carlton@genrad.UUCP (Carl Hommel) (09/18/84)
Here is a summary of the responses from my plea for migrane information.
Much thanks to all concerned. My wife has now been in the HMO hospital
for 8 days. She is being given 75 mg Demerol (synthetic morphine) @ 3 hrs,
and 20 mg Valium @ 4 hours - round the clock. Our internist and the local
neurologist are stumped. They are now trying injections of ergotrase.
Yes, they have run all the usual tests. CAT scan, EKG, allergy tests,
Glucose Tolerance Test, etc.
A final note: most migranes can be headed off by taking pills containing ergot
in them. However, ergot is the principal ingredient in the "Morning After"
pill - and we are trying to have a baby. (Yes, they checked if she was
pregnant before giving her the ergotrase.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: carlton@genrad.UUCP (Carl Hommel)
Subject: Migrane Headaches
Date: Tue, 4-Sep-84 15:24:13 EDT
My wife has been going through a migrane cluster for the past 6 weeks. For
some reason, her maintenance medicines of two years stopped working, and we
have been going to the emergency room of our HMO at least once a day.
My question is: Is there a support group for migrane sufferers? (And their
spouses, too!) If not, should there be?
Carl Hommel
Wife: "Not tonight, dear; I've got a headache."
Husband: "Why doesn't that work when I say it?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 84 08:33:20 edt
Original-From: chim%ncsu@mcnc (Bill Chimiak)
I hope I am not telling you anything new, but
I get mild migrane headaches that are brought
on by some foodstuffs (mainly caffeine products
and raw onions, like on hamburgers). I thought
I might be nuts, but then I have read numerous
articles verifying the connection. I do hope
that this may provide some help for your wife.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 84 11:56:46 edt
From: decvax!dartvax!betsy (Betsy Hanes Perry)
Bless your wife; I've been there too.
Something you might ask your HMO about:
has your wife been examined for TMJ (temporomandibular joint dysfunction)?
I was diagnosed by a neurologist as having stress-triggered migraines
(3-4 a week) which were making life unbearable. I was put on one of the
beta-blockers, which worked like a charm. Unfortunately, I really didn't
want to take the medication for the rest of my life (nor did the neurologist
think that was a good idea), so I tapered off on college graduation.
A couple of years later, the migraines flared up again. My dentist suggested
that TMJ might be triggering them. I went through the therapy suggested
(wearing a splint a lot like a dental retainer), and am down to one or two
migraines a year. TMJ may sound like quackery, but it seems to have helped
my case. Talk to your dentist/neurologist and see what he says.
Good luck. Incidentally, there's a great essay about migraines in
Joan Didion's *The White Album*.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From decvax!ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert Tue Sep 11 11:54:36 1984
Date: 11 Sep 84 07:48:59 CDT (Tue)
I assume you already know that there are a bunch of foods that
tend to cause migraines in some people. The news is that
nutrasweet may be one of these. Did she start dring a bunch of
nutrasweet sweetened stuff?
Snoopy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: decvax!decwrl!amd!hpda!hplabs!azure!eugenez
Date: Thursday, 13 Sep 84 13:02:11 PDT
Carl Hommel:
Has any doctor told you WHY your wife has Migraine Headaches??
I used to have headaches (don't know if they were migraine or not),
stomach aches, etc. on a regular basis. That was before I changed
my diet.
I suggest you try an experiment. Write down everything your wife
eats and drinks or uses in some way (mouthwash, shots, etc.).
Does She smoke? Does She take drugs and what are they? Is She
overweight?
Do this over a period such as a month. Examine all the possible
sources of migrain headache causes. There are certain substances
in some foods and drinks that are DIRECTLY related to migraine
headache sufferers. As I recall, the chemical involved was in beer,
cheeses, hams, and other smoked meats. Maybe you know about this,
or someone else has heard of it---I read about it over 2 years ago
and can't place where I read it. Even yeast may be a possible cause.
I'm not sure on that one, but you can check out the book called "The Yeast
Connection" by some MD. This involves a yeast that naturally grows
in all your mucous membranes. It is OK until certain dietary, etc.
factors cause it to multiply too fast.
My belief is that if She is placed on a diet of fresh foods,
keeping away totally from boxed, canned, and frozen foods---
She will get over this and not need medicines. Please note
that I am not stating that you run over to your "health" store. NO. Just
stick to the fresh produce section of your store and if possible
try to find foods grown with a minimum of pesticides, etc. (commonly
called "organically grown"). I DO NOT suggest megavitamin therapy,
rice diets, and all the other strange fad-type things. Rather, I
suggest She eat REAL foods to get away from the 5,000 PLUS food
additives that are common in our food supply now.
When I was 18, I changed my diet to a vegetarian one. I knew little
about the subject then. But being on a farm, I had enough variety
to not really be lacking in anything. That is when my headaches, etc.
started to fade. I never really felt good up until then. Even so,
I never really felt super good. Only until I started eating most of
my foods RAW (uncooked) did I begin to actually feel good. Instead
of being sort-of sickly all the time. I quit going to doctors, but
the rest of my family go all the time.
If you want to know more about eating foods in their natural state,
ask me. There is more than just saying "Eat it RAW." Your wife
may be amazed at what can happen and just how powerful the body really
is at self maintenance, when uncluttered by trying to work with chemicals,
etc. that it really wasn't designed to live on. So much of the body's
work is devoted to purging unwanted substances---and those that it can't
purge, it has to figure out a method to tolerate the substance(s).
