I often say I have two great loves, yoga and migraines, as both have taught me so much. The well world disbelieves my claim about migraine. Yoga yes; migraine no. While it is true this condition has orchestrated my life in often inconvenient ways, it read more

Stress is often said to be a trigger for migraines and while this can be so, it is unhelpful and vague. Stress! What is that? One woman’s stress is another woman’s spur to action! I always prefer overload. And then, because migraine is complicated and read more

Simply wanting to be reliable has led me to purchase what appear to be pain-busting gadgetry, all with varying degrees of credibility. Many conditions are targeted in this way, and migraine is particularly vulnerable, being unpredictable and with many symptoms. In earlier times I was read more

I do not hold with the division between allopathic medicine and the rest. Anyone I consult is an equal partner attempting to solve a mystery: how the human body/mind functions or not. Allopathic medicine is an expression commonly used by homeopaths to describe the use read more

‘Your migraines will go if you are ready to let them go!’ Alternative speak for it’s your fault. Anyone with a condition probably thinks there must be a person or therapy waiting to change her life. The reason: we know the world would prefer we read more

When I was in unbearable pain, I sometimes asked my GP for morphine. He always refused. Then I read about a woman in Glasgow who died an hour after being given a morphine injection; she had been given 20 times the dose. That cured me. read more

What causes migraines remains poorly understood. (Not my words.) But in some cases, the headache symptoms have been linked to a common hole in the heart called a patent foramen ovale, or PFO. Since 2000, some medical reports have indicated that repairing the hole for read more

Migraines do not readily respond to one medication and, even when they do, this can randomly stop, which is why the search continues. I first heard about occlusal splints from a nurse who had worked for a Professor of Oral Medicine at the Royal Victoria read more

Prophylactics or daily preventatives are where we wander into medication for other conditions on a just- in-case or you-never-know-it-might-work basis. And you can be lucky. The most commonly used are beta blockers: propranolol, metoprolol and timolol, more normally used to treat angina and lower blood read more

Some people chase storms, some rainbows, hopes and dreams, but anyone with a condition chases explanations, relief and cures. Presenting as a possible migraine sufferer means a serious symptom exam. Not every headache is a migraine. My London doctor was thorough, as indeed all doctors read more

I enter my other world where pain – a brutal sun – rises so slowly I hardly know its pointless orbit has begun Then – too late – it floods my landscape. Higher, harsher more violent rays find my soul and all dreams die I read more

In the league table of conditions migraine is low. It’s down there with depression,  fibromyalgia, ME etc. Novelists use it to explain female absences or backsliding: ‘She has one of her migraines,’ as though she could have anyone else’s. I hate them for it. When read more