Migraine Blog

Migraine Award Winning Poems End National Poetry Month

MAGNUM Announces Winner's of HealthCentral Network's 2008 Putting Our Heads Together Poetry Contest

WASHINGTON, DC—April 30th, 2008;  T. S. Eliot wrote, "April is the cruelest month" and the W.H.O.* calls Migraine one of the cruelest diseases. Considering this, MAGNUM thinks it is only fitting to end the month with our announcement of this year's winners of the HealthCentral Network sponsored 2008 Putting Our Heads Together Poetry Contest. After all, would not T.S. Eliot himself, though not a Migraineur, appreciate our effort?  He deeply loved his wife Vivien Haigh, an adventurous and vivacious British subject, who sadly suffered horribly from intractable Migraines.

*World Health Organization

So now, with T.S. & Vivien watching over us, MAGNUM would like to get right to announcing this years winners.  We are thrilled to advise readers that this year, even though we gave very short notice, we were honored with many excellent entries that poetically speak to the Migraine experience.  We selected four placing awards, First, Second, Third, & Forth Place.  In addition we issued six honorable mentions of merit.  Please take time to read ALL of the winning entries, and when you have time, visit and peruse the other entries, as so many are well written and deserve your attention.

AND THE WINNERS ARE!

Massive Migraine

By mopar496

Wins First Place
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/18447/24754/massive-migraine

Car-jacked

By Roey

Wins Second Place
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/88073/23918/carjacked

Perpetually Now

By MaxJerz

Wins Third Place
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/46824/25055/perpetually

You're Not My Friend, You Know

By Sandi Suddady

Wins Fourth Place
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/68226/25642/friend

AND THE HONORABLE MENTIONS ARE!

The Keeper

By desrivgirl

Wins Honorable Mention
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/5137/25567/keeper

My Ghostly Shadow

By SEG

Wins Honorable Mention
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/95623/25565/ghostly-shadow

A Rare Day

By cdelavarre

Wins Honorable Mention
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/15655/25234/rare-day

Pain Inside My Head (version 2)

By thedoglady

Wins Honorable Mention
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/81338/25768/inside-version2

The Thorn

By Brynnwriter

Wins Honorable Mention
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/80108/25240/thorn

The Stranger's Eyes

By Roey

Wins Honorable Mention
http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/c/88073/24326/strangers-eyes

MigraineBlog wants to thank this year's guest judges for their assistance with selections with one of the most interesting years submission-wise.  MAGNUM wants to thank judge and MigraineBlog guest writer Marie Kaddell who has an M.L.S., M.S., and M.B.A.. She is MAGNUM's blogmistress. She blogs personally and professionally. In addition she enjoys poetry and has been known to write it as well.  We also want to thank judge Susan Moeller Denny, who is also MAGNUM's Information Services Officer and has served as an advisor to MAGNUM for over a decade. Susan has been on MAGNUM's overseas missions to World Headache Alliance and World Health Organization meetings from London, to Rome to Istanbul helping advance MAGNUM's agenda to help lessen the burden of Migraine sufferers worldwide.  Thank you Susan & Marie for making the 2008 Putting Our Heads Together Poetry Contest a wonderful explanation point in observance of the end of National Poetry Month.

National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a month-long, national celebration of poetry. According to the NGO the concept was to increase the attention paid-by individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our poetic heritage, and to poetry books and magazines. They hope to increase in the visibility, presence, and accessibility of poetry in our culture. MAGNUM hopes we were able to cross support National Poetry Month and make it more even more successful through our efforts.   We are sure the National Poetry Month will grown over the years and MAGNUM hope other health NGO's realize the potential of what the Academy of American Poets calls the largest literary celebration of poems in the world.

70% of Migraine Patients Respond in Non-drug Treatment Study

Migraines Dramatically Reduced Via Non-Drug Therapy Called Neurofeedback

Deborah Stokes, PhD, Psychologist of Alexandria, Virginia's Neurofeedback Consultants, Inc. presents findings at the Clinical Interchange Conference (CIC) in Crystal City Virginia this Friday.

