Vacation Over – Medical Reality Hits Again!

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

It was great being on vacation for a month. Luckily all was beautiful and I wish I lived there (I was in Scandinavia). But I live in the US. As most of you probably already know, I have several Facebook groups where I keep in touch with over 1000 members discussing medical issues, migraines, etc. I received a private message yesterday from a friend and to conceal his/her identity, I will not use name and use “she” for generic though the person need not have been a female.

I have discussions like this all the time with frustrated people whom the medical system fails. The number of these people is growing as is my anger toward the medical and pharmaceutical industry. There are stigmas out there that are not only unwarranted but are harmful.  The medical oath Do No Harm does not seem to stand anymore. Personal bias has taken over and the patients are helpless. I am hoping to change that–or at least start a change that others can catch up on and follow to solve the problem.

So here is a classic case that happens more often than not. This particular patient has various illnesses, one of which is migraine. Unfortunately there is a huge stigma among many doctors that migraine is 1) just a headache with a crying and non-pain tolerant person and 2) it is a mental case. Now we have a 3rd variation: a migraineur is a druggist. This is new to me! It is also sad and shameful that doctors today have so little understanding and are not updating their knowledge at all. I wrote a book on migraines and posted several articles on its blog. There is one that lists the symptoms of a headache versus a migraine. Read it to see what a migraine is (particularly if you are a doctor!) before you make judgments in the future. This list is not my fiction of imagination but from Mayo Clinic and other medical sources.

So let me return to my discussion with this migraineur yesterday. She had a migraine for a week and it was getting worse–I call this a runaway migraine. She asked if she should go to emergency room (ER) and I suggested to go; in fact I would have gone after the 3rd day, which is what I used to do while I still had migraines. I no longer do–and you too can prevent them if you read my book Fighting the Migraine Epidemic but my process is not medicinal and so it is not an instant solution.

So this person (not sure if she already has read my book or not) contacted me and told me what happened at the ER. Here is what was written (edited):

“The ER doctor said, ‘I understand you are a migraine patient and for that reason alone I will tell you upfront that you will NOT be receiving ANY form of a narcotic. You will NOT receive any muscle relaxers or anxiety reducing medications. You will be given IV fluids and a steroid plus Imitrex and Benadryl.’ I said I do not want Imitrex because it makes me very sick. They said I was being a bit irrational… The doctor said that she refused to give me anything that a medicine seeker would want. Excuse me… I waited a week to come in! I didn’t jump for drugs! When I disagreed with the Imitrex the doctor said I was being difficult. I was so out of it, they were pushing meds in my IV before I could ask what they were giving me. The steroid made me burn and tingle all over. I felt like I was on fire! It went away after a long 10 minutes though… I asked why I was getting Benadryl. The doctor’s response was: “It is a part of MY protocol.” Well, excuse me, but I have had migraine issues for years Missy. I can tell you more about my response to meds and my body more than you ever could.”

So let us discuss this “doctor” and I put doctor in quotes because in my opinion this is not a doctor but a quack. Why? For several reasons; let me list them here one by one:

  1. A migraine sufferer is not a druggist
  2. There are no “cures” for migraine. Imitrex is a serotonin drug that was originally created for depression and even for patients of depression it only works 30% of the time. New science suggests that inflammation may be involved with some depression patients but not all. Imitrex is the most off-prescribed drug in the US today. By off-prescribed I am talking about it being created for something other than it is being prescribed for.
  3. Benadryl? Really? For migraine? Did this doctor believe that a migraine is an allergy? This doctor should be fired for 2 reasons: 1) Benadryl is an allergy medication given only for allergies and some doctors take it as an ‘innocent” sleeping pill since it does wipe you out. It is “innocent” because it does something else that doctors forget about, which is my point 2) it plays with the water management of the body and dehydrates. Thus if you take a Benadryl, you will end up as a shriveled up dry person unless you replenish. Migraine–read my book–is partly caused by dehydration so giving Benadryl is a double trouble for the pain of migraine! It will make the pain stronger rather than weaker!
  4. Steroid IV for a migraine! Oh my god! Where did this doctor get her degree from? Steroid’s first side effect is a headache. Thus giving steroid for migraine can increase the pain rather than decrease. Secondly, steroid is extremely bad for the body! As you read, the patient felt a burning for 10 minutes all through her body! That tells you that it caused damage in the body rather than any benefit. Steroid also has other harmful effects–many in fact. I even know of people who nearly died from steroid. It is a dangerous drug and is definitely not for migraines!
  5. The only thing this doctor did right is giving an IV to the patient. Nothing else.

