Many people think of Botox only in conjunction with removing wrinkles, but there are far more conditions that can be treated than cosmetic ones. Migraine affects many people, causing them to lose work time and become bedridden for several days in the worst cases. Botox treatment for migraines can bring amazing relief to the sufferer.
In fact, it was discovered that Botox can help chronic migraine sufferers by the patients themselves as they had Botox injections for wrinkle treatment. When Allergen, the company that makes Botox, found this out they were able to present the case for using Botox especially for migraines and have it approved for this use.
Why does Botox work for migraines?
It is not fully understood why Botox is good for helping migraine, but since it works to paralyse the nerves and muscles of the face, it is likely that these same nerves and muscles play a big part in causing migraine or are affected by the migraine and cause pain. When the muscles are paralysed by the Botox injections, there is much less pain.
When you experience pain it often causes muscles to tighten and contract and this makes the pain even worse. In the case of Botox this contraction of muscle is controlled or prevented, thus helping to reduce pain.
Where will the injections be?
Doctors have discovered 31 injections sites over the face, head, neck and shoulder areas that can be treated to help reduce the effects of chronic migraine. It usually takes around 15 minutes for all these sites to be injected and it is important for the right protocol to be followed for the best results. Unfortunately, you may not know immediately whether Botox injections for migraine are going to work for you.
How long treatment takes
It is only after about 9 months and 2-3 rounds of treatment that you will know whether it is going to be effective. However, sufferers of serious migraines are perfectly willing to go through this time to find out if the treatment works or not. After all, you have the rest of your life to either suffer or get relief and so 9 months does not seem too long if relief is possible.
Then again, some people get relief in 1-4 months so it is always possible this could happen to you. If you haven’t experienced relief after the third treatment you will know that Botox is not going to help you at all. One good thing is that you can still take your migraine medication while having the Botox treatments as they don’t have any negative effect on the serum.
There are two ways that Botox can help with migraines.
- It can relieve the number of migraines you get per month
- It can relieve the duration and intensity of any one migraine
This makes it really worthwhile to try the treatment for migraines if you are unfortunate enough to be a sufferer.