WASHINGTON, DC—April 24th, 2008;  Twenty nine years ago in upstate New York, a young Grace Slick sang out Migraineous inspired lyrics "One pill makes you larger, And one pill makes you small, And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all." Ahh yes, a little music festival called Woodstock, and if you are a Babyboomer who might have been there when that storm front came through, it would have given you a massive Migraine!

No Imitrex® back then, but it was the days of Dr. Timothy Leary, PhD, and drugs and pills are everywhere!  But really nothing that effective for that nagging Migraine about to disrupt your cultural experience.  Ironically, the drug of choice back then to abort Migraine was a drug family called Ergotamine.  I say ironically because it is a relative of another drug very available at the festival; LSD!  With any luck, our Babyboomer found an aid station and got a shot of Demeral® & Vistaril® and after a few hours on a cot got back to the Jefferson Airplane or diving & dancing in the mud.

Back to the future--some thirty years later here in upstate Northern Virginia where the 8th annual EEG Spectrum International (ESI) Clinical Interchange Conference (CIC) is happening.  But this time you will find over a hundred mental health professionals, a great deal of them Babyboomers here at this health festival to share their experience and review clinical data in the use of neurofeedback (eeg biofeedback) in addressing a variety of issues.  Ironically, a non-drug effective treatment, neurofeedback is used in addressing diseases such as Migraines, fibromyalgia, depression, in addition to symptoms associated with ADHD, anxiety, inattention and autism to name a few.

You can't go ask Alice, but you can ask Dr. Stokes.  To learn more about this effective non-drug treatment for Migraine, so please peruse the press release from Neurofeedback Consultants, Inc. below.

Migraines Dramatically Reduced

70% of migraine patients in non-drug treatment study using a non-invasive therapy called neurofeedback experienced over 50% reduction in the frequency of their headaches.

Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) April 21, 2008 -- Deborah Stokes, Ph.D. of Neurofeedback Consultants, Inc. recently completed a migraine study of 37 migraine clients using a non-drug form of treatment called neurofeedback. The findings showed that 26 of the 37 migraine sufferers experienced at least a 50% reduction in frequency of their headaches.

Neurofeedback or EEG biofeedback is a painless, non-invasive method (www.neuronew.com) that targets specific brainwave frequencies in order to alleviate symptoms such as inattention, depression, anxiety and headaches. Sensors are attached to the scalp and project the brainwaves onto a computer screen in the form of a video game. Clients are instructed to play the video game by using their minds. They are able to eventually shift the targeted brainwave frequencies implicated in their presenting problem and thereby alleviate their symptoms.

"I have been very impressed and delighted to see some of my more challenging patients with migraines who had been on a number of medications finally get relief by undergoing neurofeedback. I referred them to Dr. Stokes' neurofeedback clinic because we were running out of conventional options. Neurofeedback is something more physicians need to add to a repertoired approach to migraines." Virginia Elgin, MD, Pediatric Neurologist

Many depressed and anxious clients have a heightened stress response and neurofeedback has been shown to be helpful for these conditions by decreasing stress patterns that are reflected in the brainwaves. Neurofeedback Consultants also offers other forms of biofeedback that target hand temperature, head temperature, sweat gland responses, variability of heart rate and rate of breathing. Methods are taught for changing these bodily responses which enables the sufferer to learn the ability to self-soothe without having to resort to drugs.

Neurofeedback Consultants, Inc. was founded in 2000 by Deborah Stokes, PhD, a Psychologist (www.neuronew.com/staff) with a background in the biological bases of behavior and mind-body medicine. The clinic offers a variety of approaches for clients interested in non-drug approaches to managing pain, emotional, behavioral and attentional disorders.

If you would like more information on this topic, or to schedule a consultation with Dr. Stokes, call 703-684-0334 or visit http://www.neuronew.com.

Deborah Stokes
Neurofeedback Consultants, Inc.
http://www.neuronew.com
703-684-0334

White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said;
"FEED YOUR HEAD
_______________
FEED your head"

Last Minute Call For Entries--Migraine Poems Be Heard

HealthCentral Network Extends Deadline to Midnight Tonight!  Send In Those Migraine Poems!