Note that this is not an isolated case. Doctors all over the US (and perhaps the world) are using migraine patients as guinea pigs to test various drugs on yet none, and I mean NONE works! Why? Every single medication is aimed at pain relief but in the case of migraines, where the pain is coming from and why has not officially been identified (or if it has it has not been released to the public). In fact cures for migraines will not be forthcoming at all. Why not?

Today we have a medication by one of the pharmaceutical companies that has created a near 100% cure for Hepatitis C for patients with genotype I (mostly US). The medication costs a lot of money because once the patient is cured, there is no more need to get more medications. Thus the pharmaceutical company must calculate into its cost versus profit calculation the amount of money that will be lost by not having repeat customers! So what is the medical community doing? Refusing to allow the medication through to sick patients.

Conclusion 1: the medical industry does not want you to be cured! They want you to remain sick. Having a sick population guarantees jobs for the future!

Conclusion 2: patients need to self-identify what is wrong with them and try all methods without the medical industry first and go to medical care when all else fails.

This obviously does not work for everything: if you need your appendix taken out or have cancer, yes, you will need to face the inevitable of being used by the medical industry and its dirty politics. But if you have other illnesses, like migraine, for example, read my book
Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: How To Treat and Prevent Migraines Without Medicines – An Insider’s View
by Angela A. Stanton, Ph.D. either in Kindle  (under $4) or in paperback  (under $20) edition. It will let you treat yourself without doctors.

New book on Clueless Doctors will be forthcoming not only with stories like this but also explanation and examination of the medical system as a whole and a very big section on self-diagnosis that will give you a head start to at least visit the last doctor. I will also show you how I found the doctors I am willing to deal with and how you can do that too!

Contact me for questions,

Angela

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Fighting For Human Rights In United States: A Losing Battle in Healthcare

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

This gallery contains 6 photos.

An amazing story and explanations with lots of comments on medical corruptions.

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SSRI Danger for Migraine and Depression Sufferers

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

This particular blog article has been written up before on my blog where my book is being displayed and sold with autograph but since so few people understand how SSRIs work, what they do and why, I decided to copy paste the information.

The function of SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), how they work and what they do.

Although the book mentions little about SSRIs (or medications in general), many migraine sufferers end up taking them for life without even knowing what they are. For my biggest surprise, many doctors (including Psychiatrists) have no clue what is actually inhibited and how. In this short paper I would like to call attention to what SSRIs do and why you need to avoid taking them.

In this picture you can see my little sketch of just two brain cells (neurons) communicating via neurotransmitters. One, the yellow on top, has an opening from which many red dots are flowing out. Those are neurotransmitters and for the sake of the argument, let them be serotonin.

The neuron below in green has no such release but as you can see has a blue gate I call “reuptake gates”, as does the yellow neuron above. To understand the function of the gates, think of a bathtub. It has a leaking opening on the top so that if you fill the tub with too much water, the extra flows out into the drainage. This outflow prevents the bathroom from overflowing with water.

The function of the reuptake gates is exactly that: they measure how much serotonin is already flowing between the neurons in the layer separating them. When this layer is full, the reuptake inhibitors send a message to the neuron to stop making more serotonin since there is enough.

The little pink triangles are what I called “Reuptake Plugs.” These plugs are the reuptake inhibitors. In effect they plug up the hole on the tub so any additional water that comes into the full tub, continues to flow and floods the bathroom. When such reuptake inhibitors are used, they plug up the ability of the neuron to feel that it has enough serotonin already made and it continues to manufacture serotonin until it is released from this task—which in the case of taking SSRIs is never.

Thus those who take SSRIs stand a very high chance of an overflow of serotonin in the brain, which can cause very serious harm called by various names: serotonin syndrome (official name), serotonin toxicity, toxidrome (toxic levels of any kind of drug), etc.

