“Great timing!” Terrell Davis thought as he felt the migraine coming on.
At that moment, Davis, a star running back for the Denver Broncos, had other things on his mind, like slicing through tacklers and winning the Super Bowl.
But Davis also knew that a full-blown migraine headache could level him like a marauding linebacker. He headed for the sidelines and missed most of the second quarter. In the locker room, he rested, relaxed and took a special nasal spray (DHE, or dihydroergotamine mesylate, which is not a narcotic) that holds migraines at bay by keeping the lining of the brain from becoming swollen and inflamed.
The preemptive strike worked: Davis returned to the game, scored the winning touchdown, set a Super Bowl rushing record and was voted the most valuable player.
Davis, 25, is one of about 18 million Americans who suffer from migraines, which can cause not only throbbing head pain but debilitating nausea and sensitivity to sound and light. He was in Philadelphia recently to make the point that migraine headaches are no laughing matter and help those suffering from migraines to, as he put it, “get back in the game.”
Davis, a 6-foot 215-pound obelisk of chiseled granite, recently stopped by the Jefferson Headache Center at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Davis has been struggling with migraines since he was 7. He had no idea what was wrong. All he knew was that the pain was excruciating and that the only way he could get relief was to retreat to some quiet, dark place and lie down. Sometimes the headaches would last for hours, sometimes days. By age 18, when he enrolled at the University of Georgia, he was experiencing as many as three migraines a week. He was so nearly incapacitated that he was terrified he would have to give up sports, not just big-time sports but recreational games of pickup basketball.
He visited the team doctor and explained his symptoms. He had a CAT scan and MRI. Davis finally learned the name of the mysterious ailment that had stalked and tortured him for 11 years: classic migraine.
What’s it feel like?
Davis snorted and laughed. “Like getting your head squeezed in a vise. It’s like a normal headache only 10 times worse.”
Dr. Stephen Silberstein, director of the headache center, calls migraine headache “the chest pain of the soul.”
“You can’t think clearly, you can’t concentrate,” Silberstein said. “You feel sick, like you’re ready to vomit. You feel like crawling away from life.”
Siberstein should know. Not only is migraine headache his medical specialty, his area of clinical expertise, but he had to deal with terrible migraines all through medical school and his residency. Not surprisingly, he is passionate about the disorder.
Migraine headache, he said, is “the Rodney Dangerfield of medical maladies–it gets no respect.”
“It’s misdiagnosed, underdiagnosed, mistreated and maltreated,” he said. Our ignorance about the disorder is “a tragedy, a scandal of national proportions.”
Silberstein called migraine headache a “paroxysm of the brain.” It comes in two flavors: common and classic. A classic migraine (which is what Davis gets, and shares with about 10 percent of migraine sufferers) is preceded by “an aura,” warning symptoms such as sudden mood changes, flashing lights, colors, bright spots, scintillating patterns and momentary blackouts.
No one is sure what causes migraine headache. The leading theory is that during a migraine attack irritating neuropeptides are released that dilate and inflame blood vessels in the brain, prompting nerve endings to scream with pain.
Migraines can be unleashed by a number of triggers: food, especially alcohol and the food additive MSG; bright lights; heat and humidity; conflict; tension; stress; and changes in schedule or life circumstances. They tend to occur on weekends, at the beginning of holidays and immediately after vacations.
Davis sometimes gets what he calls “exertional migraines”–headaches after playing sports and heavy exercise. Migraines also can be precipitated by knocks on the head–so-called footballer’s migraine (named after players of soccer, the other football, who routinely concuss their brains when they head the ball).
Women experience three times more migraine headaches than men because of their physiology. Migraines are definitely related to the production of estrogen and are another delightful side effect of the monthly cycle. On the other hand, part of the silver lining of menopause is that migraines taper off.
