With thanks to vito_excalibur for passing on the link to this excellent article.

An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

To hear his enemies talk, you might think Paul Offit is the most hated man in America. A pediatrician in Philadelphia, he is the coinventor of a rotavirus vaccine that could save tens of thousands of lives every year. Yet environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slams Offit as a “biostitute” who whores for the pharmaceutical industry. Actor Jim Carrey calls him a profiteer and distills the doctor’s attitude toward childhood vaccination down to this chilling mantra: “Grab ‘em and stab ‘em.” Recently, Carrey and his girlfriend, Jenny McCarthy, went on CNN’s Larry King Live and singled out Offit’s vaccine, RotaTeq, as one of many unnecessary vaccines, all administered, they said, for just one reason: “Greed.”

The poor man has received death threats and threats to his children!

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I finally posted about vaccines and misinformation because I reached a critical mass of annoyance.

In the past few weeks I've been bombarded with misinformation and junk science links. Just today I got another one about how aspirin was the real cause of most of the Spanish Flu deaths, not the flu itself.

I posted on Facebook innocently that I had finally gotten my seasonal flu shot and got a bunch of responses about how dangerous vaccines are and of course the one person who always says "I got a flu shot once and got sick the next day so I'll never get one again." Um...you can't get symptoms that fast after exposure anyway. It has to incubate first. You were already incubating the flu if you got sick.

Then a pregnant woman who got the H1N1 vaccine was writing that all the information from the anti-vaccine crowd had her freaked out that she was hurting her fetus. That one put me over the edge because she had done the sensible thing but these people were scaring her with their junk science links and misinformation.

Get the vaccine or don't get the vaccine, I don't care, that's just more for me and my family. But please just stop with the hysteria over the vaccine and get your information from reputable sources.

I use natural medicine to some extent--I just read carefully before I do. I'm not anti-herbal medicine, acupuncture, or other natural therapies. I do believe that herbs are powerful enough to cause harm if you don't do your research and aren't careful about what you combine them with.

But I have seen natural medicine go horribly wrong. Here's just one example: a couple was staying with me and they'd been to Guatemala recently. The guy turned yellow and wasn't feeling well and went to a natural doc, a Chinese herbal medicine doc and acupuncturist. He was told that his liver had too many toxins and sent home with some herbs. He was cooking for our family in return for staying rent free. He gave my daughter and myself Hepatitis Type A, the kind you get from someone not washing their hands well after a bowel movement. We managed to get my son a gamma globulin shot and he didn't get it. We were as sick as dogs, and we fortunately just had a mild case. Hep A can kill in some cases. We could have avoided infection if he had been diagnosed correctly.

On the other hand, I had an acupuncturist cure something that a Western doc said it would take surgery to resolve. (Hardened matter in my tear duct after an infection, forming a huge lump--the herbs dissolved it.)

So I can see both sides of the natural/Western medicine debate, really I can. But science has done so much more for us than natural medicine had done in centuries. Our increased life spans is just one indicator of it's efficacy. Scientific method has given us every major advancement. My son would be dead without Western medicine.

In the area where I live, there are so many people not vaccinating their children that the old diseases have been making a comeback. When I was in college, not realizing that my immunity had worn off, I got whooping cough. I got to find out why it used to be so feared, in spite of the anti-vaccination folks saying it is a mild illness. That wasn't my experience or my daughter's. I didn't know there was an outbreak but she got it at school and brought it home.

With whooping cough the mucus is so thick it covers your throat until you can barely draw in breath to cough. There is just a tiny opening and it takes every ounce of strength to keep breathing in to get enough air to cough and try to clear your airway. You do this over and over again before you can breath easily, only to repeat the process later. All the usual things, expectorant, fluids, etc., don't seem to help.

I could imagine how the small children used to die just because they didn't have my adult strength to do this over and over and over again.

There's a reason we developed these vaccines. These diseases killed our children. Go to any cemetery and look at the many grave stones for young children of the past. (I walk through cemeteries just because I like them and I've seen.) People almost expected to lose a child pre-vaccine, pre-antibiotic, it happened so frequently. When we first got the vaccines, parents thought differently about the rare instances of bad reactions to them when compared to how many deaths they had seen before. Now, we've forgotten, and the rare reactions loom larger than the diseases we've never seen. So they're coming back. Maybe they need to in order to teach a whole new generation why they were feared.

