To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
Congress hold hearings on migraine disease
Urge congressional hearings on the Impact of Migraine and Headache Disorders, especially before the Primary Health and Aging Subcommittee of the Senate HELP Committee and/or before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, prior to the close of the 112th Congress (January 2013).
Why is this important?
Congress Hold Hearings on Migraine Disease
To be delivered to: The United States Senate and The United States House of Representatives
Urge Congressional Hearings on the Impact of Migraine and Headache Disorders, especially before the Primary Health and Aging Subcommittee of the Senate HELP Committee and/or before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, prior to the close of the 112th Congress (January 2013).
I suffer from chronic daily migraines. Migraines have rendered me unable to work, have reduced my social support to a few old friends, have robbed me of the opportunity to fulfill my goals and dreams, have stopped me from engaging as a citizen in important civic issues, and have damaged my relationship with my family of origin, who see me as lazy and negative.
According to the National Headache Foundation, more than 29.5 million Americans suffer from migraine, with women being affected three times more often than men. Of those affected, 38% of migraineurs suffer from 1-12 migraines each year, 38% get 1-3 a month, 37% get 1 per week, and 11% get 2-6 migraines a week (relieve-migraine-headache.com). Chronic migraine (15+ migraines per month) impacts approximately 3.2 million Americans (Migraine.com). Migraine ranks in the top 20 most disabling diseases according to the WHO....and yet it is one of the most misunderstood diseases, by both the general public and health care professionals.
While societal costs are hard to quantify, migraine disease has a significant economic impact: headache disorders lead to more than $31B in economic costs in the US annually. Despite these statistics, the National Institute of Health gave less than 0.05% of its 2007 budget to migraine research ($13M) which translates to approximately $0.36 per migraineur. Diabetes, in comparison, received $1.037B (or $49.38 per diabetic). There has been no improvement in the funding: in 2010 the percentage was the same. Over the past 50 years, only one innovative drug (sumatriptan), discovered and developed specifically for migraine, has been approved for clinical use after review by the FDA. Only 290 US doctors are Board-certified as specialty trained in Headache Medicine. It is well past time for migraine disease and other headache disorders to receive the funding and attention they deserve. To date, no US Congressional committee has ever held a public hearing on headache disorders yet just recently they discussed Lyme disease, estimated to affect 40,000 people.
Unless Congress fully understands the disease there is no reason to believe the National Institute of Health will allocate more of its budget to headache and migraine research. Without more research, we will have the status quo: ineffective treatments and millions of Americans needlessly living in pain.
The Alliance for Headache Advocacy has formed a petition asking Congress to hold hearings before the close of the 112th Congressional Session. As of March 2012, they only had some 10K signatures. Perhaps this is because migraineurs are in too much pain to advocate for themselves. Please help me to bombard them with signatures.
To be delivered to: The United States Senate and The United States House of Representatives
Urge Congressional Hearings on the Impact of Migraine and Headache Disorders, especially before the Primary Health and Aging Subcommittee of the Senate HELP Committee and/or before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, prior to the close of the 112th Congress (January 2013).
I suffer from chronic daily migraines. Migraines have rendered me unable to work, have reduced my social support to a few old friends, have robbed me of the opportunity to fulfill my goals and dreams, have stopped me from engaging as a citizen in important civic issues, and have damaged my relationship with my family of origin, who see me as lazy and negative.
According to the National Headache Foundation, more than 29.5 million Americans suffer from migraine, with women being affected three times more often than men. Of those affected, 38% of migraineurs suffer from 1-12 migraines each year, 38% get 1-3 a month, 37% get 1 per week, and 11% get 2-6 migraines a week (relieve-migraine-headache.com). Chronic migraine (15+ migraines per month) impacts approximately 3.2 million Americans (Migraine.com). Migraine ranks in the top 20 most disabling diseases according to the WHO....and yet it is one of the most misunderstood diseases, by both the general public and health care professionals.
While societal costs are hard to quantify, migraine disease has a significant economic impact: headache disorders lead to more than $31B in economic costs in the US annually. Despite these statistics, the National Institute of Health gave less than 0.05% of its 2007 budget to migraine research ($13M) which translates to approximately $0.36 per migraineur. Diabetes, in comparison, received $1.037B (or $49.38 per diabetic). There has been no improvement in the funding: in 2010 the percentage was the same. Over the past 50 years, only one innovative drug (sumatriptan), discovered and developed specifically for migraine, has been approved for clinical use after review by the FDA. Only 290 US doctors are Board-certified as specialty trained in Headache Medicine. It is well past time for migraine disease and other headache disorders to receive the funding and attention they deserve. To date, no US Congressional committee has ever held a public hearing on headache disorders yet just recently they discussed Lyme disease, estimated to affect 40,000 people.
Unless Congress fully understands the disease there is no reason to believe the National Institute of Health will allocate more of its budget to headache and migraine research. Without more research, we will have the status quo: ineffective treatments and millions of Americans needlessly living in pain.
The Alliance for Headache Advocacy has formed a petition asking Congress to hold hearings before the close of the 112th Congressional Session. As of March 2012, they only had some 10K signatures. Perhaps this is because migraineurs are in too much pain to advocate for themselves. Please help me to bombard them with signatures.