Physical Wellness

Botox Can Cure Migraine: Beauty Procedure Helps Relieve Extreme Pains

By Chris Bale | Update Date: Apr 20, 2016 04:20 AM EDT

Botox, a beauty procedure can relieve the extreme pains caused by migraine, experts said. It is also an effective treatment to three other neurological disorders according to an updated guideline from the American Academy of Neurology.

Butolinum toxin or botox is made from Clostridium botulinum and related species of bacteria. It has been long used to get rid of wrinkles. The researchers found that the toxin can block the substance being released at the nerve endings that can reduce the muscle contraction and the transmission of pain signals, UPI reported.

After reviewing the updated guideline regarding the four preparations of botox available in the United States, the authors concluded that the beauty procedure can effectively treat four different neurological conditions such as chronic migraine, cervical dystonia, blepharospasm and spasticity in adults.

Chronic migraine characterized by suffering 15 or more days of migraines in a month. Cervical dystonia is brain disorder the affects neck muscle control that makes the head tilt uncontrollably. Blepharospasm is a movement disorder causes the eye to close involuntarily. Spasticity in adults is the tightness in muscle that restricts the movements and usually occurs after a spinal cord or other neurological injury and stroke, said Dr. David Simpson, the guideline's lead author from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

There was not enough information to support the recommendation of botox to treat chronic migraine when the guideline was updated in 2008. However, by 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its go signal to use the treatment for migraine, as reported by Tech Times.

"To treat chronic migraines, Botox is given approximately every 12 weeks as multiple injections around the head and neck to try to dull future headache symptoms. Botox has not been shown to work for the treatment of migraine headaches that occur 14 days or less per month, or for other forms of headache," the FDA said.

The new guideline shows good evidence that botox offers benefit to patients with chronic migraines. It reduced the headache by 15 percent in a month compared to placebo.

"Headache: OnaBoNT-A is established as effective and should be offered to increase headache-free days (Level A) and is probably effective and should be considered to improve health-related quality of life (Level B) in chronic migraine," Simpson and colleagues wrote.

Chronic migraine affects more than 37 million people in the country. It causes intense throbbing or a pulsing sensation in one side of the head and usually comes with vomiting, nausea and extreme sensitivity to sound and light.

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