Migraine Headache Blog

A recent article in in the July 7, 2008, issue of Time Magazine talked about “The Fragile X Factor”. Fragile X is a sex-linked genetic disorder that affects both sexes, but especially boys.

Without going into too much genetic science, males have chromosomes that are XY and females are XX. A genetic defect in the X chromosome is generally not a problem in females as they have another X chromosome as a counterbalance. Whereas a male child will likely have significant problems because he has only one X chromosome, and if that chromosome is defective there is no counterbalancing X chromosome, only a Y chromosome.

Remember the Russian royal family with the young Tsar-to-be with the bleeding disorder? Rasputin? This may have changed history for the next century. This was a sex linked genetic disorder traced back to Queen Victoria of England.

But Fragile X is a different problem. It is not a bleeding problem. Rather the full scale manifestation is autism, ADD or ADHD and/or mental retardation in boys. In fact, it is the most well documented form of autism and accounts for 5% of all autistic cases according to the article.

But what does this have to with women and migraines? Because women who are carriers of Fragile X do manifest some problems consistent with ovarian failure, infertility or early menopause in their early thirties.

These women also have a tendency to develop migraine headaches.

About 20% of female carriers of Fragile X will develop premature ovarian failure. Of course, this is missed almost 100% of the time and passed off as “early menopause”. Technically it is true that this is early menopause and there is no known cure.

However, just like with menopause, we can and should use bio-identical hormones to supplement the lack of female sex hormones. We can actually normalize a woman’s life, get rid of her hot flashes (at age 32) and make her migraines go away - all at the same time.

Mainstream medicine hasn’t caught up to this yet, so it is my job to inform you first.

By the way, a good website for menopause is www.1-Menopause.com

One more thing about Fragile X is that males who don’t manifest autism, mental retardation or ADD/ADHD at a young age and seem to have skipped the problems may ultimately develop serious neurologic problems in their 50’s. These can be very serious like a full blown Parkinson’s Syndrome and/or Alzheimer’s.

So I recommend that any male child with ADD/ADHD, autism or mental retardation be tested for Fragile X. If positive, then test mom, too. Then test her father and male relatives.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

One of my favorite people in the world and someone who has influenced my career enormously (and my chief mentor) is a physician named Steven Hotze, M.D. He was one of the first doctors that started the wellness movement and has a big wellness clinic in Houston. If you don’t mind paying about $4000 to get in the door, it is first class all the way.

I am also on his mailing list for his newsletter. His latest article is a gem. He talks about bio-identical hormones and breast cancer.

To summarize, Dr. Hotze says that breast cancer is commonly caused by hormonal imbalance. More specifically either insufficient progesterone or excessive estrogen (the famous estrogen dominance theory advocated by Dr. John Lee).

A study done in 1981 at Johns Hopkins “found that infertile women with progesterone deficiency had a pre-menopausal breast cancer risk that was 540% higher than that of women whose infertility was not related to their hormone status. Not only that, but these women had a 1000% greater risk of death from all types of cancer”.

I would add that these same women also have the highest incidence of migraine headaches - for the same reasons. And I would throw in that these women also have the worst PMS, depression, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts and even cardiovascular disease.

Our experience is more than just sex hormones involvment, however. Hormones are interrelated to other hormones. If one hormone is low, there tends to be other low hormones as well. The preponderance of women with migraines with thyroid problems is overwhelming. Many women with migraines have Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which are likely hormone mediated problems, as well.

As Dr. Hotze explains, mainstream medicine will not tell you about the relationship of hormone balance and breast cancer (and migraines). The reason, of course, is not some major conspiracy theory. No, mainstream medicine is just totally clueless and at least 20 years behind the rest of us.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.1-Menopause.com

A couple of months ago, I attended a conference in Las Vegas sponsored by the International Hormone Society.  Bio-identical hormones were the main topic of discussion, obviously, and the thyroid gland came up repeatedly.

Keep in mind that proper functioning of the thyroid gland is critical when it comes to migraine headaches. In my book, The All-Natural Cure For Your Migraine Headache, I have a special chapter devoted to the 20% of migraine sufferers who don’t respond entirely to bio-identical sex hormone replenishment therapy.  A large part of this 20% has to do with the thyroid gland.

When discussing the thyroid in Las Vegas, Dr. David Brownstein described the function of the mineral, iodine.  The thyroid  requires iodine to make up the two major products of the thyroid - T3 and T4.  When a person is deficient in iodine then the thyroid cannot function properly and imbalances result.

In the past, when someone had low thyroid function, we just supplement with thyroid hormone.  There is controversy in the medical community regarding exactly what type of thyroid hormone to use but I preferred Armour Thyroid.

Now with Dr. Bernstein’s results of using iodine with his patients, he was able to hold off on adding the thyroid hormone to his low thyroid patients regimen and achieved good results with iodine alone.

