By Liz Hay, SWHR Communications Intern
Living well with migraine is possible. To guide people with migraine on their journey toward wellness, the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR) created the new Migraine Patient Toolkit: Living Well with Migraine.
Migraine is a common and debilitating neurological disease that affects an estimated 18% of women in the United States. Symptoms typically include debilitating headaches as well as nausea and sensitivity to noise and light. Migraine is three times more common in women than men, and women are more likely to experience longer and more intense migraine attacks, more symptoms such as nausea and visual disturbances, and higher levels of disability.
For patients with migraine, a variety of medical treatments are available to help prevent migraine attacks or stop an attack after it starts. However, combining medical treatments with wellness strategies can help people with migraine better achieve a full and functional life.
Wellness refers to the pursuit of activities that contribute to a state of holistic health. SWHR’s Living Well with Migraine Toolkit provides strategies and resources to help patients achieve wellness across multiple areas, including physical, environmental, social, work/school, emotional, and intellectual wellness.
Migraine can be a discouraging and frustrating disease, but wellness strategies can empower patients to feel more in control of their condition. The toolkit offers a starting point for those at the beginning of their wellness journey as well as important information for patients who may already be working to improve their quality of life in the face of migraine.
SWHR partnered with patients and experts to create this toolkit featuring wellness advice such as:
- The SEEDS of success: Sleep, Eat, Exercise, Drink, Stress
- Strategies to manage environmental triggers
- Sample scripts to guide difficult conversations about migraine
- Recommendations for a migraine-friendly school or workplace
- An introduction to biobehavioral strategies for both migraine and stress management
- Tips on engaging in migraine advocacy
- Suggestions for how to find a behavioral health professional
Download the Living Well with Migraine Toolkit.
The Living Well with Migraine Toolkit is a follow-up to SWHR’s first Migraine Patient Toolkit: A Guide for Your Care, which was designed to help patients understand the basics of migraine diagnosis and treatment. Both toolkits are a project of SWHR’s Interdisciplinary Network on Migraine, a diverse group of researchers, health care providers, patient advocates, and health care opinion leaders working to educate and engage society about the burden of migraine.