Vitamin B and folate supplements could be the key to fighting the debilitating symptoms of migraines, according to new research.

Vitamin B and folic acid 'help fight migraines'
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"They "significantly" reduced the frequency and severity of attacks in a clinical trial involving 50 migraine sufferers.

Professor Lyn Griffiths, director of the Genomics Research Centre (GRC) at Griffith University in Australia, said the results of the six-month study were very positive.

The findings showed "a drastic improvement in headache frequency, pain severity and associated disability for those treated," she said."

"The success of the trial proved that "safe, inexpensive" supplements - rather than expensive medication that can have adverse side effects - could treat migraine patients, [Professor Griffiths] said."

Avoiding salt and salty food lessens the incidence and severity of migraines and other headaches.

The babies of women who take topiramate, an epilepsy drug, while pregnant are at increased risk of birth defects, scientists warn.

Warning over epilepsy drug topiramate linked to birth defects
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The drug topiramate, which is also used to treat migraines in some people, was linked to a significantly higher risk of cleft palate or lip and genital deformities.

Experts say that epilepsy drugs should be used with caution in pregnant women due to the risks.

However, epileptic seizures can also harm the unborn child and lead to miscarriages so women with epilepsy are advised to consult their doctor when trying to become pregnant.

A new study published in the journal Neurology, examined 178 babies born to women who fell pregnant while taking topiramate alone or in combination with other drugs.

Sixteen babies had major birth defects, three of them were born to women only taking topiramate and the others were born to women taking it in combination with other drugs."

A British team is to test a home "brain stimulation" method to short-circuit migraines before they become disabling.

DIY brain therapy could halt migraines

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Migraine is the most common neurological condition in the developed world. It affects over 15% of the UK population and is a more than just a headache; it can cause intense throbbing, visual disturbance and nausea and attacks can be so severe that sufferers have to take time off work.

Recently, a team at Ohio State University showed that zapping the brain with a magnetic field, using transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS, can abort attacks as they start to develop, when sufferers see an "aura" , a disturbing pattern of zig zags, stars or flashes.

But the coil has to be applied to precisely the right part of the brain to be effective and now a simpler method to achieve the same effect, using two electrodes, is to be tested on migraine sufferers around the country by Prof Vince Walsh of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Square."

The simplest, most effective way to prevent most migraines and most other headaches from actually starting is to avoid eating salt/sodium and salty foods, and my personal experience of preventing the headache coming when the visual disturbance has started is to take two paracetamol ASAP.

Migraine sufferers 'have increased risk of heart attacks and strokes'

Migraine sufferers 'have increased risk of heart attacks and strokes'

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Millions of people who suffer from migraines have a greatly increased risk of suffering heart attacks and strokes, according to new research.

People who have the debilitating headaches just once a month are one and a half times more likely to go on to suffer a heart attack.

Those who have a migraine once a week are three times more likely to have a stroke than those who don’t suffer, the Harvard Medical School study found.

Around nine million people in the UK suffer from migraines and 80 per cent of those - some 7.2 million - have an attack at least once a month.

The findings of the study, which is one of the first to make a link between the frequency of migraines and serious illness, could lead to increased monitoring of migraine sufferers and preventative treatment to reduce the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Dr Tobias Kurth, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the study, said: “Our findings suggest that migraine frequency may be an indicator for increased risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly ischaemic stroke.""

Well I've been linking migraines with strokes and heart attacks and other serious illnesses for years. - The risk of and severity of all of these health problems (which are all connected to weakened blood vessels) are reduced or eliminated by avoiding salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

Prescribed drugs are a snare and a delusion....

Here is an example of what I mean, taken from my recent stay in hospital:

A female patient was troubled by the pain of constipation (which was likely to have been caused by the morphine medication administered because of her operation to mend a broken hip). She was given pain-killers for this constipation pain - pain-killers that have constipation as one of their many adverse side-effects!

