from : Curing migraine & other

headaches
[Guérir des Migraines & autres maux de tête, Ed. Quintessence,
France]
J. Polak, MD

A study evaluating the effects of Brachy-

Myotherapy
as a thorough treatment for Migraine.

An important study on the effects of Brachy-Myotherapy on migraines was carried out in

Bordeaux (France) by Jacques Aguila, MD, director of CCAS Health Center.

This open study, published in December 2000 in the Swiss magazine 'Physiotherapy', reports the
results of applying Brachy-Myotherapy to about 300 migraines corresponding to IHS (International
Headache Society) criteria over a period of 7 years.

Brachy-Myotherapy was applied as only treatment for all migraine patients meeting IHS criteria
who consulted J. Aguila, MD, between January 1st, 1993 and December 31, 1999.
If a medical treatment by anti-migraine drugs existed beforehand, it has been discontinued
(gradually if it was old). Drugs were allowed if necessary in case of crisis in the beginning of
treatment by Brachy-Myotherapy.

Each session was conducted in two stages:

1) diagnosis of the muscle to handle by examination and palpation ;
2) treatment of each muscle spasm by shortening positioning. This treatment is totaly
harmlessness.
The treatment sessions took place every one or two weeks.

The main criterion of effectiveness was the number of attacks, as is the case in most publications
on the treatment of migraine.
A self-assessment questionnaire was given at the end of treatment concerning the number of
attacks possibly made thereafter, that the patient had to send to Dr. Aguila.

Characteristics of the studied cases :

● 295 patients were selected :

229 women (78%) and 66 men (22%).

The prevalence of migraine is about 6 % in men and 17 % in women.

The ratio of men to women is considered as 3.84 (this proportion changes with age : before
puberty there is no difference between boys and girls) ; in our study it is of 3.46.
 ● Distribution by age :

The patients' ages ranged from 8 to 73 years (average = 42 years).

There were 11 cases of children under 10 years and 19 of 10-20 years.

19 cases were over 60 years, which shows that contrary to popular belief headache does not
necessarily disappear with menopause, although it is actually less common : in the age group 60-80
years prevalence is supposed to be of 7% for women and 2.5% for men.

● Duration of disease :

The average time of evolution of migraine in our study is 20 years 1/2 (minimum = 1 year,
maximum = 59 years).

The most important group of patients had had migraines for less than five years ; but we can
note the chronicity of this disease since more than half of the patients had been suffering for 20 to
59 years.
 ● Frequency of attacks :

Patients had an average 3 attacks per month

(Minimum = 0,3/month, maximum = 12/month).

● Assessment of the severity of crises :

The intensity of the pain was measured with a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) : the patient drags a
slider between 'no pain' and 'maximum imaginable pain' acording to how he estimates the force of
his pain ; a 0-10 scale drawn on the back of the ruler records the level of pain.

Whatever the subjectivity of pain, this way of measuring the intensity is universally accepted. If
it cannot compare the pain of one person to another, one can nevertheless make quite significant
averages from several individuals, or evaluate the evolution of a pain in the same person from one
moment to a another.
 The average intensity of migraine attacks estimated by VAS in our patients series is 7.8/10 (=
78%). For 96 patients, i.e. one third of the group, it was between 9 and 10, the maximum. Only 13%
of patients felt their pain intensity was of 5 or less.
This underlines how this disease is disabling.

● Number of subjects having migraines with aura :

Migraine with aura (visual symptoms like lightnings, or sometimes other neurological symptoms
occurring usually before the pain) are overall expected to represent 30% of migraine sufferers.
Given the risk of overstatement of the phenomenon, including the confusion with premonitory or
precursory signs or symptoms accompanying pain, we selected only the typical manifestations,
occurring in the absence of pain, about 3/4 hour before the latter.
A total of 74 subjects on the 295 in our study had migraine with aura, i.e. one quarter of the total
number of patients.

Proportionately more men are supposed to have migraines with aura : 2 men/3 women (although
the overall distribution of migrines is 1 man/3 women).
In this series, 55 women (out of 229, i.e. about 1/4) and 19 men (66, i.e. one third) had
symptoms of aura, a ratio of about 3 to 1 (to compare with the 4-1 ratiofor the totality of migraines).

● Summary :
 The study involved 295 cases, 229 women and 66 men aged 8-73 years, with an average of three
migraine attacks per month for 20 years on average, with average pain intensity was 7.8 on a scale
of 0-10 VAS, 25% had migraine with aura.

As in any study a number of patients were lost of sight. Estimated at 20% in most medical
publications, here we had only 9.5% (26 cases) for a study that was conducted over seven years,
which is unusually long.
It is well known that among patients giving no further news there are many cured people (which
no longer feel the need to contact their physician) as well as failures. These 26 cases will therefore
be removed from the total for the interpretation of results.

► Results of thorough treatment of Migraine by Brachy-Myotherapy only:

20 patients were under treatment at the end of the study, the following results do thus concern
249 patients.

● Number of complete remission: 72% (179 cases).

● Number of improvements of 80% or more: 6.5% (16 cases).
● Number of improvements of more than 50%: of 5.5% (the 14 cases).
● Number of improvements of at least 30%: 2% (5 cases)
● Number of failures: 14% (35 cases)

The percentage of complete remissions + improvements over 80% was 78.5% (over three
quarters of patients).

The number of sessions of Brachy-Myotherapy performed ranged between 1 and 18 (average =

7).
The duration of this thorough treatment ranged between 1 week and 16 months (average = 3
months).

● Number of attacks prevented:

 According to the frequency of migraine attacks reported by all these patients, one could have
expected an occurrence of 19,679 migraine attacks during the observation period (averaging 32
months per patient). Only 1,502 attacks occurred during this time, a gain of 18,177 prevented crises
(more than 90% - cured, improved and unimproved patients together !).

● Finally it should be noted that in patients with migraine, painful areas were systematically
found before treatment during cervical palpation, which are typical signs of muscle spasms ; these
specific areas were sustainably normalized among migraineurs who did not show any more attacks,
while they persisted instead in case of failure of the treatment.

► Conclusions :

It should be reminded that the importance of the placebo effect in the thorough treatment of
migraine is estimated between 20 and 40%. Here we have 86% of positive effects, among which
more than 75% complete remissions.

It should also be remembered that the prophylactic treatment of migraine, by chemical drugs
taken continuously, only results in a simple improvement of at least 50% of migraine attacks in only
50% of patients (and then only as the treatment is taken ...what most of migraineurs do not want to
do, because of the frequent lack of real positive effects, the side effects, and the burden such a
treatment represents).

Finally, it is important to note that studies on the thorough treatment of migraine including so
many cases cases and taking place over such a long time are extremely rare (if ever they exist).

The basic treatment of repeated migraines by a treatment concerning only the muscular system,
with such a success rate, strongly suggests that the cause of migraine, its prime mover, is muscular.

More on : http://migraine.headache.free.fr

Contact : Dr.J.Polak@gmail.com