Or even to tolerate substances while purging (alcohol, for example).
I know that that this isn't standard practice with doctors, but I
would be going to them all the time if I still ate like I did before
I was 18. Only more so by now. And I cringe to think how I would feel
now compared to how I felt then (my condition). A neat by product of
eating RAW is that your weight goes to a nice number practically automatically.
When I start eating conventionally, I gain 10 to 20 pounds in a matter of
1 to 3 weeks, even when trying to be careful. No such problem exists when
I eat RAW. Naturally this means I don't eat anything that can't be eaten
unless cooked (grain, beans, etc.), but I don't miss these things (of course,
being human, I eat them once in a while) mostly because I DO NOT MISS BAD
HEALTH!!! The trick is that when you crave a Cooked meal, to eat plenty
of it for ONLY ONE DAY and GET it OUT of your system. You do this and
feel physically ill (usually) and wonder why you did it and then it's
easy to eat RAW for another time period.
I don't know if you have ever heard of such a diet, I have heard much
about it for 10 years or so and it has only been in the last 5 years
or so that I have incorporated into my life style. So I basically
changed from a conventional vegetarian diet to a RAW vegetarian diet.
The big difference is that I don't cook my food. It is so interesting
the "Muscle and Fitness" stated in a recent issue that when food
is cooked, your body can then only utilize 20% of the protein in that food
compared to that same food if it were RAW. Naturally that statement is
limited to only those foods that can be eaten RAW.
It can be hard to eat RAW because everyone either thinks
you are somewhat fanatical or they feel sorry for you because you have
to eat fruits and vegetables and such and really want to help you so will
do practically anything to help you break your ?sickly? diet. Even though
I look younger than my 5 brothers (except for the 18 year old), they
still wonder. I am the second youngest (28). I don't wonder because
they are the ones spending their money on doctors instead of REAL food.
And they still want me to eat like they do. Maybe they are jealous?
If you have any questions, I would be happy to supply more specific
information to you. I have unconvered much interesting nutritional
information over the years, and much is really EYE OPENING. Most
of it rather GLARINGLY different from what the medical world advocates.
Especially where PROTEIN is concerned.
ECZ
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 84 13:42:43 edt
From: decvax!linus!utcsstat!oscvax!carlo
If you get any responses, please let me know. My soon-to-be-sister-in-law
suffers from migraines that keep her vomiting for days. Needless to say,
we're concerned about her and would like any info that would help her.
In case this helps, she finds that taking Tylenol #2's AS SOON AS SHE THINKS
that she might be getting one sometimes helps. If she waits until she's
sure that she'll be getting one, it's too late.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 84 13:29:03 pdt
From: <Name withheld by request (see footnote)>
My sympathies to your wife. Unfortunately I know what she is going
through. I also am a sufferer of cluster migraines. My wife also
knows what you are going through, so I'll send you her sympathies.
I have tried many different remedies and preventatives. Ergotamine
tartrate (you may know it under the brand name Ergomar) seems to
work iff you catch the migraine early enough (BEFORE you have the
headache!) but has several drawbacks for cluster migraine:
1) you are only allowed to take 5 per week because of the
danger of gangrene (it's a very strong vasoconstrictor).
Well, if you get a migraine every day, 5 per week just
doesn't make it.
2) it is effective only if you catch the headache early
enough. Unless you get some sort of prodromal symptoms
(visual effects, etc.) you often will not catch it
early enough. If you don't get much warning (I don't)
you stand a good chance of taking one on a false alarm
and if you are only allowed 5 per week, a false alarm
can be a major mistake.
I get series that last 4-8 weeks every year or two. The reason I
am mailing to you is to suggest that your wife ask her doctor about
the treatment that worked for me on my last series. It is relatively
new so unless her doctor is a migraine specialist he may not have
heard about it. Lithium. Yes, I know, they use it for manic depressive
patients and she is not manic depressive (I assume). However, they
have found that for many cluster migraine sufferers a maintenance dose
of lithium during the danger period will cut down or eliminate entirely
the headaches. The lithium takes a little while to build up in your
body so it provides no relief at all for several days. Once it reached
a certain level (I don't remember the blood level neccesary) my
headaches disappeared except for a "numb sensation" (the only way I
can describe it) in the part of my head that usually hurt.
They have also found recently that migraines may be associated with
blood levels of calcium. There has been success recently with calcium
blockers relieving migraines. I don't know much about it, but you
might want to ask your doctor.
Anyway, I suppose what I'm saying is don't give up. There are many
things to try, and if your doctor gives up and just tells her to use
pain killers then get another doctor. Pain killers are just not
good enough. They are too slow, and unless you get something like
synthetic morphine they just don't do the trick. And remember, your
wife needs all the sympathy you can give her. Cluster migraines are
also called "suicide headaches", for good reason.
Again, please let me know what you find out, and let your wife know
that there are people out here who understand (only too well).
P.S. If you do summarize your responses, please do not include this
or at least do not include my name. I would prefer that my
employers and potential employers not know that there is a
chance that I can become incapacitated without much warning
(for obvious reasons). Thanks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Survey.
Carl Hommel
Wife: Mnnph narble zotzzz.
Husband: No dear, go back into your drug-induced haze and sleep some more.