WARNING

Unfortunately, as real as this disease is, few doctors actually accept it as a viable condition. Though the NIH (National Institute of Health) actually has a very strong paper on this subject still most doctors refuse to acknowledge its existence and even if they do acknowledge, they do not recognize it or diagnose it when it happens.

The many drug overdoses of famous actors and singers I guess were not yet enough to make toxidrome into a serious condition enough to pay attention. I suppose more people must die before the consequence of these drugs is taken more seriously. As for serotonin overdose, since serotonin medications are so often prescribed, their ability to cause harm is higher than that of say heroin but because pharmaceutical companies make a lot of money selling them and perhaps the doctors are given the wrong information and/or have ulterior motives, the use of SSRI continues for things it was clearly not intended to be used for.

Year after year hospitals report delirium as a condition in which people die. Delirium is not an illness but a symptom–and in some cases it may be a symptom of a drug overdose, prescribed drug or otherwise, including serotonin. Drug overdoses are simple to detect by a blood test but for some reason many hospitals refuse to test overdoses of legally prescribed medications, such as serotonin! SSRIs are probably among the top prescribed drugs in the US today and the doctors who prescribe them have no way of testing if the patient actually needs it or if it is already prescribed, if the dose given is too high or low. It is not a difficult test; a simple blood test can test for serotonin levels since serotonin has functions everywhere in the body, including digestion and the movement of the intestines that pass the food on. The higher the level of serotonin, the faster the food passes through, leaving many migraine sufferers with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and other digestion issues.

SSRIs are the most common medications prescribed today for depression, migraines, ADD, ADHD and they go under a variety of brand names that you can find at Wikipedia. Yet serotonin has not conclusively been shown to work for any of these. There have been many studies where the numbers were statistically derived in such a way that the benefits appear significant but let me ask you this: Would you take a medication for an infection of your toe that may end up jeopardizing the health of your digestive system? Would you take a medication for a pain in your head that can make you want to commit suicide?

Indeed! Serotonin drugs’ most frequent side effects are suicidal thoughts and irritability. 

SSRI anyone?

And there is more to say! The brain is a very adaptive organ as you read it in the book. This adaptability has been very advantageous throughout our evolution but when it comes to drugs that are introduced externally, the adaptation of the brain takes on another meaning. If serotonin is produced by neurons in the brain, that is their task: produce serotonin. They may have other neurotransmitters to produce–many neurons in the brain have multiple functions. Thus if you start taking serotonin in the form of medication, the brain will quickly stop making its serotonin and reassign those neurons to some other task. This is optimization of your brain since resources are limited. The problem happens when you want to stop taking serotonin medication. You now face what is called “withdrawal” even though you were not a drug abuser or an alcoholic. The withdrawal is identical. Your brain needs to relearn how to make serotonin.

Some changes in the brain are temporary and you can in a short time reset the brain to its original functions; some changes are nearly permanent and your recovery is greatly limited if it exists at all. Serotonin falls into this second category. That means that once you started to take serotonin medications–any serotonin medication, need not be SSRIs, your brain may no longer be able to re-learn how to make serotonin ever again–this is likely age dependent as well. A younger brain is more adaptable bidirectionally whereas an older one in decline will adapt to serotonin replacement fast but not to stopping the extra serotonin. It may never be able to go without.

So should you accept an SSRI from a doctor when he/she offers it? My personal take on it is absolutely no.

Foods that boost serotonin levels

Are there foods containing serotonin that you can eat? You bet there are. Visit this wiki site to find out what foods you can eat if you feel depressed and perhaps are low in serotonin.

Are there people who are clinically depressed who may need serotonin medicines? I am sure there are. I saw many on television: they spend all day in bed, cry, want to be alone, etc. Has it ever been asked WHY those people have depression? Nope. Would it be better to find out why than to drug them up? Yep; you bet!

Think twice before you accept any medications or supplements–and remember that herbs are medications we know nothing about! Most drugs today at one point were herbs and then the drug companies started to mass produce them, test  them, and legalized them. At that point an herb becomes a medicine. But all medicines were herbs! Do not forget that!