In terms of migraine management, I am preparing to alter and upgrade my treatment recommendations shortly.

As soon as we are finished, I will amend the book to a new edition with the latest recommendations and guidelines.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

As you already know from my websites, I am a practitioner
of bio-identical hormones. Bio-identical hormone
replacement therapy (BHRT) is slowly catching on to my
mainstream colleagues.

In the meantime, you are still hungry for information to
help your situation, whether it is from migraine headaches,
PMS, depression, menopause or a host of other women’s
hormone problems.

There is a World Summit on BHRT beginning on May 14th and
continuing through June 2nd. This World Summit is a
series of interviews with the world’s best BHRT doctors
(including yours truly).

Besides me, other world-class BHRT doctors that will be
featured include:

· Erika Schwartz, MD - Bio-Identical Hormone Expert and
Patient Advocate. She has written 4 important hormone
books, lectures, TV appearances, columnist and speaks on
Capitol Hill.

· Eldred Taylor, M.D., OB/GYN: International Speaker on
Bio-Identical Hormones. He will speak about adrenal
hormones. Dr. Taylor will teach you what we need to do to
stop draining your adrenals and how to get them healthy
again.

· Susan Silberstein, PhD: Founder and Director of CACE
(Center for the Advancement of Cancer Education). Learn
what research shows needs to be “in” and what needs to be
“out” of your diet for your best chance of breast cancer
prevention.

· Jeanne Drisko, MD : Physician, Researcher, President of
ACAM. A healthy form of chemotherapy which is medically
and scientifically being proven! Dr. Drisko is proving
scientifically that Intravenous Vitamin C can and should be
used as chemotherapy.

· Ellie Campbell, DO: Family Doctor & Bio-Identical
Hormone Expert. Peri-Menopause & Menopause—What is
happening to me and can I do anything about it?

· Rebecca L. Glaser, M.D., FACS: Successful Breast Surgeon
Treats All Of Her Patients With Bio-Identical Hormones.
She is currently involved in several research studies on
balanced hormone therapy and its impact on health and
breast cancer prevention.

· Anna M. Cabeca, DO, FACOG. OB-GYN: Expert In Women’s
Health And Specializes in Bio-Identical Hormones. Female
Sexual Dysfunction - An Integrative Approach.

· Allan Magaziner, DO : Trained in Clinical Nutrition,
Allergy and the Environmental Medicine and Treats With
BHRT. Men Have Hormones Too: And Boy Do They Start Going
South Around Age 45. Wonder why dieting and exercise won’t
get rid of your belly like it used to?

· Andrew Jones, MD: Internist, Medical Director of the
Women’s Health Institute of Texas. He is the Specialist in
Depression & Migraine Headaches Treatment. Dr. Jones has
been curing depression and migraines for years.

· Richard L. Shames M.D: Pioneering Integrative Medicine,
Thyroid Expert and author of the popular book, “Thyroid
Power”. You Know It’s Your Thyroid, But Your Blood Test
and Your Doctor Say It’s Not—You’re Absolutely Right!

· David Nicoletti, RPh, CCN, DNM, FIACP, FACA: President
of the International Association of Compounding
Pharmacists. Learn who they are, why you need them and why
the government would like to take away your hormones. The
FDA and big drug companies have started to take your
compounded hormones away. Why and what can you do?

· Kent Holtorf MD: Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
and Chronic Infections-The Bio-Identical Hormone Imbalance
Problem. He is the founding medical director and developed
the protocols for Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers and
other centers across the country.

Every night from May 14 until June 2nd will feature one of
the above doctors where you can listen to the discussion
and interview by Dr. Joel Yaffe, himself a renowned BHRT
doctor from Israel.

Click here to sign up and get started with your audio
series:

BHRT - World Summit

Don’t miss this information -packed event.

Andrew Jones, M.D.
Medical Director
Women’s Health Institute of Texas
4610 Sweetwater Blvd., Suite 120
Sugar Land, TX 77479
281-962-4264
www.migraine-headaches-information.com
www.AndrewJonesMD.com

The February 7th edition of a Newsweek “Web Exclusive”  ran a story about the FDA “cracking down” on natural menopausal therapies.  The article basically was a mouthpiece for FDA and Big Pharma to continue to shut down and intimidate doctors, compounding pharmacies and their patients from getting bio-identical hormones to treat women’s conditions, including migraine headaches.

The FDA recently sent out a letter to seven pharmacies preventing them from making claims about the superiority and safety of bio-identical hormones (hormones that are exactly the way your body makes them) versus the synthetic, chemically altered versions found in most prescription forms of HRT and birth control pills.

To add even more damage, the FDA decided that since estriol, one of the three main bio-identical estrogens that are currently circulating in your body, has never been approved by them in the past, then it was banned from the US!

