Migraines for Dummies (Paperback)

~ (Author), Jennifer Shoquist M.D. (Author), M.D., Jennifer Shoquist (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Relieve symptoms and pinpoint your pain triggers

Take charge of your headaches and get your life back!

You can get rid of the pain! This no-nonsense guide debunks migraine myths and gets you on the road to full-fledged pain relief. You’ll discover how to find a good doctor, sort through the various medicines, make positive changes in your lifestyle, and prevent your headaches from disrupting your work and family life.

Praise for Migraines For Dummies

"Migraines For Dummies is a practical guide full of useful information for the migraine sufferer, presented in an easy-to-read and entertaining format."
– Jennifer L. Wright, MD

"Migraines For Dummies provides insightful, practical, and helpful tips for dealing with the mother of all headaches: the migraine. This highly comprehensive book arms readers with the facts they need to make the transition from pain-challenged to migraine-empowered, in as simple a leap as possible."
– E. Fred Aguilar, MD

From the Back Cover

Relieve symptoms and pinpoint your pain triggers

Take charge of your headaches and get your life back!

You can get rid of the pain! This no-nonsense guide debunks migraine myths and gets you on the road to full-fledged pain relief. You’ll discover how to find a good doctor, sort through the various medicines, make positive changes in your lifestyle, and prevent your headaches from disrupting your work and family life.

Praise for Migraines For Dummies

"Migraines For Dummies is a practical guide full of useful information for the migraine sufferer, presented in an easy-to-read and entertaining format."
– Jennifer L. Wright, MD

"Migraines For Dummies provides insightful, practical, and helpful tips for dealing with the mother of all headaches: the migraine. This highly comprehensive book arms readers with the facts they need to make the transition from pain-challenged to migraine-empowered, in as simple a leap as possible."
– E. Fred Aguilar, MD

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (January 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764554859
• ISBN-13: 978-0764554858
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #630,786 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save yourself a headache, don't buy this book, May 21, 2003

By A Customer

If you just had the first headache of your life and wonder whether or not it is a migraine maybe this book is for you, but even then you would be better off going searching on the web for information. For anybody who suffers from migraines (I have had them for 25 years by now), this book offers little help. In fact, it is a complete waste of your headache-free time. It touches on different subjects in the most superficial way and adopts a "happy-go-lucky" tone whatever the subject. Migraines are not fun or funny so the tone of the book is completely inappropriate, e.g. "the big Kahuna Migraine pitches a tent in your head to stay for a while" or "For a moment, forget about medium- to hard-driving terminator prescription drugs and all those totally groovy over-the-counter meds." Some of the recommendations don't even make sense or the authors contradict themselves: you do not want to watch TV with a migraine, or have soft music playing or flowers that smell in your room! Medications and their side-effects are treated rather lightly, in an inappropriately "funny" way - as if you are supposed to get a laugh out of the "positive" side effect of Botox of smoothing out your wrinkles, or that you might lose weight while taking Topamax. If your migraines are so bad that you have to resort to these medications, the chirpy sense of humor of the authors eludes you, especially given the serious side effects of the latter medication. Maybe somewhere in those 300 pages is buried some helpful information, but by the time you get to page 300 you will feel like a dummy because of the tone of the book and not because you are having a migraine. My recommendation is, search the web for the sites of the various headache associations to find helpful information presented in a way much less insulting to your intelligence and to find a good neurologist with expertise in the treatment of headaches.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too general, not enough information, February 16, 2004

By	Martin Anderson "Martin" (Santa Ana, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I agree with the review that reads, "Save yourself the headache . . ." This book is far too general. If you read the brochures in your doctor's office and some informative information on the web, you already know more than you'll find here.

If you want a good, thorough book on migraines, consider "Headache Help: A Complete Guide to Understanding Headaches and the Medications That Relieve Them," which you can buy from amazon.com

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent overview book, June 29, 2007

By	Mathew A. Shember (Cupertino, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I read this on a whim.

I have headaches. Some ok; some really bad. People would offer advice and suggest migraine meds.

Problem is the fact I really didn't have any ideas on what to weigh or consider.

This book is good in that it will help with the basic question "Do I have Migraines?" In my case, I am lucky to be a lite migraine sufferer. Some of the explanations from the book helped me examine cause and effect of the headaches. In some cases, they are simple stress headaches be it from too much work, bad posture at the computer for long periods of time, etc.

Probably the best thing I got from was looking for triggers and measuring the body for when something bad was about to happen. Sometimes it gets worst when you try to tough it out.

I will say again that this is a book for those that want to know more but don't really know what to do or where to begin searching.

If you are one of the unfortunates that suffer from frequent migraines, then you probably already have an arsenal of knowledge and probably would not get much from this book.

Some of the writing, made me skip as some of the ideas are repeated.

Overall, it's not a bad book especially when considering the Dummies books tend to be a little weak. I am a little more informed on the subject matter as the book named some sites on the web were I could get more information.