Stay healthy!

 

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Serotonin and Migraines: a Second Take

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

It seems that today the words “migraine” and “serotonin” are synonymous. Have a migraine? Take a serotonin pill; some type of tryptan. It is interesting to note that serotonin has very little to do with migraines even though the entire medical industry and researchers are using serotonin for migraines. So you may ask: if it is not for migraines, why are they used? Why do they think there is any connection if there is none? And what is the reason the first person ever thought about giving serotonin for migraine the first place.

So let me take each question one by one and provide a short explanation to each so you don’t think you are in my university lecture.

  1. If serotonin is not for migraines, why are they used? Good question. So far the only reason I heard from doctors is that “it seems to work for some even though it was not made for it.” Great. It was not made for it… so what was it made for? Depression. Does it work for depression? About 30% of the cases yes but 70% no.  Why are they still used if for the majority it is not working for either migraines or depression? The reason is that there are no other medications that can make you sleepy and comfortable enough as well as serotonin does, and when you are sleepy and comfortable, you may forget you have pain.  The image I inserted here is taken from Wikipedia that explains what serotonin is good for and what it does (look for the red).
    Serotonin and Dopamine brain circuitry

    Serotonin and Dopamine brain circuitry

    As you can see, serotonin is responsible for mood, memory processing, sleep, and cognition. Of these sleep and mood are serotonin’s main functions in the brain. Serotonin is not something our body can create on its own without help. It can be released by eating foods like turkey or spending time on the sun. In both cases you will feel sleepy. Sleepiness tells you that your brain released serotonin. I do not see any “pain killer” or “for migraine treatment” listed under the roles of serotonin listed in the brain. Do you?

  2. Why do scientists and doctors think there is any connection between serotonin and migraine if there is none? This is a bit more complicated to answer so bear with me. Since serotonin needs to be released in small quantities by the brain, if for any reason it is not released, one will get restless, moody, cannot sleep, etc., but will not necessarily hurt. Give that person a dose of serotonin and she will feel great. This is one reason why it works in the case of depression for 30% of the people afflicted with that disease: their depression is caused by not being able to manufacture serotonin–but note that people in depression usually do not have migraines albeit people who have migraines can feel depressed. Being depressed versus having clinical depression are not the same though. The second part of this question is why can’t some people manufacture serotonin? And this is where we connect back to migraines. In order for the neurons to manufacture serotonin, conditions for such manufacturing must be met. If the brain is not providing the proper conditions–be it a tumor, a cyst, head trauma, or simply a chemical imbalance such that the neurons are not able to generate enough electricity to make serotonin and release them–the brain goes without serotonin. If this is the case, taking serotonin medications will fill the brain with serotonin. However, once that serotonin is used up the emptiness will return, since the brain is still not able to make serotonin. The brain needs to have all its abilities to make serotonin and all other neurotransmitters.

3. So why did the first person ever thought of giving a serotonin pill to a person with               migraine? I suppose for the same reason many medicines are prescribed “off label,”             which is in fact how doctors can unofficially test with untold patient volunteer guinea             pigs if a drug will work for something other than officially indicated. There really was no       reason for it at all. It was just a guess.

So why does the brain actually hurt in a migraine? If the brain is not able to function, it complains. In the case of depression, because it is serotonin that is often what is believed to be missing, the brain does not hurt and in 30% of the cases when serotonin is provided, the depression improves–however serotonin is not necessarily the choice for treatment of depression since Norepinephrine hormones seem to be more related. But in case of migraines, the brain is not missing serotonin but neurotransmitters that do not work. The brain has a very cohesive network of neurons. Each neuron can have thousands of connections with other neurons–holding hand so does speak. When a particular region of neurons is not working, the connecting neurons try to wake the “sleeping” neurons up by sending electrical signals to it. If that does not work, the active neurons send pain signal to neurons whose job is to receive such pain signals and pass the pain over to you the owner of the head. Thus in the case of migraines, the pain we feel is the pain the neurons send to pain receiving neurons.

