New Findings on Migraines

This Vox article on migraines is a rare quality on on the subject.

Experts used to think migraines were solely caused by the abnormal expansion of blood vessels in the brain, according to Zhang. Over the past couple of decades, that thinking has evolved: Scientists now believe the brains of people with migraines are exquisitely sensitive to the effects of certain neurotransmitters, in particular calcitonin gene-related peptide, or CGRP.
"The CGRP molecule is essentially a pain molecule," says Zhang. Headache researchers have found that people with migraines had higher blood CGRP levels during headaches than people without migraines, and that giving migraine-prone people infusions of the molecule triggered headaches. These discoveries made the molecule a target for a flurry of drug discovery, and since 2018, the FDA has approved eight new migraine drugs.

Nurtec is one of the newer drugs and it has been wonderfully effective for me. I've been taking it every other day since late 2021 and it effectively prevents my migraines. Rizatriptan had helped, too, but it wasn't preventative and I was going through the maximum 10 pills a month. If you're a migraine sufferer and put off seeing a neurologist, let me tell you to change that. The new drugs work.

Anticipatory anxiety, the worry about something bad to come, is one of the types of stress that can trigger migraines. That can make it challenging to disentangle actual migraine triggers from beliefs about triggers. Lipton remembers a patient who blamed his migraines on changes in barometric pressure, which his smartwatch pinged him about in real time. "I took away his watch, and his headaches got a lot better," he says. "Beliefs about triggers cause anticipatory anxiety, which increases the probability of headache."

This is also true for me. It's undiagnosed, but I'm pretty sure I have a low-level general anxiety disorder which I highly suspect it's also one of my migraine triggers. How frustrating is it that fear of a thing could make that thing happen? Very.

He notes that migraine triggers are often cumulative: For example, many women can drink alcohol without getting a migraine at most times of the month, but a glass of wine during their menstrual cycle can lead to a headache.

Absolutely. After keeping a migraine journal for years, I found this to be true for me. I learned that migraines were regularly occurring on overcast or rainy days. That itself, wasn't enough to cause a migraine, but it was if I had had multiple drinks the night before. Or if I was stressed about something, or my diet had been bad for a day or two. Keeping tabs on all of this has been a huge help.

When it comes to prevention, the greatest boon has been the ability to work from home. No commute, no fluorescent office lights, no social anxiety and forcing myself to be pleasant. Also, when at home, comfortable on a couch in soft natural light.

Migraines are the worst. I've been suffering from them since I was in 3rd grade, when my eyesight went south and I needed glasses. And when my social anxiety was coming on board. If you're suffering from regular headaches and haven't looked into treatment, you absolutely should. I put it off for a very long time and regret it.

Where Have All The Websites Gone?

Jason Velazquez wonders "Where have all the websites gone?" It's a nice post decrying the ongoing dominance of major social media platforms. If you're reading this via RSS, you understand.

But he ends on an optimistic tone.

So when we wonder where all the websites have gone, know it’s the curators we’re nostalgic for because the curators showed us the best the web had to offer once upon a time. And the curators— the tenders, aggregators, collectors, and connectors— can bring us back to something better. Because it’s still out there, we just have to find it.

This is partly why I always feel the need to start blogging again. I want to get back to the place where small, weird sites share links to other small, weird sites. The internet is massively bigger than it was in 2003 when I made my first website. I want to be a part of the community finding and sharing the good stuff.

OpenAI Versus The House of Lords

OpenAI is begging the British Parliament to allow it to use copyrighted works because it's supposedly "impossible" for the company to train its artificial intelligence models — and continue growing its multi-billion-dollar business — without them.

If your company cannot function without breaking laws, your business model is not a viable one. This isn't hard.

Lego Polaroid

Spent a few hours today building this Lego Polaroid camera. The first time in maybe 30 years I've built a Lego set by myself. It was extremely relaxing, and I'd love to do it again. We had on music while Lisa was prepping a stew for dinner. It was a cold, snowy day in Brooklyn. Perfect for a silly indoor project like this.

It's from the Idea Series. I'd also love to build this typewriter someday.

Killing the Buddha

Peter Manseau:

Twenty years ago today this weird book [(Killing the Buddha)] I made with [Jeff Sharlet] was published. First book for us both, set us each on a path for thinking & writing about religion in America. Publisher thought it would get more attention with no words on the cover. We didn’t know anything and said Sure!

This was a seminal book for me. It effectively reoriented the way I thought about religion and how people practice it. After reading it, I could make sense of religion's true place in culture, in people's personal lives. Not in an academic way, nor dryly philosophical. Certainly not cynically. But as a practical thing. Our media tends to focus on either the growing number of nonbelievers or the true obsessives who cause trouble for the rest of us. In truth, most religious folk are somewhere in between. Killing the Buddha showed me how varied — and beautiful — that somewhere in between can be. And it did so with respect and empathy. I'm grateful for what Jeff and Peter taught me.

Exit: The Holidays

Every year, the edge of Cobble Hill Park becomes an official dumping ground for dead xmas trees. Last year, we carried our tree all the way over here. We didn't need to make the trek this year. We only had a little garland on our mantle.

Silver Jews Tribute Show

Went out last night to the 4th annual tribute show to David Berman. It was a ramshackle show, but still really nice to hear a bunch of Silver Jews and Purple Mountains songs played live again. A few of the participants were friends of Berman's or had written songs with him, so the event had a warm feeling about it. Proceeds went to a suicide prevention nonprofit.