Dizziness is often a symptom of migraines and occipital neuralgia, and can be seen both with and without associated pain. Because balance and dizziness are managed by a region of the inner ear called the vestibule, migraines that manifest in dizziness alone are termed “vestibular migraines”. Similar to “ocular migraines”, these episodes can manifest as…
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You don’t have to have COVID-19 to have a Coronavirus related headache. Headaches in the age of Covid may be related to the virus itself but are likely a result of stress and its effect on your occipital nerves. Headaches are a very nonspecific symptom and can occur from a great many sources. Viruses such…
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Listen to the podcast on our Headache 360 Podcast page here Welcome to the Headache 360 podcast, a place to listen and learn about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache and migraine pain, because information can be the best medicine. Dr. Lowenstein: Hello, and welcome to the Headache 360 podcast. This is your host,…
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Today on Facebook I got a great question that I think is important…. “Are ON flares also called migraines?” In fact the word “migraine” has a broad meaning, including many different kinds of severe headaches with different causes. Some migraines are caused by issues in or near the brain, such as dilated blood vessels or…
Read Full ArticleWith traffic like this it’s no wonder so many patients from Los Angeles suffer from migraine headaches. While several medical centers in and around the Los Angeles area treat patients with migraine headaches and occipital neuralgia, Dr. Lowenstein dedicates a significant part of his practice to the surgical treatment of these headaches and associated symptoms.…
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During the course of a great telephone conversation with a migraine headache patient from San Diego last week, it once again became evident to me that there is a misunderstanding of the differences in nerve blocks and Botoxinjections done by surgeons vs other medical professionals when it comes to the treatment of Migraine Headaches and…
Read Full ArticleWe have many patients with migraine headaches who see an opportunity for a surgical cure for their pain and want to proceed immediately to surgery at Migraine Surgery Specialty Center without any other workup- this is a mistake. Every patient who has surgery for their migraines needs a neurology workup including an MRI of the…
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As you can see from the photo above I took in San Diego this weekend, Coronado is quite a beautiful spot. Sometimes when visiting such a wonderful place it can be hard to believe that there are folks suffering even close by. Importantly, you can have a migraine in Coronado, or in any relative paradise. …
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It seems there is often much misunderstanding surrounding the terminology pertaining to headaches. While “migraine headache” is indeed a specific diagnosis, there are many subtypes of migraines with terminology that can get confusing. Additionally, many headache sufferers have not yet seen a neurologist to get a migraine diagnosis, and others have diagnoses such as “chronic…
Read Full ArticleMost of us are familiar, at least vaguely, with what it means to have a migraine headache. Occipital neuralgia, however, is another story. This inflammatory condition that affects the occipital nerves at the back of the neck and head is much, much less well-known. The term may be used primarily by physicians who diagnose and…
Read Full ArticleWe are so fortunate to now have better medications and great surgical options for the treatment of migraine headaches. We have com a long way! This article talks about the surgeon Aulcasis in the 10th century who used to make incisions in the temples and put garlic inside them to cure his migraine patients. I’m…
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Yesterday I saw yet another migraine headache patient who was a week out from her migraine surgery, and yet again this patient was thrilled with the migraine relief. She told me she felt that the migraine surgery changed her life. She was all smiles in the followup appointment, as opposed to completely dreary when I…
Read Full ArticleThoroughness in surgical technique can make the difference in a successful nerve decompression operation. (Why the tree photo? Read on….) Earlier this week we saw a woman with over 20 years of headache pain from occipital neuralgia who had been operated on previously by another surgeon. She reports that her surgery was unsuccessful. The surgeon…
Read Full ArticleBotox is being increasingly used for off-label treatments, particularly in the treatment of migraine headaches and occipital neuralgia like we do at Migraine Surgery Specialty Center. This is a nice little video from the Plastic Surgery Channel that discusses some off-label uses of Botox.But what does “off label” mean? When something like Botox is “approved” by…
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For better or for worse, nerve decompression to provide relief from headaches and neck aches has been come to be known as “migraine surgery” because many chronic headache patients carry a diagnosis of migraine disease. It’s true that “Migraine Surgery” rolls off of the tongue better than “Peripheral Nerve Decompression Surgery for the Treatment of…
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Ever have that dream where you are in crazy Los Angeles traffic and need to be somewhere but can’t get there and then… you wake up to a migraine? Out in the desert outside of Phoenix or Las Vegas and it’s crazy hot and you cant get cool or water and you wake up to…
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Introduction: Welcome to the Headache 360 podcast, a place to listen and learn about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache and migraine pain because information can be the best medicine. Dr. Lowenstein: Hello and welcome to the Headache 360 podcast. I am your host Dr. Adam Lowenstein. I am a board certified plastic surgeon…