She was then given Lactulose to relieve the constipation. - She said this made her feel sick and so she was given further medication to treat the feeling of sickness! - This drug culture is madness! (Nor did the Lactulose work for her and so she ended up having an enema!)

It is my belief that our bodies and minds can cope with most pain - that they indeed evolved to do so.

They did not evolve to cope with vast quantities of pharmaceutical junk!

I insisted on not being given morphine for my operation, and although I suffered a lot of very severe pain during the 4 weeks I was in hospital I coped with it, and the only analgesics I took were paracetamol when I had reason to believe that a migraine was on its way. - When I notice the visual disturbance - jagged lights, etc - of an incipient migraine, if I quickly take 2 paracetamol this usually prevents the headache from coming. - And I know from experience that I do not seem to suffer ill-effects from paracetamol taken in this way and do have the great benefit of averting the migraine.

Similarly, when I had a hysterectomy in 1994 I resolutely refused to have morphine, and I made an excellent recovery, unhampered by the side-effects of morphine.


Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Two giant mobile phone companies are going to move a mast at a primary school, after parents claimed their children became ill.

The school that took on mobile phone companies - The Independent

Extracts:

"Two giant mobile phone companies are to move a mast at a primary school, after parents claimed their children fell sick.

The mast was already in use when St Edward's RC primary school opened in Coleshill, Warwickshire 11 years ago. It is owned by O2, which rents space on it to Orange. An O2 spokesman said "there were concerns from some of the local people that there are health issues" but added that the mast posed no risks to health."

"56 per cent of the children and 86 per cent of the staff had problems sleeping, 54 per cent and 59 per cent respectively were getting headaches and migraines, and 46 per cent and 95 per cent respectively reported fatigue and numbness. About 45 per cent of teachers and pupils had red eyes; other symptoms included dizziness, nosebleeds, nausea and hearing strange hums and clicks."


Do your health a big favour and also lose weight - by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Risk of heart attack is raised by painkillers. Cut down on salt.

High doses of ibuprofen raise heart attack risk - Telegraph

Extract:

"The common pain killer ibuprofen has been found to increase an existing risk of having a heart attack or a stroke in people who suffer from arthritis, research shows today.
For some the risk was nine times higher.

The findings bring more anxiety to the millions of arthritis sufferers in Britain as they follow a series of research studies that have shown increased risk of heart disease from the pain killers they take to ease the condition.

The latest evidence comes from a study of more than 18,000 people who took one of three pain killers for their arthritis.

One patient in 10 was also at high risk of heart attack or stroke and some of these patients took low dose aspirin as well as one of the pain killers for arthritis. For high risk patients taking both aspirin and ibuprofen the risk of a heart attack or stroke was nine times greater, over one year, when compared with those who were taking one of the other arthritis painkillers, lumiracoxib, alone."

Well I've been advising for years, both on my website and when people contact me as individuals, that taking drugs is hazardous. The NSAIDs painkillers are among the drugs I specify. Avoid taking drugs if you possibly can.

Painkillers are pretty ineffective for severe pain anyway. - The safest way to reduce or prevent many kinds of pain, including the pain of osteoarthritis, is to reduce salt/sodium intake permanently. - Either cut down on salt and salty food or, preferably, give it up completely. This is also the best way to avoid headaches or migraines. Cutting out salt will also lower your blood pressure and lower your risk of heart attack or stroke and a host of other diverse health problems, including diabetes. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Do you often wake up with a headache or a migraine? or with the visual disturbance that precedes a migraine? flashing lights? jagged lines...?

Do you often wake up with a headache or a migraine? or with the visual disturbance that precedes a migraine? flashing lights? jagged lines? blurred vision? Not finding tablets very helpful?

These symptoms are often caused by salt sensitivity or by sodium retention. - You may like to try cutting down on salt/sodium. (You can be sensitive to salt even if you do not eat a lot of salt.) - Why not try it? - It costs nothing and does not involve taking drugs/pain-killers.)

There are many illnesses and many symptoms that can be cured or made less severe by eating less salt. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/sodium_foods.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)