Bal and Hollingworth do not specify the main causes of increasingly
frequent and severe headaches in a 32 year-old woman.1 These are use of
hormonal contraceptives or ergotamine medication or tobacco smoking, as I
detailed in a response to Tim Steiner's review.2
Was the young woman taking hormones? Was she at risk of becoming
pregnant? As no contraceptive method is 100% effective, ergot and most
medications are inappropriate for women of reproductive age. Ergot
medications are the main cause of severe recurrent headaches with nausea
and vomiting. Which complementary medicines cause headaches? Herbs with
oestrogenic actions or herbs contaminated with mycotoxins would be suspect
particularly.
Nearly all migraine patients believe their headaches are due to
stress but very common deficiencies in intracellular zinc and/or magnesium
concentrations impair amine metabolism and the ability to have flexible
biochemical responses to stress. These deficiencies impair the function of
hundreds of enzymes and increase headache reactions to common foods like
wheat and coffee and common chemicals like tobacco smoke and domestic
gas.3,4
I have been amazed that stroke medicine doctors are involved in
research to find out if HRT can "prevent" strokes decades after we had
evidence that progesterones and oestrogens caused strokes.5,6 Our first
paper finding that oral contraceptive use increased headaches and migraine
was published by the BMJ in 1962.7 The 3rd woman enrolled in the Anovlar
study developed benign intracranial hypertension and the 12th woman had a
thrombotic stroke with secondary haemorrhage after 5 years.3 In 1977 the
RCGP oral contraceptive study reported a 4.1 times increased risk of
cerebo-vascular accidents (CVA) in oral contraceptive users in 1974 and a
2.7 times increased CVA mortality with 10 years of use in 1999.
Iain Chalmers believes researchers should first analyse what can be
learned from existing research and that it is unethical to ignore previous
work. Past evidence is still being ignored in the continued promotion of
hormone use and in the management of headaches.
1 Bal S K, Hollingworth GR. Headache BMJ 2005; 330: 346 (12
February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7487.346
2 Grant ECG. Clinical review of headache
http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7369/881#26539, 27 Oct 2002
3 Grant ECG. The pill, hormone replacement therapy, vascular and mood
over-reactivity, and mineral imbalance. J Nutr Environ Med 1998; 8:105-16.
4 Grant ECG. Reducing the cost of headaches
http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/328/7442/744#54619, 26 Mar 2004
5 Grant ECG. HRT, strokes and vasodilatation
http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/330/7487/342#94407, 27 Jan 2005
6 Grant ECG. Hormonal contraceptives cause migraine, ischaemic and
haemorrhagic strokes.
http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/330/7482/63#92460, 13 Jan 2005
7 Mears E, Grant ECG. "Anovlar" as an oral contraceptive. BMJ 1962;
2: 75-79.
Rapid Response:
Causes of headache
Bal and Hollingworth do not specify the main causes of increasingly frequent and severe headaches in a 32 year-old woman.1 These are use of hormonal contraceptives or ergotamine medication or tobacco smoking, as I detailed in a response to Tim Steiner's review.2
Was the young woman taking hormones? Was she at risk of becoming pregnant? As no contraceptive method is 100% effective, ergot and most medications are inappropriate for women of reproductive age. Ergot medications are the main cause of severe recurrent headaches with nausea and vomiting. Which complementary medicines cause headaches? Herbs with oestrogenic actions or herbs contaminated with mycotoxins would be suspect particularly.
Nearly all migraine patients believe their headaches are due to stress but very common deficiencies in intracellular zinc and/or magnesium concentrations impair amine metabolism and the ability to have flexible biochemical responses to stress. These deficiencies impair the function of hundreds of enzymes and increase headache reactions to common foods like wheat and coffee and common chemicals like tobacco smoke and domestic gas.3,4
I have been amazed that stroke medicine doctors are involved in research to find out if HRT can "prevent" strokes decades after we had evidence that progesterones and oestrogens caused strokes.5,6 Our first paper finding that oral contraceptive use increased headaches and migraine was published by the BMJ in 1962.7 The 3rd woman enrolled in the Anovlar study developed benign intracranial hypertension and the 12th woman had a thrombotic stroke with secondary haemorrhage after 5 years.3 In 1977 the RCGP oral contraceptive study reported a 4.1 times increased risk of cerebo-vascular accidents (CVA) in oral contraceptive users in 1974 and a 2.7 times increased CVA mortality with 10 years of use in 1999.
Iain Chalmers believes researchers should first analyse what can be learned from existing research and that it is unethical to ignore previous work. Past evidence is still being ignored in the continued promotion of hormone use and in the management of headaches.
1 Bal S K, Hollingworth GR. Headache BMJ 2005; 330: 346 (12 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7487.346
2 Grant ECG. Clinical review of headache http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/325/7369/881#26539, 27 Oct 2002
3 Grant ECG. The pill, hormone replacement therapy, vascular and mood over-reactivity, and mineral imbalance. J Nutr Environ Med 1998; 8:105-16.
4 Grant ECG. Reducing the cost of headaches http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/328/7442/744#54619, 26 Mar 2004
5 Grant ECG. HRT, strokes and vasodilatation http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/330/7487/342#94407, 27 Jan 2005
6 Grant ECG. Hormonal contraceptives cause migraine, ischaemic and haemorrhagic strokes. http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/330/7482/63#92460, 13 Jan 2005
7 Mears E, Grant ECG. "Anovlar" as an oral contraceptive. BMJ 1962; 2: 75-79.
Competing interests: None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests