JUNJUL2012

Headlines and Headaches

Gregory J. Gauthier DDS, LLC - Your Dentists in Tampa, Florida

July 2012

Practice News

• Dr. Gauthier is now a certified ClearCorrect^TM provider!

• Dr. Tiffenberg is now a certified Invisalign^TM provider!

• Staff updates (see tab above)!

• Patients and Practitioners connections wanted!

• AND ... now seeing patients on select Friday mornings!

Focus Feature: Migraine Awareness

The practice of Gregory J. Gauthier DDS, LLC is celebrating June *and* July as Migraine Awareness Months.

Migraines are experienced by more than 30 million Americans

June was officially recognized as National Migraine Awareness Month and Dr. Gauthier has a personal interest in extending awareness efforts into July. The goal of this multi-media awareness campaign is to help readers, viewers, or listeners better know and understand how to manage the condition they or their loved ones experience.

Dr. Gauthier's personal interest in the subject is that he has dealt with migraines since his college days and was recently diagnosed as being one of the 3.2 million Americans with “Chronic Migraine” (headaches that occur 15 or more days a month, with each headache lasting 4 hours or longer). He finds these tips from Dr. Richard B. Lipton, director of the Montefiore Headache Unit in New York, to be useful:

1. See a doctor. There are many oral and injectable prescription treatments, including remedies for migraine-related nausea, and neurologists and other specialists who regularly see migraine patients stay current on the therapy options. It's also important to be monitored by a medical professional because people who have migraines -- especially migraines with auras -- are at a higher risk for stroke and other medical concerns.

2. Identify triggers. Once you identify your personal triggers, you can head-off some headaches before they strike. Dr. Gauthier determined that flickering fluorescent lights were among his triggers, so he replaced all of the bulbs in the practice’s treatment rooms with LED (light emitting diode) bulbs and just uses task lighting in his office. Various strong odors are also triggers for Dr. Gauthier, so no one is allowed to make popcorn in the office or at home, and other members of his family are responsible for feeding their pets.

3. Try taking a supplement. Various nutritional deficiencies have been linked to migraine pain. Women, for example, are often magnesium-deficient and have found taking magnesium supplements help avoid (ah-hem) “monthly” migraines.

4. Relax. Dr. Gauthier admits this is a tough one for him, but deep belly breathing, meditation techniques and guided imagery have been shown to help reduce migraine pain. Relaxing can help reduce overall stress levels, which may help prevent some migraine headaches.

Here are several migraine awareness resources:

National Headache Foundation (NHF)provides information on headache causes, treatments, and clinical trials; a support group list; a list of physician members; and bimonthly newsletter HeadWise.
www.headaches.org

American Headache Society (AHS) Committee for Headache Education (ACHE) is a nonprofit patient-professional partnership dedicated to raising the public awareness of headaches as an illness. ACHE is the patient arm of the American Headache Society and offers a headache diary and related information on prevention and treatment.
www.achenet.org

Understanding Migraine Headaches is a website that is part of the family of Understanding Health sites, a network of topic-specific sites bringing patients the latest in news, updates, and research on a wide variety of health topics. Content is provided by a staff of expert health editors. www.understanding-migraineheadaches.com

Migraine Awareness Group: A National Understanding for Migraineurs (MAGNUM) was created to raise awareness of migraine headaches as a biologic neurological disease and to provide information, resources, news, and support to migraine sufferers and their families.
www.migraines.org

Migraine Research Foundation is the only nonprofit whose sole purpose is to raise funds for migraine research. Every donation goes toward uncovering the migraine’s secrets.
www.migraineresearchfoundation.org

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