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Atogepant (Qulipta) is a new migraine drug that was just approved by the FDA for the preventive treatment of migraines. It is the third drug in the family of gepants. Gepants block the CGRP receptor. CGRP is a chemical...

Many migraine sufferers report that their migraines are brought on by the weather. High humidity, high temperatures, and changes in barometric pressure are the most commonly reported triggers. I’ve seen some patients for whom...

Two large studies have established that if you have diabetes you are less likely to suffer from migraines. The first study was done on the entire population of Norway. The authors concluded that both type 1 and type 2 diabetes...

Patients coming to the New York Headache Center have enjoyed seeing my daughter Julie’s artwork since she was 11. This was not just a childhood interest – Julie graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree...

Trudhesa is a new formulation of dihydroergotamine (DHE) nasal spray just approved by the FDA. It appears to be more effective than the original DHE nasal spray (Migranal) that was introduced in 1997. Ergotamine, the first migraine...

The placebo effect is a bane of clinical trials. A drug is considered ineffective if it is only as good as a placebo. And placebo can be quite good. Intriguingly, the placebo effect in clinical trials has been getting stronger over the past...

It is gratifying to know that my colleagues consider my new book, The End of Migraines: 150 Ways to Stop Your Pain, to be useful for patients with migraines as well as doctors who treat them. Dr. Uwe Reuter of Charité Universitätsmedizin...

Migraine can be triggered by many foods, including sugar, chocolate, smoked, pickled, cured, dried, and fermented foods. There are also foods that can help with migraines. These are magnesium-rich dark leafy vegetables...

Many patients with headaches are concerned about having a brain aneurysm. It is rare for an aneurysm to cause ongoing headaches. An aneurysm usually causes one very severe headache when it ruptures and causes...

In the US, we are lucky to have seven different triptans available in the pharmacies. Five of them – sumatriptan, rizatriptan, zolmitriptan, eletriptan, and almotriptan are considered to be more effective than the other two – naratriptan...

Many patients with chronic migraines complain of memory, word-finding, and other cognitive difficulties. I tell them that once we find an effective treatment for their migraines, their cognitive abilities should improve...

The pain of cluster headaches is considered to be the worst of all headaches. Hence the moniker, suicide headaches. Thankfully, it is a rare condition. Episodic cluster headaches affect a little over 0.1% of the population or approximately...

It’s been a few years since I wrote about meditation. There is little doubt that it helps migraine sufferers. Unlike drugs, meditation is harder to test in clinical trials. However, we do have many imaging studies showing the effect...

The international classification of headache disorders lists many different types of migraines – migraine with aura, hemiplegic, retinal, chronic, and others. Chronic migraine is present if a person has a headache on 15 or more...

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is an extremely painful and often debilitating condition. Many people respond to the standard therapy with epilepsy drugs such as carbamazepine (Tegretol) or oxcarbazepine (Trileptal). Botox injections...

A publication of the American Headache Society, Headache, The Journal of Head and Face Pain, has just published Dr. Allan Purdy’s most generous review of my new book, The End of Migraines: 150 Ways to Stop Your Pain...

Biohaven, the manufacturer of rimegepant (Nurtec ODT) just received FDA approval to market this drug for the prevention of migraines. Rimegepant was approved in January of 2020 for the acute treatment of migraine headaches...

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is an extremely painful condition. Patients describe the pain as electric shocks going through the face. The most common or classic form of TN is caused by the compression of the trigeminal nerve as...

The opioid epidemic has claimed many lives. Overprescribing by doctors has certainly played a role. The push to use opioids more liberally started in the late 1980s. This promotion by many pain experts even led to pain...

Almost 1.5 million Americans visit emergency rooms every year for the treatment of head trauma. Headache, not surprisingly, is one of the most common symptoms of head trauma. What is very surprising is that until now, there...

We know that physical emotional, and sexual abuse in childhood increases the risk of developing chronic pain and migraines later in life. Dutch researchers looked at several other potential predisposing factors. The results of their...

Post-traumatic headaches (PTH) are classified as a distinct category of headaches. There is growing evidence, however, that headaches that develop after a head injury are migraines. A study just published in Cephalalgia by Dr...

The goal of personalized medicine will be achieved through the exponential growth of computing power. Epigenetics, pharmacogenomics, and machine learning are some of the approaches that are being driven by our ability...

This blog has many posts about the role of magnesium in the prevention of migraines and clinical trials of magnesium. Another study was just published by Iranian doctors in The Journal of Headache and Pain. Unfortunately, like other studies...

Weight loss in overweight migraine sufferers – including that produced by bariatric surgery – leads to a reduction in the frequency of migraine attacks. In a previous post and in my new book I mentioned the use of metformin...

COVID-related lockdowns have saved many lives. We don’t yet fully appreciate, however, the other side of the ledger – the harms the lockdowns have caused. These include delays in diagnosing cancers, alcohol and drug abuse...

The headache of low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure can be very severe. Its main feature is that it gets worse on sitting or standing and improves upon lying down. Sometimes, this change is quick but occasionally the...

The term postural orthostatic tachycardia means that the heart rate becomes very fast upon standing up. POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that is associated with abnormal blood flow regulation. Almost all patients...

Cyclic vomiting is considered to be a form of migraine. It is most common in children. Surveys indicate that 2% to 3% of children may be suffering from this condition. These children often develop typical migraines as they get...

Magnesium supplementation for the prevention of migraine headaches has been gaining wider acceptance. Dozens of studies, including several of our own, have shown that migraine sufferers often have a magnesium deficiency...