Migraine Headache Blog

It is not unusual for Oprah Winfrey to be in the news.  Recently she had a show on the benefits of bio-identical hormones. Oprah has long been a champion of natural hormones (another way of saying “bio-identical” - just easier to type!) and has featured advocate Suzanne Somers more than once.

Natural hormones are important in the treatment of many maladies suffered by women, including migraine headaches.
What was interesting was the fallout in the mainstream media reflecting the kneejerk views of maintream media and the big drug companies (who advertise in the media).  Newsweek magazine carried a front page hit piece on Oprah that exemplified this attack.

There is a wonderful rebuttal by Dr. Jeffrey Dach on  Wellsphere.com.  Here is the link to his blog article.

It is the usual reactions we see from mainstream medicine and their big drug company masters.  They love to say that natural hormones are not studied, not safe, not regulated and not prescribed.  They are wrong on all accounts.

What natural hormones don’t have are patents because they are found in nature.  And anything found in nature cannot be patented.  Nevertheless, some drug companies have patented some process of manufacturing or delivering a natural hormone and  got that into a prescription format.  Climara patch is a good example.

Mainstream medicine really has no idea that the usual prescribed synthetic hormones are just bastardized versions of hormones.  And yes, synthetic hormones that are not human in form are poisons.  A half century of synthetic hormone replacement therapy, in conjunction with birth control pills has done significant damage to the last four generations of women.

On the other hand, natural hormones are exactly the same thing as the hormones that your body is supposed to me making.  By definition, they cannot be harmful, unless our Maker intended for the human species to last only one generation.

Natural hormones are dose responsive.  This means that the more you take, the bigger the dose and the effects are known and predictable.  Not harmful - just predictable.  This is why medical students take first year physiology and bio-chemistry classes.  We studied all this and know how it works.  I studied this when I was in medical school 23 years ago.

But I was also taught that Provera was the same thing as progesterone.  It isn’t.  Provera has progestin-like effects but it is NOT progesterone.  It took me 15 years to figure that out.  Many of my mainstream colleagues still believe that Provera is progesterone.

I know the battles I had to face with my mainstream medical colleagues regarding the danger of synthetic, chemically altered hormones that most of you have taken over the years (including birth control pills).  Oprah is facing the same thing in Newsweek and other mainstream media outlets now.

Oprah is right on.  Keep up the good work.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

It is no secret that Vitamin D deficiency is pandemic.  Even the New England Journal of Medicine agrees in their headline, “Vitamin D Deficiency is Pandemic“.

As Vitamin D is getting more attention with recent studies showing its effectiveness in a myriad of conditions from one of Mother Nature’s best anti-inflammation remedies to improving heart disease and cancers.  Basically, your body needs Vitamin D to maintain good health.  When you don’t have enough Vitamin D, your body falls apart and becomes susceptible to just about everything bad.

I just saw a study that showed no ill effects from taking a DAILY dose of 50,000 IU per day.  We used to recommend 50,000 per week.  That same study now recommends safely taking 10,000 IU per day.

If you thought that just getting a few minutes of sunshine exposure every day was sufficient for your daily Vitamin D needs, think again.  Even in sun drenched Saudi Arabia, one study showed 83% of people were Vitaimin D deficient.

What is interesting is that the recommendations for daily minimum supplementation continues to increase.  Only a couple of years ago, we all believed 400 IU was sufficient.  Then the recommendation changed to 1000 IU.  Later it became 2000 IU.  Last year it got bumped up to 5000 IU.

I still see people who have taken Vitamin D supplements in the 400 IU range for several years who are profoundly deficient. We load those folks up with daily 50,000 IU doses and then back off to 5000 IU per day.  Although, now seeing the 10,000 IU daily recommendation, we will be moving towards doubling our recos.

By the way, Vitamin D is one of my recommendations for people with migraine headaches. There are several more recommendations on my list, of course, with Vitamin D being just one.  A good vitamin D product is Vitamin D5000 by Natural Living.  You can get order it at www.VitaminD5000.com .

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

Everyone knows that cholesterol is bad for you, right?  At least, that is what every other television commercial says.  Your doctor has been saying that for years and now the big drug companies are getting into the act.