WASHINGTON, DC—April 21st, 2008;  Well, it has been almost a month and where is your Migraine poem entry?  Good news! The deadline has been extended until Tuesday midnight, April 22nd.  So go to your computer and look up that poem you created about your struggle with head pain and send it to us at the 2008 Putting Our Heads Together Poetry Contest.  Do it now, please.  Thank you, you will feel better in the morning.

MAGNUM's use of art such as verse to express pain is not unique, as the use of art in  disease awareness shows had been around for awhile.  Where MAGNUM changes the focus from past 'headache' art contests was to stop the common theme of "Show us you pain" contest.  Rather Terri & Michael discussed wanting to allow the artist sufferer to use their art to express how the disease impacts their life.  [Artwork by BJ Anderson, "Thunder Silent"]

So MAGNUM changed the Migraine art show to rather than exhibiting the standard 'heads exploding' motif as did the old pyridine, which lead to such new examples of the Migraine experience as BJ Anderson's dramatic Woods Hole stormy sky soulless landscapes, which leave viewers breathless with an understanding of the feeling of both beauty and the isolation so many Migraineurs experience.   Or Michael John Coleman's own art focuses on the pain and isolation of an individual such as in the work "After The Dance".  To learn more about the award winning work of painter BJ Anderson's artwork please visit the artist's outstanding website at http://www.bjandersonstudio.com/ today.  [Artwork By Michael John Coleman, "After The Dance"]

No to be outdone our fellow health advocate Teri Robert working at another website called Help For Headaches expanded the concept to the artistic discipline of poetry and created the Putting Our Heads Together Poetry Contest.  Teri's poem's "Phantom Tango" was a featured work during the American Pain Foundation’s Pain and Creativity Art Juried Competition which won inclusion to the October 2007 exhibition.  We hope it can serve as inspiration as well as illustration for you last minute entries!

This years judges will be MAGNUM's writer's and Migraineurs Michael John & Terri for MigraineBlog and its guest writers Marie Kaddell and Susan Moeller Denny. Marie Kaddell has an M.L.S., M.S., and M.B.A.. She blogs personally and professionally. She is blogmistress for Migraine Blog. She enjoys poetry and has been known to write it as well.  In addition our final judge is editor & guest writer Susan Moeller Denny, who is also MAGNUM's Information Services Officer and has served as an advisor to MAGNUM for over a decade.  In addition, she has been MAGNUM's overseas missions to World Headache Alliance and World Health Organization meetings from London, to Rome to Istanbul helping advance MAGNUM's agenda to help lessen the burden of Migraine sufferers worldwide.  The judging will be complete by April 30th, winners will be announce by the HealthCentral Network & MAGNUM on April 30th, in observance of National Poetry Month.

Keep in mind you never know how how much positive impact your poem might have to lift the spirits of another sufferer reading on-line. For more information visit our partners at the HealthCentral Network.

Migraine Frequency Still Tied to Women's Stroke

Migraine Frequency Tied to Women's Stroke and Heart Attack Risk

WASHINGTON, DC—April 17th, 2008; MAGNUM has long reported the relationship between Migraine, strokes, and myocardial infarction, this has been better quantified by new data from the Women's Health Study which has been presented in Chicago, Illinois by the AAN.

At the medical meeting it was reported that women with a Migraine less than once a month, there is an increased risk of an MI compared with more frequent Migraine events that signal an increased risk of a stroke, which was reported by Tobias Kurth, M.D., of Harvard and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and colleagues, at the American Academy of Neurology.

Migraine less than once a month was associated with a 1.64 fold increased heart attack risk while a Migraine frequency of at least weekly was associated with an increased ischemic stroke risk of 2.74-fold, according to outcomes for 27,798 U.S. female health professionals ages 45 or older in the Women's Health Study.

Migraine with aura has been consistently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, including ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease, Dr. Kurth said.

These results suggested different biological mechanisms for ischemic events in Migraine with aura, which need to be further studied, Dr. Kurth also noted at the event.

More discussion on this study needs to come.  Comments welcome.

Call To Arms--Migraineurs Call Your Senators Today!

