Migraine Awareness Month 2017
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June 2017 marks National Migraine Awareness Month (#MHAM).This month long series of events promotes education, collaboration and general consciousness enhancing regarding the neurological affliction, migraine disease.
Enormous strides have been made over the last several years. Possibly 2017 will be the most significant year to date, since the advent of triptans in 1991, in the history of migraine treatment. Research tells us we are on the cusp of emerging treatments designed to mark the processes in the brain and critical nerve pathways that trigger migraine attacks and the related symptoms that accompany these attacks, not the least of which is excruciating pain. At the clinical trials finish line:four major pharmaceutical companies are developing monoclonal antibodies that target CGRP and its receptors. Additionally, in development are other small molecular drugs that also target CGRP and other receptors that are known to be critical in alleviating the pain and related symptoms that associate with migraine. Cluster headaches may also respond. Perhaps now, with evidence based research, migraine and its variants will be viewed as a neurological disease, and in doing so, much of the stigma should be lost.
With these exciting research advances as a backdrop,the Association of Migraine Disorders is planning several events to underscore the importance of continuing and increasing the research and educational efforts to work towards a cure. Specifically, the Mad Hatter Party, to be held at the Squantum Association, in East Providence, Rhode Island on Friday, June 23rd, and the Shades for Migraine campaign and Migraine World Solidarity Day on June 21.
The Mad Hatter Party, our signature, annual fundraiser, apart from being a great evening of food and music, offers much in the in the area of migraine education and personal recognition.This year, prior to the actual event, we are holding a "Hot Topics Roundtable", with migraine experts discussing current issues of the day. This part of the Event is free and open to the public. In a later portion of event, AMD will recognize several migraine research and advocacy luminaries with three special awards:
AMD Special Advocacy Award - Senator Sheldon Whitehouse - U.S. Senator, a lead co-sponsor of CARA (Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act) which was the vehicle the carried the STOP Pain provisions so important in migraine research funding.
AMD Innovation Award -
Dale Bond, PhD -Is a Brown University Professor and researcher who studies the effects of behavioral weight loss interventions on migraine disease, a cutting edge topic.
AMD Impact Award - Katie Golden - Professional Patient, Writer for Migraine.com, Blogger at GoldenGraine.com, US Pain Ambassador, Patient Advocate, Speaker & Freelance Writer
This event promises to be a fun and informative evening. Tickets may be purchased on our site at
www.amdfundraiser.org
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You may already know that migraine disease is more common than Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis combined. And despite that fact, it receives a small fraction of the available neuroscience research funding. Not
surprisingly there are a very small number of neuroscience researchers who decide to take on migraine as a project, or devote a laboratory or professional lifetime to it. Migraine disease is not getting the attention it deserves; all the while, millions of people are suffering year after year behind closed doors. So here's a way to increase attention:
June 21st is the longest day of the year, and light can be a powerful migraine trigger. As a result, we thought it would be an appropriate day to express solidarity with those who have to live with this invisible, painful, unpredictable and stigmatized disease.
World Migraine Solidarity Day
is
a day to let the world know about this marginalized condition affecting so many people. Let the millions of sufferers know that you care, and you know they aren't feigning an illness. You know much more needs to be done to find a cure and money must be raised to support research. You want to help give migraine disease the importance and correct classification as a neurological illness it now deserves.
We invite you to participate in the new awareness campaign taking place on Migraine Solidarity Day. Photophobia, or pain experienced from light is common to migraineurs. To recognize this condition shared by migraineurs, a coalition of migraine organization and bloggers (including AMD, of course) has come together to promote the campaign -
Shades For Migraine (SFM). We are asking you to wear your sunglasses all day long on June 21. They just need to be visible: hanging around your neck, hanging from your shirt or propped on your head are fine if you can't wear them on your face the entire day. Wear them indoors and in places where people usually don't wear sunglasses (but be safe). They are symbolic of your support. Take a chance and be silly: wear goofy ones if you dare. Let the sunglasses make a statement. Start a conversation.
Post a photo of yourself (and friends/co-workers) wearing your
Shades for Migraine on social media using the hashtag #ShadesForMigraine.
We are trying for a "viral" awareness campaign!
Visit our webpage at
www.shadesformigraine.org
for further information, including the list of over 20 groups participating in this campaign.
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One other way you can participate in Shades for Migraine on World Migraine Solidarity Day is to join our Thunderclap right now. Thunderclap is a new website that allows you to join a social media "flash mob". Click on our page link here, where you can pledge a tweet or a Facebook post or a Tumblr post supplied by SFM, which will be posted by Thunderclap at the same moment as everyone else participating. (8:30AM EST on June 21) It's a way to flood social media with one message at a specific time.
When you support our Thunderclap, you're simply authorizing Thunderclap to post that one message to your account on the date and time indicated by the campaign organizer (SFM). After that, they have no further interaction with your account. They use the latest encryption standard TLS 1.2 to secure your data and they never see or store the password to your social media account.
Please check it out. It's pretty cool, very safe and super easy!
- Jim Carleton for AMD
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Calendar of upcoming events
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