We dive deep into the mysterious subject of migraine disease. Hear from physicians who specialize in migraine disease as well as patients, scientists, researchers, and advocates. Each will share their unique shade of migraine.
This podcast is created by the Association of Migraine Disorders, a unique nonprofit organization. While supporting efforts to combat migraine headache disease, we also fight for the concept that migraine affects much more of the nervous system. We suspect that this is because the multiple potential genetic defects underlying migraine, the influence of nerve centers in the brainstem and hormonal effects on the nervous system are not restricted to the pain pathways.
The study of migraine is essentially the study of pain pathways and the most basic functions of the brain. Support of migraine research is sure to lead to better understanding and treatments of many other conditions, such as brain trauma, alternatives to opioids, mood disorders, dizziness and sleep.
AMD has developed a comprehensive program that helps not only to fund specific research projects, but also to launch the careers of those willing to specialize in migraine research. We offer programs to introduce students into this area of neuroscience, through shadowing programs, travel grants, small introductory grants and then support more experienced researchers to explore new ideas with intermediate-sized grants, managed by the Migraine Research Foundation. Our expectation is that the best of these ideas will be ready to apply to much larger grants, such as those offered by NIH. The most unique aspect of our program is our support of interdisciplinary migraine-relatedresearch at the Brown Institute for Brain Science and the funding of a post-doctoral fellowship in migraine research.
We also believe that patients will be better served if more medical professionals learn how to recognize and treat migraine disorders. In cooperation with existing teaching programs, our organization aims to develop complementary teaching materials for practitioners at all levels of training in multiple specialties.
We hope to have migraine disease rise in the public consciousness proportionate to its impact on people’s lives and families, and to have businesses discover how their support of this cause will improve the health and productivity of their employees.