The brain manufactures dozens of neurotransmitters or neuro-peptides. Some neurons manufacture more than one neurotransmitters. The brain assumes that all neurons work and so if it finds a region that does not work, it will signal you, the migraine sufferer, that something is out of order. Yes, you can take a pain killer and perhaps get rid of the pain for some length of time but that does not solve the underlying problem of why you had the pain and the non-functioning neurons the first place.

Let me explain one additional very critical information. 90-95% of the serotonin is not manufactured in the brain and is not used by the brain at all. Serotonin is a hormone of digestion and as such it is manufactured by the gut for the use of the gut to assist in the passing of food via the movement of the food being pushed through. 90-95%! That means that if you take a serotonin medication for migraine pain in the head, 90-95% of that drug will affect your digestion and only 5-10% your brain–and on top of it, it may not work for you at all. This can cause serious complications for migraine sufferers. Most migraine sufferers end up with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) as a result of taking tryptans. Those who have developed IBS before migraine, may in fact have a reason to suspect a serotonin imbalance of the body and they may benefit from regulating their IBS by taking serotonin.

For reasons clearly understood (by me) based on what serotonin drugs do, not one of the people who contacted me so far about migraines as a result of my migraine treatment book was without IBS (the book is available both in e-book and also in paperback everywhere but here I link you to amazon paperback). All whom I talked to are/were taking some type of tryptan medication to reduce their migraine pains. Of the many hundreds who by now have contacted me, I so far only found one person for whom a serotonin drug actually reduced the migraine pain and no one else and she had IBS before migraines.

So before you pop that next tryptan pill for your migraine, evaluate if the risks of having IBS as a result of taking a drug that can cause it is worth taking. It may not be. There are alternatives, such as proper brain chemical management, the details of which you will find in my book. I do not endorse any supplements, vitamins, or medications in my book. I endorse paying attention to your body, understanding what it needs and why and eat accordingly. When it comes to applying my recommended chemical balancing of the brain for proper voltage generation, there are no more triggers, be it weather, food, pressure, heat, or anything.

Please feel free to ask any questions!

Angela

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Why Do Tryptans Sometimes Work & Other Times Don’t for Migraines?

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

I am starting to realize that perhaps not everyone understands why tryptans work for some people sometimes but not all the time and why they don’t work for others at all ever. So here I try to give you an explanation so you can relate to it and not be puzzled.

There are 2 reasons and I present this in 3 cases why tryptans (or serotonin enhancing drugs) do or do not work. But first, you must understand that the job of brain cells (or neurons) is to manufacture neurotransmitters–such as serotonin, dopamine, etc. Some brain cells only make one neurotransmitter and others make more–in research labs at Berkeley when I once visited, I have seen neurons making up to 3 different types of neurotransmitters. One of those may be serotonin but the others are not.

The reason why tryptans are typically used for migraines–as well as for depression–is because it is assumed that you have not enough serotonin and if you have more, it will make you feel better. 

It will, if and only if the neurotransmitters that are in trouble and not working are of the kind that make serotonin and they are not producing it for whatever reason. But if the neurons not working are of the kind that normally manufacture some other neurotransmitter and they are not manufacturing it now, then you are not in need for serotonin replacement.  Thus if then you get serotonin for your migraine, it will not work–you have enough serotonin.

Case 1)

The tryptan drugs sometimes work and other times don’t work is because sometimes it is the serotonin making neurons that don’t have enough energy to make serotonin, in which case serotonin replacement saves the day.

Case 2)

The tryptan is not working even though other times it often has worked. This means that this time the neurons that are idle are not serotonin making neurons. You still get the same migraine but something else is missing and not serotonin.

Case 3)

If you never find tryptans working for you it is because you never happen to have those neurons down that make serotonin.

This complicates a lot of things for doctors who are searching for the cause of the pain rather than the cause of the problem to start with. Most drugs–including Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists for migraine–are after pain and not cause. This explains why only 30% of the people are helped with tryptan and also with Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonists and not all. Don’t misunderstand, 30% is a huge percent, particularly if you happen to be in that 30% but remember that it is still just a band-aid and the migraine initiating factors remain, only now you don’t feel them.

What that means is that if you have migraines that you do not feel, you may still progress to strokes, seizures and hemiplegic migraine state since the migraine cause was not stopped and parts of your brain are still not functioning. Thus you will potentially develop more serious conditions later since the underlying condition is not treated.

