Latest news with #migraine
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 hours ago
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
After Extolling Its Virtues on TikTok… Is Cola-Fries Combination Helping Migraine?
Migraine is a painful and disturbing condition that affects many people. So when a hack comes along that says it can 'cure,' or at the very least fend off a migraine, people will try it. While there are medical treatments, there is no cure. Prescription medication can be very effective - but it doesn't always work. For many people there is no simple solution. Some discover their own ways of managing the debilitating pain: blasting the side of their face with a hairdryer, or sitting in a hot bath while wearing an ice pack and drinking a smoothie. But now a new hack has suddenly gone viral - the McMigraine Meal. A simple offering of a full-fat cola and a portion of salty fries seems to be doing the trick for hundreds who've been extolling its virtues on TikTok, according to BBC. If there is any science behind these hacks - what do they do to the body? For Kayleigh Webster, a 27-year-old who has had chronic migraines all her life, it's the salt on the chips that might slow down a migraine attack. 'It can help,' she says cautiously, 'but it's certainly not a cure.' She said, 'Migraine is a complex neurological condition - and it can't be cured by a bit of caffeine, salt and sugar in a fast food meal.' Kayleigh's tried cocktails of different medications, putting her feet in hot water, a flannel at the back of the head, acupuncture, cupping - but they've had little effect. One of the few treatments that has given her relief is medical Botox - having dozens of injections in her head, face and neck. It's still not clear how Botox works for migraine, but it's believed to block powerful pain signals being released from the nerves. Skulls dating back to 3,000 BC show ancient Egyptians even had trouble with migraines - but despite that long history, their exact cause is still unknown. Dr Kay Kennis, a trustee for the Migraine Trust and a GP who specializes in migraines, explained how elements in coke and fries can help stave off a migraine attack. 'The caffeine in the coke can act as a nerve disruptor, it is a substance that affects nerve activity. For some, that disturbance works in a positive way,' Kennis said. 'There are some painkillers that people take for migraines that have caffeine - and some do respond well to that - but we don't fully know why.' But she warned against using caffeinated fizzy drinks like cola as a way of regularly managing migraines. 'Too much caffeine can be a trigger too - and you can end up in a worse situation in the long run,' Kennis said. Other ingredients in a fast food meal, like the salt on the chips, can affect nerve activity, she explains, but adds the effects of sodium on migraines have not been tested. She also warned that not only is fast food often ultra-processed and not conducive to a healthy diet, it can contain high levels of Tyramine, a natural compound commonly found in many foods, which can actually cause severe migraines. Some social media users say the hack does not work. 'There are so many videos online that take advantage of the desperation we all feel," Eloise explains,' said one TikTok user, Eloise Underwood. Prof Peter Goadsby, a neurologist at the NIHR-King's Clinical Research Facility, said research is beginning to produce positive results after years of underfunding. His latest study shows medications known as gepants could block a group of pain receptors in the lead-up to a migraine attack, cutting off the pain before it starts. 'Listen to your body - don't listen to TikTok, that's my advice,' Goadsby said. 'If you can feel the warning signs - yawning, sleepiness, mood change, passing more urine and even craving salt and sugar - listen to your body.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
People say coke and fries are helping their migraines - but there's a twist
It's a condition that affects more than 10 million people in the UK. It can change futures, end careers, and shrink worlds. So when a hack comes along that says it can "cure", or at the very least fend off a migraine, people will try it. While there are medical treatments, there is no cure. Prescription medication can be very effective - but it doesn't always work. For many people there is no simple solution. Some discover their own ways of managing the debilitating pain: sitting in a hot bath while wearing an ice pack and drinking a smoothie, blasting the side of their face with a hairdryer. But now a new hack has suddenly gone viral - the McMigraine Meal. A simple offering of a full-fat coke and a portion of salty fries seems to be doing the trick for hundreds who've been extolling its virtues on TikTok. If there is any science behind these hacks - what do they do to the body? Nick Cook from Oxfordshire carries "a wallet full of drugs" around in case of a migraine attack. He will "try anything" to make the pain go away, he says. "When you live with the condition, and you're working a five-day week and you need to carry on, you'll give anything a go." At its worst the pain around Nick's eye socket can feel like his eyeball is getting crushed. He says it's the caffeine and sugar in coke that helps him. "If I catch it soon it enough it can sometimes work, when my vision goes fuzzy and I can feel one coming on." He stresses that drinking coke doesn't replace his amitriptyline tablets - the daily pain medication he takes to try to prevent migraines - but it does sometimes help him "last until the end of the day". For Kayleigh Webster, a 27-year-old who has had chronic migraines all her life, it's the salt on the chips that might slow down a migraine attack. "It can help," she says cautiously, "but it's certainly not a cure. "Migraine is a complex neurological condition - and it can't be cured by a bit of caffeine, salt and sugar in a fast food meal." Kayleigh's tried cocktails of different medications, putting her feet in hot water, a flannel at the back of the head, acupuncture, cupping - but they've had little effect. One of the few treatments that has given her relief is medical Botox - having dozens of injections in her head, face and neck. It's still not clear how Botox works for migraine, but it's believed to block powerful pain signals being released from the nerves. A migraine - which can last days - is very different to a headache, which tend to be short-lived and can be treated more easily with painkillers like paracetamol. Migraines can cause head pain, neck pain, numbness, blurred vision, and even affect speech and movement. Skulls dating back to 3,000 BC show ancient Egyptians even had trouble with migraines - but despite that long history, their exact cause is still unknown. It's thought pain receptors in the blood vessels and nerve tissue around the brain misfire - sending incorrect signals that something is wrong. But we don't know why some people have an oversensitive nervous system - and why it reacts to some things and not others. Experts say there's not enough research into why only some people - around one in seven - are affected, or what can actually help. Dr Kay Kennis, a GP who specialises in migraines, says while there are elements of the McMigraine meal that can help stave off an attack, these aren't innate to "a McDonald's". "The caffeine in the coke can act as a nerve disruptor, it is a substance that affects nerve activity. For some, that disturbance works in a positive way," Dr Kennis says. "There are some painkillers that people take for migraines that have caffeine - and some do respond well to that - but we don't fully know why." But she warns against using caffeinated fizzy drinks like coke as a way of regularly managing migraines. "Too much caffeine can be a trigger too - and you can end up in a worse situation in the long run," Dr Kennis says. Other ingredients in a fast food meal, like the salt on the chips, can affect nerve activity, she explains, but adds the effects of sodium on migraines have not been tested. She also warns that not only is fast food often ultra-processed and not conducive to a healthy diet, it can contain high levels of Tyramine, a natural compound commonly found in many foods, which can actually cause severe migraines. For Eloise Underwood none of the quick fixes on social media work. The chronic migraine sufferer has been looking for a "magic cocktail" for seven years - she's seen people recommend putting feet in scorching water (not recommended by experts and potentially dangerous); drinking hot coffee (caffeine can be a trigger); or various vibrating devices which have had little effect. "There are so many videos online that take advantage of the desperation we all feel," Eloise explains. She's left several jobs - often due to lighting and noise in an office environment triggering migraines. She recently stopped working as an interior designer and has now launched a business pressing and framing wedding flowers from her home. She wears loop ear buds to reduce the sharpness of the sounds around her, and limits her social life. "People think a migraine is just a headache - that's just one symptom of it," Eloise says. "For me, a migraine is a whole body experience… "Migraines have completely made my life smaller." Prof Peter Goadsby, a neurologist at the NIHR-King's Clinical Research Facility, says research is beginning to produce positive results after years of underfunding. His latest study shows medications known as gepants could block a group of pain receptors in the lead-up to a migraine attack, cutting off the pain before it starts. "Any new treatment is a glimmer of hope," Eloise says. "They do say that nothing will work for everyone - but something will work for someone." Lifestyle changes can also make a difference, Prof Goadsby explains. It might be boring, he says, but basically - "be careful of your brain". "You want to have regularity, avoid the highs and lows. If you can feel the warning signs - yawning, sleepiness, mood change, passing more urine and even craving salt and sugar - listen to your body. "Listen to your body - don't listen to TikTok, that's my advice." Nick has been doing exactly that. He might reach for the odd coke and salty fries, but he's moulded his whole life in order to manage his migraines. "I don't drink, I wear sunglasses even if it's cloudy," he says. "I don't go wild. When me and my partner go away, half the stuff we take is to help us manage our migraines. On a recent stag-do weekend, Nick noticed the difference between his and his friends' lives. "They were up all night drinking to the early hours," Nick says. "I turned up with my own pillow, apples, bananas, Weetabix, and any snacks I would need to keep me going, because hunger can be a major trigger. "I'm in bed by midnight - but my mates know me, and that's OK, because this is how I have to live my life." 'I don't know what we'll do' - Vapers panic-buy ahead of disposables ban 'WeightWatchers set me up to fail' - Why diet industry is losing to jabs like Ozempic
BBC News
a day ago
- Health
- BBC News
McMigraine: Does the TikTok "cure" really work?
