Migraines, Vampires, and a Recipe

I've been wanting to follow-up on a couple things for a while now, but there always seems to be something else fighting it's way out of my head!

First: Migraine treatment follow-up
I posted a little while ago about a suggestion made by a neurologist that I try a combination of vitamins (and occasional Aleve) to try to keep my headaches under control. I can say unequivocally that this has been a great success for me. My daily headaches are all but gone, and I haven't had a single migraine. On 3 occasions I have gotten what I'll call “weird” headaches — not quite migraines, but feeling pretty intense. All 3 times I took Butterburr and was fine within an hour! If you decide to try this, please let me know how it works for you.

Second: the Twilight series
At the time that I wrote, I was reading book 1 of 4. I have now read all 4 and, obviously, I loved it. My favorite book was the first, followed by the 3rd. I may have caught some flak in the comments (I believe a certain friend called me a “moron” — sound familiar, Dana?!) but I'm ok with that. The books aren't great literature, but the writing is decent and the characters are really, truly likable. And sometimes that's enough.

Lastly: the promised recipe
Yet another sign of Spring is that we fired up the grill the other night. I'm not a red-meat eater, and I really don't care for chicken. However, this simple rub was soo good that I ate every last bite. Together with some griilled onions and asparagus, and a French white burgundy… yum!


Barbeque Rub (from Real Simple, June 2008)
3 T paprika
1T brown sugar
1T dried oregano
1T ground coffee
1.5 t salt
.5 t pepper

We used boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, but I think this would be great on shrimp, too. Coat with a little olive oil, cover with the rub, and grill!

Migraines, part 2

Ok, let me begin with the obvious: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. What I am is a lifelong sufferer of headaches and, more recently, migraines.

For years I didn’t realize that what I had were migraines because they came with none of the classic symptoms: no nausea, no weird vision stuff. I just got what I referred to as my "5-day headache". I would usually wake-up with a horrendous pounding in my right temple, which would get worse with movement. I found I could get the pounding down to a dull roar with a combination of over-the-counter meds. (My usual cocktail was 2 each of Tylenol, Advil, and Aleve).

This began in my late 20s and probably happened a few times a year until I had my daughter. After that it became a regular, monthly occurrence, usually beginning about a week before my period was due. At this point I finally realized they were migraines and went to my doctor for meds. I tried a few common migraine meds, but so far nothing has worked.

Recently my doctor referred me to a neurologist. Being the medical geek that I am (I love the “Annals of Medicine” stories in the New Yorker!), this was a fascinating meeting. I won’t bore you with the tests, etc. because what matters is the outcome. Basically he said I am a healthy person who gets cycle-related migraines and deals with pretty much constant, mild headaches the rest of the time. What was exciting is that he had some pretty benign suggestions as to how to approach treatment.

For the regular, ongoing headaches he has had a lot of success with a combination of two vitamins: Riboflavin (B2) and Magnesium Oxide. I take 100mg of the B2 and 400 mg of the Magnesium twice a day. Additionally, the week that I anticipate a migraine (which I can do since they’re cyclical), I take 1 Aleve twice a day (I could also take 1 Advil 3 times).

He also mentioned that the medical community is starting to see results with a supplement called Butterbur. I’d never heard of Butterbur before but when I mentioned it to the vitamin guy at New Seasons he got very excited and said a lot of people are using it for migraines now. I picked up a box of Petadolex for around $15, which was the brand he recommended. You take it at the onset of a migraine, much like you would a prescription medication. There is also a version that you can take daily, as prevention, but I didn't want to try too many things at once and it was quiet expensive that way.

I have only been doing this for one month but so far, the results are encouraging. I think I’ve only needed to take Advil one additional time for headache and managed to get through a cycle with no migraine. This could be a coincidence, but I’m encouraged. I will continue to follow this path and I’ll post results again in a few months.

Let me know if you decide to try this and what your results are as well.

Migraine

I'm on day 2 of my regular 5-day migraine. I've always had headaches, but it took me a long time to realize this particular variety was a migraine because I don't have the nausea or visual stuff. My head just hurts like a motherfucker. In the past, my special homemade cocktail for this was 2 each of Tylenol, Advil, and Aleve, taken together as needed. The thinking was that I never really knew which drug the migraine would respond to, or if it was a combination that worked best. In fact, this treatment tended to work pretty well for about 6 hours and then needed to be repeated. When I finally realized they were migraines, friends urged me to talk with my doctor about migraine medicine, since my homebrew was perhaps a bit taxing on my liver (hah, like that's my liver's worst problem! ;-) Anyway, I have now tried Maxalt and Immitrex and neither helps at all. I took Immitrex for the first time yesterday morning at 7 a.m. (I often wake up with the migraine). The result was that I passed out within the hour and lost the entire day to lying in bed. When I awoke, I still had the migraine. So I've taken 3 Advil (my more recent homebrew) and this keeps it to a dull roar but leaves me functional. Anybody out there have other suggestions?