Health related information and news from around the world.

All you need do is make clear, vivid images and, if possible, “feel,” “smell,” “hear,” and “experience” these images in your mind.

If you do know what actions your body should take, it’s fine to visualize this happening. For example, you might visualize the arteries in your head dilating during Stage 2, or constricting during Stage 3. If you aren’t sure exactly what arteries look like, symbols are equally effective. You can visualize arteries as a rubber hose, and smooth muscles as fingers clamping down on the hose and restricting the blood flow through it.

Although several popular visualizations are given later, no standard programming exists for creative imagery. You can simply make up your own visualizations and reinforce them with autogenic phrases that best fit the particular headache symptoms you wish to alleviate.

Avoid phrases that use the future tense, such as “My headache will have disappeared by next week.” Instead, use the present tense and phrase all suggestions as though your headache had already disappeared.

For example, “The pain in my eye (or temple) has already disappeared. As the ice numbs my headache pain, I feel perfectly comfortable and free of pain. Every vestige of headache pain has already disappeared. I feel very comfortable and at ease.”

All phrases must be strongly positive. Avoid negatives such as “I will not,” or “don’t” or “I won’t” or “I will try to.” Employ only strong, active, positive phrases and talk as though your headache or other symptoms had already vanished.

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• Warming the Scalp. If you can apply warmth to the scalp at the first hint of an impending migraine, the headache can often be aborted. Even if it materializes, after applying heat, the headache is usually mild and subdued.

Many female migraineurs have discovered the advantages of using a bonnet-type hair dryer. They have been largely displaced by the blower type, but can still be found. And countless millions remain stowed away in attics. If you cannot locate one, ask around among your women friends.

Although bonnet-type hair dryers have been used almost exclusively by women, they work just as well for male migraineurs.

At the first sign of an impending headache, set the dryer to “warm” and sit under it. Some women find the warmth so soothing that they often snooze for as long as half an hour. When they wake up, the headache is gone.

As you have probably guessed, the warm air dilates constricted arteries in the head during Stage 2, and the migraine sequence is broken. Lacking a hair dryer, you could use a hot towel.

Dip a medium sized towel in hot water at not above 112?F. Wring it out and wrap it in a single layer of another dry towel. Then arrange it on top of the head so that as much of the scalp as possible is covered. But moist heat seems to work better.

After several applications, use your fingers to massage your scalp. Using a rhythmic pattern, work right down to the ears and down the back of the neck.

Whether using a hair dryer or towel, stop immediately if you begin to experience actual headache pain—a signal that the headache has entered Stage 3. It’s then too late for any more heat therapy. Heat is beneficial only during Stage 2.

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While it is obviously wisest to obtain as much tryptophan as possible from the diet, some nutritionists have recommended taking an additional one gram daily in the form of L-tryptophan supplements. Until late 1989, these were available over the counter in most healthfood stores. However, at that time they were linked to a rare blood disorder called eosinophilia. Most L-tryptophan supplements were immediately recalled, and all stocks have since been removed from store shelves. When and if the FDA concludes that they are not the cause of eosinophilia, and are once more considered safe, they may again become available.

Should this occur, you will want to know that L-tryptophan supplements are usually available in 250 or 500 mg tablets. They metabolize rapidly in the bloodstream and can induce drowsiness within 30 minutes. Drowsiness, incidentally, is a good sign that tryptophan has reached the brain and has broken down into serotonin. For this reason, tryptophan nutrition is best carried out just prior to bedtime.

Most nutritionists suggest that, without medical supervision, tryptophan supplements should be limited to a maximum of one gram per day. (However, manufacturer’s labels have suggested that up to two grams may be taken.) Naturally, if any adverse side effects occur, dosage should be terminated immediately. In practice, adverse side effects are extremely unlikely but very large doses could possibly cause bladder problems. As pain tolerance increases, most nutritionists recommend reducing intake of supplements and relying, if possible, on dietary sources alone.

Prolonged intake of L-tryptophan may lead to depletion of vitamin B6. Too, a sufficiency of vitamin B3 is necessary to maintain tryptophan levels in the brain.

For optimum results, when and if L-tryptophan supplements again become available, it would seem best to combine tryptophan nutrition with daily supplements of vitamins Ñ and the  complex.

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The majority of clusters occur at night. Researchers believe that this may be due to a combination of shallow breathing and the daily low point in adrenal hormone output. (Normally, these hormones keep blood vessels from dilating.) These circumstances, which favor dilation, seem to set a regular time for clusters to appear. During a cluster bout, the victim is often awakened at the same time each night by the same blinding pain.

Whenever instability occurs in the balance of norepinephrine and serotonin, which control pain perception, clusters may also appear during the daytime. In fact, during a cluster bout, any food, substance or circumstance that stimulates vasodilation can trigger a cluster.

Clusters usually begin in men between the ages of 10 and 30, often in teenage boys who smoke. No family history connection has been found. Beyond causing a tendency to peptic ulcers, the pain appears to leave no lasting damage. But signs of suffering are often evident. By raid-die age, many cluster victims have acquired deep furrows in the forehead plus a cleft chin, square jaw and other craggy features, and a coarse, ruddy, wrinkled skin.

Fortunately, cluster headaches are relatively rare. At times, they may be confused with trigeminal neuralgia— tic douloureux. However, tic douloureux strikes in brief, painful jabs seldom lasting more than a few seconds, while clusters last for at least ten minutes.

Breaming pure oxygen is an effective remedy for most clusters at this stage. If oxygen is not available, hyperventilation—taking long, deep, rapid breaths—will often bring sufficient oxygen into the arteries to cause them to constrict and end the pain.

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Approximately 25 headache clinics exist in the U.S. The best are usually branches of major medical centers or universities, offer a multi-disciplinary (Whole Person) approach, and are staffed by specialists representing an array of disciplines, such as internists, neorologists, psychiatrist, physical therapists, and counselors. Other clinics may be operated by individual doctors with varying capabilities. It’s best to seek a certified facility,

Wink most can he depended on far an expert diagnosis, smaller clinics may not offer the same wide option of alternative therapies as large, multi-disciplinary clinics. To help evaluate a dime, check on the credentials of the staff and ask to see if they are board-certified in their field.

Most of America’s several hundred pain clinks are also capable of diagnosing headaches, but not all specialize in headache treatment. Although the clinic itself may offer a muitidisciplinary approach to pain relief, the headache department may offer only a single discipline. By comparison, virtually all bona fide headache clinics prefer a nondrag approach with emphasis on relaxation and biofeedback training, nutrition, massage, counseling and stress management. While some clinics accept patients without referral, others may require mat you be referred by your doctor.

The average physician is probably mute capable of determining whether your headaches are disease-related or benign, but may not be as adept at diagnosing your headache type, and so may prescribe an inappropriate medication. The average doctor is also often unaware of the alternative, nondnig therapies used by most headache clinics, and will tend to rely upon drugs.

it is fairly common, in fact, for headache clinics to discover a misdiagnosis by a family doctor, who has also prescribed the wrong medication When the medication is corrected and the patient introduced to other therapies, some patients are able in end their headaches in a short time.

stubborn eases, clinics may only he able to reduce the pain to manageable levels.

By contrast, benign chronic headaches can occasionally be permanently ended by a single therapy But it’s safest not to expect a magic bullet. Most clinic employ a holistic array of therapies dot work on body, mind and belief system simultaneously. By working together synergistically, each reinforcing the other, a selection of these thro pies can typically be expected to eliminate chronic migraine headaches in from 5 to 12 weeks.

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