In treating your migraines, we use bio-identical hormones, although we don’t use estriol. But the next step by the Nazis at the FDA and their cartel friends in Big Pharma is to attack all of the other bio-identical hormones that you so desperately need.

The Government is to be feared. Millions of people are at risk from FDA attack all in the name of “regulation”.  Of course, the real reason is money.  Money for the continued monopoly of the big drug companies so that they can continue to manufacture and sell “FDA approved” drugs that are toxic to you all in the name of the public interest.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, The Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.1-Menopause.com

Since bio-identical hormones compounded by pharmacists never went  through the Big Pharma club of spending several hundred million dollars (on a product that can’t be patented) then the FDA and mainstream medicine jumps to the conclusion that they are not safe and “unregulated”.

The Lancet, a well respected medical journal has called for oral contraceptives to be available to women without a prescription. A jaw-dropping editorial in the January 25 issue of The Lancet accompanied an analysis of birth control pills (BCP’s) and their reported protection against ovarian cancer.

An analysis of 45 studies offered “unequivocal good news” about the wonders of BCP’s. The authors claim that oral contaceptives reduce the risk of ovarian cancer and that over the last 50 years 100,000 ovarian cancer deaths have been prevented because of their use. Their report calculated that the incidence of death from ovarian cancer is reduced from 0.7 to 0.5 per 100 users if used for over 10 years.
They also claim, contrary to more current data, is that BCP’s offer protection against endometrial and colrectal cancer. They do acknowledge that there is an increased risk of breast and cervical cancer.

What they fail to mention, however, is the pandemic of monstrous side effects ranging from migraine headaches, blood clots and strokes, to uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, PMS, heart disease, high blood pressure, decreased mental functioning and depression. The numbers of these effects are in the tens of millions. Perhaps over the past 50 years, the number of women affected with one or more of these problems may exceed 100 million.

So when you balance out 100,000 deaths (which I don’t believe is true - recent data show exactly the opposite) versus a 100 million women with breast cancer, migraine headaches, strokes, heart disease, PMS, depression and other problems which may not be life threatening, but destroys lives nevertheless, how can anyone call for these dangerous drugs (BCP’s) be made more freely available over the counter?

Birth control pills are a danger to the public and a massive fraud perpetrated by the big drug companies in conjunction with the FDA. How many more generations of women are we going to sacrifice for the almighty dollar?

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com

www.1-Menopause.com

An article in the December issue of Bottom Line’s Women’s Health by Dr. Joann E. Manson got closer to the truth, but not good enough. Dr. Manson is a mainstream professor of medicine and women’s health at Harvard Medical School, the epitome of the academic ivory tower.

Her article was about the revised mainstream recommendations for using Premarin for menopausal symptoms. The medical establishment has been massively influenced by Wyeth, the maker of Premarin and PremPro, both of which were discredited by the Women’s Health Initiative studies back in 2002 and 2003.

But Wyeth managed to reprocess the results, somehow finding a statistical method of making Premarin safe for women who begin HRT (hormone replacement therapy - with Premarin, of course) within 5 to 10 years after menopause and taken for less than seven years. Wyeth claims this even lowers your risk factors for heart disease!

Mainstream doctors have bought into this.

The good news is that Dr. Manson did mention bio-identical hormones. Yes, they are finally on the radar screen! She even says “feel free” to use bio-identical hormones.

With the typical attitude of mainstream medicine comparing synthetic, counterfeit hormones like Premarin with bio-identical hormones she slams the door shut with the dismissal statement that “all hormone formulations confer a roughly similar balance of benefits and risks.”

Not only is this a condescending attitude on the part of my colleagues but simply wrong. Premarin is not a natural hormone - it is a foreign chemical introduced into the body and is essentially a poison. This is unlike a natural hormone, which mother nature made for you which has no risks, otherwise she would never make it in the first place.

Think about that. Why would mother nature make a hormone inside your ovaries and make it harmful to you? Premarin is not natural and is toxic. No, Premarin and natural hormones do not confer similar benefits or risks, Dr. Manson.

What does this have to do with migraine headaches? Because migraines are essentially similar to menopause in that both conditions are the result of a hormone deficiency. Replace the deficiency and the symptoms, whether they be your migraine headache or menopausal hot flashes just go away.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com
www.DepressionGoneForever.com

www.1-Menopause.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

A recent article featured in the October 29 issue of Newsweek discusses “The HRT Dilemma”.  The context was in terms of HRT (synthetic hormone replacement therapy) and menopausal symptoms in light of the public reaction to fear over Premarin and Prempro.

Since the Women’s Health Initiative study of 2002 announced the appalling results of association of breast cancer, heart disease and strokes in women who took Prempro, usage of synthetic HRT drugs has fallen 75%.  Abandonment of poisons like Premarin and Prempro is a good thing.

