My Approach and What We Treat

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My Approach To Migraine

LIFESTYLE

EXERCISE

Studies for migraine have shown that regular cardiovascular exercise for 30-40 minutes 3-4 days per week is just as effective as a daily medication for prevention of migraine. Exercise triggers the body to produce endorphins, which are natural pain relievers. These endorphins will decrease migraine frequency and severity.

SLEEP

The average amount of sleep an adult needs is 8-9 hours per night. However, in migraine, it is the sleep schedule, not the duration of sleep that is of utmost importance. Migraineurs should maintain a regular sleep schedule, going to bed at the same time every night and waking up the same time every morning, on weekdays and weekends.

EATING

Migraine suffers should eat regular meals throughout the day, every 3-4 hours as drops in blood sugar can be a trigger. Studies have shown that breakfast is especially important, and that eating a protein filled breakfast get reduce migraine incidence. Diets containing vitamin B2 (found in green leafy vegetables) and CoQ10 (found in meats, fish and poultry) can be beneficial as they are both involved in energy production.

DRINKING

Dehydration is a known migraine trigger. A minimum of 64oz of water should be consumed everyday. An extra ~16oz of water should be consumed for every half hour of exercise. Caffeinated beverages should be kept to a minimum as caffeine can be both a trigger for migraine and a cause of dehydration.  Caffeine intake should be less than 200mg (~2 cups of coffee) per day.

CLINICAL FOCUS

  • Pediatric, adolescent and adult headache medicine
  • Integrative model of headache care utilizing both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapies
  • Medical acupuncture for the treatment and prevention of headache and facial pain
  • Interventional approaches to headache: botulinum toxin injections, peripheral nerve blocks, trigger point injections, sphenopalatine ganglion blocks

MOST COMMON CONDITIONS TREATED

  • Migraine headache
  • Menstrual migraine
  • Vestibular migraine
  • Tension type headache
  • Cluster headache and other Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias
  • New daily persistent headache
  • Typical and atypical facial pain syndromes
  • Trigeminal neuralgia
  • Occipital neuralgia
  • Post-concussive syndrome/headache
  • Idiopathic intracranial hypertension
  • Headache in pregnancy and postpartum
  • Cervicogenic headache
  • Medication overuse headache
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