I am reading a lot of stuff these days about people too afraid to take the H1N1 vaccine, people afraid to give their kids the chicken pox vaccine, the pertussis vaccine, and others.

What happened to science? Does no one read legitimate scientific research any more? The autism link has been thoroughly debunked. The vaccines have been changed so that thimerosol (the ingredient feared and thought to cause autism) is not used and still the hysteria continues. WTF?

We are having outbreaks of the diseases once nearly eradicated by widespread vaccination. The anti-vax crowd just says "Oh those diseases aren't as bad as we were told. So and so had whooping cough and was just fine! Measles, shmeasles." Yeah, let's bring back polio too. Kids really enjoyed the crutches and wheelchairs. Hey, they can pop wheelies!

I have a problem with chicken pox parties over vaccination, too. Do you people quarantine your kids after these parties? Because the immuno-suppressed kids might die if they get exposed. What about the pregnant lady on the bus? She shouldn't be exposed during the incubation phase either! You are all counting on a mild case of chicken pox--that's not the kind I had! Some people die from chicken pox but you'd rather deliberately expose your child than get a few shots of the vaccine? I had blisters in every conceivable place and some that you hadn't thought of. I was acutely miserable. I was lucky it wasn't worse. If I found out my parents deliberately gave it to me rather than give me a vaccine, I don't know if I would speak to them again.

While everyone is getting their exemption "for religious reasons" other kids can't go to school with your kids unless they're willing to risk their lives. A Pox on You chronicles the difficulties of one family with an immunosuppressed child who can't send him to a daycare because someone has an exemption. The author wonders what she will do when he goes to school:

For now, we will hire an at-home sitter for him. It's more expensive and not what we had wanted, but it's the best, safest option. When he is ready to go off to school, we will have to face this issue again: Public schools are forced to enroll unvaccinated children who have religious or philosophical exemptions—again, whatever that means. Because we want him to have as "normal" a life as possible, we'll likely send him off in the bright yellow school bus and cross our fingers that the kid sitting next to him didn't just attend a "chicken pox party" over the weekend. Because what's "just a case of chicken pox" for that kid could be a matter of life or death for mine.

Vaccination isn't just a personal decision. It's a public health matter that can affect others. Having a pox party can have devastating consequences unless all involved quarantine their children during the incubation phase. But since their children may attend multiple parties before they catch chicken pox, I am pessimistic that they will really keep their children home each time. If their own child has a mild case of chicken pox but kills another child through exposure, do they still feel good about their choice?

Junk science is rampant and ignorant people who don't read other sources fall for it every time. Anecdotal tales sound convincing but are no match scientifically for actual scientific studies, preferably more than one to duplicate results. Junk science is so compelling that a whole town fell for one spoof and wanted to ban foam containers with dihydrogenmonoxide or DHMO just to be safe. It's another way to describe H20, or water. One guy was so convinced by the spoof website that my husband couldn't convince him it was a scam even by showing him the debunking pages. "The hoax is designed to illustrate how the lack of scientific knowledge and an exaggerated analysis can lead to misplaced fears."

If you'd like to see the hoax, here is the page: http://www.dhmo.org/

More information:

http://www.vaccineinformation.org/

http://www.immunizationinfo.org/immunization_science.cfm

http://www.newsweek.com/id/218513

http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/vacsafe.htm#The%20safety%20record%20on%20vaccines

With thanks to stephanieb

ETA:

http://www.slate.com/id/2232187?obref=obinsite (Far Left and Far Right together on anti-vaccine hysteria)

http://www.flu.gov/myths/index.html (Flu myths and realities)

Over the weekend my father in law, Mike, had breathing problems and was taken to the hospital. He has blood clots in one of his lungs and they are giving him blood thinning medication and doing tests. We are still waiting on the results. Mike has been struggling with depression for the last few years as well.

Prayers/good thoughts/etc. deeply appreciated!

Having lost weight on the Migraine Diet, I was interested to try out the Stomach Flu Diet. Wow! It's really efficient! With all the rapid fluid loss, inability to eat solid food, and the doctor's stern admonishment to stay on clear liquids, I lost 11 pounds in just 5 days! Even after starting solid foods again I lost the last pound. Who knows where it will end?

