Stop them before they start

For many people, migraines are debilitating events. As Harvard Health editor Christine Junge wrote in this space last year about her battle with migraine: “On the good days, the pain was just a mild throbbing sensation. Other times, there was a general sense of an ever-tightening pressure. On the days when I couldn’t get out of bed, it felt like someone was tightening screws into the sides of my head and pounding a hammer above my left eye. The pain never went away, unless I was asleep.” Most migraine sufferers long to prevent porn tube these painful episodes. As I write in this month’s Harvard Health Letter, about one-third of migraineurs could benefit from taking a preventive pill. But only a minority of them actually take advantage of this option. New treatment guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology and the American Headache Society profile the best preventive medications, and an herbal preparation, for migraine. “These drugs can reduce the frequency and severity of migraine attacks, and may require different doses over time to achieve these benefits,” says Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, vice chairman of the neurology department at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. “They must be taken daily. They are different from pain-relieving medicines—drugs that halt a migraine once it has started.”