There is much confusion about migraines among those who have migraines. Some have symptoms a-c, others from b-f and some from y-z. There are some commonalities in all migraines; that we already know. But the symptoms vary among people and may also change over time within the same person experiencing them. Some of the medications used to treat migraine pain (particularly tryptans) affect the nervous system because they are either blocking the making of or blocking the “stop making” signal to reach the neurons’ receptors that naturally manufacture the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is biochemically derived from tryptophan so in taking drugs that modify the neurons’ ability to make the normal levels of serotonin, the chemical nature of the brain and the entire nervous system changes.
Serotonin is located also in the human gut, aiding digestion by regulating intestinal movement, so you can imagine what games that plays on one’s body to add more or take some away! It is a dangerous medication family. Serotonin has little to do with being a pain killer: “Serotonin’s presence in insect venoms and plant spines serves to cause pain, which is a side effect of serotonin injection. Serotonin is produced by pathogenic amoebae, and its effect on the gut causes diarrhea”. (Wikipedia, Serotonin).
Here is a video (only 3 minutes) that explains a little bit about migraines and the difficulty of even recognizing what is a migraine and what is not. I hope it will help you understand a little more about migraines.
You can find the original posting of this article at my migraine-book.com website under blogs.
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About Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.
Angela A Stanton, PhD, is a Neuroeconomist focusing on chronic pain--migraine in particular--physiology, electrolyte homeostasis, nutrition, and genetics. She lives in Southern California. Her current research is focused on migraine cause, prevention, and treatment without the use of medicine. As a forever migraineur from childhood, her discovery was helped by experimenting on herself. She found the cause of migraine to be at the ionic level, associated with disruption of the electrolyte homeostasis, resulting from genetic variations of all voltage dependent channels, gates, and pumps (chanelopathy) that modulate electrolyte mineral density and voltage in the brain. In addition, insulin and glucose transporters, and several other variants, such as MTHFR variants of B vitamin methylation process and many others are different in the case of a migraineur from the general population.
Migraineurs are glucose sensitive (carbohydrate intolerant) and should avoid eating carbs as much as possible. She is working on her hypothesis that migraine is a metabolic disease.
As a result of the success of the first edition of her book and her helping over 5000 migraineurs successfully prevent their migraines world wide, all ages and both genders, and all types of migraines, she published the 2nd (extended) edition of her migraine book "Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: Complete Guide: How To Treat & Prevent Migraines Without Medications". The 2nd edition is the “holy grail” of migraine cause, development, and prevention, incorporating all there is to know. It includes a long section for medical and research professionals. The book is full of academic citations (over 800) to authenticate the statements she makes to make it easy to follow up by those interested and to spark further research interest. It is a "Complete Guide", published on September 29, 2017.
Dr. Stanton received her BSc at UCLA in Mathematics, MBA at UCR, MS in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, PhD in Economics with dissertation in neuroscience (culminating in Neuroeconomics) at Claremont Graduate University, fMRI certification at Harvard University Medical School at the Martinos Center for Neuroimaging for experimenting with neurotransmitters on human volunteers, certification in LCHF/ketogenic diet from NN (Nutrition Network), certification in physiology (UPEN via Coursea), Nutrition (Harvard Shool of Public Health) and functional medicine studies. Dr. Stanton is an avid sports fan, currently power weight lifting and kickboxing. For relaxation (yeah.. about a half minute each day), she paints and photographs and loves to spend time with her family of husband of 45 years, 2 sons and their wives, and 2 granddaughters.
Follow her on Twitter at: @MigraineBook, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelaastantonphd/ and facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DrAngelaAStanton/