4 Ways We Can Prevent Your Migraines

You feel that first twinge or experience a visual disturbance and you know what’s coming — a painful migraine that’s going to lay you out for a few hours, if not a few days. You’re tired of living under the constant threat of a migraine upending your life and preventing you from functioning on any level.

For the 39 million Americans who live with migraine, the experience is much the same as yours, which means a good percentage of the population is looking for relief from this debilitating head pain.

While there’s no cure for migraines, there are ways we can prevent migraines and reduce their frequency. 

At Revive Spine & Pain Center, our team specializes in headache disorders like chronic migraines. We recognize that prevention is far better than trying to deal with a migraine once it sets in.

To that end, we offer four migraine prevention treatments, which we review below.

Botox® or Myobloc® injections

A great line of defense when it comes to chronic migraine — defined as having at least 15 migraine days per month — are Botox or Myobloc injections.

While Botox is most widely known for getting rid of wrinkles, this treatment was first used to help with strabismus (cross eyes).  Botox is also an effective treatment for urinary incontinence and overactive bladder. 

The active ingredient in Botox is called onabotulinum toxin A, which is a neurotoxin that relaxes target muscles, as well as disrupts neurotransmission of pain signaling from your brain. The active ingredient in Myobloc is botulinum toxin B, which accomplishes much the same thing.

To prevent migraines, we inject either Botox or Myobloc into muscles in your face, head, and neck where they can perform the function of blocking pain signaling. As a result, your migraine days are reduced — according to manufacturers, by up to 8-9 headache days.

CGRP monoclonal antibody injections

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antibodies monoclonal antibodies are a relatively new approach for preventing migraines. 

When you have a migraine, your cerebral nerves and blood vessels release CGRP. With CGRP monoclonal antibody treatments, we can suppress the CGRP to prevent migraines.

Sphenopalatine ganglion block

When you have a migraine, the pain mostly stems from certain cranial nerves, such as your trigeminal nerve. Your sphenopalatine ganglion is a cluster of nerve cells located behind your nose that’s associated with your trigeminal nerve and migraine pain.

As the name suggests, with a sphenopalatine ganglion block we disrupt the pain signaling. To do this, we insert a catheter into the sphenopalatine ganglion and introduce a numbing agent that prevents the nerve cells from firing off pain signals.

Neuromodulation

Medical providers are turning to neuromodulation more than ever for a number of different pain conditions, such as migraines and chronic lower back pain. 

The concept behind neuromodulation is the interruption of the pain signaling between the overactive nerves and your brain through electrical impulses that garble the messaging.

Many of our patients like this migraine-prevention approach since it doesn’t rely on medications and it’s minimally invasive. Neuromodulation is also entirely reversible if the mild electrical impulses don’t work to reduce your head pain.

As you can see, you’re not without options, even though we haven’t found a migraine cure yet.

If you’d like to explore whether any of these migraine prevention treatments would help relieve your headache burden, please make an appointment at one of our New Jersey locations in Marlton, Hamilton Township, Northfield, or East Brunswick.