Does Botox Help Migraines?

If you suffer from migraines, you know that they can be terrible, adding to your severe headache and neck pain the misery of dizziness, vomiting, intense sensitivity to light and noise. Such debilitating migraine headache symptoms can make life quite unbearable, and for people who get migraines 15 days or more a month, the FDA has approved the use of Botox to bring about tremendous relief. Botox isn’t just for smoothing wrinkles, after all. Botox is often used as a treatment for chronic and severe migraines; in fact the makers of Botox recently said that sales of Botox for medical treatments will soon surpass sales and use of Botox for cosmetic treatments.

Here’s how Botox can be an effective treatment for migraines: Botox as a purified form of botulinum toxin typically acts to temporarily prevent nerve signals to specific muscles or glands.  The science community’s exploration of how Botox works to treat migraines has pointed to the idea that Botox can block pain signals from reaching nerve endings. That means ending the awful migraine pain that can stop you in your tracks and cancel everything on the next few days of your calendar. By using Botox, you may experience fewer migraine episodes, or have them very much reduced in severity.

Some migraine sufferers who have experienced only mild relief from taking migraine treatment pills, are very interested in trying Botox as the migraine solution they’ve been looking for to free them from being knocked out of commission by the bad migraines they experience, living in dread and fear of them. If Botox treatments for migraine relief can deliver better quality of life, they’re very interested in talking to their doctors for a complete assessment about whether or not Botox can be their migraine solution, depending on their migraine frequency and severity and other medical history issues.

When you choose Botox as a migraine solution, it’s common to find that Botox treatments for migraines include approximately 30 Botox injections in the seven different areas affected by migraines: the temples, forehead, back of the head, and the neck and shoulders. A qualified and experienced physician will target the ideal locations for your Botox injections, so that the appropriate nerves and muscles can get some relief from those migraine nerve signals, and so that you can be more pain-free and comfortable.

To treat the chronic condition of migraines, your physician may find it’s best to give these Botox injections about every three months. Now that the FDA has approved Botox as a treatment for severe and chronic migraines, you may find that these treatments are covered by your insurance plan, with just a co-pay left to you. The cost may be prohibitive to some, but if you find that Botox treatments for migraines can ‘give you your life back,’ so that you can work, attend functions, travel, attend your children’s important events and care for your family and yourself, you may decide it’s worth every penny.

Remember, this is an option for those who experience severe migraines (lasting 4 hours or longer) at least half of every month. It’s not a solution for the occasional headache or even the occasional migraine.

 

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