3 Reasons to Consider PRP Therapy After a Sports Injury
If you hurt yourself participating in your activity of choice, you don’t have to wait out your recovery period. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy supports better healing.
Banish Chronic Migraines with Botox®
Your body’s pain signals play an important role. If you put your hand on a hot surface, for example, they warn you to pull away. That prevents you from burning yourself to the point where you would experience serious damage.
Sometimes, though, pain signals don’t work the way they should. If you live with migraines, you know this all too well. Inflammation in your head causes blood vessels to send serious pain signals for reasons researchers don’t understand.
Your body isn’t warning you of any imminent danger, but the resulting migraine definitely risks ruining your day.
Fortunately, Dr. Jonathan Carlson has a way to interrupt those pain signals: Botox®. By injecting tiny amounts of this neurotoxin into strategic locations, he can interfere with the signaling of the problem nerves. That provides migraine relief for many people.
If you live with chronic migraines, visit Dr. Carlson and our team at Hawai’i Pain & Spine on the Windward side of O’ahu in Kailua, Hawai’i.
How Botox works for migraines
You’re probably more familiar with Botox for wrinkles. When injected into the muscle underneath a wrinkle, it temporarily freezes that muscle, causing the skin above it to relax.
That’s because Botox is a neurotoxin. As its widespread use in wrinkle treatment suggests, it’s safe in small doses. In the same way it freezes muscles, it can freeze signaling in your nerves.
When Dr. Carlson applies it to strategic locations in your head, neck, and shoulders, the Botox reaches certain nerves. It then prevents those nerves from sending pain signals by blocking their release of pain-triggering chemicals.
By effectively freezing overactive nerves, Botox lessens the frequency and severity of migraines.
What to expect with Botox for migraines
Dr. Carlson generally recommends Botox for chronic migraines, meaning 15 or more headache days a month. Discuss with him your migraine symptoms and frequency. He can help figure out if this treatment is right for you. (If it isn’t, he offers a wide range of alternative options.)
If it is, the treatment itself only takes about 15 minutes. Most people say that each injection feels like nothing more than a pinch.
It typically takes at least a few weeks for Botox treatment to work for migraines. Dr. Carlson repeats Botox injections every few months, and many people notice significant migraine relief after the second cycle.
Sometimes, people get lasting relief after a series of treatments. Other people need periodic reinjections to keep the migraines at bay. Either way, Botox gives people a potentially life-changing way to minimize migraine pain.
If you want to explore Botox to banish chronic migraines, call our office today to schedule an appointment with Dr. Carlson.
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