For people who struggle with ongoing migraines, the daily threat of head pain can be a tough way to live. From one day to the next, you never know whether a migraine is going to strike and lay you out for the rest of the day, which can make planning anything in your life challenging.
Unfortunately, millions of people live with this threat hanging over their heads — between 3% and 5% of the population in the United States have chronic migraines, and it’s the third leading cause of disability around the world.
If you’d like to control your ongoing migraines better, the team of headache specialists here at Johnston Pain Management wants to discuss Botox® and its potential role in your migraine management plan.
Since Botox was approved by the FDA more than 15 years ago as a treatment for chronic migraines, let’s first review what the term chronic means.
By the numbers, chronic migraines are defined as having 15 headache days or more per month for at least three months. At least eight of these headache days should include migraine-specific symptoms.
Chronic migraines tend to develop over time as the headaches become more frequent, and nearly 8% of people diagnosed with migraine go on to develop chronic migraine.
As you might imagine, one of the priorities when you have chronic migraine is to reduce its frequency, which is what Botox is designed to do. In other words, think of Botox as a preventive treatment.
The active ingredient in Botox is onabotulinumtoxinA, which is a neuromodulator that can disrupt the pain signaling. In more detail, when you’re in pain, your body releases certain chemical neurotransmitters that carry the pain signaling, and Botox disrupts this transmission.
So, without the pain signaling, a migraine won’t gain any traction, which is how Botox can prevent 8-9 headache days per month, according to their studies.
To get started with Botox, we perform your first treatment and inject the neurotoxin into key muscles around your head and neck. We will also focus on areas where you feel the most discomfort during a migraine attack.
After your first treatment, you should keep up with your Botox treatments every 3-4 months to ensure long-term protection against frequent head pain.
According to Botox (and our own experiences here), patients are very pleased with results, and 99% of users say they will continue their Botox treatments.
So, if you’re tired of being sidelined by frequent migraines and you want a solution that will help you plug back into life, we invite you to schedule a Botox consultation at one of our three conveniently located offices in Jacksonville, Hampstead, or New Bern, North Carolina.
