today marks my first blogger rant, in response to an article on the homepage of today's huffington post: "how to eliminate migraines and headaches in less than a week," by mark hyman, m.d. - who is listed as a "pioneer of functional medicine. please, go check out the article by clicking here.
i don't usually like to go into great public detail about this, but i, too, am a migraneur and need daily preventatives, and carry a purse full of various abortives and rescue drugs. drugs that, at their worst, require me to inject pain and anti-nausea filled needles into the back of my gluteus maximus. it is not fun, it is not cheap, and i would do just about anything to not have to go there. when i'm feeling upbeat, i call that category 'monster migraines.' when i'm not in the mood, i call them the 'i want to kill myself' migraines. migraines have completely changed my life, i have been forced to learn a new kind of life in order to function with them and still be a productive member of society.
dr. hyman's thoughts on responding to - and therefore preventing - various triggers are certainly useful, and i appreciate the fact that he calls this an actual disease (because it is), and believes in treating causes and not symptoms. however, it is NOT an "almost entirely preventable" disease that can (in reference to the title of the article) disappear within a week. that's simply absolutist and insane. i'm a work in progress to making these things disappear, and its one of the reasons i try to track my diet. i eat meat a few times a year and try to make unprocessed, whole foods the staples of my diet. i try consciously to eat a lot of vegan meals. i practice yoga and have tried guided relaxation and biofeedback. unfortunately, red wine is off the market for me, and i've only had a few beers since this all started a few years ago, followed by a lot of water.
the tendency towards migraines is indeed genetic, and, for the record, none of my triggers fits neatly into any of the categories laid out by dr. hyman. triggers which have been worked on for a few years with various neurologists and which I must pay a lot for with my not-so-great insurance. also, for the record, I often get migraines in relation to barometric pressure - something which is NOT preventable.
i resent dr. hyman's insinuation that, if migraineurs simply paid attention to their symptoms more clearly, we could stop costing society billions of tax dollars. this article made me really fucking angry when i read one of its closing sentences, "The bottom line is that this problem -- which affects one in five Americans and costs society $24 billion a year -- is almost entirely preventable, simply by following the principles of Functional Medicine and UltraWellness." NO disease is that reductive; in fact, everything i've read and every doctor i've spoken to has told me that the cause of migraines (which can produce completely different symptoms for each person affected) is NOT COMPLETELY KNOWN OR UNDERSTOOD *(side note, for a great source on migraines, go read 'the migraine brain').
the worst part is the assertion that we're somehow feeding off society and taking money that could be better spent in the health care system. you know - if i tried a bit harder, then it will go away, and its my fault if i don't. and - perhaps most damaging of all - is the fact that migraines are, for the most part, misunderstood by those who don't get them, and this articles contributes to the feeling that we're somehow faking it and/or don't have a high tolerance for pain. as a physician who must know that this disease comes with the stigma of not being believed or taken seriously from everyone to our peers to those working in emergency rooms, he should be ashamed.
*steps off soap box*
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