Managing
Migraines WITH Cannabis BY ANTONIO DEROSE
Many of us have experienced some sort of headache, and several of us have experienced migraine pain. According to the Migraine Research Foundation, migraines are a neurological disease that affects 39 million people in America and 1 billion people worldwide. Migraines are more than bad headaches, and are often characterized with symptoms like severe throbbing pain, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to lights, sounds, and smells. The severity of migraines is often misunderstood, and most people discredit how incapacitating true migraines can be. Migraines are reported as being “the 6th most disabling illness in the world” and “every 10 seconds, someone in the U.S. goes to the emergency room complaining of head pain,
50
and approximately 1.2 million visits are for acute migraine attacks.” In addition to being one of the most common visits to emergency rooms, more than 4 million people experience migraine pain on a chronic daily basis. Now that we have a better understanding for how incapacitating and frightening common migraine pain is across the world, let’s take a deeper look into the different types of migraines, before discussing how cannabis may be able to help. The American Migraine Foundation defines a total of nine different types of migraines. The most common is a Migraine without Aura, but almost one in four will experience a Migraine with Aura, also known as a complicated
migraine. Those who suffer from these complicated migraines “experience aura, a series of sensory and visual changes that can range from seeing black dots and zags to tingling numbness on one side of the body, or an inability to speak clearly. Aura sets in shortly before or during a migraine, and can last anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. Aura is the second of migraine’s four stages, and anyone who experiences it will confirm it is an unmistakable warning sign that the severe head pain is on its way.” Retinal migraines occur when the headache causes temporary loss of vision, and is most common in women. Loss of vision can last as short as a minute or as long as a few months. Hemiplegic migraines result in symptoms similar to stroke, with weakening