Every big drug company has their favorite “statin” drug.  You know, the miracle statins that began with Merck’s Mevacor about 20 years ago that reduce your cholesterol levels?

But has anybody actually proven that cholesterol CAUSES heart disease?  It doesn’t.  Hugely elevated cholesterol  is merely a symptom of something that is not right.

When I was going through medical school about 25 years ago, we were taught that “normal” cholesterol levels were between 250 - 300.  By the time I finished residency, it was 200 - 250.  Some years later it became 150 - 200.  Now it is some ridiculous level around 100.  This is total cholesterol, not LDL.

Did you know that low cholesterol is associated with a higher death rate? Elderly females who have a cholesterol level below 155 have a 5.2 fold higher death rate as compared to women with a cholesterol level of 272.  You read that right.

The lower the LDL, the higher the risk of Parkinson’s Disease. An LDL less than 92 is associated with a 260% increased risk of Parkinson’s.
There are five major studies on the statins. No study showed a dramatic decrease in mortality (death) in those that took a statin. The average of the studies showed a less than one percent (0.775%) death rate that those who didn’t take statins.

So why is your TV blaring about statins? Money.

In the US alone in 2004 (which is many sales records ago), Lipitor brought in $7.7 billion.  Zocor brought ini $4.5 billion.

Statins probably, no they do, cause more harm than good.  There is no measurable good with statins.  It is a complete fraud perpetrated on innocent consumers like you.  The big drug companies, in cahoots with the FDA, brainwash doctors on this garbage of how it helps your cholestol.

Let’s talk about cholesterol.  You need it.  You cannot survive without it.  You need lots of it.

What is cholesterol good for?

• It is a precursor to Vitamin D production in your skin.
• It is necessary for fat and mineral absorption.
• Every cell wall in your body needs it or your cells fall apart.
• Cholesterol forms the myelin sheath for your nerves.
• Over 50% of the dry weight of your cerebral cortex is cholesterol.
• It is important for serotonin receptors.
• Your immune system cannot function without it.
• It is necessary for the production of all your adrenal hormones.

The list goes on…

What do Statins do?

• They kill older women 5 times faster.
• Statins cause heart failure.
• They block CoQ10 production, which in turn, sets you up for nerve diseases, macular degeneration and maybe Parkinson’s disease.
• Statins cause muscle pain and weakness in at least 5% of users.
• Statins may induce dementia. (What about all that cholesterol that comprises your brain?)
• All cholesterol drugs are associated with higher rates of cancer.
• Breast cancer is increased 1500% in statin users. (That is 15 times normal).
• Statins disrupt all the adrenal hormones.
• Numerous articles report an increased rate of depression in statin users.

I think you get the idea that statins are bad for you.  If you like conspiracy theories, it doesn’t get much better than the FDA, big drug companies and mainstream medicine collaborating on promoting statins for the last 20 years as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Statins are a fraud.

The same people pushing the statins are the ones telling you that there is no cure for migraine headaches.

We know better about statins and we know better about migraines.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com 

There was a recent Associated Press article in the Houston Chronicle entitled, “Disease may not be real, but the drug profits are: Industry funds awareness of, and demand for, fibromyalgia pills”.

The article insinuated that fibromyalgia doesn’t exist but the drug companies are trying to sell Cymbalta and Lyrica, even if those drugs don’t work.

Is this a twisted world or what?

First, fibromyalgia is very real, even if mainstream medicine is 20 years behind the times in recognizing it. Remember that PMS didn’t become official until just a few years ago. PMS/PMDD is still classified as a psychiatric disorder?  Fibromyalgia is still dissed by many of my colleagues.

In reality, fibromyalgia is a serious disorder that can be completely disabling. I have successfully treated it and will likely put up a new website later in 2009 on this.

So what does fibromyalgia have to do with migraines?  Often there is an overlap between the two. In my book on migraines, I have stated that 80% of women do very well, fairly quickly on my 5 step recommended program.  But the other 20% is more difficult.  Quite often, women with fibromyalgia fall into that 20% group that don’t do so well.

This is how I got interested in fibromyalgia, mainly from the migraines perspective.  I knew that once we were able to successfully treat (or at least, improve) fibromyalgia symptoms, then the migraines got better, too.

One thing for sure is that the new fancy drugs touted by the drug companies don’t do squat for fibromyalgia (but they really help drug company sales).  Hormones help, especially thyroid and adrenal.  All women with fibromyalgia are thyroid deficient.  But then again, many women with migraines are hypothyroid, too.

Another observation is that fibromyalgia has a lot of symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).  I would venture that Leaky Gut Syndrome has a lot to do with it.  Again, the women with bad migraines also have IBS often.

All of this is addressed in my chapter on the 20% difficult migraines group with pretty decent success.  It takes some work and perseverance but we can turn the corner.

Keep the faith.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

A recent article in the February issue of Endocrine Practice, which is directed at hormone specialists, discussed the use of adding thyroid hormones to very sick people in hospital ICU situations.

The term “Sick Euthyroid Syndrome” is given for people who have abnormal blood tests for thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) during a variety of acute and chronic illnesses.  For some reason, there is controversy in the medical community over whether to give prescription thyroid hormones (meaning non-bio-identical) to these patients.

This latest study was a review of a number of other studies that tried to examine the outcomes of double blind studies in very sick people.  The author’s conclusion was that doctors should not worry about the thyroid gland or concern themselves with terribly abnormal lab values on T3 and T4 because the outcomes did not change whether patients received them or not.

The author says that it is debatable if alterations in thyroid function produce negative effects or simply reflects the multisystem failure that occurs in critically ill patients.  He says what it is not debatable is that thyroid hormone replacement (non-bio-identical) has no benefit.

Wow.  Just hope he doesn’t become your doctor if you get very sick.

I get in major debates frequently with my mainstream colleagues on adding thyroid hormones to people who exhibit symptoms of hypothyroidism but show “normal” thyroid lab values.  But when someone has off-the-wall thyroid blood tests and doctors refuse to treat that - yikes!

Let me offer some reasons why adding thyroid hormones in acutely sick patients in an ICU setting seem to offer no benefit:

Thyroid is sloooooow.  The half life of T4 (Thyroxine) is about a week.  The body takes at least a week or two to respond to each dosage change.  In an office setting, it typically takes 4 - 6 months to get the ideal dose of thyroid hormone right.  Acute ICU patients are dead by then.  Most likely, acute ICU patient with a preceding chronic problem (like heart disease) are already hypothyroid for longstanding period unrecognized by the medical profession.  Too little, too late.
The wrong thyroid hormone is prescribed.  Prescription T4 is usually levothyroxine, which is a backwards “dimer” of thyroxine.  it is not natural.  This is why drug companies can get a patent on it because it is not found in nature.  Who knows what your body thinks of it?

T4 to T3 conversion is practically non-existent in sick people. The active form of thyroid hormone is T3. Doctors almost always prescribe a T4 variant. Many people have trouble converting T4 to T3 anyway.  This is more pronounced in acute illness and all bets are off.

What does all of this have to do with migraine headaches? Practically every one with migraines I have ever met exhibits some symptoms of hypothyroidism (although their blood tests are almost always “normal”).

By the way, a good thyroid resource website to look at is www.1-Thyroid.com  I helped to write it.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

Last week the Chicago Tribune ran an article about the ongoing war between the FDA and the EPA regarding their respective advisories to women and children about eating seafood.

For years, the FDA has taken the position that fish oil is good nutrition. The article cites a new report by the FDA showing that the nutrients in fish can raise a child’s IQ by three points. They point out that the risks posed by mercury are offset by the intelligence boost of fish oil.

The EPA counters that  the FDA fails to consider that some species of fish tend to have much higher mercury levels than others. Studies have shown that fish eaten by pregnant women can cause brain damage to infants at birth, with delays in walking and talking as well as decreased attention span and memory.

The government agencies must have been exposed to mercury BECAUSE NO ONE IS USING THEIR BRAINS.

We all agree that fish oil (Omega-3 fatty acids) is good for you, good for brains, good for mothers and good for babies and children.