If you must be in a size lower dress within a week or ten days, I highly recommend catching a stomach flu virus. It can't be beat.

I am re-posting (by request) her letter to her supporters in her fight against Lyme Disease, for which she has no health insurance. You might remember Fran from my post some time ago about the book "Without A Net," an anthology by and about working class women. The letter below makes a very important point that I think applies to most women--the ease of giving vs. the shame around asking for help. It's an issue that I confront myself and anyone of us will if we are seriously ill or in need. Given these difficult economic times, we should be reaching out to each other and asking for help or offering it, or pooling our resources as needed.

Here is her letter:

My Very Dear (and Hella Pretty) Lyme Fighting Army:

Unbelievably, this thank you letter is close to five months in the making. I’d like to say that time moves quickly when you have Lyme Disease, but it doesn‘t. Time rolls together when you are chronically ill, long stretches of it with little to delineate a day in January from a day in late March, except for a bit more sun.

I had set out all of those months ago to thank you. I thank you multiple times each day but I wanted to offer a thank you that you could see, a proper thank you that you could hold onto and come back to; even point the misanthropes in your life toward as evidence that there is good in the world, and that it originates in you.

Recently a 27 year-old man in Maryville, Illinois walked into a Baptist Church and shot its Pastor to death. The man, Terry J. Sedlacek, has a very severe case of late stage, neurological, Lyme Disease. He did not start out a shoot ‘em up kind of guy, but once those bacteria screw themselves into your brain and get the opportunity to hang out for a while everything about you changes.

It is well documented that he did not receive the care he needed. Very few of us are actually receiving all of the care we need. But in the absence of an adequate or sympathetic health care system the support and belief of one’s community makes an entire world of difference.

I wish you could see yourselves from here. You are many beautiful colors, all sizes, most socio-economic groups, many different genders, and many different sexualities. You run the gamut from the healthiest to the strongest crips and survivors I’ll ever lay my grateful eyes upon. You live all over the country, and in Canada and in Europe. You have various, and sometimes opposing beliefs. Some of you are religious personnel and some of you are not so holy. I’ve known you for most of my life and there are those among you I’ve never met - and still you are my family. You are smart and funny and kind and compassionate and you hold me up - you have held me up for over a year now. On my very worst days when I am certain I absolutely can not endure another minute of this I imagine your faces, and I hold on.

Some of you have donated generous amounts of money to my recovery. Some of you donate every week or every other week. Some of you, with almost nothing of your own to spare, send me $5 or $10. You send me care packages, femmes always send me make up because that is armor and they know it. You send me letters and e-mails and cards. Sometimes you pray for me, sometimes you light candles, sometimes you just close your eyes and think, simply, for my health. And, all of it - all of it - floors me. I cannot wrap my rapidly deteriorating brain around it.

Before I knew that I was sick I was proud to be an activist. I worked for social justice in the health care industry and I donated my time to teach kids about poetry. I read and I performed at fund raiser after fund raiser. I wrote and spoke extensively with the earnest hope of making a difference in someone else’s life. Before I became sick I held a deeply-rooted belief that it is noble to give of one’s self and shameful to require gifting, though I never would have said that out loud.

Now I think differently. And because my body does not frequently cooperate and allow me to physically accomplish all of the things I want to I have a lot more time to think. Before late stage Lyme became my daily reality I allowed the pride I felt in being helpful and in giving to define me. I thought it said something about me. Unlearning that vanity has been almost as difficult as learning how to live each day with a daunting, progressive illness.
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Great New Zealand ad against domestic violence:



And change is possible:



Another story of change:

Abuse victims report long-term poor health and depression. Researchers are puzzled by this, according to the article. I'm not surprised at all. Long after bruises fade one is still affected by the verbal abuse that was heard so many times it has become part of one's self image. It takes a lot of conscious effort to try to counteract that.

Also they should look at the sports study of concussions and brain injury.

I am reading some of the coverage of Chris Brown's abuse of Rihanna and everyone piling on her for reconciling. No one gets why it's so difficult for her to just walk away. That's because no one but her is in a relationship with him and in love with him. Without that emotion, it's so easy to see that she should leave him.

