The relationship between toxins and development of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, migraines and seizures, is strong. As spring rolls around, you may want to reconsider spraying for weeds and insects.
I’ve always been very saddened by our approach to conditions like epilepsy and migraines in this country. We feel that if the events are halted with medications (or, horrifyingly, by surgical removal or parts of the brain) then the treatment is a success.
There is no doubt that some new, fancy and expensive anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have been developed and marketed. It seems like neurologists actually prefer to use these new drugs over the older drugs that have had decades of use.
I don’t need to go into how epilepsy is a condition not limited to the brain, because I have covered this many times in the past.
This is also just one of the areas where migraines and seizures have similarities—migraines are also a brain condition that is not limited to the brain. Both are an indication that something is very, very wrong.
As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, the goal in a patient that is experiencing migraines is to improve their physiology so the brain is not so upset and the migraines can go away. In almost all cases, this is possible. It’s not usually addressed in this fashion, but it is possible for this type of outcome if the patient is willing to make changes and the physician is more concerned about what is causing the migraines then figuring out what medications will control the headaches.
Genes, migraines, stroke. Overall, there is absolutely no doubt that migraines are NOT a problem isolate to the head. They are a problem with the health of the overall patient. This is why we see an increased risk of conditions like stroke and heart disease in migraine sufferers.
We’ve known the answer to this question for some time now. This study looks more in depth at the damage that seizures and migraines (YES–migraines ARE seizures) cause to the brain. The ictal periods (the time during an “event”) produce high levels of oxidative damage to the proteins, fats and DNA and this damage may leave a patient prone to further events.
Attack Frequency and Disease Duration as Indicators for Brain Damage in Migraine
Regular readers of updates know that I have a serious issue with the way we treat migraines and seizures in today’s medical environment. We don’t look at the whole person, we just try to suppress the outward manifestation of the disease state, and yet time and time again we see that this approach is NOT affecting the real problem.
These authors call migraines a progressive brain disease. What a novel but appropriate viewpoint. The overall idea is that patients with migraines need to take a serious look at their lifestyle and understand that, if changes are not made, not only their brain is at risk but also the cardiovascular system.
CoQ10 Deficiency and Response to Supplementation in Pediatric and Adolescent Migraine
Given that we have shifted our thinking of the cause of migraines to a mitochondrial dysfunction / oxidative stress model, the results of this study should come as no surprise. I still find it very bothersome, though, that we have so many patients being treated for migraines under a “pain control only” model without any thought to fixing the underlying mechanism.
The problem here is that oxidative stress leads to so many other chronic diseases that the patient and doctor just missed an opportunity to change the health trajectory away from one of chronic disease.
While most sufferers consider them separate entities, migraines and seizure share many common characteristics and the underlying problem with the cells of the brain are also similar. What contributes to or triggers a migraine headaches can also trigger seizures, such as lack of sleep, stress and skipping a meal. In the short term, both of these conditions dramatically affect quality of life. Even more concerning is what these conditions due to the brain in the long run.