HEADLINES

Volume 3, Issue 5, May 1998

May 12th Meeting:

VENDOR NIGHT

Join us at our first Vendor Night on Tuesday, May 12th, 7:30 to 9:00 pm, in the Ball Auditorium at John Muir Medical Center. Informational booths will be set up around the room for vendors to display their products or services for headache relief. This will be an easy way for you to learn about a number of products or treatments that just may help you to reduce your headaches, or at least make them more bearable. Bring a friend!

Future Meetings:

June 9th: Jeffrey Klingman, M.D.— Head Injury Headaches.

July 14th: Talk It Over Night.

August 11th: Michael Varon, M.D.—

ASK THE DOCTOR…

by Michael Stein, M.D.

Q: I’ve seen ads for "Excedrin Migraine." Can you tell me more?

A: Bristol-Myers-Squibb, the manufacturer of Excedrin, sponsored a controlled study comparing Excedrin to placebo. The patients were carefully selected—their headaches were not incapacitating, they had little in the way of nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light or noise. They did show a response to Excedrin compared to placebo, but it should be noted they didn’t have the typical migraine headaches most of us experience. Also,

Excedrin Migraine is the same as regular Excedrin. Excedrin is worth trying, but for many migraine sufferers, stronger medication may be needed.

Q: What about allergies and headaches?

A: Allergic reactions may act as a "trigger" for headaches in many individuals. This is especially a problem in the springtime with all the plants and flowers in bloom. El Niño rains this year probably have made this worse. Many over-the-counter antihistamine medications can help, or ask your doctor about prescription antihistamines, if necessary.

Happy Mother’s Day!

MSG: It’s "Natural Flavoring" to the FDA, but it’s Poison to Me!

by Bart Dickson

You put the package back on the store shelf because it lists MSG on the label. You know MSG will enhance the taste of this product for 75% of the population, but it will poison you and the remaining 25%. You know from experience that this poison will make you miserable, with symptoms ranging from an annoying headache to an incredibly severe head pain followed by chills, sweats, fatigue, throwing up, and total inability to function for one or two days.

Because you are careful, you buy nothing with MSG listed. Then unexpectedly, you find yourself hanging over the commode with your insides wrenching and your head splitting. You ask yourself, "what the #@&% happened?" The answer may be that you have ingested enough of the MSG poison through some combination of different hidden sources to bring about a migraine attack.

The Food and Drug Administration allows chemicals with MSG in smaller percentages, up to 20%, to be labeled under 17 different aliases. A few of the most common of these deceptive aliases are "accent, "natural flavoring," "hydrolyzed vegetable protein," and kombu extract." "A rose by any other name…" it is still the same poison that will make your life miserable if you do not become aware and make some basic changes in what you eat. Look at the labels on foods like canned soups and dry soup mixes, canned tuna, prepared dinners, cookies and crackers, cured meats, freeze dried foods, diet foods, frozen foods, potato chips, dip, jerky, salad dressing, sauces, spices and seasoning, to name a few. A combination of the above foods may introduce enough MSG poison into your system to put you over the edge.

Since the FDA allows 25% of our population to be poisoned through this subterfuge, it is up to you to become informed and take the appropriate action. The good news is there are substitute foods available without this toxin in disguise.

OK, so what can one do? By taking the following steps I have considerably reduced the frequency and severity of my migraine headaches. Since changing my eating habits, I have experienced only one migraine and it was much less severe. In fact, it took several hours for me to decide if it was just a mild headache or a real migraine coming on, and whether it was time for the Imitrex. Following that headache, I tightened up the diet and have had no headaches to date. Giving up the things I like is a small price to pay to get rid of or reduce the severity of migraine headaches.

Try the following five steps in an eight-week program:

Step #1: Obtain a copy of the book, In Bad Taste, the MSG Syndrome, by George R. Schwartz, M.D. You will probably not find this book on the shelf, but any major bookstore can order it. Delivery will take approximately two weeks.

Step #2: Study the book carefully and make a conscious effort to look at every food label. Accept the fact your eating habits must change. Even though you eliminate every known source of MSG, some of this poison will still get into your diet, but the concentrations should be low enough to go unnoticed.

Step #3: Locate and shop at stores that carry health foods, and foods without preservatives.

Step #4: Start an eight-week MSG-free diet.

Step #5: Avoid fast-food restaurants, and avoid suspicious items on restaurant menus. Since many restaurants use MSG to enhance their food (especially Chinese, Japanese, and French restaurants), ask the waiter if it is used and request it be deleted.

This process takes some adjustment, but if you are getting migraines at least every two weeks, give it a try for eight weeks. You will probably find the transition was not all that difficult and that the results are worth the price.

Remember, other migraine triggers such as red wine, chocolate, and cheese can consciously be avoided, but much of the MSG poison is deliberately disguised and you are the only person who can protect yourself from it.

PERSONAL PROFILE

by Reggie Fong

My early experience with headaches began when I was about eleven years old. My family doctor thought it was a sinus condition attributed to allergy. I treated my occasional headaches with over-the-counter (OTC) pain and sinus medications. But my headaches during the next twenty-five years gradually became more intense, frequent, and lasted much longer. In my mid-thirties, I was again diagnosed as having sinus-related allergy headaches. After the allergy tests, I was put on a food elimination diet and received allergy desensitization shots weekly for almost three years without improvement. I continued taking OTC pills and got an occasional prescription medication of Tylenol with Codeine or Fiorinal.

