When Migraines Are Considered Chronic and How We Treat Them

You’re awakened by head pain — again — and you realize that you’ll probably lose another day to a migraine. Here’s a look at when migraines are considered chronic and, more important, how we can help.

If you wake each day wondering whether head pain will be a part of it, you’re part of a very large group. On a global scale, migraines and headaches affect about 40% of the population, which amounts to about 3.1 billion people.

As the most common neurological disorder worldwide, migraines take their toll on millions of people. They’re considered one of the biggest disabilities, especially if they’re chronic.

As experts in pain management, which includes head pain, our skilled and experienced team of healthcare providers here at Revive Spine and Pain Center are no strangers to migraines. We’ve helped many chronic sufferers.

Below, we look at what we consider to be chronic when it comes to migraines and, more important, what we can do to bring you relief.

Chronic migraines by the numbers

If you’re looking for a definitive number to figure out whether your migraines are chronic, we want to underscore a key point — chronic largely depends on you.

By the numbers, some organizations, such as the Migraine Trust, say that anyone who experiences 15 headache days per month has chronic migraine. They also say that at least eight of these days should include migraine-specific symptoms, such as:

Head pain on one side
Aura, such as visual disturbances
Sensitivity to light and sound
Nausea and vomiting

We want to emphasize that your numbers may be different, and that’s OK. If you routinely have five migraines per month, that’s still a pattern. You’re losing too many days to head pain, so there's a good case for this being a chronic issue.

The bottom line is that if your life is often upended and interrupted by chronic migraines, it’s time to get help.

Finding relief from chronic migraines

If you’re dealing with ongoing migraines, there’s good news and bad. Let's start with the bad: There’s no cure for migraines.

The good news is that we do have ways to manage and even prevent chronic migraines through:

Botox® or Myobloc® injections, which work to prevent frequent headaches
Neuromodulation to disrupt the pain signaling
Nerve blocks in your sphenopalatine ganglion, nerve cells involved in facial sensation
CGRP inhibitors that target proteins associated with migraines
Prescription medications to handle migraine pain
Radiofrequency ablations can help headaches that are stemming from the neck

Some of these treatments are preventive, while others target pain signaling to minimize the severity and length of the headache.

We also find that other strategies work well for reducing chronic migraines, such as figuring out what’s triggering them and finding ways to avoid those triggers. Some common migraine triggers include:

Red wine
Processed meats
Stress
Artificial sweeteners

We’re happy to sit down with you to figure out how to connect the dots to your triggers.

Between our medical interventions and your work in figuring out your triggers, we feel confident that we can help reduce the impact that migraines are having on your life.

For effective migraine treatments, we invite you to contact us at one of our conveniently located offices in Marlton, Hamilton Township, Northfield, or East Brunswick, New Jersey, to schedule an appointment with one of our headache specialists today.