We all agree that mercury is bad for you.

We all agree that fish swimming in the ocean contain some mercury - maybe some more than others?

DID YOU KNOW THAT FISH OIL SUPPLEMENTS CONTAIN NO MERCURY?

Over the last 7-8 years, the fish oil supplementation industry has changed their manufacturing practices and began DISTILLING the fish oil.

This means that fish oil supplements HAVE NO MERCURY.  Let me restate that: If you take fish oil gel caps, you will not be exposed to any mercury.  Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Here is what the FDA and EPA should be advising:

Fish oil is good for you. Forget the fish.  Instead, take fish oil SUPPLEMENTS. Take as many gel caps as you can handle.  Women, children, babies, husbands, boys, dogs, cats, … everybody … needs to take fish oil in the form of gel caps.

Sure, enjoy your fresh Atlantic Salmon flown in that morning for your restaurant delicacy. But your day-in, day-out primary source of Omega essential fatty acids should be in the form of supplements that are in gel caps.

I don’t know why the FDA and EPA can’t figure this out?  But we sure can.

Yes, and one more thing -  Don’t forget about GLA.

What is GLA (gamma linolenic acid)?  GLA is a special Omega-6 fatty acid that is crucial in moderating inflammation. We need lots of GLA.

Too much fish oil supplementation can drive down GLA levels in the body.  This is bad.

So we now add GLA to our fish oil regimen.  We also add Oleic acid for better balance.

Here is some freebie advice: very few fish oil supplements contain GLA and/or Oleic acid.  Here is one product we like:

Omega1000.

You can get it at www.Omega1000.com

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 

It was the day before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring - well, except for mom, who had a headache - and she wasn’t stirring very much because it hurt worse everytime she moved her head.

Tis the season of the Seasonal Migraine.

What do we mean by “Seasonal Migraine” (or Seasonal Headache)?   Some people only get migraines at certain times of the year.  Usually the seasonal migraine is related to the allergy season which causes initially an allergy sinus headache, which then triggers the migraine.

Others get headaches in the coldest time of the year, which is just beginning for most folks in the Northern Hemisphere.  A good percentage of our readers reside primarily in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and they get cold in June.

Again, the cold somehow triggers a migraine in a manner we don’t understand. Speaking of triggers, there is a whole host of triggers that my readers can rattle off and have great experience with. Unfortunately, mainstream medicine and many of my customers spend way too much time worrying about triggers and not enough time trying to correct the underlying problem - which is a hormonal imbalance.

Correct the hormone imbalance and you don’t need to worry about triggers anymore.

So the take home message this holiday season is add the right hormones, mix in a few extra ingredients that correct other deficiencies (that will be explained in my upcoming 5th edition of the book coming out soon) and presto! - migraines are gone.

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 

Why do some menopausal women get migraines for the first time? Everyone knows the “typical” migraine patient: Female and onset of migraines between age 25 - 35, right?

Migraines can start as young as 7-8 years old and run all the way into the 70’s.  The number of children getting migraines is increasing.  The oldest women I see getting migraines for the first time are in their 50’s, and not much older.

The question is why? Theoretically, women with migraines are supposed to get better once they enter menopause, but I really haven’t seen that, either.  For many women, if they already had migraines for years, their migraines got even worse after menopause.

So what is going on? It’s all in the hormones - and possibly, more importantly, - it’s in the relative balance of hormones between the estrogens and progesterone. For good measure, I will throw in another hormone - thyroid - that acts as a wild card.

For one thing, we are seeing an epidemic of women with severe menopausal symptoms. In past centuries, this didn’t happen.  Of course, in past centuries, we didn’t see this epidemic of migraines, either.  So there must be some sort of external stimulus for migraines, regardless of the age and for severity of menopausal symptoms?

I have been saying for years that birth control pills have wrecked several generations of women. Throw in traditional, synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and you have most of the answer.  For those who managed to escape taking both birth control pills and HRT, there are xeno-estrogens.