It's a condition that affects more than 10 million people in the UK. It can change futures, end careers, and shrink worlds. So when a hack comes along that says it can "cure", or at the very least fend off a migraine, people will try there are medical treatments, there is no cure. Prescription medication can be very effective - but it doesn't always work. For many people there is no simple discover their own ways of managing the debilitating pain: sitting in a hot bath while wearing an ice pack and drinking a smoothie, blasting the side of their face with a hairdryer. But now a new hack has suddenly gone viral - the McMigraine Meal. A simple offering of a full-fat coke and a portion of salty fries seems to be doing the trick for hundreds who've been extolling its virtues on there is any science behind these hacks - what do they do to the body? Nick Cook from Oxfordshire carries "a wallet full of drugs" around in case of a migraine attack. He will "try anything" to make the pain go away, he says."When you live with the condition, and you're working a five-day week and you need to carry on, you'll give anything a go."At its worst the pain around Nick's eye socket can feel like his eyeball is getting crushed. He says it's the caffeine and sugar in coke that helps him."If I catch it soon it enough it can sometimes work, when my vision goes fuzzy and I can feel one coming on."He stresses that drinking coke doesn't replace his amitriptyline tablets - the daily pain medication he takes to try to prevent migraines - but it does sometimes help him "last until the end of the day". For Kayleigh Webster, a 27-year-old who has had chronic migraines all her life, it's the salt on the chips that might slow down a migraine attack."It can help," she says cautiously, "but it's certainly not a cure."Migraine is a complex neurological condition - and it can't be cured by a bit of caffeine, salt and sugar in a fast food meal."Kayleigh's tried cocktails of different medications, putting her feet in hot water, a flannel at the back of the head, acupuncture, cupping - but they've had little of the few treatments that has given her relief is medical Botox - having dozens of injections in her head, face and neck. It's still not clear how Botox works for migraine, but it's believed to block powerful pain signals being released from the nerves.A migraine - which can last days - is very different to a headache, which tend to be short-lived and can be treated more easily with painkillers like paracetamol. Migraines can cause head pain, neck pain, numbness, blurred vision, and even affect speech and movement. Skulls dating back to 3,000 BC show ancient Egyptians even had trouble with migraines - but despite that long history, their exact cause is still thought pain receptors in the blood vessels and nerve tissue around the brain misfire - sending incorrect signals that something is wrong. But we don't know why some people have an oversensitive nervous system - and why it reacts to some things and not say there's not enough research into why only some people - around one in seven - are affected, or what can actually Kay Kennis, a GP who specialises in migraines, says while there are elements of the McMigraine meal that can help stave off an attack, these aren't innate to "a McDonald's"."The caffeine in the coke can act as a nerve disruptor, it is a substance that effects nerve activity. For some, that disturbance works in a positive way," Dr Kennis says."There are some painkillers that people take for migraines that have caffeine - and some do respond well to that - but we don't fully know why." But she warns against using caffeinated fizzy drinks like coke as a way of regularly managing migraines."Too much caffeine can be a trigger too - and you can end up in a worse situation in the long run," Dr Kennis ingredients in a fast food meal, like the salt on the chips, can affect nerve activity, she explains, but adds the effects of sodium on migraines have not been also warns that not only is fast food often ultra-processed and not conducive to a healthy diet, it also often contains high levels of Tyramine, a natural compound commonly found in many foods, which can cause severe like many migraine hacks - they can have the opposite effect depending on each person. For Eloise Underwood none of the quick fixes on social media chronic migraine sufferer has been looking for a "magic cocktail" for seven years - she's seen people recommend putting feet in scorching water (not recommended by experts and potentially dangerous); drinking hot coffee (caffeine can be a trigger); or various vibrating devices which have had little effect."There are so many videos online that take advantage of the desperation we all feel," Eloise left several jobs - often due to lighting and noise in an office environment triggering migraines. She recently stopped working as an interior designer and has now launched a business pressing and framing wedding flowers from her wears loop ear buds to reduce the sharpness of the sounds around her, and limits her social life."People think a migraine is just a headache - that's just one symptom of it," Eloise says. "For me, a migraine is a whole body experience…"Migraines have completely made my life smaller." Prof Peter Goadsby, a neurologist at the NIHR-King's Clinical Research Facility, says research is beginning to produce positive results after years of latest study shows the medications known as gepants, could block a group of pain receptors in the lead-up to a migraine attack, cutting off the pain before it starts."Any new treatment is a glimmer of hope," Eloise says. "They do say that nothing will work for everyone - but something will work for someone."Lifestyle changes can also make a difference, Prof Goadsby explains. It might be boring, he says, but basically - "be careful of your brain"."You want to have regularity, avoid the highs and lows. If you can feel the warning signs - yawning, sleepiness, mood change, passing more urine and even craving salt and sugar - listen to your body."Listen to your body - don't listen to TikTok, that's my advice." Nick has been doing exactly that. He might reach for the odd coke and salty fries, but he's moulded his whole life in order to manage his migraines."I don't drink, I wear sunglasses even if it's cloudy," he says. "I don't go wild. When me and my partner go away, half the stuff we take is to help us manage our migraines."Nick noticed a real difference between his life and his friends' lives a couple of weeks ago when he went on a stag-do a recent stag-do weekend, Nick noticed the difference between his and his friends' lives."They were up all night drinking to the early hours," Nick says. "I turned up with my own pillow, apples, bananas, Weetabix, and any snacks I would need to keep me going, because hunger can be a major trigger."I'm in bed by midnight - but my mates know me, and that's OK, because this is how I have to live my life."
