Special Report: Mastering Migraines

These are pictures of pain. Migraine sufferers taking you into their aching world...disturbing details through drawings and words.

Mona Russell, Migraine sufferer
"The only thing I can compare it to is labor contractions."

Mona Russell is a professor at Framingham State College.

She teaches fearing a migraine could strike her at anytime.

Mona Russell, Migraine sufferer
"It's almost like my eyebrow is twitching and I know that it's coming on."

Dr. Carolyn Bernstein, Cambridge Health Alliance
"There was one day I was lying on the floor in my office with the worst headache."

Dr. Carolyn Bernstein not only has migraines, she also treats them.

Dr. Bernstein is the director of the headache clinic at Cambridge Health Alliance.

Dr. Carolyn Bernstein, Cambridge Health Alliance
"I think a large number of women suffer from headaches that are related to hormones and it can affect them at different points in their lives."

Twenty-eight million Americans suffer from migraines as many as 80% are women. The throbbing usually occurs on one side of the head lasting between 4 and 72 hours.

You can experience nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light or loud noises.

There's no cure ...but newer and better treatments are on the horizon including this portable migraine zapper.

Before the pounding begins, many experience what's called an "aura" with blurred or distorted vision.

When that happens you would move the zapper over your head creating a magnetic field to interrupt the migraine before it fully develops.

A long time sufferer got a chance to test it for herself.

"This is the most wonderful thing that has come along for me."

A smaller version of the portable zapper is in the works... and could be available as early as next year.

Dr. Carolyn Bernstein, Cambridge Health Alliance
"I don't think there's any one fixed answer. It has to be as individual as the person who is presenting with migraines."

Treatment can also come in a pill... including sprays and tablets, known as triptans, which can stop an attack by constricting blood vessels.

You can also teach your body to stop the triggers through biofeedback.

You're hooked up to electrodes and things like body temperature or heart rate can show if your trigger is something like stress.

Learning what triggers her headaches has helped Mona.

Mona Russell, Migraine sufferer
"When you add stress to other types of triggers like bright sunlight and glare from the snow the pain can be just excruciating."

In addition to medicine, Mona plans to try acupuncture for the stress and she'll wear sunglasses to avoid the glare.

Like all migraine sufferers she would like to stop them before they start.

Dr. Bernstein plans to open a center dedicated to helping women with migraines sometime this summer.

For more information on migraines and to view pictures from migraine sufferers:

American Headache Society
http://www.ahsnet.org/

American Council for Headache Education
http://www.achenet.org/

For more information on the migraine zapper:
http://www.neuralieve.com/

Cambridge Health Alliance and Dr. Carolyn Bernstein
http://www.challiance.org/