dr. blake

Headache 360 – The Headache Neurologist on the Cutting Edge

Speaker 1: Welcome to the Headache 360 Podcast, a place to learn about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache and migraine pain, because information can be the best medicine. Dr. Lowenstein: Hello and welcome to our next episode of the Headache 360 Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. I have a very special…

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dr adam lowenstein

Our Migraine Surgery Guidelines

There seem to be quite a number of questions online about instructions and expectations before and after surgery.  With that in mind, I thought I would share our “guidelines” for migraine surgery.  Please call our Center at 805-969-9004 with any questions you might have….. Guidelines for Headache Surgery Before your surgery • Maintaining a well…

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kelly lott massage therapist

Headache 360 Podcast: The Migraine Miracle Massage Therapist

Dr. Lowenstein: Hi, and welcome to the Headache 360 podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. As we’ve discussed many times before on this podcast, my goal here is to try and get some expertise from specialists who patients with chronic headaches and migraines will often see during a course of their care. Today, we…

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Occipital Neuralgia Patient

Dizziness and Headaches… The Imbalance of Pain

Dizziness, imbalance, and disorientation in headache and neck pain patients One of the most frequent questions posted to facebook on migraine headaches and tension headaches forums involves some aspect of dizziness, imbalance, and disorientation.  While headache patients may be used to pain, waking up dizzy or having balance issues with or without pain can be…

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migraine diva jamie sanders

Headache 360 Podcast: Migraine Diva With Jamie Sanders

Dr. Lowenstein: Hi and welcome to the Headache 360 Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. I have a really interesting guest today and a very unique one. Jamie Sanders is a blogger and I guess I personally think even more importantly, a patient and migraine advocate, an advocate for patients with migraine. She has…

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Headache 360 Podcast: Migraine Surgery

Speaker 1: Welcome to Headache 360 podcast, a place to listen and learn about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache and migraine pain, because information can be the best medicine. Dr. Lowenstein: Hello and welcome to the Headache 360 podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. Today we’re going to talk about migraine surgery.…

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Headache 360 Podcast: Procedures for Migraines and Headaches

Speaker 1: Welcome to the Headache 360 Podcast. A place to listen and learn about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache and migraine pain, because information can be the best medicine. Dr. Lowenstein: Hello, and welcome to the Headache 360 Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein, and today we are again, speaking…

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Is Magnesium a Migraine Cure?

For the body to function properly, it relies on several vitamins and minerals. Magnesium is a mineral that supports nerve function, heart rhythm, blood pressure regulation, and bone health. Studies suggest that magnesium deficiency, which affects nearly 75% of Americans, can cause muscle cramps, nausea, low appetite, fatigue, and other symptoms. Some studies also suggest…

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Did Your Favorite Migraine Medicine Just Get Recalled?

For those who suffer migraines, management is the name of the game. The recent, temporary halt in the production of Excedrin Migraine and Excedrin Extra Strength by GlaxoSmithKline just made that a little more difficult. Here, we discuss why this recall happened and how it may have the silver lining of prompting you to find…

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Is Migraine Surgery Right for You?

Migraine pain can affect every aspect of life. The more frequent these headaches are, the worse their repercussions can be. A study published in the Journal of Headache and Pain has shed light on the short- and long-term impact experienced by those who suffer migraines. More than 11,000 patients participated in this study, which ended…

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Can You Reduce Migraine Pain with These Strategies?

Migraine pain can interfere with your ability to engage in life the way you’d like. It doesn’t take much effort to find a variety of remedies and treatments aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of migraine headaches. What may take a little more effort than expected is finding a solution that works. Here, we…

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COVID-19 Headaches

You don’t have to have COVID-19 to have a Coronavirus related headache. Headaches in the age of Covid may be related to the virus itself but are likely a result of stress and its effect on your occipital nerves. Headaches are a very nonspecific symptom and can occur from a great many sources. Viruses such…

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Does Smoking Contribute to Migraine Pain?

At the beginning of the 21st Century, we understood little about the relationship between smoking and migraines. The scientific community had determined that smoking poses several health concerns, but some still believed that this habit might even decrease migraines. This theory relates to the idea that smoking decreases stress and anxiety. More recently, data suggest…

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Designing Your Ideal Migraine Treatment Plan

Millions of Americans experience frequent headaches. Migraines, and sometimes cluster headaches, may occur with such intensity that one must retreat from their daily activities for a time. The migraines that occur are as unique as each individual who experiences them. They can have multiple triggers and may respond differently to management strategies at different times.…

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Is Migraine Surgery Worth It?

Migraines can be an enormous obstacle to living your best life. Still, many of the people who experience these intense headaches feel somewhat lost when it comes to finding “the right” treatment. Migraine surgery might offer a glimmer of hope but, also, is migraine surgery brain surgery? Is it risky? Is it effective? The real…

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What’s in a name?

The term “migraine surgery” was coined as a simplified way for the public to understand that there is a surgical procedure to improve migraine headache symptoms.  In fact, the more appropriate name for this procedure is “nerve decompression surgery for the relief of headache and migraine symptoms.”  That’s a bit too wordy, but unfortunately, the…

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Why is a workup important?

We have many patients with migraine headaches who see an opportunity for a surgical cure for their pain and want to proceed immediately to surgery at Migraine Surgery Specialty Center without any other workup- this is a mistake.  Every patient who has surgery for their migraines needs a neurology workup including an MRI of the…

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migraine surgery san diego ca

Migraine Headaches in San Diego?

