We have officially been living through a pandemic for 9 months. Did you just let out a sigh? Because I did. It’s hard to find any humor in any of this- and I generally use humor to cope, as you probably know. But the reality is that 9 months of COVID stress is really starting to compound and impact us in so many ways, including stress-induced migraine headaches for some of us.
Back in August, I wrote about migraine in partnership with Med-IQ, an accredited medical education company that provides an exceptional educational experience for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals. This sponsored post is the 2nd part of a campaign I knew I wanted to participate in because migraine mostly affects women ages 18-44, and that’s basically all of you.
I was compensated by Med-IQ through an educational grant from Allergan to write about the realities of migraine as a neurologic disease. All opinions are my own.
In the first post, I shared how important it is for women, especially, to really advocate for themselves if they felt they were experiencing more than “just headaches.” We discussed the symptoms, and how to talk to your doctor. And, I really hope at least one of you out there found that to be helpful and empowering, and that you’re finally getting the help you need for your migraines.
At the end of that post, I encouraged you to take a survey (and I’m going to ask you to do the same at the end of this post, too). Based on survey results, your biggest triggers of migraine headache are: stress (84%), weather (60%), and insomnia (72%).
Now we’re at a time of year when not only have we been waking up to and living through a world wide health crisis every day for 9 months, but it’s also the holiday season, the end of the year, q4, and just a generally very stressful time when we DON’T have a pandemic to worry about.
Stress management is a big part of migraine prevention, especially if you’re one of the 84% of people who experience migraine who report that stress is a trigger for you.
It’s important to think ahead about ways you can lower your stress or manage it when you feel it start to peak. But, it’s also important to have a plan in place in case stress does get to you and a migraine becomes an unwanted holiday guest.
Hopefully, you’ve discussed your treatment options with your doctor by now, and you’re aware that not all migraine medicines work for everyone. If what you are on currently doesn’t seem to work for you, please advocate for yourself and let your doctor know. While migraine is rarely, if ever, cured, you can work together with your doctor to find a treatment that works optimally for you.
There are 7 different types of triptans available, and it’s a common course of migraine treatment that’s been around a while. If you’re currently taking a triptan to treat your migraine symptoms and feel it’s not working optimally for you, ditans and gepants are new medications that could be better alternatives!
These new migraine treatments are intended for:
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- Patients with 4 migraines per month, or 8 or more headache days per month
- Patients who experience intolerable side effects from other treatments
- Patients who haven’t responded to other preventive treatments
Y’all, we just really want you to take this information and feel empowered to advocate for yourself- not only to seek a migraine diagnosis, but also to improve the outcome of how you treat your migraines.
There’s a lot more incredibly valuable information in this FB Live interview between Deva Dalporto and Amaal J. Starling, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Consultant in the Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Scottsdale, AZ.
Survey time!!
Med-IQ is conducting an anonymous survey and would appreciate your input. The survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete. Survey responses are shared only in aggregate. Your responses to these survey questions will provide Med-IQ with important information about your experiences with migraine and related care, which will help us develop future educational initiatives in this area. Once you’ve completed the survey, you will have the option of providing your email address to be entered into a drawing administered by SOMA Strategies to win 1 of 10 $100 VISA gift cards. If you choose to enter, your email address will be used only to randomly draw the winners and notify them of their prize.
Links to external sites are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only. They are not intended and should not be construed as legal or medical advice, nor are they endorsements of any organization. Med-IQ bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of any external site. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.
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1 comment
Happy to see this being talked about! I did the survey, but the email it asks you to contact (migrainefacts2020 at gmail.com) for the drawing doesn’t exist. My email bounced!