Pain cures for women; Migraines from low-energy light bulbs

I’ve had these two sto­ries book­marked to post here for a bit, so it seems past time for me to actu­al­ly do it.

The best new pain cures, with a focus on women

Many women have a tough time find­ing the right kind of relief for their pain—and for good rea­son: Until recent­ly, experts had­n’t actu­al­ly stud­ied wom­en’s pain specif­i­cal­ly, and most research was­n’t con­duct­ed with a wom­an’s hor­mones and physique in mind. All that’s chang­ing, though.

Docs now know that to ban­ish our aches, they must devel­op treat­ments for­mu­lat­ed for wom­en’s bod­ies. What’s more, researchers are also look­ing for—and finding—ways to head pain off at the pass, so those of us with chron­ic trou­bles such as migraine, fibromyal­gia, or back­ache don’t have to be hob­bled by pain on a dai­ly basis. Here, how the new research will help you live an (almost) pain-free life. Health.com: Smart ways to ban­ish pain

It’s def­i­nite­ly good news that they’re doing the research, at least! There’s good infor­ma­tion here on how estro­gen and oth­er hor­mones affect the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem. The arti­cle specif­i­cal­ly men­tions treat­ment for migraines and oth­er headaches, fibromyal­gia, and chron­ic fatigue syndrome.

There’s a def­i­nite anti-painkiller bias in the arti­cle, unfor­tu­nate­ly. The author does­n’t seem to grasp the fact that ibupro­fen isn’t enough “pre­ven­tive med­i­cine” for some of us, but if you can look past that it’s a decent article.

Low-ener­gy bulbs ’cause migraine’

I’ve had con­cerns about this issue myself. Flu­o­res­cent bulbs have always been a prob­lem for me, and the “low-ener­gy” bulbs that are so pop­u­lar now are flu­o­res­cent. The flick­er­ing of flu­o­res­cent bulbs can also trig­ger seizures in epilep­tics. While man­u­fac­tur­ers claim that the new bulbs don’t flick­er, they still cause prob­lems for some peo­ple. Eye strain from the low-inten­si­ty light is cit­ed, but some of us do per­ceive flickering. 

The U.K. plans to ban the sale of con­ven­tion­al (incan­des­cent) bulbs with­in the next four years. Patients’ asso­ci­a­tions are ask­ing that the old­er bulbs remain avail­able for those who have issues with the new­er ones.

This arti­cle did­n’t hap­pen to men­tion anoth­er prob­lem with the dis­pos­al of the bulbs: they con­tain mer­cury. You can’t just toss them in the trash, and if one breaks you have an envi­ron­men­tal haz­ard. That cost is sel­dom men­tioned when peo­ple talk about how much can be saved by switch­ing to those bulbs. When I looked for legal ways to dis­pose of the bulbs here in Atlanta¹I used Earth911, an excel­lent site for any­one in the U.S., all of the results involved pay­ing $1 or more per bulb. How many peo­ple are going to do that? Not many, which means that the bulbs will go into land­fills, releas­ing the mercury.

In look­ing for a cita­tion regard­ing the dis­pos­al prob­lems, I came across anoth­er arti­cle that states that flu­o­res­cent bulbs also cause skin heal­ing prob­lems for those who are pho­to­sen­si­tive due to lupus, eczema, or oth­er conditions.

I think we’ll keep buy­ing the full-spec­trum incan­des­cent bulbs for now.