Despite the abundance of research over the last couple of decades, migraine is still the 3rd most prevalent illness in the world. Additionally, more than 90% of sufferers are unable to work or function normally when undergoing an attack.
With stats like these, it could be easy for migraineurs to lose hope and live a life filled with negativity.
Even though it may seem like a dark cloud is always hovering over you, I’m here to show you that it’s unwarranted.
Okay, let’s clear the air. Chronic migraine headaches are painful, debilitating, and will undoubtedly hamper your ability to work and be productive. Through your own personal research and advice from your physician, you may have found your ways to cope with the pain or have a system in place to avoid triggers.
For some, despite their proactiveness, their migraines never seem to go away completely.
The feeling of “it’ll never end” is what concerns me. It takes a piece of you that I believe nobody can live without…hope. Without hope, life becomes a bleak wasteland of negativity, often fostering depression.
I’m here to show you that there’s A LOT to be hopeful for when it comes to new migraine research.
If you go to pubmed.gov (National Library of Medicine) and type “migraine,” you’ll find over 36,000 results. If you read one study per day, it would take you about 100 years to read everything in the entire library currently.
Additionally, if you look at the “results by year” graph, you’ll see that in 2018 alone, there were approximately 1,763 new studies published relating to migraine. That’s over 4 new studies every single day!
Beyond that, look at the upward trend in the graph! It’s growing exponentially. Looking back, 1973 only had 149 published studies (a lot less than our most recent completed year). In the last 45 years, we’ve seen an over 24% growth rate in new migraine studies.
That’s a lot of brilliant minds working towards a common goal.
Let’s look at what scientists have discovered over the last decade born from research.
These are natural things people that have shown some promise in medical literature that could potential help with migraine symtoms.
The point is, new migraine research is happening daily, leading to many breakthroughs.
Not only that, a lot of nonprofits are steering the way! The Migraine Research Foundation is a nonprofit that raised over $923,657 in 2017.
“MRF is a 501(c)(3) charity that raises money to award grants to researchers from around the world who are working to discover the causes, improve the treatments, and find a cure for migraine.” (source)
New breakthroughs are coming–and fast!
Even if you’ve literally tried everything, just know that more and more things are being discovered every day.
If you ever feel like you’re alone on your journey, I urge you to join a migraine support group so that you can ensure your voice is heard.
New Chronic Migraine Support Group (Over 27,000 members)
Chronic Daily Headache and Migraine Support Group (Over 16,000 members)
Remember, there are always things to be hopeful for.