| As far as I know, migraines are a result of cramped neck and back muscles
plus emotional stress. Stress makes your muscles cramp even more, and the
pain and discomfort taints your perspective on everything adversely, causing
more stress - circulus vitiosus. |
| I do have a reading suggestion for any who are interested. V. S.
Ramachandrans Phantoms in the Brain (Morrow, 1998, pp 85-112) has a good
neurologic analysis of the scotomas associated with migraines and other
neurologic disorders. Its an interesting book in any case. |
| Tension headaches are moderately severe headaches that characteristically feel
like a tight band or pressure of some sort around the head and can be
associated with aches in the neck. They usually affect both sides of the head
rather than just one side, as opposed to migraines which usually affect just
one side. (This isnt by any means invariable for either type of headache.)
They also tend to be steady aches rather than the throbbing type of pain thats
typically associated with migraine. (Again, more of a general guideline than a
cast-in-stone rule. Diagnosis of headaches is based more on looking at the
overall pattern of symptoms than any one specific thing.) Tension headaches
tend to be worse towards late afternoon/evening, presumably as the stress of
the day builds up. |
| [Vioxx] certainly looks like an improvement over previous arthritis
medications prescribed for migraines, says Panayiotis Mitsias, MD,
assistant professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland and director of the headache clinic at Henry Ford Hospital and
Health Sciences Center in Detroit. |
| It was always present, but I had learned to live with it most of the time
since it wasnt as bad as the migraines. This was one of the key symptoms,
however, that finally has almost completely abated after two years of
continuous treatment.
Take care,
Jon |
