It's Enough to Give You a Headache

All those ads for Head On headache remedy have gotten a lot of news coverage and a fair amount of ridicule in the press.  It is pretty strange to posit that rubbing something that looks like roll-on deodorant on your forehead would cure a headache.

An innovation that might help alleviate migraines, the migraine "zapper" is now being trotted out. People who are getting a migraine headache frequently know it's coming because of an aura--a warning that appears as visual disturbances, like flashing lights, shooting stars or zigzagging lines.  According to The Week magazine, "researchers at Ohio State University have developed a device that delivers an electric current through a metal coil, creating a magnetic field for about 1 millisecond."  In a study of 23 patients, most subjects said the device either eliminated or dulled their headaches when it was used during the aura phase.  "Experts long believed that migraines were caused by the constriction of blood vessels in the brain, but the promising results from the "zapper" experiment add to a growing body of evidence that neural pathways are also involved."

23 patients obviously is too few to hang any conclusions on, but it would be wonderful if a non-medication treatment for migraines could be found.

[Illustration from Living with Migraine]

Comments

[fragile industries]

As a former migraine sufferer, this device would have been a godsend. However, not all migraines come with auras, and not all people who do experience auras have them all the time. I only once had an aura, and that migraine actually sent me to the ER -- it had lasted nearly 3 days and by that time was what they call a "cluster headache." The ER doc shot me full of Demerol, and for about 5 minutes I despaired for relief, when suddenly I was in a pain-free La-La land. High as a kite. Now I know why Oscar Levant was a long-time Demerol addict.

Anyway, that's all old news. My migraines were all linked to the first two days of menses, and with that female inconvenience in my past, the migraines are gone too.

I knew a migrane sufferer who swore by some acrid-smelling Asian-manufactured oily salve (sort of like Tiger Balm) that she rubbed on her temples, so maybe that Head-On stuff does work.