I'd like for her critics to imagine that suddenly the person they love hits them several times during a heated argument. I'd like for them to imagine the shock that this person they love is behaving this way. Those who say there should be a zero tolerance policy should imagine this. Imagine walking away from the person you love, the person who previously gave no obvious hint they'd ever do this. Imagine that person crying as they express remorse and promising to change. This person you love, this person you've shared so much with, this lover who is crying over having hurt you so badly. That angry person who hit you seems like an aberration. Surely this lover you've trusted with your heart and soul, who has been kind to you when you were sick, who has supported you in so many ways, this kind person is the real person, and will overcome the anger. Your love softens you and you agree to give them another chance. Everyone deserves a second chance, right? It's only fair.

Love doesn't stop on a dime. It takes a lot of beatings to kill it completely.

According to an article in CNN, Research shows that athlete's brains have damage from concussions.

This easily applies to anyone who has repeated blows to the head. Most battered women, if not all, are being struck in the head or having their head smashed into walls or floors. Even if you don't end up in the hospital with a serious concussion, you may have a mild concussion. This research shows that even those milder concussions are doing damage. The damage doesn't show up in MRIs or CT scans, but in this study they examined brain tissue of deceased athletes and saw extensive damage. Some of the symptoms of that damage were sleep disorders, depression, headaches, and memory problems. They call the disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

So far six out of six brains of former NFL players show the disorder. The youngest case was an 18 year old who already had the beginnings of brain damage. Think about it, our high school kids who play vigorous sports who get their heads knocked around may be getting brain damage. Researchers were shocked to find damage deep inside, not just on the surface.

This was particularly chilling for me to read because I have the surface evidence of damage--leading me to believe I may very well have some additional damage that wasn't seen on the MRI.

I've written to the Sports Legacy Institute and suggested they expand their research to include people who've survived repeated domestic assault. All one has to do is donate their brain to the project. I plan to donate my organs and be cremated anyway, so I'd be happy to sign up. At least my family can get some answers.
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Thinking can make you fat, study shows

11 Sep 2008

Researchers found the stress of onerous mental tasks caused subjects to overeat.
The results may help suggest how modern lifestyles have contributed to an obesity epidemic.
The research team, supervised by Dr Angelo Tremblay, measured the spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of three tasks.

The first was relaxing in a sitting position, the second reading and summarizing a text, and finally completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer.
After 45 minutes at each activity, participants were invited to eat as much as they wanted from a buffet. The researchers had already calculated that each session of intellectual work requires only three calories more than the rest period.

However, despite the low energy cost of mental work, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer tests.
This represents a 23.6 per cent and 29.4 per cent increase, respectively, compared with the rest period.

Blood samples taken before, during, and after each session revealed that intellectual work causes much bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels than rest periods.
Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study's main author, said: "These fluctuations may be caused by the stress of intellectual work, or also reflect a biological adaptation during glucose combustion."
The body could be reacting to these fluctuations by spurring food intake in order to restore its glucose balance, the only fuel used by the brain.

Mr Chaput added: "Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialised countries.

"This is a factor that should not be ignored, considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature."

The results of the study, carried out at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, are published in the most recent issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

No one likes to think about it, but there is something you need to know when it strikes you. A severe case can be life-threatening in some people. Your heart depends on keeping a good electrolyte balance for it's functioning. This was brought to mind by a sick friend today, who needed this formula.

To replace electrolytes lost in vomiting or diarrhea:

1 qt water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt substitute (lite salt) if available

Only for those over 12, under 12 you can use pediolyte, available at pharmacies without a prescription and I've even seen it at grocery stores.

It is vitally important to keep a proper balance of salts when you are rapidly losing them due to vomiting, extreme perspiration on a hot day, or other causes. And of course most people know but it bears repeating, that you shouldn't overdo water, even on a hot day, especially if you are not replacing mineral salts such as potassium, magnesium and sodium. In a few instances, people have died from drinking too much water as a result of a hazing incident or a radio contest. These tragedies were perfectly avoidable.

http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual_ha/sec3/ch18/ch18d.html

Finally, evidence of what the fat acceptance movement has always said (based on comparisons between fat people in their native cultures vs. those who move to America and live a less heart healthy lifestyle): Overweight doesn't always mean heart risks and normal-weight people aren't always heart-healthy!