As you can see from the photo above I took in San Diego this weekend, Coronado is quite a beautiful spot.  Sometimes when visiting such a wonderful place it can be hard to believe that there are folks suffering even close by. Importantly, you can have a migraine in Coronado, or in any relative paradise. …

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Migraine Headache Severity

Recently one of the Facebook groups for migraine headaches and occipital neuralgia contained and interesting post.  A migraine headache patient began by saying that she did not mean to insult anyone, but she could not understand how some migraine headache sufferers could have severe pain and still go about their lives.  She alluded that such…

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Looking for suggestions… How do we get the word out?

Yesterday I saw yet another migraine headache patient who was a week out from her migraine surgery, and yet again this patient was thrilled with the migraine relief.  She told me she felt that the migraine surgery changed her life.  She was all smiles in the followup appointment, as opposed to completely dreary when I…

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Bad Dreams and Waking to a Migraine

Ever have that dream where you are in crazy Los Angeles traffic and need to be somewhere but can’t get there and then… you wake up to a migraine?  Out in the desert outside of Phoenix or Las Vegas and it’s crazy hot and you cant get cool or water and you wake up to…

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Head Trauma, Whiplash, and Migraine Headaches

A traffic accident in Los Angeles?  Football injury in college?  Even the recent surge in popularity of kickboxing has produced too many head trauma patients that experience chronic migraine headaches after their injury. I recently had an interesting conversation with a woman who had “post-concussion” headaches, but when I asked if she had isolated trauma…

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migraine surgery denver colorado

Bringing Migraine Surgery to Denver Colorado

I”m very excited about our newest venture, which will involve bringing our successes in providing migraine relief to Denver Colorado.  This will provide a more central access point to so many migraine sufferers in the central part of the United States, including Arizona, Kansas, Wyoming, and Utah. I was fortunate enough to live and practice…

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Diagnostic nerve blocks vs Therapeutic nerve blocks

This is a quick little video to help explain the differences between using local anesthesia for a diagnostic nerve block and using Botox for a longer term therapeutic nerve block.  Please ask questions if you are interested in more information… Call us at 805-969-9004 so we can help clear things up!

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migraine headache surgery patient

The 2018 Policy Statement regarding Migraine Headache Surgery from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Plastic Surgery Research Foundation

As many now know, microvascular decompression of several nerves in the head and neck is a proven successful therapy for the relief of migraine headaches.  I was very happy to read the recent Policy Statement put forth but the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Plastic Surgery Research Foundation.  This important paper provides an…

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Not all “nerve blocks” for migraine headache pain are the same

During the course of a great telephone conversation with a migraine headache patient from San Diego last week, it once again became evident to me that there is a misunderstanding of the differences in nerve blocks and Botox injections done by surgeons vs other medical professionals when it comes to the treatment of Migraine Headaches and…

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nerve block for migraines

Why did the nerve block from my neurologist make things worse?

A frequent question I get asked involves nerve injections that make things worse rather than better.  Many times nerves blocks work just as they are supposed to but when they don’t, patients are often left trying to figure out why???   So what happens when nerve blocks make the pain worse? Remember that nerve blocks…

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Why Me Card

Why ME?

Why ME? So often a question I get from migraine headache patients is a derivative of “Why me?” “What did I do to bring on these migraines?” “What can I change so these migraine headaches stop?” “Why are these migraines so bad for me but nobody else?” So just to address the last question specifically,…

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Migraine Surgery Word Map

Migraine Recurrence and Revision

While we wish it never happened, an infrequent occurrence following migraine surgery is the return of headache pain.  Just like any surgical procedure, migraine operations do have their rare failures, and in the case of migraine surgery, the failure rate is, fortunately, less than 10%.  If you have a presence on social media, you may…

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Outpatient surgery for headache and migraine

It seems there is often much misunderstanding surrounding the terminology pertaining to headaches.  While “migraine headache” is indeed a specific diagnosis, there are many subtypes of migraines with terminology that can get confusing.  Additionally,  many headache sufferers have not yet seen a neurologist to get a migraine diagnosis, and others have diagnoses such as “chronic…

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Chronic Headache and Nerve Decompression Surgery Patient

Chronic headaches and nerve decompression surgery

For better or for worse, nerve decompression to provide relief from headaches and neck aches has been come to be known as “migraine surgery” because many chronic headache patients carry a diagnosis of migraine disease.  It’s true that “Migraine Surgery” rolls off of the tongue better than “Peripheral Nerve Decompression Surgery for the Treatment of…

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Dr Andrew Germanovich

Headache 360 Podcast: Dr. Lowenstein and Dr. Germanovich

Introduction: Welcome to the Headache 360 podcast, a place to listen and learn about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache and migraine pain because information can be the best medicine. Dr. Lowenstein: Hello and welcome to the Headache 360 podcast. I am your host Dr. Adam Lowenstein. I am a board certified plastic surgeon…

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amy killian

Headache 360 Podcast: Dr. Lowenstein and Amy Kilian

Dr. Lowenstein: Hi, and welcome to the Headache 360 Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein. Again, what we’re doing here is trying to take a 360 degree view of headache and migraine pain. As such, some of you will know that I am a migraine and headache surgeon. I do nerve decompression, but people…

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dr jason prystowsky

Headache 360 Podcast: Dr. Lowenstein and Dr. Prystowsky

Dr. Lowenstein: Hi. Welcome back to the Headache 360 Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Adam Lowenstein, and I’ve got a amazing guest today. As I think many of you know, I’m a migraine surgeon. I do peripheral nerve decompression for migraines, and a lot of my patients have spent time in emergency rooms, and so…

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