Others

There are headaches, and then there are cluster headaches. Most people who have experienced both don’t need the distinction explained. Neurologists describe cluster headaches as one of the most severe pain conditions in all of medicine. Patients who have lived through them often say nothing else compares. What is a cluster headache, exactly? It’s a…

Imagine being afraid to brush your teeth. Or to eat. Or to smile at someone, because the simple act of moving your face might trigger a wave of pain so intense it stops you in your tracks. That’s what life with trigeminal neuralgia can look like. It’s a chronic neurological condition that affects the trigeminal…

Lower back pain is common. Sciatica is something else entirely. When the sciatic nerve gets irritated or compressed, the pain doesn’t stay in the back. It travels: down through the buttock, into the thigh, sometimes all the way into the calf or foot. The sciatic nerve is the largest in the body, and when something…

Multiple sclerosis is one of those conditions that can be quietly present long before anyone puts a name to it. The early signs of multiple sclerosis don’t announce themselves clearly. They often arrive as something easy to explain away: unusual fatigue after a normal day, a patch of numbness that disappears on its own, a…

Witnessing a seizure can be deeply alarming. Watching a friend, family member, or coworker suddenly lose control of their body naturally triggers fear and urgency. However, staying calm and taking the right steps makes a profound difference in keeping the person safe during an episode. Understanding the subtle signs that precede a seizure helps you…

Feeling unsteady on your feet or sensing that the world around you is moving can be deeply disorienting. Many patients use the words “dizzy” and “vertigo” interchangeably to describe these uncomfortable sensations. However, in the medical world, they refer to distinctly different experiences that point to different underlying causes in the body. Understanding the subtle…

Your head is pounding. The light from your phone screen feels like a physical assault. You’re not looking for a thorough explanation of neurobiology right now. You want to know how to get rid of a migraine, and you want to know it fast. Here’s the honest answer: most attacks respond well to a combination…

Tingling. Burning. A numbness that won’t go away, even though nothing’s touching your skin. Sound familiar? You’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone. This is neuropathy in the feet and legs: the nerves that carry signals between your brain and your lower body have taken damage, and they’re not doing their job the way…

Almost everyone has experienced that dull, aching pressure across the forehead or around the back of the head after a long, demanding day. When asked what a tension headache is, the simplest definition is that it is the most common form of primary headache, affecting millions of adults across the United States. Unlike migraines or…

Big life changes stir up a strange mix of excitement and dread, sometimes both at once. Finishing school, moving to a new city, hunting for a job – all of it puts real strain on the nervous system, and the body doesn’t always process that gracefully. One of the most common physical results is a…