Migraines – A Serious Women’s Health Issue

We have all known someone who has been devastated by migraines that may come on unexpectedly and bring symptoms like throbbing pain, sensitivity to light, nausea, and vomiting and lasts for hours or days. Chances are that someone was female. Migraine is not only a debilitating illness, it is an important women’s health issue. Of the over 36 million Americans afflicted with migraine, 27 million are women. Women suffer from migraines three times as often as men, in the U.S that is 18% vs 3% respectively, making it one of the leading serious health problems affecting women, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. In fact, of the women who suffer from migraines, 25% have four or more severe attacks per month, which can cause a serious interruption in their personal and professional lives.

Migraine is not just a bad headache. It is an extremely debilitating collection of neurological symptoms that usually includes a severe recurring intense throbbing pain on one or both sides of the head that lasts from four hours to three days, often accompanied by one or more of the following: visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, extreme sensitivity to sound, light, touch and smell, and tingling or numbness in the extremities or face. These symptoms, which can last 20-60 minutes, are referred to as the aura phase of the headache. Of course, everyone is different, and symptoms vary by person and sometimes by attack. The challenge for neurologists is that migraine is difficult to treat because the symptoms are hard to evaluate and can change from one attack to the next. Since symptoms vary widely, migraine is often misdiagnosed and many sufferers are never diagnosed.
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So many women suffer from this incapacitating condition, yet the causes remain unknown and there is no cure. Women report pain that lasts longer and occurs more frequently than among men. There is much evidence connecting hormones to migraine, but not all migraines are hormonal. Curiously, during childhood, migraine is more prevalent in boys than in girls, but once puberty kicks in and estrogen acts up, girls are more susceptible. In fact, girls are more likely to have their first migraine during the year of their first period than at any other time in their lives, according to Cathy Glaser, President of the Migraine Research Foundation. After puberty, migraine in women increases until about age 45, when it begins to taper off. Many women find their migraine symptoms are affected for better or worse by menstruation, hormonal contraception, pregnancy, and menopause. Hormonal fluctuations, especially estrogen withdrawal, are thought to trigger migraines. During perimenopause, which can start in the mid 30s with hormonal fluctuations, migraines often get worse. Fortunately, migraine incidence decreases during menopause and drops to 5% in women after age 60.

“By helping research scientists discover the root causes of migraine and determine how to treat them, the Migraine Research Foundation hopes that everyone who suffers from migraine will eventually have an effective treatment that they can count on to allow them to live a healthy, happy and productive life, says Stephen Semlitz, co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Migraine Research Foundation.

Study finds people in Appalachia, Deep South live the shortest lives

Living to the ripe old age of…60? Where you live could factor into how long you live.

A new study published in the online journal Population Health Metrics showed life expectancy is falling in many US counties, hitting women especially hard.

Appalachia and the deep South have the lowest life expectancy numbers (mid-60′s for men, early 70′s for women).

In our area:

Highest life expectancy for men (age 72): Montgomery, Bedford and Botetout Counties.

Lowest life expectancy for men (age 67): Roanoke City, Martinsville, Danville.

Highest life expectancy for women (age 80): Bedford and Salem.

Lowest life expectancy for women (age 77): Halifax, Danville, Martinsville, and Smyth and Grayson Counties.

One of the biggest trends in this study has to do with women.

Women have, historically, always lived longer than men, but this study found that the age a women is expected to live to, is declining in many counties.

A women’s life expectancy has remained the same, or even dropped, in more than 850 counties, over a 20 year period. That’s compared to just 84 counties where mens life expectancy declined, according to the study.

Southwestern Virginia doctors say higher poverty rates, less health education and culture could contribute to the life expectancy discrepancies in different areas, specifically for how long women are living.

“This study tells us there are issues in the rural areas that are particularly hard hit socioeconomically,” said Mary Arnold, a women’s health navigator at Carilion’s New River Valley Medical Center. “Women take care of everybody but themselves; their kids, family, home, and if given the choice, they are going to focus on those things.”

“But there are also stress factors that come with having less money to deal with or a loss of jobs, which may lead to the choice of poor life style habits,” Arnold said.

Carilion has a outreach programs to help combat some of the factors leading to shorter lives, like smoking, obesity, chronic illness, said Arnold, but taking advantage of those services is up to the individual.

Affordable contraception vital to women’s health care

In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law making it illegal for married couples to use birth control. The case of Griswold v. Connecticut, initially brought against one law in one small state, ensured that women can make personal decisions about if and when to have children — monumentally improving their health and the health of their families.

Forty-six years ago, women had few choices in planning their lives and their families. Thus, they were more likely to experience poor health outcomes, and their children were, too. They faced enormous barriers in pursuing educational and professional goals. And communities suffered.

The Griswold case set women, and our country, on a new, healthier path. Today, family planning is widely recognized by the medical community as integral to improving women’s health and the health of their children. For many women, access to contraception has allowed them to go to college, to pursue a career and to have a healthy pregnancy. Thirty-eight million women — more than 60 percent of those between 15 and 44 — use some contraceptive method at any given time. Not surprisingly, communities are healthier than they were in 1965.

When women plan their pregnancies, they are more likely to seek prenatal care, improving their own health and the health of their children. Access to family planning is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality rates. In 2005, pregnancy-related deaths were down 52 percent from 1965. At the same time, the number of women in the U.S. labor force more than doubled.

Yet still, for millions of American women, birth control is beyond their reach. For uninsured women, out-of-pocket costs are prohibitive; even for women with health insurance, related co-payments are often unaffordable. More than a third of women have struggled with the cost of prescription birth control at some point and have thus failed to use it consistently.

A woman with insurance faces co-pays of $15 to $50 a month ($180 to $600 annually) for birth control pills and hundreds of dollars in out-of-pocket costs for longer-acting methods. Studies show that when cost barriers are removed, women switch quickly to more effective methods, and experience fewer unintended pregnancies — a critical outcome in a nation where nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended. Ultimately, removing cost barriers to birth control could mean as much today as removing legal barriers did a half-century ago.

The Affordable Care Act holds enormous promise for expanding access to birth control. Under the new law, millions of women will become insured for the first time, and health care — including birth control — that they have gone without will finally be attainable. Moreover, the law offers an unprecedented opportunity to make birth control more affordable. Efforts by some states to oppose the law is shortsighted.

The Griswold anniversary is a time to celebrate and also an occasion to recommit ourselves to improving our nation’s health.