Thank you!!! I sure appreciate this email. I am going to look into this further.
Thanks again-
Christina

larissalle <larissa4@...> wrote:
Everybody, in case this is anything, I thought I'd pass the info
along. According to a Yahoo News article about migraines, magnetic
fields are being used to treat migraines, and "Participants also
reported a reduction in noise and light sensitivity...". I wonder
if this isn't something to look into in terms of the light
sensitivities that readers have written about along with Irlen, etc??

Here's the full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060622/hl_hsn/magneticstimulationmayeas
emigrainepain

Magnetic Stimulation May Ease Migraine Pain
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Thu Jun 22, 7:12 PM ET


THURSDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- A magnetic device that seems
to help depression and seizures may also short-circuit migraine
headaches in their earliest stages, a new study finds.

ADVERTISEMENT

The transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device, about the size
of a hair dryer, was able to interrupt the development of migraines,
according to data to be presented Thursday at the American Headache
Society's annual meeting, in Los Angeles.

The study was funded by the device's maker, NeuraLieve, of
Sunnyvale, Calif.

About 28 million Americans suffer migraine headaches and about 20
percent experience migraine with aura, characterized by changes in
vision before the actual pain begins.

Scientists now believe that migraine attacks start because of nerve
cell hyper-excitability, which is followed by fatigue and
malfunction of the nerve cells, or neurons. These phases seem to
correlate with the aura.

"This process spreads throughout the brain and the end result is the
throbbing headache," said Dr. Yousef Mohammad, principal
investigator of the study and an assistant professor of neurology at
Ohio State University Medical Center.

"If we can interrupt this with two pulses of magnetic stimulation,
we can abort the headache," he added.

The TMS device used in this study is approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration as an investigational device. It sends
an electric current through a metal coil, creating a magnetic field
that activates nerve cells in the brain.

The study involved 43 people who had migraines with aura and were
randomly picked to receive either TMS or treatment with a placebo
device. Participants were instructed to give themselves two pulses
to the back of the head at the first sign of an aura.

Seventy-four percent of people in the TMS group said they had no or
only a mild headache two hours after using the device, compared with
45 percent in the control group. Participants also reported a
reduction in noise and light sensitivity: 74 percent of people in
the TMS group experienced a reduction in light sensitivity while 75
percent experienced less noise sensitivity. In the placebo group,
only 20 percent or so experienced such reductions.

A larger study of TMS involving nine medical centers and 200
patients will begin next month, Mohammad said.

Another study presented at the meeting found that the anti-seizure
medication Topamax (generic name topiramate) provided relief to
people who have migraine headaches virtually every day.

The drug is approved by the FDA for prevention of migraine
headaches, but had not been specifically studied in migraine
sufferers who also experienced chronic daily headaches.

About 4 percent of U.S. adults, or nearly 9 million people, have
headaches 15 or more days a month, known as chronic daily headache.

For this study, more than 300 patients were randomly chosen to
receive Topamax or a placebo for 16 weeks. The study was funded by
the drug's maker, Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical.

At the end of the study period, 41.2 percent of people taking
Topamax had fewer headaches or days with headaches, compared to 28.8
percent in the placebo group.

Half of the people in the Topamax group had a 40 percent or greater
reduction in migraines or days with migraine. Headache severity was
also reduced significantly in the Topamax group.

There were, however, side effects in the Topamax group: 29 percent
of these patients experienced numbness or tingling in the hands or
legs, compared to 7 percent of those in the placebo group.

"It's extraordinarily important that not only headache frequency
decreased, but also severity," said Dr. Stephen Silberstein, study
author and director of the Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas
Jefferson University Hospital, in Philadelphia. "It's important to
have a medication that works for difficult-to-treat patients."

More information

To learn more, visit the American Headache Society.






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