Renown Medical Author and Migraine & headache specialist William B. Young, M.D. is pictured above at the second aannual 'Headache On the Hill' earlier this week. Dr. Young seen here debriefing Migraine & headache advocates from around the nation. With his front line exposure to this need for more NIH support, which he observes first hand as he happens to be the Inpatient Program Director at one of the nation's top headache clinics--The Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
MAGNUM and Other NGOs are Asking You to Write Your Senators and Representatives to Support More NIH Research Into Migraine Disease & Headache Disorders
WASHINGTON, DC-(Saturday, February 28th, 2009)-While attending Headache On the Hill 2 in the nation's capitol earlier this week MAGNUM's Executive Director Michael John Coleman had the pleasure of interviewing one of the country's best Migraine disease and headache disorder experts, one Dr. William B. Young, a member of the American Headache Society (AHS) and American Academy of Neurology (AAN). Dr. Young appealed to the popular MAGNUM website to use its resources to advance Migraine advocates and the tens of thousands of MAGNUM daily readers to pick-up a pen, or sit down at their keyboards to take heart to a call to action, a call to communications! Having said that, please read his letter to the editor at MAGNUM;
MAGNUM Letter to the Editor
If you suffer from headaches, it's time to act. The Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy (AHDA), a coalition of medical and lay groups advocating for headache patients, is asking you to write your senators and representatives to support more research into severe, disabling headache disorders, such as Migraine, chronic Migraine, and cluster headache. The World Health Organization (WHO) has calculated that severe migraine attacks are as disabling as quadriplegia. Cluster headache pain is well recognized as perhaps the most severe pain that can be experienced. Nine percent of all missed work is due to headaches. Yet the federal government spends far less finding ways to improve the lives of patients with headache disorders than of patients with better accepted illnesses. Asthma profoundly impacts the lives of those who have it and, like headache disorders, needs chronic management. However, Migraine and other headache disorders received less than 13 million dollars for research in 2007, while asthma received 294 million dollars. On an individual basis, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent 36 cents per Migraine sufferer and $12.25 for each person with asthma.
"It's just a headache," is often the response from employers, family members, and even doctors to the plight of individuals with disabling headache. One patient with severe daily Migraines told me she rarely left her house. Other patients tell me about losing their jobs because of frequent absences caused by their headaches. Doctors say to me, "I'm glad you're here, because I really don't like taking care of headache patients." The headache sufferer is dismissed at every level.
