# Another disability iritation - quackery

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-disability-iritation-quackery/785292>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [April 26, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-disability-iritation-quackery/785292 "2017-04-26T15:20:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-disability-iritation-quackery/785292/61 "2017-04-28T14:00:12Z")

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**carrps** , your sister is on to something. Barometric pressures are a recognized trigger for migraine. This was announced a year or two ago, and millions of migraineurs said, “No shit, Sherlock” in response to the news.

And caffeine helps me as well. If I take my abortive medication in the morning with a cup of coffee, I can often get to work in a couple of hours (usually working from home; I don’t feel great but the migraine pain is gone). If the migraine starts later in the day, a regular Coca-Cola helps.  
**Guinastasia** – weather has been doing me in this spring. Between the barometric pressure changes and the pollen (inflammation in my sinuses seems to be a secondary trigger), it’s ridiculous. Summer is usually ok. The dead of winter is usually ok. Spring sucks.

> [@SmartAleq](#):
>
> On a practical level–do they pee test you? Because the CDC has put out a strong recommendation that doctors not disallow weed users from participating in pain management programs and the like, especially since cannabis strongly potentiates painkillers.

My pain management doc pee tests everyone in their medication program. They have to to keep the feds off their backs; law enforcement hasn’t gotten the memo from the CDC.

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**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-disability-iritation-quackery/785292/62 "2017-04-28T15:31:32Z")

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> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> Extreme blood pressure is absolutely real, measurable effect that can be ameliorated by just saying the magic phrase, “calm down.”
> 
> So even if migraine can be shown to be physically real (i.e. not imagined or phantom pain), it doesn’t necessarily need a physical/chemical fix. Interrupting the cause at a different level does seem to help a lot of sufferers.

I lost track of this thread until now.

I apologize that my comments above were misunderstood - one of the reasons I hate posting from my tablet is that composition is so slow I tend to write way too short, leaving ambiguity and sometimes unintentional offense an opening.

All I meant was that there are medical issues with very real, measurable aspects that can be ameliorated or cured by very indirect methods; that I don’t see hypnosis and feedback as complete woo when tried as a cure for something with nebulous, often stress-induced causes like migraine.

I used a very simple example of anger-induced blood pressure spikes (which are quite real) being ameliorated by calming actions - which got taken as a number of dismissive things I didn’t intend. Sorry, especially to the OP.

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