Medscape
5 days ago
- General
- Medscape
Fast Five Quiz: Acute Management for Migraine
Migraine is a complex disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of headache often associated with visual or sensory symptoms, collectively known as an aura, that usually arise before the head pain but that might occur during or afterward. Further, migraine has a strong genetic component. Additionally, a variety of environmental and behavioral factors might precipitate migraine attacks in individuals with a predisposition to migraine. Acute management of migraine headache should provide rapid relief from headache pain and related symptoms, restore patient functioning, and prevent recurrence. What do you know about acute management for migraine? Check your knowledge with this quick quiz. Acute medications for migraine include triptans, ergotamine derivatives, gepants, and certain serotonin 5-HT1F receptor agonists, although nonspecific drugs such as NSAIDs can be used as well. A recent systematic review and network meta-analysis found that triptans have the best safety profiles and efficacy for treating migraine when compared with other drugs such as certain serotonin 5-HT1F receptor agonists, gepants, and NSAIDs. Featured head-to-head comparisons found that the triptans were the most efficacious for pain freedom at 2 hours. However, the same meta-analysis noted that cost effectiveness and cardiovascular risk should also be considered before use, as 'cerebrovascular events may present primarily as migraine-like headaches, and misdiagnosis of transient ischemic attack and minor stroke as migraine is not rare.' Learn more about triptans for migraine. For acute treatment of migraine, the American Headache Society (AHS) recommends administering medical therapy as soon as symptoms appear; more specifically, researchers note that within 30 minutes is preferable, according to a recent review. Other sources suggest utilizing therapy within 15 minutes for those who experience migraine with aura. This time frame is generally more effective for management rather than specifically waiting for aura phase to complete or when pain reaches moderate intensity. However, even if a patient is unable to take medication within that time frame, taking medication during the episode can reduce symptom severity and migraine duration. A recent meta-analysis also explored the difference in efficacy between different acute medications for migraine, which can be found here. Learn more about acute treatments for migraine. The AHS encourages the use of validated measures of migraine treatment response to guide management decisions. Specifically, they suggest mTOQ for assessing acute treatment, as well as the Migraine Assessment of Current Therapy (Migraine-ACT), Patient Perception of Migraine Questionnaire (PPMQ-R), Functional Impairment Scale (FIS). In the same guidelines, the AHS suggests PGIC, MFIQ, or MSQ v2.1 as valid instruments for measuring response to preventative migraine treatment. Learn more about migraine severity measures. REN is approved for use by the FDA for both prophylactic and acute treatment of migraine in adults and pediatric patients ages 8 years and older. For migraine prevention and treatment, eTNS and TENS are approved only for adults, and eCOT-NS is approved only for acute treatment in adults with migraine. Of the approved devices, eTNS, REN, and noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) are specifically mentioned by the AHS for use alone or in conjunction with pharmacotherapy, and single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (sTMS) can also be used as monotherapy for preventive treatment. Further, nVNS and sTMS can be used in both patients 12-17 years and adults. Learn more about the acute management for migraine. Before a patient can initiate acute treatment for migraine with gepants, ditans, or neuromodulatory devices, the AHS recommends trialing at least two oral triptans. Treatment failure can be assessed by validated patient-reported outcome questionnaires (mTOQ, Migraine-ACT, PPMQ-R, FIS, PGIC) or clinician attestation. Risk factors for an inadequate response to triptan include severe baseline headache severity, nausea, depression, photophobia, and phonophobia. Further, triptans are contraindicated for patients with vascular diseases. CGRP inhibitors are usually not recommended as an initial acute treatment for migraine. Though caffeine can be used as an adjuvant to initial analgesics for migraine, it usually does not determine the initiation of gepants, ditans, or neuromodulatory devices. Inadequate response to combination therapy including NSAIDs, a recommended non-pharmacologic regimen, and CGRP inhibitors are not part of the criteria for initiating acute treatment with gepants, ditans, or neuromodulatory devices from the AHS. Learn more about acute treatments for migraine.
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
An end to migraines, cravings and brain fog: New pill hope for the cruel condition as scientists hail breakthrough that cuts symptoms
Often the first signs of a migraine are visual disturbances such as blind spots, tingling in the hands and face, weakness and changes in speech – known as the 'aura' stage. But there is also a lesser-known period, the premonitory, or prodromal phase, with its own set of debilitating symptoms – including brain fog and fatigue, mood changes (irritability and anxiety), neck pain, dizziness, passing more urine and yawning.