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A traffic accident in Los Angeles? Football injury in college? Even the recent surge in popularity of kickboxing has produced too many head trauma patients that experience chronic migraine headaches after their injury. I recently had an interesting conversation with a woman who had “post-concussion” headaches, but when I asked if she had isolated trauma…
Read Full ArticleIn the course of my aesthetic plastic surgery practice, many patients are of course interested and concerned about where the incisions will be placed for their surgery. With migraine headache and neuralgia patients, however, there is more interest surrounding pain relief than incision sites. That said, I have seen several revisions of migraine surgery necessary from…
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Dr. Lowenstein: Hello and welcome to The Headache 360 Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. And as I’m imagining most of you know by now, I’m a migraine surgeon. I do nerve decompression for migraine and chronic headaches. And my goal here is to try and get some information from lots of different…
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A common question we are asked as migraine surgeons is whether or not obtaining pain relief with a nerve block is necessary to be a candidate for migraine surgery. In other words, if your neurologist or pain doctor gives you a nerve block and it does not change your pain or symptoms at all, might…
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I”m very excited about our newest venture, which will involve bringing our successes in providing migraine relief to Denver Colorado. This will provide a more central access point to so many migraine sufferers in the central part of the United States, including Arizona, Kansas, Wyoming, and Utah. I was fortunate enough to live and practice…
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A great case yesterday had some anatomic features that I thought worth showing. This gentleman was a firefighter who had an accident at work and following this developed debilitating migraines. For privacy purposes we will call him Frank here. Frank is from Denver, and as such he had seen several doctors including Denver neurologists who…
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The term “migraine surgery” was coined as a simplified way for the public to understand that there is a surgical procedure to improve migraine headache symptoms. In fact, the more appropriate name for this procedure is “nerve decompression surgery for the relief of headache and migraine symptoms.” That’s a bit too wordy, but unfortunately, the…
Read Full ArticleIn my perusing around Facebook and the forums dedicated to headaches and occipital neuralgia, I see so many who find comfort that they are not alone, and in fact one of my previous posts highlighted that even NBA basketball stars get migraines. Patients who have suffered long and felt alone should find comfort in the fact…
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Dizziness, imbalance, and disorientation in headache and neck pain patients One of the most frequent questions posted to facebook on migraine headaches and tension headaches forums involves some aspect of dizziness, imbalance, and disorientation. While headache patients may be used to pain, waking up dizzy or having balance issues with or without pain can be…
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Dr. Lowenstein: Hi and welcome to the Headache 360 podcast. I am your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. We have a fantastic repeat guest today, Dr. Hossein Ansari, who is the head of the headache clinic at University of California, San Diego. This is our second in hopefully a series with Dr. Ansari, but you can…
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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Headache 360 Podcast, a place to learn about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache and migraine pain, because information can be the best medicine. Dr. Lowenstein: Hello and welcome to our next episode of the Headache 360 Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. I have a very special…
Read Full ArticleMy mother tells a story about me when I was 9 and had a headache so bad I would not stop crying and would not leave my room. I don’t remember that, but I know that I have had severe headaches as long as I can remember. As a child, I took so much aspirin…
Read Full ArticleBecause of the relatively new ability for surgeons such as myself to impact migraine headaches and occipital neuralgia with outpatient surgery, we often get the question of whether nerve decompression for headache surgery is “experimental surgery.” Let me assure you that this is not the case. While scientific descriptions of success rates can be found…
Read Full ArticleCottage health has added an article highlighting migraine surgery and the way it can help patients with occipital neuralgia and migraine headaches. You can find the short article here and at the link below. I’m very appreciative of their assistance in getting the word out about this outpatient surgical option that helps so many migraine headache pain…
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A frequent question I get asked involves nerve injections that make things worse rather than better. Many times nerves blocks work just as they are supposed to but when they don’t, patients are often left trying to figure out why??? So what happens when nerve blocks make the pain worse? Remember that nerve blocks…
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Why ME? So often a question I get from migraine headache patients is a derivative of “Why me?” “What did I do to bring on these migraines?” “What can I change so these migraine headaches stop?” “Why are these migraines so bad for me but nobody else?” So just to address the last question specifically,…
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