I hope this helps in understanding the many treatments available today–including botox, electric devices, etc. They do not cure only act as pain killers. To date, the only research that is purely for the cause of migraines is found in the book Fighting the Migraine Epidemic. The link here is only to one site, the author’s site, but it is widely available everywhere, including in very inexpensive e-book format for around $3.50 depending on where you buy it. If you want to understand the cause and treat the cause rather than just the pain, and if you want to prevent migraine, read that book.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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Justina Pelletier – Resource of Online Information | updated 5/5/2014

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

This gallery contains 59 photos.

A wealth of information to us all about the corrupt healthcare system and clueless doctors–or actually in this case criminal acts on the part of doctors! Please share!

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LinkedIn: Are You Linked or Doomed?

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

This post has nothing to do with clueless doctors but a lot with clueless people.

I have joined LinkedIn while I was still a student at Stanford and LinkedIn just started. At that time it was a fun site for networking and finding jobs. Over the years it has become more of an information exchange place as well but still remaining within the circles of the particular professionals of the subjects being discussed. Anyone can start a conversation and henceforth that person is immediately what is called a “group moderator.” Being a moderator means that any person of the moderator’s dislike may be moderated out of the group–moderating out pretty much means banned in this case, albeit you may stay in the group, but you cannot open your mouth without the moderator checking out if what you said was to his or her liking.

At one point of my career, about two years ago, I was invited to join a group discussing photography that stirred up my interest in a new kind of camera they were discussing. The group owner was a guy who moderated about 15 other groups, owned and bankrupted about 10 firms, attended 10+ colleges but never got his PhD hard as he tried but in his opinion he “had earned his PhD” and that was that–these are all on his personal bio.

So when I joined the group and the conversation, the topic of PhD came up–I no longer remember the circumstances–but he started to feel stifled that I had a PhD for real, while he did not so he did not like the color of my eyes and I was moderated out no matter what I said. All is well you say; he has the right to not like me for having a PhD. What you may not realize is that he moderated me out of the entire LinkedIn, globally!

Yep, LinkedIn is set up in such a way that a single moderation in one group will lock you out of all other groups. There is one group that is in fact for those alone who have been moderated out of other groups and there are hundreds of people in there. I know many people who start their own groups because they were moderated out of all others and that is the only way they can communicate with people of like mind and interest!

Thus a single person with questionable motives can moderate every single member out of every single LinkedIn group by a single click on the button per person!

So write a note to LinkedIn you say? Complain? Yes… I did.

I have been writing now for over two years, getting absolutely nowhere and still not able to comment anywhere. Today I tweeted to the CEO of LinkedIn to change this and today I officially filed a BBB complaint. If it comes down to  having to sue them, I may start a class action lawsuit against LinkedIn with all those who have been moderated out of all conversations by a single person who did not like the color of their eyes!

It is ridiculous how LinkedIn has this moderation set up that a single person can kick every single other member out of basically any activity based on one comment that he/she may not have liked, or like in my case, a personality trait. I even wrote to Linked in that this person harassed me–I have emails of that for proof… no one gave a damn!

Well let us all change that! And let us start changing that now! Join the group I just created called OutModerated. 🙂

 

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Migraines in Tea-Drinking Countries

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

While I wrote the book, I tried hard as I may to incorporate all migraine types since migraine affects the brain initially the same way and for the same reason: the brain cells’ (neurons’) lack of ability to work as a result of inappropriate quantity of voltage generating and hydrating ions. Simple you think; just add more.

While the book’s method works very well for people in the US, I find that in the case of two other countries, UK and Australia, where there seem to be enough life style differences in comparison to the US, the standard method does not appear to work effectively. At the time I wrote the book, I tried to join migraine groups of these countries but it seemed that they were not interested in an American scientist and what she had to ask or say and so I never really had the chance to understand these differences.