© Michael John Coleman 2008

Please Contact Your Senator Today To Improve Migraine Healthcare Tomorrow!

WASHINGTON DC: April 4th, 2008--Well it comes down to this, zero hour Friday April 4th, the last day Senators have to submit their requests for what will be discussed on 2009 appropriations bill.  We want make sure improved care and research for Migraine disease and headache disorders is on that agenda.  The only way that can happen is for all of you to take action.  So please take just 5 minutes right now and follow the directions at the Headache Advocacy website below.

Dear Migrainuers & Supporters:

Our efforts last month to urge members of the US House of Representatives to support increases in NIH funding for research on headache disorders were highly successful. Twelve Representatives signed the Obey/Walsh letter. This is an outstanding result for the first mobilization of our numbers, and we are optimistic that it will be enough to have our message appended to the House appropriations bill.

It is now time to contact your US Senators for the same purpose. Unfortunately our window of opportunity is only narrowly open. The letter with Senators' signatures must be submitted by today, April 4th.

Please take just 5 minutes RIGHT NOW to go directly to http://capwiz.com/headacheadvocacy/issues/alert/?alertid=11231066&PROCESS=Take+Action  and send your message to your two US Senators.

Please forward this email right away to anyone else concerned about the inadequate state of care for patients with headache disorders.
Only with increased research will new effective treatments for headache disorders become available. And only with your help will such research activities increase to levels appropriate to the huge scale of this problem. The larger our voice, the greater will be our impact.

Thanks again for your efforts.

Robert Shapiro, MD, PhD
William Young, MD,
Teri Robert, PhD
Brad Klein, MD, MBA

Michael John Coleman, MAGNUM, Executive Director
Terri Miller Burchfield, IEMBA, MAGNUM, Legislative Director
Susan Denny, MAGNUM, Information Services Director

NGOs Ask the Senate to Help 36 Million Americans with Head-Pain

We Ask The United States Senate to Help Migraineurs

WASHINGTON DC: March 31st, 2008--"Headache disorders, including Migraine, affect an extraordinarily large number of your constituents and National Institutes of Health funding for research into these disorders has never been commensurate with the scale of the problem."  That is the opening paragraph in the Senate Dear Colleague Letter MAGNUM hopes to see issued by the end of the week.

In the photograph you see MAGNUM Executive Director Michael John Coleman (& one of your writers!) seen with United States Senator Barack Obama (Illinois-D) Health Legislative Correspondent Lissette A. Alvarada who was extremely supportive during a lengthy meeting with MAGNUM on Capitol Hill at the Senator's office earlier this month.  Last Friday Terri & Michael had scheduled to set off to Capitol Hill to meet with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) Health Legislative Advisor, but Terri had a meeting conflict so Michael met with Senate staffers alone to ask for for help with the Senate Dear Colleague Letter to improve NIH attention to Migraine & headache research.  The meeting was very helpful after which Michael met with other Senate offices such as health staffers of Senator Webb of Virginia, (MAGNUM located in historic Alexandria, Virginia on the Potomac across from DC, making Senator Webb one of MAGNUM's Senators) Senator to drop off support material in hopes to have Senator Webb help with this Senate version of the already issued Moran/Welch/Price letter.  After which Michael stopped by several other Senators offices task for additional help.

If you read or earlier article about the House Dear Colleague Letter about this very same thing we believe it will warm you heart.  Take a look at the actual United States House of Representatives letter using the power of Congress to gently nudge (That is a scientific term--no really) NIH to begin fair & reasonable research toward Migraine disease and headache disorders.  So please take time to read this historic document.  Every word offers all of us who suffer or love someone who suffers from Migraine disease or headache disorders the first real true hope in fifty years.  Headache On the Hill has been an amazing ride, but we still have a long way to go, so PLEASE upon reading this Congressional letter, call or e-mail or write your Senator and ask them to support this upcoming letter and all it stands for.   So stay Tuned as soon as we have a Senator take lead and issue the Senate version of the Congressional document you just perused we would love you to join the fight with you keyboards or telephones.

It is that simple.  Thank you for getting involved with your government.  You will find it was designed to fight as much pain as it causes.