The Doc Replies

Our expert answers your medical questions

I suffer from debilitating migraines. What can I do to reduce their frequency?

Migraine leads to attacks of headaches, often associated with nausea and/or vomiting and sometimes with visual or neurological symptoms beforehand, known as an aura. There can also be other symptoms such as aversion to bright lights, abdominal pain, and even sweating. To reduce the frequency of attacks, try to identify potential triggers, which can be dietary or environmental. Use a diary to try and identify any potential triggers or times during the month when you are most prone to a migraine attack. If you have migraines that are particularly severe despite medication, or if you have more than two significant migraines a month, we would start to think about prevention medicine. However, some of these drugs are not suitable for people with asthma or who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant in the near future.

What is lupus?

Its proper name is systemic lupus erythematosus and it is an autoimmune condition. It is when the body’s immune system sees certain cells as dangerous and attacks them even when they are not. It can affect the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, the brain and the heart. Symptoms include a butterfly rash over the nose and cheeks, mouth ulcers, anaemia, chest pain, joint pains, swollen lymph nodes, and even mood symptoms. It is more common in women, and sometimes if it is mild you do not have to treat it. If treatment is needed, there are various available of increasing potency.

What is Lyme Disease?

It is a bacterial infection that is carried in ticks, but not all ticks are infected. The common places you would pick ticks up would be woodland, heathland, rough pasture and even urban parks. Typically in Scotland we see them most in the Highlands, but we have seen a significant increase in Lyme Disease in the UK. Ticks are usually most active between March and October, but with milder winters we might even see that change.

Heather Corinna:

An Apology In July, we ran a feature about Heather Corinna’s new book What Fresh Hell is This? Their pronouns are they/them/theirs but, in the published piece, they were misgendered. We apologise to Heather for the mistake.