Migraine miseries-How do you cope?

Patients say years of suffering and new drug treatments have helped them find their own ways.

The news that the US presidential candidate Michele Bachmann suffers from severe migraines has touched off a national discussion about a surprisingly common disorder that is little understood and often undertreated.

Migraine patients are coming forward with their stories. And while each one is different,they have two common threads: suffering and trying to cope.

For some,a migraine represents throbbing head pain and nausea so severe they retreat to a darkened room for a day or more. For others,its about a scary moment,driving on the highway when a migraine-induced aura or vision change forces them to pull over.

Imagine someone having driven a nail straight through your head, said Craig Partridge,50,chief scientist for a research company in Michigan,who began having migraines in his teens. And then they periodically tap on it to remind you its there. Its that painful.

More than 10 per cent of adults and children suffer from migraine which is three times as common in women and girls as in men and boys and the Migraine Research Foundation reports that nearly a quarter of households are affected. The World Health Organisation ranks migraine among the top 20 most debilitating health conditions; more than 90 per cent of sufferers are unable to work or function normally during an attack,which can last for hours or even days.

Some migraine sufferers say the attacks are so debilitating they couldnt imagine taking on a job with significant responsibility. But others note that years of experience and new drug treatments have helped them find ways to cope. Some say the condition forced them to take better care of themselves and adopt healthful behaviours,like getting enough sleep and learning to manage stress.

Partridge has learned to avoid caffeine and bright lights,and is vigilant about wearing sunglasses in strong sunlight. Years of taking ibuprofen to treat headaches led to an ulcer. Eventually,he learned that a magnesium supplement reduced the frequency of his headaches,and now he gets only about three a year.

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Kat Smith,a 47-year-old mother of three in Bryn Mawr,remembers her teenage brother suffering terribly from migraines,but she never experienced them until a bike accident in her 20s. Then,after the birth of her son,she had migraines regularly and fiercely about 12 times a month. She discovered that small amounts of alcohol and vigorous physical activity acted as a trigger.

I was a fairly carefree person,but I became rigid,very disciplined with myself, she said. It seemed I had to eliminate things that other people associated with joy. I had to reconstruct my life as a person of migraine after accepting that these werent going to go away.

She adapted,giving up ice hockey and aerobics and switching to yoga. But sometimes she pushes her limits. This weekend she took part in a vigorous dance class and was punished with a migraine.

For many patients,including Smith,a class of migraine drugs called triptans have been a godsend,helping to cut short the pain. Triptans work by causing blood vessels in the brain to constrict and change blood flow,and can often stop a migraine completely or reduce its severity if taken in the early minutes of an attack. Others take daily treatments to prevent migraine from setting in.TARA PARKER-POPE