maxalt, or rizatriptan and other) within 24 hours of each other is contraindicated according to the FDA. However, there is no scientific reason for such prohibition. You are allowed...

Botox is now approved for chronic migraine headaches. However, it may help you feel happier not only because your headaches improved. Several studies suggest that the inability to frown caused by Botox makes people happier too. Psychologists at the...

Melatonin does not seem to be effective for the prevention of migraine headaches, according to a study published in Neurology. The researchers from Norway gave 2 mg of extended release melatonin every night for 8 weeks to 46 migraine sufferers...

Botox, which was recently approved for the treatment of chronic migraine headaches, was originally thought to relieve migraine headaches by relaxing tight muscles around the scalp. However, several recent studies determined that besides relaxing...

Intranasal sumatriptan powder seems to be a new and very promising way to deliver a migraine drug. Sumatriptan (Imitrex) nasal spray has been available for many years, however it is not very effective or at least is not consistently effective...