Dr. Roger Cady, founder of the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Missouri, and a leader in the field of headache and migraine research recently spoke with Head Wise Magazine about the issues surrounding migraine patients. He believes the most common need people have is to understand why they get headaches….
Dr. Cady :
Why am I different than my friends? We go out and we do the same things, and I end up with a migraine and they seem to have no ill effects. When I sit down with patients, I like to make sure they understand that they were born with a brain that is unique and different than the brain of people who don’t have have migraine. The brain of a migraineur tends to be more vigilant, more sensitive to its surroundings. That often brings with it some very positive attributes if the nervous system is well controlled. Successful people in all walks of life live with migraine. Our goal is to learn to manage this nervous system successfully and bring out the good attributes – the positive side of this sensitivity. Then I like to make sure they understand why they get headaches. It’s a relationship between the genetics that nature gave them, and the environment in which those genetics function. Sometimes we think of migraine as being one thing, but a lot of times its many things that are impacting the nervous system simultaneously and putting that nervous system at risk.
Dr. Cady said if he could say one thing to a migraine patient it would be the following….
Migraine is a biologic process. There’s a lot that can be done to help manage it more successfully. Part of this, you, as the person that has this nervous system, need to take responsibility for. A lot of it, the medical system can help you discover and learn how to use. Find a partnership. Work with your healthcare professional and in almost all instances, migraine can become a well-managed and well-controlled disorder…..Head Wise Vol.1 Issue 1 2011 Gary Cohen