First came the nausea. Then the crushing head pain.
At its worst, Grace Gold’s migraines were happening 15 days a month, causing unrelenting suffering from the time she was 14 years old.
It wasn’t until 2005 — when she was 22 and competing in a Miss New Jersey competition, of all things — that she noticed her roommate reaching for an Exedrin. The young woman said she had migraines and had just started going to Montefiore’s Headache Center. She suggested Grace go too.
“It was far away in the Bronx but I was willing to go anywhere or try anything at that point,” said Gold, now 31, and a freelance journalist.
For Gold and thousands of others, it has been a life-saving trek.
Headed by Dr. Richard Lipton, a reknown neurologist and headache specialist, Montefiore’s Headache Center is in the forefront of treatment and research for the neurological disorder that burdens 36 million Americans each year. An estimated 18% of women and 6% of men suffer from the debilitating pain and other visual and sensory effects.
Along with a team of six doctors who are board certified in both neurology and headache pain, and a behavioral psychologist, the center currently follows 3,000 patients from all over the country and around the world.
For the past eight years, Lipton and his team have also headed up the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention study — the largest of its kind, surveying more than 120,000 households to help better understand the causes, treatment and prevention of migraines.
“We really take a collaborative approach to patients’ care,” said Lipton. “There are always two doctors who get to know a patient well. We put our heads together when someone is not getting better as expected.”
Migraine ranks in the top 20 of the world’s most disabling medical illnesses, yet it is underreported and can be poorly managed and understood by both doctor and patient.
“It is not just something people are complaining about — but striking alterations in brain function,” Lipton said.
“Our research emphasizes the magnitude of migraine disability on everyday life and barriers that exist to attaining the appropriate treatment for this neurological disorder,” he added. “Our hope is these data will open the door for national dialogue about the substantial burden of migraine and importance of improving how we diagnose, care for and treat headache and facial pain syndromes.”
There is much more hope for migraine patients these days, as new drugs and understanding have emerged in the last decade. The FDA has recently approved five new drugs for migraine prevention — as well as two devices that help prevent or lessen the pain.
The Montefiore Headache Center has another weapon in its arsenal to help patients beat back the head-throbbing migraine.
As the director of Behavioral Medicine at the headache center, clinical psychologist Dawn Buse does biofeedback and relaxation training with patients, including guided visual imagery — all of which have been found to alleviate or lessen migraine episodes.
“New Yorkers get a badge of honor for being too busy, sleep deprived and stressed,” said Buse. “Taking time — even two- or three-minute mini-breaks during the work day — to do some deep breathing can be as good as the best medications.”
Patients are also told to keep diaries so they can figure out their triggers — whether it is a food like chocolate or aged cheese, or a change in barometric pressure or stress.
Four months after the long-suffering Gold came under the care of Dr. Brian Grosberg, co-director of the Montefiore Headache Center, her migraine frequency was cut in half. Now, she says, the migraines are down to about three a month, and they no longer get to the point where the pain is so severe she can’t function. She’s able to stop the effects before they take over and go on with her day.
“We are still working to getting the migraine to zero days a month,” said Gold, “but I am very thankful. It used to feel like someone took a sledgehammer to the left side of my head, and there was no relief. I was taking the wrong medicines.
“You really need a specialist — not just a neurologist — to help you navigate migraines,” she said. “A place like Montefiore, where they only see headache patients, and because the level of care is so customized and you don’t feel like a freak.”
hevans@nydailynews.com