As my work career progressed, I took on more responsibilities and my headaches got worse. I was now diagnosed as having tension headaches related to stress. I took up long distance running as recommended by my doctor friend and later running partner. Although my headaches vastly improved, I continued my regimen of pills only when absolutely needed. After close to twenty years of running, I developed back pains, plantar fascitis, and a sciatica nerve pain down the right leg. Needless to say, I was advised by an orthopedic specialist to stop my running addiction.

Shortly after discontinuing running, my headaches got worse with greater severity and lasted as long as two to four weeks in duration. I continued with OTC medication and was prescribed other stronger pain pills with no lasting improvement. I later developed chronic daily headaches with varying intensities. I would wake up in the morning with pain over the left eye, a stiff and painful neck on the left side, a stuffy left nostril, and later during the day the pain would migrate to my entire forehead. I took only OTC medication and was very careful to limit their use because I was well aware of rebound type headaches.

I went to doctors, one specializing in headaches, and was told that I would probably have to live with my chronic headaches. I read books and surfed the Internet. I researched until I found the East Bay Headache Support Group, and then came to the meeting when Dr. Stein gave a presentation on tension-type headaches. He described in detail the rebound headache phenomenon associated with the continual use of OTC medication. His presentation mirrored what has occurred in my life. I immediately stopped all the Advil’s and Excedrin’s. I now take only one Nortriptylene (an anti-depressant used as an abortive medication) in the evening under Dr. Stein’s care. This treatment and a much better understanding of headaches has helped me considerably in relieving my headaches. I have been almost headache-free for two months.

Perfume Allergy Sufferer Raises a Stink at Office

Q: I have an allergic reaction to certain scents, where I get a throbbing headache, my face turns bright red and I get queasy from the smell. I sent an e-mail to my entire office asking them to stop wearing perfume to the office. However, I obviously stepped on some toes. Management was displeased with me. My co-workers continue wearing perfume. What can I do?

A: E-mail is great for setting up meetings, exchanging data and finding out whether your co-workers want to go for Chinese food at lunch. But—as you’ve discovered—it’s not the way to handle touchy matters of office politics. What you should have done, at the start, was bring up your allergy problem with your supervisor or someone from Human Resources.

Is your allergy a permanent condition? Is it severe enough to interfere with your ability to do your job? In that case, it might legally qualify as a disability, according to Richard Curiale of the law firm Curiale Dellaverson Hirschseld Kelly & Kraemer in San Francisco. And the company would be legally required to provide you with a "reasonable accommodation" to help you continue doing your job. That might mean finding you a closed-off office or a cubicle near a window with fresh air. Or the company might ask people to voluntarily refrain from wearing perfume. "I don’t think I’d recommend that they pass a policy completely banning perfume," Curiale said. "That could create significant morale problems and animosity among the other employees."

It’s not too late to seek a solution here. Set up a meeting with your company’s Human Resources people. And gather as much information as you can to show them that your problem is real—not just the grousing of some hypersensitive crank. Get a note from your doctor explaining your allergic condition. Bring in magazine articles that explain chemical sensitivities like yours. And come up with some ideas for ways that the company can help you continue doing your job. They don’t have to do exactly what you suggest, but they do have to make an effort to meet the needs of employees with disabilities.

Notes...

Len Ochs, Ph.D., talked about neurobiofeedback at the April 14th meeting. Notes taken of his presentation will be available at the next meeting, as well as notes from other past meetings covering the following topics: Biofeedback therapy, genetics, caregiving, dietary triggers, chiropractic treatment, pharmaceutical remedies, hormonal triggers, reducing stress in the workplace, dealing with holiday stress (and all stressors), acupuncture, children’s headaches, temporomandibular joint disease (TMJ), somatic headache relief, compounding medications, allergies, experimental drugs, stress relief, non-traditional therapies, tension headaches, and menopause. Suggested donation is $2 for each set of notes.

The East Bay Headache Support Group is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a forum for headache sufferers. The support group meets the second Tuesday of each month at John Muir Medical Center from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. It is open to all headache sufferers and their families; the meetings are free (however, donations to cover printing, postage, and web site expenses are appreciated!). The support group meetings include lectures by guest speakers, question and answer sessions, and informational materials.

Directions to John Muir Medical Center: Take Highway 680 to the Ygnacio Valley Road exit in Walnut Creek; go East approximately 1-1/2 miles, and turn right onto La Casa Via. Turn left into the Medical Center parking lot, and enter at the Main Lobby. Take stairs or elevator to the lower level and follow signs to the Ball Auditorium.

We value your input! Call, fax, write, or e-mail us if you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to help. The planning committee meets the third Tuesday evening each month and welcomes new members. Michael Stein, MD, Advisor; Leslie Davis, Editor; Dana Giese, Webmaster; Donna Johnson, Treasurer; Dick Tomchalk, Postmaster; Tracy Titus, Reg Fong.