VoLUME
8, ISSUE 3
MaY 2003
May 13th Meeting:
Discover
how your headaches behave just like cats! Learn
how “cat-like behavior” can help unlock the keys to your migraine
mysteries! In an evening infused
with humor and an exploration of the mind-body connection, we will discuss how a
self-care approach can educate and empower people to remove the causes of their
pain, achieve balance and
We
are pleased to have Jan Mundo, CMSC, CMT, as our guest speaker.
Jan Mundo is a Certified Master Somatic Coach and Massage Therapist who
specializes in working with headaches, pain, stress and self-transformation.
She has 33 years experience relieving headaches and migraines with the
Mundo Method hands-on therapy, and has been teaching her self-care relief and
prevention program since 1992.
Through individualized
coaching, bodywork and mind-body practices, her clients focus on creating a
healthy, invigorating attitude toward life, while designing and fulfilling their
goals. Jan lectures and leads
workshops at medical centers, universities and corporations; she was a member of
UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine’s clinical practice start-up phase;
and has a private practice in Berkeley.
Jan’s essay on headaches
will be published in the anthology Being Human at Work: Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Your Professional Life,
ed. Richard Strozzi Heckler, PhD (Spring 2003). She is also writing a book on headaches, and has been
published in Cephalalgia: An
The
meeting will be held in the Monterey Room, downstairs at John Muir Medical
Center, on Tuesday, May 13, from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. For
more information, call Leslie Davis at 925-685-8775.
NOTE:
We now prefer to meet in the
Monterey Room instead of the Ball Auditorium, as it’s a more intimate room for
a group of our size. The easiest
way to get there is to walk through the main lobby of the medical center (down
the left side) and find the elevators in the back.
Take an elevator down to the lower level and you’ll see the Monterey
Room to your right as you exit the elevator.
Book
Headache:
The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain
The author, a neurologist at
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has seen headache patients for 20
years, many of them referred to him when all other efforts had failed.
Buchholz’s theory is that almost all headaches are the result of a single
mechanism—the mechanism of migraine that is built into us and causes painful
blood vessel swelling when activated by triggers. He’s developed what he calls the 1-2-3 Program for
Headache Sufferers:
1.) Avoid the quick fix – painkillers. Most people rely on
painkillers when they have a headache, and if you only have infrequent headaches
they’re fine. But, taken too often, they can cause rebound headache.
Dr. Buchholz recommends using the triptans (Imitrex, Amerge, Maxalt,
etc.) only for severe headaches and only 2 days per month. For mild to moderate
headaches, over-the-counter drugs such as plain acetaminophen or aspirin
(without caffeine) or anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen (Motrin) or naproxen
sodium (Aleve) can be taken, but no more than 2 days per week.
If you need painkillers more often then you should try to prevent your
headaches which brings us to...
2.) Reducing your triggers – Everyone has a pain threshold
which, if exceeded, can cause
headache. Dr. Buchholz maintains
you can reduce your migraine trigger level by avoiding certain dietary items and
medications. While some triggers are unavoidable—weather changes, hormones,
smells—there are many that are in your control. The author lists several pages of foods to avoid, including
the various names for MSG. He also
lists certain hormones, diet pills and heart medications.
3.) Preventive medicines – If you’ve tried steps 1 and 2 and
still are bothered by headaches you should consider taking a preventive
medicine. Dr. Buchholz lists a number of medications along with their suggested
doses and vices and virtues.
In the last chapters of the
book the author discusses common misdiagnoses of migraine symptoms and
challenges the myth of tension and sinus headaches which he maintains are really
migraines.
This is a well written,
thought-provoking book and, though I could find only one journal review on it,
there were 28 very enthusiastic recommendations on Amazon.com.
The 1-2-3 Program is worth a
try,
Following is a list of
potential sources of MSG found in Dr. Buchholz’s book:
Hydrolyzed protein (including vegetable/soy/plant/rice protein).
Yeast extract and autolyzed yeast
Broth, stock or bouillon
Soy protein concentrate/isolate
Textured protein
Whey protein
Protein-fortified items
Malt extract
Malted barley
Maltodextrin
Carrageenan
Kombu (seaweed extract)
Sodium or calcium caseinate
Glutamic acid
Gelatin
Fermented or cultured items
Ultra-pasteurized items
Enzyme-modified items
Migraine
Do you have artistic talent
and want to show the world just what your
The National Headache
Foundation is conducting its fourth Migraine Masterpieces art contest and
exhibition, a national competition that seeks diagnosed migraine sufferers who
can artistically represent their world as it is affected by migraine headaches.
The theme for this year’s competition is “My Life with Migraine.”
Migraine Masterpieces is a
free and open competition for amateur and professional artists who are diagnosed
migraine sufferers. Entries will
communicate the significant impact migraine headaches have on their lives and
the lives of those around them.
Migraine Masterpieces was
created to encourage sufferers to share their individual experiences through
their artistic contributions to increase awareness of this disease.
Entrants are asked to
provide any two-dimensional painting, drawing, print, photography or computer-generated work by the entry deadline of May 23, 2003.
The Migraine Masterpieces program will culminate with an exhibition of
the 25 prize winning entries in Chicago during the week of July 21, 2003.
First prize is $4,000,
second prize is $2,000, third prize is $1,000, and 22 Merit winners will each
receive $100.
For contest rules and entry
forms, contact the National Headache Foundation at www.headaches.org or
by calling toll-free 888-NHF-5552.0
Have
a Headache?
Soon after settling in
Wisconsin, I was introduced to real coffee drinking. There was a barber who complained of headaches every Thursday
for ten years. After a rather
extensive get acquainted conversation, the cause of this unusual complaint was
revealed. He had not been a coffee
drinker prior to marriage and finishing barber school.
Thursday was his day off and there was no business partner or wife to
offer coffee. He followed my advice
to carry two thermoses of coffee everywhere he went on his day off.
His Thursday headaches ceased.
Headache as the withdrawal
symptom of caffeine addiction is not sufficiently known.
For instance, the mother of a teenage daughter brought the young lady in
because
When people state that only
Anacin and Excedrin relieve their headaches, this usually means caffeine
withdrawal headaches. Some of them
take their caffeine-containing pills in anticipation of trouble.
This results in the caffeine in the headache pills becoming part of their
drug requirement.
So caffeine has a
stereotyped withdrawal syndrome (the headache), a characteristic of addiction.
Another characteristic of addiction is that former addicts, even years
after stopping the drug use, become re-addicted on fewer, smaller doses than
first-time users. I became aware of
this after returning from two years in Asia where I drank tea, even though I do
not like it, in order to get boiled water and avoid dysentery.
I easily weaned myself off
of this practice, but withdrawal headaches occurred in late afternoons.
They hit after I had a cup of coffee for lunch three or four days in a
row, which is a much smaller dose than would produce this result in someone who
had not been severely addicted.
Caffeine demonstrates that
drug addiction does not necessarily cause health problems or social problems.
These depend on the toxicity of the drug and the legal consequences of
its prohibition.0
Dr. John
A. Frantz, of the State Medical Society, is Chairman, Monroe Board of Health.
He is an internal medicine specialist.
Appeared
in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on January 3, 2002. Found on the Internet at