Putting Our Heads Together

Learning About Migraine and Headaches - Off to LA!

Learning about our Migraines and headaches is one of the best things we can do for ourselves. That's why I write so many articles and publish them online so they can be read by anyone who has or is interested in Migraine disease and other headache disorders.

One of my tools for learning and sharing information is attending the conferences of the American Headache Society. Tomorrow, I'll be flying to Los Angeles to attend their 52nd annual scientific meeting. There are many, many great topics on the schedule:

• Insights from Imaging Migraine Patients
• Photophobia
• Medication Overuse Contributes to Migraine Progression
• White Matter Lesions
• What Have We Learned from Hemiplegic Migraine?
• Chronic Migraine
• Much more!

It's going to be a great conference with many chances to learn, meet people, and network. You can expect to see new articles when I come back and share what I've learned.

Live well,

 

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 22, 2010

Today's Free Migraine Newsletter

Do you find it difficult to keep up on Migraine information? My FREE Putting Our Heads Together email newsletter can help!

If you'd like to see an issue, you can look at TODAY'S ISSUE.

That's what you get every week when you subscribe.

Delivered to your email, the newsletter includes links to...

• treatment news;
• research news;
• articles about different types of Migraines and headaches;
• tips for living with Migraines;
• news and information from Migraine and headache organizations such as the NHF, MRF, and AHS;
• places to ask questions and get answers;
• quizzes to test your Migraine and headache knowledge;
• fun word games;
• and more!

Putting Our Heads Together is delivered to your inbox on Mondays. When Monday is a holiday, it may be delivered on Tuesday.

I know how hard it can be to look for information, especially when your Migraines or headaches are frequent. That's why this newsletter exists.

Subscribing to Putting Our Heads Together is easy. Just fill in the subscription box to your left; at the top of the left column of this blog.

Live well,

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 21, 2010

Migraines, Stigma, and People Who Don't Understand: Live Chat

Is there a stigma attached to Migraine?

If so, how do we combat that stigma?

How do we get family and friends involved so they understand better?

If those questions interest you, I hope you'll join me tomorrow (Wednesday, June 16) at MyMigraineConnection for a live chat session. We'll be discussing those issues and how to handle them.

These are serious issues for Migraineurs, issues that all of us have had to face. We don't, however, have to deal with them alone. We'll have two live chat sessions to make chatting with us easier for people in different time zones:

• 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., eastern time; and
• 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., eastern time

To join the chats, follow these links:

• afternoon chat
• evening chat

You can also find the transcripts from earlier chats on the chat information page.

Live well,

 

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 15, 2010

June Migraine and Headache Blog Carnival - Food, Glorious Food

The Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival has been created to provide both headache patients and people who blog about headaches with opportunities to share ideas on topics of particular interest and importance to us.

The theme of the June carnival is "Food, Glorious Food: How Does Food Fit Into Your Life? As a trigger or something to avoid? A comfort? A temptation?"

This month's carnival is once again hosted by Diana Lee on Somebody Heal Me. Diana began this carnival and keeps it going.

Without further ado, please visit Food, Glorious Food!

Live well,

 

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 14, 2010

Food and Migraines - Friends? Enemies?

Food and Migraines. That's a common topic and a common subject of questions I receive.

One subject of questions is which foods can trigger Migraines, and how do you figure out what foods, if any, are triggers for you. The best way to determine if you have food triggers and what they are is to do an elimination diet and keep a good Migraine diary. During an elimination diet, you begin by eliminating a list of potential trigger foods. Then, you add them back into your diet, one food per week. Keeping a Migraine diary during this process helps you determine if the foods you're adding back in are triggers. It's important to note that a food or beverage can trigger a Migraine up to 48 hours after you consume it. Some of us have food triggers; so9me don't. Trigger identification and management is a vital part of Migraine management. Here are some tools to help you determine if you have any food triggers:

• Managing Migraine: Migraine Trigger Foods
  This article tells you how to determine if you have food triggers. It includes a free downloadable workbook.
• Migraine Diary Workbook
  This workbook has several forms of diaries so you can choose the format you and your doctor prefer.

Another subject of questions I receive is whether there are foods that can prevent Migraines. The answer to that kind of question is, "No, but..." There aren't specific foods that can help prevent Migraines, but good nutrition actually can help us. You can read more about this in the article Migraines and Food Choices.

For those of us who do have food triggers, it can be really irritating, BUT once we identify which foods are triggers, we can avoid some of our Migraines by avoiding those foods. That's good. That's far easier to cope with than those triggers that we can't avoid.

Good nutrition can seem like a lot of work, especially for those of us who have chronic Migraines with so many days when we don't feel like cooking. With some planning, good nutrition is as difficult to achieve as you may think. If you want some help with this, you can also ask our doctor to set you up for a consultation with a dietitian or nutritionist.

Overall, foods can be our friends or our enemies.The good part of that is that we can work to identify those that are our enemies and avoid them.

Live well,

 

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 11, 2010

National Headache Awareness Week 2010

June 6 - 12 has been designated as National Headache Awareness week for 2010. National Headache Awareness Week (NHAW) was started by the National Headache Foundation (NHF), and they continue to organize and sponsor the observation each year.

Don't let the name fool you. Migraine is definitely included in this observation and the work of the NHF. It can be a bit confusing, but this area of medicine has long been called "headache medicine," and there are times when Migraine is included in the term "headache."

This year, NHAW recognizes the 40th anniversary of the NHF. You can learn more about the NHF and this year's NHAW events HERE.

One of the most recent projects of the NHF is a survey, the findings of which are being released just in time for NHAW...

Read more about National Headache Awareness Week and this survey in National Headache Awareness Week 2010.

Live well,

 

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 7, 2010

Help Paying for Migraine Medications and Doctors' Visits

It's a sad commentary on our society as well as the state of the U.S. economy that people are going without their Migraine medications because they can't afford to pay for them. Even worse, it's happening more and more frequently as the U.S. economy is in upheaval. Even those with health insurance are having problems, especially as insurance companies narrow their formularies, raise copayments, and otherwise increase the portion of prescription expenses for which patients are responsible.

The major pharmaceutical companies have patient assistance programs set up to help people who can't afford their medications. Figuring out these programs can be problematic as the requirements and application process varies from company to company, and the various programs can change over time.

Partnership for Prescription Assistance brings applications for all of those programs together in one place. They also have information on nearly 10,000 free health care clinics and has connected more than a quarter of a million patients with clinics and health care providers in their communities.

Do you need help paying for health care and prescriptions? Do you know someone else who does?

Learn more about the Partnership for Prescription Assistance in this article: Partnership for Prescription Assistance: Helping Those Who Can't  Afford Medications and Health Care.

Live well,

 

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 5, 2010

What Is Hypnic Headache?

There are so many types of Migraines and headaches that it can get really confusing. So, I thought it would be helpful to review our "What Is...?" articles...

  With only 80 documented cases, hypnic headache (HH) is one of the rarest headache disorders. HH is primary headache disorder, which means that it cannot be attributed to another condition.

The most identifying feature of HH is that it develops only during sleep and wakes the sufferer.

The International Headache Society's International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd Edition (ICHD-II), is the "gold standard" for diagnosing and classifying headache disorders. Here are the description, diagnostic criteria, and symptoms of HH as set forth in the ICHD-II...

Continue reading What Is Hypnic Headache?

Live well,

Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.

 

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© Teri Robert, 2010 Last updated June 2, 2010