The Fighting the Migraine Epidemic book by now has achieved quite a bit of success with US migraine sufferers will create a testimonials link as soon as I can. However, it has not yet been as successful in the UK and in Australia. Part of the reason is that people in these countries seem to have different types of migraines! In the US most migraines are classic (just horrendous pain, sick to stomach, dizzy, etc.,) or complex (comes with aura as well). Only a fraction of a percent of the US migraineurs has what is called a Hemiplegic Migraine. This is a form of migraine that starts typically with a blind spot and aura as the complex does but then it progresses into muscle weakness to downright muscle paralysis of one side of the body in whole or in part.

Hemiplegic Migraines are a lot more serious migraines than classic or complex ones because there is a higher risk of stroke and seizure with possible permanent effects.

What may be the reason for the US having fewer Hemiplegic Migraineurs than the UK or Australia?

Migraine is genetic but genes mean nothing until their switch is turned on–the gene gets expressed. It is unknown at this point if a particular type of migraine is represented by a particular type of gene or if particular lifestyles turn on a gene in a different way at a different time–we do have information on several types of genes in Hemiplegic Migraine cases but not everyone with those genes comes down with migraines, and if they do, not everyone comes down with Hemiplegic ones. It is not clear from the point of genetics how and why a migraine becomes Hemiplegic.

Now the book is also available in the UK and in Australia. Since I encourage private conversations with my readers to make sure they have no other health conditions that may interfere with my recommendations, I have been able to obtain more information on the possible causes for why people in the UK and Australia suffer different migraines and why those migraines are not responding as well to the standard US treatment.

Thus I am writing this note to those who live in the UK or Australia.

One of the reasons why the standard methodology in the book is not working as well in these countries is that some of the minerals, such as salt, are not available in many of the foods in these countries. I was talking to one of the book users in the UK and I suggested that she buy some crackers with salt. She advised me that there are no more crackers with salt in the UK and the whole country is salt free. Furthermore there are no sport drinks without artificial sweeteners, etc. Artificial sweeteners can often be migraine triggers. Also, since they are toxins the body doesn’t know what to do with, they may leave the brain with serious problems (you can read about it in Fat Chance by Robert H. Lustig). It seems that the whole country of the UK went salt free and sugar-free in the name of “health” creating a huge migraine epidemic of a very serious kind that cannot even be easily remedied because of the lack of availability of proper minerals in everyday food items. Yes, heart health is a concern but even the heart cannot function without salt–it too has pumps that depend on salt. Lack of salt can have immediate, adverse consequences and can even be fatal in a relatively short time, whereas too much salt may be harmful (not lethal) in a long time, over 20-40 years. Which would you choose?

Furthermore, in the UK in particular, the first line of treatment for any migraine is still vascular, meaning vasoconstrictors (drugs that reduce the size of blood vessels to increase blood pressure) or vasorelaxers (beta blockers and similar that reduce blood pressure). There are two problems with this approach:

  1. If one needs to constrict blood vessels, one can have a cup of tea and the job is done. The problem is that people in the UK–and also in Australia–drink a lot of tea! Thus if they receive medication to increase their blood pressure and also drink tea, they can have only a trickle of blood flowing but it will come at a high enough pressure–the problem of course is that blood volume is reduced and so less oxygen and nutrients can reach the brain.
  2. The second problem is the beta blockers. Most migraine sufferers have low blood pressure to start with but they are often treated with blood pressure reducing drugs, causing even less of a chance for the brain to get enough blood. I had talked to people from the UK whose CT scan of the brain showed parts of their brain not getting any blood at all. Well, do we expect a brain to work on nothing?

So if you have migraines in the UK or Australia, please note that drinking tea means a ton of caffeine that reduces blood volume while increasing pressure and constricting the veins. This is a major problem since anything with caffeine is diuretic-it chases water out of the body. Thus people in these countries who suffer from migraines are so dehydrated and the drugs they often take are so much the opposite of what they need, that this alone would explain the frequency of Hemiplegic Migraines in comparison to the US and why the process described in my book does not have a chance of working as effectively.

My book assumes that each person knows how much water to drink a day–there are plenty of apps for smart phones and also plenty of online calculators. I, for example, need to drink 10 glasses of water in the winter and 12 in the summer based on my location (hot and dry), age, elevation, physical activity, etc., and that I neither drink alcohol nor soft drinks or tea, only one small espresso a day.

