A single migraine attack is a reason enough to seek qualified medical attention. Still, if you suffer from chronic migraines, you need the help of a headache expert like Dr. Amr Hosny of the Advanced Headache Center. With eight locations in New York City and Bergen County, New Jersey, you can receive the best chronic migraine treatment nearby. Chronic migraines attack often and consistently over a period of at least three months. Get the chronic migraine relief you need from a trusted physician with years of experience. Call the Advanced Headache Center for a consultation. Get rid of your headache pain today.
Do Chronic Migraines Differ from Other Migraines?
A migraine is a neurological disease characterized by a throbbing and pulsating headache and other incapacitating symptoms. An ordinary, episodic migraine — such as hemiplegic migraine, retinal migraine, basilar migraine, or optical migraine — can last hours or days. For these migraines, weeks or months may pass before you experience another episode.
On the other hand, chronic migraines differ from episodic migraine types because you experience a higher frequency of the episodes. You may have chronic migraines if:
- You suffer 15 or more headache days in a month.
- Within the month, you have at least eight days with migraine symptoms.
- Migraine episodes continue to occur for longer than three straight months.
Dr. Amr Hosny is the primary headache pain specialist at the Advanced Headache Center. With eight migraine centers within New York City and northern New Jersey, you can find one near you. Dr. Hosny and his team use a multimodal approach to diagnose and treat chronic migraines.
Can Chronic Migraines Affect My Quality of Life?
There are more than four million people in the country with chronic migraines. Most suffer incapacitating pain and accompanying symptoms. You may associate migraines with just the excruciating pain, but before the pain of a migraine attack, other migraine stages in the episode cause other debilitating symptoms.
Migraines bring your normal life to a halt, which makes effective treatment a priority. The chronic migraine symptoms that affect your quality of life for the period of the episode — and even afterward — include:
- Head pain that’s moderate to severe in intensity
- Pain that gets worse with any physical activity
- Throbbing pain or pressure-like pain on one or both sides of your head
- Dizziness, nausea, and even vomiting
- Fatigue and weakness in your limbs
- Sensitivity to bright light, loud sound, and strong smells
If any of these symptoms sound familiar in your experience, you may have chronic migraines. If the number of your headache attacks has increased or you feel you need stronger medication to deal with the episodes, talk to a headache specialist like Dr. Hosny. His multimodal approach means he often recommends concurrent therapies to combat both the pain and the frequency of your chronic migraines.
What Triggers My Chronic Migraines?
Migraines occur due to a faulty nerve signal in the brain. Dr. Hosny uses the latest medical equipment and best practices to diagnose your condition, but a diagnosis of chronic migraines depends on the frequency of your episodes. However, the triggers for most migraines are similar, although not all affect you the same way. Common migraine triggers include:
- The taste or odors of specific foods
- Stress
- Certain medications
- Strenuous exercises
- Alcohol consumption
- Caffeine intake
- Environmental factors, such as weather changes, drastic light or disruptive sounds
- Dehydration
- Hunger
- Insufficient sleep
Understanding the triggers for your migraine episodes is critical for proper treatment and pain management. Dr. Hosny reviews your case, relying on the technology and his experience to make an accurate diagnosis. Then he creates an individualized chronic migraine treatment plan to control the pain and help you avoid future episodes.
What’s the Best Chronic Migraine Treatment?
There is no single best chronic migraine treatment. Dr. Hosny may recommend several different treatments for your migraines. He often starts with the least invasive techniques, keeping the goal of pain management firmly in mind. Often, chronic migraines require stronger therapies, so your doctor may recommend chronic migraine treatments that include:
- Medications, such as beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants
- Rational polypharmacy, which provides the careful combination of painkillers to provide relief while reducing the risk of addiction
- Intravenous infusions, which put nutrients, medications, and anesthetics directly into your bloodstream, where they act fast
- Physical therapy, which can teach you specific stretches and exercises to help you relieve pain
- Trigger point injections, because contracted muscle and myofascial tissue in trigger points may cause headaches
- Occipital nerve block, which blocks the occipital nerve from relaying pain messages to your brain
- Sphenopalatine ganglion block and stellate ganglion block, which relax compressed nerves that cause migraines
- Acupuncture and chiropractic care, alternative therapies that have provided positive results
After Dr. Hosny makes his diagnosis, treatment can commence immediately. The state-of-the-art facilities use the latest medical equipment, making your individualized migraine treatment more effective. Contact the Advanced Headache Center to overcome your chronic migraine symptoms and improve your quality of life.
Dr. Hosny is an Ivy League Trained, UCNS-accredited, board-certified headache specialist who offers the latest preventive and abortive treatments to provide safe and effective head pain relief. As an active member of prominent organizations and professional societies that advance headache science, education, and management, such as the National Headache Foundation, Dr. Hosny specializes in diagnosing and treating a wide range of head pain disorders, including tension headaches, migraines, and cluster headaches, to name a few.
Dr. Hosny's reputation for enhancing headache care quality through the use of the most effective and technologically advanced treatment options for persistent primary and secondary chronic headaches has been acknowledged by Castle Connolly and Healthgrades, where he has received over 200 positive reviews. Dr. Hosny is also recognized as a distinguished New York City physician and headache specialist by New York Magazine.
More about Dr. HosnyNew York, NY 10003
(646) 763-2222