What is bad, however, is that mainstream medicine and the media have not been forthcoming in the true natural alternatives to synthetic HRT.  Nowhere in the Newsweek article is there a single mention of bio-identical hormones or bio-identical estrogen. 

In an adjacent article on the same page is an article entitled “The Alternate Route”.  Again, bio-identical estrogen and bio-identical hormones, in general, are completely ignored.

Conspiracy theorists speculate that this is a massive attempt by Big Pharma to suppress any information about bio-identical or natural hormones which are a major threat to the major drug companies bottom line.  If the public only knew about the single most effective and completely safe method for treating a myriad of women’s health problems, including migraine headaches, by replenishing deficient natural hormones, then the big drug companies would lose billions in sales.

I am not a big believer in conspiracy theories, but I do think there is incredible ignorance by mainstream medicine and journalistic  laziness.  Whether a hormone deficiency causes headaches as in a migraine, or menopause, or even PMS, bio-identical hormones are the safe answer.

After all, this is mother nature’s response to correct the situation.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine announced that a new technology has improved the diagnosis of cervical cancer by detecting the prescence of human papillova virus (HPV).  The accuracy of the diagnosis was twice as accurate as the standard Pap Smear test.

According to researches at McGill University in Montreal, the new test spotted 95% of the cancers compared to only 55% on the Pap test.  The Pap smear is a scraping of cervical cells that is examined under the microscope and is prone to human experience.  Whereas the HPV test, which also uses scrapings of cervical cells, but is placed into a more traditional lab machine with automatic readouts.

This HPV test has actually been around since 2000.  It is gaining popularity and should become universal since the latest study.  Of course, the source of the test still must come from cervical scrapings - which means that you still have to undergo the Pap Smear procedure anyway.

At least it is a good add-on for the Pap test and can only help. 

Although our focus is on migraine headaces, we still must remain vigilant for other maladies that may strike women as well.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com

 

It has been known for some time that there is an association between a birth defect called patent foramen ovale (PFO) and migraines, particularly migraines with aura.  The subject came up again on the front page of my local newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, as the lead article with huge headlines.

Here are the facts: the PFO is a congenital condition where a hole exists in the wall between two chambers of the heart that allows blood to pass through while you are a fetus.  Since fetuses don’t breathe through lungs, but instead receive oxygenated blood from the mother through the placenta, the PFO allows mom’s blood to pass through directly into the baby’s circulation and bypass the lungs.

What happens is that after birth, the PFO closes up rapidly, once the lungs start working.  In about 25% of the population the PFO is still present as a flap that covers the hole but only opens when there is a high pressure situation inside the chest - like sneezing or bearing down while having a bowel movement.

Most people with PFO live their entire life without ever knowing they had it because it usually causes no problems.  However, some cases of strokes can occur with PFO and researches have found an association with migraine headaches with aura.

About seven studies have been done on people who have strokes and migraines with PFO.  After surgically closing the defect, about half the people with migraines reported significant reductions or elimination of them after the procedure.

There is one study still in process, called MIST - Migraine Intervention with StarFlex Technology (named after the implanted surgical device that covers the hole).  This is the only to date enrolling patients without a stroke.  All of the others had stroke patients that required heart surgery.

The results are not available yet, but it somehow made the front page of the Houston newspaper today mainly to recruit patients to a Houston heart surgery center.  There were three interviews of women with migraines in the article.  One had a reduction of migraines from 3 -4 a week down to two migraines in the last couple of months.  The other two women interviewed had no improvement.

If they were trying to recruit patients for their study with these kind of results, they will have a difficult time with these results.

What are my thoughts?  First, migraine with aura is uncommon.  Only 10% of migraneurs have migraine with aura.  (My observation is that the percentange of migraines with aura is vastly overstated). But in one study, they estimated that about a fourth of people that have migraines with aura also have a PFO.

Perhaps the PFO allows the passage of chemicals, substances, particles or hormones into the brain that normally would have been trapped in the lungs?  The mechanism is unknown.

In any event, not a single researcher recommends that people with migraines who have a PFO undergo a heart surgery (even though it is a relatively simple procedure) just to attempt to eliminate the migraines.  Even they recommend that all medication measures must be exhausted first.

However, those people who also have a had a stroke are highly recommended to have the procedure.  I agree.  Strokes are far more dangerous and must be taken seriously.  If strokes can be prevented by this procedure then do it - and if the migraines with aura go away, then that is a nice bonus.

However, for most people with migraines, especially women, it remains largely a hormonal issue and treated accordingly.  The appropriate treatment for migraines of all types is to start with bio-identical hormone replacement.  An 80% curative response is our typical outcome.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.DepressionGoneForever.com