Excerpt:

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy.

A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people -- about half -- have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.

The results also show that stereotypes about body size can be misleading and that even "less voluptuous" people can have risk factors commonly associated with obesity, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.

"We're really talking about taking a look with a very different lens" at weight and health risks, Sowers said.

Of course people of any size with a family history of heart disease will want to be cautious about weight gain and want to be particularly careful with their diet. It is recommended that they also keep their cholesterol well below the 200 that used to be considered normal. (Mine was only slightly higher than that in the years leading up to my diagnosis.) We should all be aware of our risk factors since heart disease is the number 1 killer of both men and women.

Soul legend Isaac Hayes died at age 65. What a shock, right after Bernie Mac!

(CNN) -- Soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for the theme from the 1971 action film "Shaft," has died, sheriff's officials in Memphis, Tennessee, reported Sunday.

Relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill, said Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff's Department.

Paramedics attempted to revive him and took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., the sheriff's department said.

No foul play is suspected, the agency said in a written statement.

What a shocker: Bernie Mac died today at age 50 from complications of pneumonia. Friends said that they thought he was getting better.

I was puzzled about what complications can occur so I looked it up. I knew about one of them but here's a page that gives a full list.

I confess that I am shocked by the recent group of famous people dying in their fifties. I mean, it's possible to die at any age and people die much younger. Maybe it's just that I am about to turn 50 myself, both my parents died in their early fifties, and so I'm sensitized to that age group and death. I don't know. But it seems like we are losing some really good people way too soon.

(Since I posted the link to an article about sleep apnea and the increased risk of death, I thought I would re-post from my forum about symptoms and treatment.)

The public is just beginning in the last few years to hear about sleep apnea. Normally you hear that it is something that interrupts your sleep and makes you tired and prone to have car accidents. Maybe you've heard that it is a cardiac risk factor but have no idea why. You hear also that people who are over weight and snore loudly are at risk, and since you are thin and don't snore or snore "gently" you think you are probably safe.

Think again. Respiratory therapists who treat it think it is one of the most underdiagnosed diseases out there.

You can be young, thin, snore loudly, barely snore, be athletic, not think you are tired during the day, and still be suffering from sleep apnea. The only way you can know for sure is to be tested. Testing is easy now and can be done in your home in most cases. A respiratory therapist can hook you up to painless heart monitors, and a tube that measures your breath will be taped so that it is at the entrance of your nostrils, recording the oxygen level and breaths. You sleep through the night and the data collected in a small device is then taken back to the therapist for evaluation.

Some of the indicators of sleep apnea may be:

daytime drowsiness or feeling groggy upon awakening, even with 8 or more hours of sleep, needing lots of coffee

tossing and turning at night rather than sleeping in one position

remembering only a few dreams rather than several or more

snoring is classic, and it needn't be loud

excess weight is a risk factor but in some cases may be caused by the fatigue of apnea (in a sort of feedback loop)

heart disease diagnosis or high blood pressure may indicate sleep apnea as a silent cause

risk increases with age, or apnea itself worsens with age

physiology--a respiratory therapist can often tell from facial and neck structure that you are likely to have apnea

memory problems, attention deficit, getting worse over time, more than seems age-appropriate

lethargy, sense of laziness that has worsened over time

parent or grandparent has apnea
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More info on Wikipedia.

I had a sleep study done to update my authorization for more sleep apnea supplies. It's time I got a newer machine where they can check how I'm doing by looking at output from the machine's own data card. By machine I mean a CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure device. It measures when my oxygen level dips and turns up the pressure to keep my airway open at night. I never sleep without mine.

Last night started out, though, with a half night without a CPAP to verify that yes, indeed, it is sorely needed. I normally use mine even to nap because now that I'm used to REALLY sleeping, I find that without a CPAP I jerk completely awake, heart pounding, soon after I initially fall asleep. This pattern continues the whole time. Where I used to be so chronically tired that I kind of half slept through my apnea episodes, now I'm not used to them and my body goes to full alert mode. It's like a torture method--prisoner starts to fall asleep and you startle them awake again. Over and over. You can see why I won't sleep without my machine. They had never met anyone so compliant as I am. I was reluctant to do that part of the study but insurance requires it. I was so relieved to get my CPAP back for the second half so I could just get some sleep!