When I ask UK or Australian people how much water, soft drinks, coffee, tea, alcohol they drink, I get answers like: I drink 2-4 glasses of water a day, 2-3 glasses of soft drinks, 2-3 teas, 1 coffee, and I may have an alcoholic drink a day.

Since soft drinks have some salt, they are halfway diuretic because of the sugar or sugar substitutes: tea, coffee and alcohol are fully diuretic. So for each cup of tea, coffee, and alcohol, there better be equal number of cups of water added just to make up for their diuretic effects and a half cup of water for each cup of soft drink. Thus, someone drinking 4 glasses of water and 3 glasses of soft drinks, 3 teas, 1 coffee, and 1 glass of alcohol, is drinking negative 2.5 glass of water–that is, rather than gaining the body is losing water.

In terms of the other minerals in the book, like salt, my book assumes some salt in the diet since the US diet is full of it. If food in the UK and Australia is without salt, just to be at the US baseline for my book, salt must be added.

Yesterday I asked a mom from Australia, whose daughter just had her first episode of Hemiplegic Migraine, what food her daughter eats and her response was: oh she eats a very healthy diet. Yep… healthy diet typically means minimal salt. Vegetarians are the most likely to get migraines and be dehydrated since vegetables only contain trace amounts of salt.

To summarize, if you are from the UK or Australia please note that the recommendations of my book need to be modified depending on how much tea you drink, artificial sweeteners you eat or drink and how little salt you eat.

Please contact me for more information and for help calculating your needs. Please join the Facebook migraine group I created or send me an email: angela@migraine-book.com

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BUTTERFLY DREAMS

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Wonderful dreamy art. Sherri is all dreams. Wonderful gallery. 🙂

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Corruption of the Medical System–Medical Fraud!

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

I received a phone call today from the CA Board of Medicine, where I filed against many doctors who messed up during the treatment of my mother. The mess-up ended up in her death for no reason. There were many medical malpractice type issues but there was this one case I want to bring your attention to since this can happen to you any day and anywhere.

There was this one “doctor” who appears to have practiced without license as I later found out. When I filed the complaint with the CA Board of Medicine (there is a complaint form to fill out with standard questions), it included space for the license number of the doctor. I called the medical office where he was employed and asked for his license number. I was told “oh he works under doctor Y’s license number.” So I immediately knew that there is something fishy here. Next I asked for Dr. Y’s license number and I was refused.

Just so you know, the doctor’s license number is public information and they have no right to refuse to provide it. This further underlined my suspicion of stinky fish.

Thus in the form where it asked for X’s license number, knowing he did not have one, I placed Dr. Y’s name! Submitted the form and waited. I received a confirmation letter from the CA Board of Medicine confirming the complaint against Dr. Y! What??? I filed for X and not Y. Clearly X has no license so what happened here?

The CA Board of Medicine switched the names!

Meaning I filed against X who appears to not have a license and is working under the license of doctor Y. So they changed my complaint against doctor X to Y who had a license and dropped X since he was not in the database!

I sent them a fax–which the case worker said he has not yet seen–reminding them that it is X who I had a problem with and if he practiced medicine without a license, that is a criminal act, and I need to know that so I can throw his case to the DA for criminal charges. And if this is the case, doctor Y is also guilty and will have to face the law since he knowingly employed someone without a doctor’s license and sent him to act as a doctor, writing prescriptions!

I need to know this because these are federal crimes!

I had to repeat this 3 times–I hope he understood… I may have to repeat it a few more times before the CA Board of Medicine realizes that I am filing a medical fraud case against a person who is not a doctor or is acting without a license… they will not understand it because if he has no license, his name will not be in the database and will come out as “no charge against him is possible;” I bet you!

The law and all the people in it are clueless and the people in medicine are corrupt. This is a system that will be very hard to change but we must! If you have similar stories, do not let it go without action! You must do something so we can change the system. The least you should do is send me a note so I know about it. I do not use names as you can see but if no one does anything about this, the system will continue to get worse!

Please send me notes in private: angela@migraine-book.com or comment in public here or join the closed group CluelessDoctors on Facebook and post your experiences there. I am going to collect all kinds of stories to point out our clueless doctors and corrupt medical system!

Angela

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