MIGRAINES
Migraines can
be positively excruciating. And about 3 million Canadians
suffer from them. Why? Well the current scientific opinion is
that migraines are caused by the sudden dilation then constriction
of blood
vessels in the brain. What causes that? Well, seratonin, norepinephrine
and prostaglandins are biochemicals which are thought to
be responsible.
Once a migraine
already exists there are all kinds of
medications that can stop the migraine but wouldn't it be great if
we could
prevent it? Well, this little plant here called feverfew may do
the job for some people. Somewhat of a misnomer. In bygone days they
tried using this to depress fever but it really doesn't do that very
well. But, it does contain a chemical called parthenolide which in
some way regulates the levels of these brain chemicals that I mentioned
and prevents the sudden dilation and constriction of blood vessels.
How much of it
do we take? Well it turns out that clinical studies
have worked with 0.4% parthenolide and that's available theses
days in all kinds of preparations. And in some of those clinical
studies the results were very impressive. 70% of the patients
said they had fewer migraines or that the migraines were less
intense. The only problem is that you have to take feverfew regularly.
It's not something that you take once you have a migraine. It
has to be consistent, patients have to be complient. But as
a general
rule migraine patients are very compliant, because they know if
they don't do things right they will get a migraine and a migraine
is a real
pain.
