Migraine and headache and cluster (oh my!)

I’m continuing my little series about websites that I’ve been involved in building.  Today’s feature – Relieve-Migraine-Headache.com.

This site is all about headaches, migraine, clusters – all those things that are generally related to head pain.  At the moment, Relieve-Migraine-Headache.com (RMH) is in the top 0.34% most popular sites on the internet (in other words, 99.66% of all websites on the internet are less popular).  That means that over 47,000 unique visitors come to the site each month (many of those come more than once, of course).  Last month over 49,500 people came to me for advice.  😉

I built the site in the summer of 2003.  Being a chronic migraine and headache sufferer myself, I figured it would be good motivation to study up on the issues and treatments.  Even if no one ever visited the site, at least I would learn something.

Starting in August 2003 I wrote the first ezine known as HeadWay, which had its 50th issue this past September.  In December 2004 I started the Headache & Migraine News Blog, which contains more frequent tips, news, and odds and ends.

Random trivia about RMH:

• The banner/logo was designed by a real live graphic designer – my friend Tim Cressman.  And no, that is not a picture of me.
• Some of the most popular articles include:  Eye migraines, Headache home remedies, Headache and migraine diet tips, Weather and headaches, and Migraine Symptoms.
• Hundreds of people find the site every month because they misspell the word migraine in a search engine.
• People most often visit from (most visitors to least) the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
• The Migraine Quiz was programmed by my friend Alan.
• The title of the site was a mistake.  It’s a long story, but I decided it was too much trouble to change so I left it as it was.
• Each week, about 30 people subscribe to HeadWay.

Not only did I learn lots, I’ve connected with doctors, neurologists, and dentists from various parts of the world, and I’ve met lots of people with migraine and various headache issues.  I’ve had good feedback, so I think I’ve been able to help a few people.

So what is migraine anyway?  Well, one of the best definitions I’ve heard is that it’s a genetically based neurological disease.  Migraine is not a headache, though most often headache is one of the symptoms (not always).  The truth is that the cause of migraine is still little understood, and to date there is no "cure", though in certain people the symptoms can be eliminated.

To learn more, visit some of these pages on the site:

• Links to info about migraine, tension headache, sinus headache and cluster.
• What causes migraine?
• More headache types
• Community articles (based on submissions from visitors)
• Subscribe to HeadWay
• Migraine triggers
• Preventing migraine
• Some of the most interesting recent discoveries:  A new reason why women may more often have migraine, Men and migraine, Computer games for headache, The paradox of migraine and cognitive decline

I hope I’ll be able to continue helping people in this unique way.