This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Howell Jarrard about preventing and treating migraine. Dr. Jarrard is an Assistant Professor of neurology, and a neurologist specializing in headaches at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Migraines are about three times more common in women than men, and they may affect more than 12% of the U.S. adult population. Doctor Howell Jarrard is here to talk about preventing and treating migraines. Doctor Jarrard is an Assistant Professor of Neurology, and he's a neurologist specializing in headaches at MUSC. Doctor Jarrard, tell us about migraines.
Dr. Jarrard: Yeah. So, migraine is really a neurologic disorder. And so, I think of migraine as this brain disorder that gives people recurrent and oftentimes severe headaches that can also come with a lot of associated symptoms. So, some combination of nausea, light sensitivity and even sound sensitivity.
Conner: And why are some people especially prone to getting migraines.
Dr. Jarrard: Today thankfully we're starting to understand what we think causes migraine more than we used to in the past 20 or 30 years. And at the base of it, we think it's probably a chemical imbalance in the brain, and it really runs strongly in families. So, you're looking at probably 75% of people that have migraine have a family member that has it as well.
Conner: What are some of the common triggers that might start a migraine?
Dr. Jarrard: Yeah, you know, a lot of people notice their own personal triggers. And this is something that has been researched quite extensively. And there are a couple of triggers that are unavoidable. Like certain stressors, even good stress can be a trigger. And then particularly in women, their menstrual cycle can be a trigger. But there is a lot of what we call modifiable triggers that you can change. That's things like dehydration, skipping meals, having an irregular sleep schedule. Those are things that can certainly trigger people to have a migraine. And then also some exposures to certain foods, like processed lunch meats, have nitrates in them that can trigger people to have migraines, or artificial sweeteners that contain aspartame can also trigger people's migraines. There are some people that cannot identify their triggers, or maybe their trigger is inconsistent, and those are probably the patients that might need to rely more so on a specific treatment with medication to prevent migraines if needed.
Conner: Well, then what does preventing migraine look like for an individual person? What's the real task there?
Dr. Jarrard: The task is very patient dependent. We use some combination of the modifiable lifestyle changes. Sometimes we use supplements, daily supplements that have been shown to reduce the frequency of migraine attacks. And in certain cases, we do have to rely on medications to try to prevent migraine attacks from coming in the first place.
Conner: Well, tell us about treatments for migraine.
Dr. Jarrard: Very big picture treating migraine, there's two large classes. I would argue that anybody that has migraines needs what we call a rescue medicine. And a rescue medicine is what somebody takes when they have a migraine attack. This can be both over-the-counter medications and prescription medications that were made specifically to treat migraine. Now the other class is what we call prevention medicines. And these are reserved for people that have very frequent headache or migraine attacks. These medicines come in a lot of different types. There are some everyday pills. There are some once a month at home injections, and there are also injections that we give in the office. And, the ultimate goal for all of these treatments is to try to decrease the frequency of the headache attacks that people experience.
Conner: Doctor Jarrard, thanks for this information about migraine.
Dr. Jarrard: You're welcome.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