For those afraid to get diagnosed--don't be. You won't believe how much better you will feel with real, deep, restful sleep. If the first mask you try doesn't work well for you, ask for another kind and insist, even if you pay for it yourself. There are so many kinds that one will definitely fit your face and sleep style and they are designing new ones all the time. Sleep apnea is a booming business now. They are discovering that even normal people may have up to five episodes a night. It's the one who have severe apnea that need to get treatment of some kind.

ETA: Sleep apnea boosts your risk of death, study shows! Yet another reason to get tested if you have any symptoms. Using a CPAP device was found to reduce the patient's risk of dying.

The Myth of Moderate Exercise examines the role of exercise in weight loss. Along the way they make a very important point:

Still, the underlying question remains: are diet and exercise a reliable cure for obesity? Modern-day obesity researchers are skeptical — achieving thinness, they say, is not simply a matter of willpower. Research suggests that weight may largely be regulated by biology, which helps determine the body's "set point," a weight range of about 10 lbs. to 20 lbs. that the body tries hard to defend. The further you push you weight beyond your set point — either up or down the scale — some researchers say, the more your body struggles to return to it. That might help to explain why none of the women in Jakicic's study managed to lose much more than 10% of their body weight. After two years on a calorie-restricted diet, keeping up more than an hour of physical activity five days a week on average, most were still clinically overweight (though much less so than before). But what Jakicic and other obesity researchers stress is that a 10% reduction in body weight represents a tremendous boon for overall well-being, lowering blood pressure, improving heart health and reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes. For the obese, the end goal should not be thinness, but health and self-acceptance, which are more realistic and beneficial objectives. "The women's health was absolutely improved," Jakicic says.

Regardless of whether it contributes to substantial weight loss or not, exercise does lots of other things for your health. If women could only be as excited about improving health as they are about improving appearance according to society's standards, imagine how healthy we all could be!

Randy Pausch, famous for his Youtube video of his final lecture, dies at 47 from pancreatic cancer. I saw him give the same lecture on the Oprah show recently. It was amazing and I am sure at least part of the credit goes to the parents who instilled the values he lived by and provided such a good start in his life. It is a shame he couldn't have more time with his own children.

Legumes and indeed, all carbohydrate-based foods these days, often get a bad rap. However, in defense of legumes they do have a lot of good things to offer and have been a vital mainstay of poor people's diets throughout the world and down through the ages. The fiber they provide help prevent some of the diseases of the colon that modern low fiber diets have contributed to. (I had zero polyps when I was examined on '06--the doctor said that's very rare for someone my age in America.) Fiber is also good for a heart-healthy diet since it helps lower cholesterol.

Here's some more information for anyone wanting to make an informed decision about the role of legumes in their diet, perhaps in moderation and with an application of Beano. ( Read more... )Source: http://waltonfeed.com/self/beans.html where you can find much, much more information.

...a letter to Cary Tennis about migraines, that is.

Excerpt:

Dear Cary,

I've held off on writing this letter. I was raised in a household where we don't complain about aches and pains; I am supposed to be stoic and able to cope, but I'm beginning to feel defeated by pain. Eighteen months ago I started getting migraines. What started out as a low-grade migraine 15 days out of the month has turned into "Chronic Daily Migraine," in which every day I cope with pain that ranges from feeling like someone is attempting to use a bottle opener to pry off my cheekbone, to a thunderbolt-type pain that blasts along my forehead and makes moving my eyes agonizing.

Cary had a nice response, and as a migraine sufferer he at least knows what he's talking about. He referred the letter-writer to http://www.thedailyheadache.com among other things. It's good to see that I'm not alone. Coincidentally, I have a bad migraine that started last night, so it was a great time to see this column. I hadn't checked out Salon in awhile, so I can't help but feel like I was meant to see it.

Of course the letters in response have lots of ideas for treatments that worked for the letter-writers, so I'm learning about some things I haven't tried yet.