Managing Your Migraine: A Migraine Sufferer's Practical Guide

by Susan L. Burks

Overview

Managing Your Migraine speaks to your needs as a migraine sufferer. It confirms that you suffer from a genuine physical illness and that others share your frustration, disappointments, and anger. Its goal is to move you beyond "learning to live with it" to a full understanding of its mechanisms, symptoms, and treatments. This book proves that you can take charge of your illness-and shows you how to do so safely, effectively, and with real confidence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780896033245
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	05/17/1994
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1994
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

Burks, Susan L., MEd (Well Being, Inc.)

Table of Contents

1: Where to Turn/What to Ask for.- A Good Diagnosis: Necessary But Not Sufficient.- The Headache Workup: What to Expect.- After Diagnosis, Then What?.- A Significant Partnership: You and Your Doctor.- Headache Clinics: State-of-the-Art Care.- Other Resources.- Another Resource: Using the Remainder of This Book.- 2: Researchers Tackle A Tough One: Struggling with the Migraine Mystery.- An Ancient Mystery Persists.- Obstacles Yield to Progress.- Current Medical Thinking: Wolff Revisited.- Agreement Grows.- The Future Agenda.- The Big Picture: The Status of the Mystery.- Moving on to the Personal Level.- 3: Improving Our Odds: Triggers and Threshold-Setters.- The Most Obvious Activators: External Triggers.- More Fundamental Causes: Threshold-Setters.- Better Control Through Careful Evaluation.- The Big Picture: Triggers and Threshold-Setters at a Glance.- 4: How Lifestyle Contributes: Live Right and Thrive.- A Matter of Control: Schedule Regularity.- Stress: Trigger and/or Result.- Smoking: An Obvious Culprit.- Special Environmental Influences.- Legal Ramifications of Disabling Illness.- The Big Picture: Lifestyle Factors.- Balance to Be Achieved.- 5: The Impact of Diet: A Commonsense Approach.- The Food-Headache Link: Darkness Abounds.- Dietary Sensitivity: Practitioners and Sufferers Speak.- The Nature of the Dietary Connection: What It Is and Isn’t.- The VAS Total Load Approach.- Migraine and Vegetarianism: An Uneasy Alliance.- The Big Picture: Diet as a Factor in Migraine.- 6: Your Migraine Diet: Understanding and Hanging On.- Examining Migraine Diets and Challenging the Experts.- Can We Talk?.- Specific Information About Dietary Migraine.- Coping Strategies for the Steady Customer.- The Good News: Dietary Changes Bring Improvement.- The Big Picture: Principles ofEffective Dietary Management.- Balance to Be Achieved.- 7: The Risk of Femininity: Turning Lemons Into Lemonade.- Female Majority: Whys and Wherefores.- Knowing Your Lemons: Keep a Diary.- Hormone Adjustments: Basic Threshold-Setters.- Strong Medicine for Stubborn Cases.- Pregnancy: Prepare Mom First, Then the Nursery.- My Search for That Delicate Balance: Trial, Error, and Success.- The Big Picture: Variations on a Lemonade Recipe.- Balance to Be Achieved.- 8: Disorders that Muddy the Water: Mimicry, Masquerade, and Mutual Interaction.- Reasons for Misdiagnosis.- Migraine Accompaniments and Equivalents.- Mistaken for Migraine.- Complicating Disorders.- The Big Picture: Migraine and Other Disorders.- Balance to Be Achieved.- 9: Nonheadache Drugs Cause Trouble: Is Anybody Checking?.- The Thigh Bone’s Connected to … Who Knows What.- An Advocate’s Dilemma.- Pharmaceutical Troublemakers.- The Big Picture: Nonheadache Medications.- Balance to Be Achieved.- 10: Getting Effective Treatment: Benefit Versus Risk.- The Magic Cure.- Guidelines for Choosing a Specific Medication.- Migraine Drugs at a Glance.- Migraine Abortive Agents: A Stitch in Time…May Lead to More Serious Problems Down the Road.- Pain Relievers (Analgesics) and Sedatives: Friends or Enemies?.- The Frustrating Quandary: Should I Reach for That Bottle?.- Reading Your Body’s Signals: Identifying Your Prodrome.- Emergency Treatment: Relief for the Debilitating Attacks.- Preventive Treatments: What Should We Do With the Corpse?.- The Pendulum Swings: Undertreatment.- The Big Picture: Medical Treatments.- Balance to Be Achieved.- 11: Healing the Scars: Getting Better After Your Headaches Do.- Would a Benign Illness Leave Scars?.- Migraine and Depression: The Chicken and the Egg.- Smelling the Roses.-Suggested Readings/References.

Editorial Reviews

2 Stars from Doody

This book describes an individual's experiences with migraine, her various treatments, and an attempt to provide an overview of knowledge about migraine. The author writes to "share the results of my own long struggle against migraine . . . to provide you, my companion sufferer, a measure of support--and with any luck to spare you some pain." Though giving support to pain sufferers is surely worthy, the author's true objective seems to be to write about herself. It is written for the nonprofessional who suffers from migraine. The author is certainly the world's expert in her own experiences, but she lacks a perspective to judge medical scientific knowledge credibly. Nonetheless, she has undertaken broad based research. There are no illustrations. References are drawn mostly from books and review articles. The table of contents and index are adequate. The overall appearance of the book is pleasant. Patients with migraine may find the story of another migraine sufferer comforting. Her holistic approach to understanding migraine contains much truth. Moreover, the principle of patients taking responsibility for managing their afflictions is commendable. Unfortunately, the author seems to believe that anecdotal experience is as valuable as empirical experimental evidence. As Wittgenstein wrote, "Mine is the first and only world. I want to report how I find the world." Accordingly, he might find this a valuable contribution--if he cared.

James J. Foody

A popular work by a migraine sufferer, with technical advice by Fred D. Sheftell, M.D., of the New England Center for Headache, Stamford, CT. The focus is on non-drug remedies, although drugs are not entirely excluded. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Reviewer: James J. Foody, MD (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
Description: This book describes an individual's experiences with migraine, her various treatments, and an attempt to provide an overview of knowledge about migraine.
Purpose: The author writes to "share the results of my own long struggle against migraine . . . to provide you, my companion sufferer, a measure of support—and with any luck to spare you some pain." Though giving support to pain sufferers is surely worthy, the author's true objective seems to be to write about herself.
Audience: It is written for the nonprofessional who suffers from migraine. The author is certainly the world's expert in her own experiences, but she lacks a perspective to judge medical scientific knowledge credibly. Nonetheless, she has undertaken broad based research.
Features: There are no illustrations. References are drawn mostly from books and review articles. The table of contents and index are adequate. The overall appearance of the book is pleasant.
Assessment: Patients with migraine may find the story of another migraine sufferer comforting. Her holistic approach to understanding migraine contains much truth. Moreover, the principle of patients taking responsibility for managing their afflictions is commendable. Unfortunately, the author seems to believe that anecdotal experience is as valuable as empirical experimental evidence. As Wittgenstein wrote, "Mine is the first and only world. I want to report how I find the world." Accordingly, he might find this a valuable contribution—if he cared.

Doody's Review Service

...a gem for millions of migraineurs seeking more effective migraine management...compassionately builds a foundation for migraineurs to understand and participate in effective migraine management...an exceptional addition to the educational needs of the migraine population...-Journal of Family Practice

From the Publisher