THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411170685
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMANN
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Life had become one big headache for Susan L. Burks. The Newport News substance abuse counselor found herself suffering midlife migraines so severe that she was sometimes reduced for hours to crawling on all fours simply to get from room to room in her house.
Thanksgiving seven years ago became the last straw. Burks had been bound for a festive holiday buffet at the Williamsburg Hilton with her husband, a NASA physicist, and her daughter, a law school student. Suddenly stricken, she didn't even get a chance to sit down at a table before she had to be escorted outside.
``I wasn't able to walk alone to get back to the car,'' Burks recalls.
These devastating physical insults had been coming on for more than a decade. Burks experienced episodes of dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea and headache, sometimes accompanied by distortions in hearing and taste. And the spells were getting worse, although she had been to seven physicians in 11 years.
``I got really angry,'' she says from her Denbigh home. ``I had been to all these doctors, and I wasn't getting better, I was getting worse. My life was out of control.
``I was gradually withdrawing from friendships and academic endeavors because everything was just too unpredictable. I didn't know when one of these things was going to hit. My husband hated to see me in such pain.
``I finally decided I was going to have to do something dramatic to help myself.''
Burks was 47 when she began employing the research skills she had learned acquiring a master's degree in counseling from the College of William and Mary. She studied medical journals in medical libraries. She went back to the doctors with some specific suggestions of her own.
Now Burks is 54. She is not cured. But she is back in control.
``I'm no longer disabled by my attacks,'' Burks says. ``I've come a long way and achieved a realistic goal. Having done all this research and helped myself, I wanted to reach out and share with others.''
The result is Managing Your Migraine: A Migraine Sufferer's Practical Guide (Humana Press, 248 pp., $22.50). It's a detailed but accessible manual for individuals who want to take an active part in their own treatment, in partnership with an empathetic physician and other appropriate health care professionals. Dr. Fred D. Sheftell, co-founder of the New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Conn., endorses Burks' approach.
``This book,'' he says, ``should be required reading for patients, their families and their physicians alike.''
Sheftell notes that though 18 percent of women and 6 percent of men in the United States suffer from migraine, most have never been diagnosed as having the disorder and have never received appropriate treatment. He adds there is little formal training for physicians on migraines and related disorders. They might profit from perusing Burks.
``Her book,'' Sheftell says, ``is living proof that one does not need to be a medical professional to understand a complex medical disorder and to use that knowledge to help oneself and others.''
Burks relies on more than medication; proper treatment, she insists, demands a lifestyle change as well. She keeps regular sleeping and eating schedules. She watches her diet with the vigilance of a cat in an aviary.
She rigorously reduces the intake of substances that make her blood vessels constrict and expand.
That means Burks avoids alcohol, caffeine, nitrates (in cured meats), chocolate, aged cheese, mushrooms, citrus fruits (oranges, limes and lemons) and legumes (peas, peanuts and broad beans). That's not easy. And she also avoids monosodium glutamate (MSG), the so-called ``flavor enhancer.''
``It's everywhere,'' Burks says. ``It's in most canned tuna, most canned soups, frozen entrees, gravy mixes, bouillon cubes and mixed seasonings (like Lawry's Season Salt, McCormick's Season All and Lemon Pepper). It's in school lunches and airline foods.''
Her book can be ordered at any local bookstore or by calling 1-800-263-1531; or consult Burks herself through Well-Being, 690B J. Clyde Morris Blvd., Newport News 23601.
``I admire a spirit of taking charge and trying to help oneself in adversity,'' the author said.
She's a one-woman support group. MEMO: Bill Ruehlmann is a mass communication professor at Virginia Wesleyan
College. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Susan L. Burks
by CNB