All of these external stimuli shut down and poison the ovaries.  The ovaries manufacture sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone (and testosterone).  Once the ovaries are poisoned, the game is over. Then we wait for bad things to happen from migraines to ovarian cysts and endometriosis to breast cancer.

Menopausal women by definition have had their estrogen levels fall off a cliff. It stands to reason that if the ovaries are not making estrogen  in sufficient quantities, then maybe they are making the other sex hormones, too? When that happens, you get migraines.

The good news is that migraines and menopause are both hormonal conditions caused by a lack of natural hormones. The solution is rather simple - just add back the deficient hormones (mixed with some other ingredients) and presto - symptoms are resolved.

The same is true for menopause, albeit a little easier. A great reference website for menopause is

www.1-menopause.com

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.Migraine-Headaches-Information.com

www.PMScure.com

www.Depression.com

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

Since this website was launched in early 2006, we have had the privilege of reaching out to thousands of women worldwide.  The original migraine headache book, “The Natural Cure to Your Migraine Headache” is now in its 4th edition as of last week. You can order from this website now.

The book has gone through a number of changes - mostly add-ons - as we continue to address the latest additions in treating and eliminating migraines. What started out as a two major item recommendation that we used from our clinic experience has blossomed into finding ways of dealing with the non-responders effectively (the 20% people).

From that perspective, I think we have done a good job at finding out why the non-responders did not respond. We already know from our clinic experience that women with co-existing problems like hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and yeast problems (like Irritable Bowel Syndrome) required additional recommendations.

So a special section was created just for those women with the above problems. We already knew that women with migraines tended to have problems like PMS, depression, ovarian cysts, endometriosis, infertility, irregular or painful periods. So they were already well covered by the original recommendations.

In the latest edition - now our 4th edition - we have added some really exciting recommendations regarding current studies showing worldwide deficiencies in Vitamin D, essential fatty acids and an essential element that is critical to metabolism.

We have also managed to consolidate the recommendations into just a couple of areas for people to go to, rather than run around like a pinball. The ease and simplicity of the program is showing in the 4th edition.

This is the best one yet and we are quite excited. As we enter our fourth year of online book sales, we couldn’t be more pleased.  Women from 40 countries have been placed into our program and we continue to receive testimonials daily.

Our women are getting their migraines eliminated, easily, safely and for very resonable cost without having to see a doctor or get a prescription. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Andrew Jones, M.D.

Medical Director, Women’s Health Institute of Texas

www.AndrewJonesMD.com

www.PMScure.com

www.1-Menopause.com

www.1-VitaminD.com

One of the hottest topics amongst Health and Wellness doctors is Vitamin D.  New discoveries over the last two years have really opened up the science on this very important vitamin.

Actually, Vitamin D functions more like a true hormone.  It affects multiple organ systems all over the body.

We are now finding that Vitamin D affects far more than just your bones.  Higher levels of Vitamin D improve your body’s stance against inflammation, pain, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancers and even migraines.

One of the main actions of Vitamin D is to suppress a transcription factor called “NF-kappaB”.  This NF-kappaB is a promoter of the body’s inflammation cascade in response to stress, radiation, free radicals, cytokines and bacterial and viral infections.

However, in cases were someone is deficient in Vitamin D, NF-kappaB is allowed to promote inflammation unchecked and bad things happen in the long run.

The other bad thing is that almost the entire population of the planet is deficient in Vitamin D.  Exposure to sunlight doesn’t help much, either.  Just ask the folks in Saudi Arabia whose latest study showed an 83% deficiency of Vitamin D amongst a group over there.

The New England Journal of Medicine stated some years ago that “Vitamin D Deficiency is Pandemic”, meaning that it is bigger than an epidemic.  The Mayo Clinic determined that nearly everyone in Minnesota is Vitamin D deficient.

So where does that leave us?  We recommend that the entire planet start taking Vitamin D supplements whether you have migraines or not.  That means men, women and children.  New guidelines state that we should take 5000 IU’s per day.  This is up from the old 400 IU’s per day of a couple years ago.

Where do you get Vitamin D in this form?  We recommend Vitamin D5000 at www.VitaminD5000.com .

Another good reference is found at:  www.1-VitaminD.com

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