Wellness
The following article is a promotional piece sponsored by Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
AJOVY® (fremanezumab-vfrm) injection (1) is a long-acting anti-CGRP injection with lasting protection against migraine.** Do not use AJOVY if you are allergic to AJOVY or any of the ingredients in AJOVY. AJOVY may cause allergic reactions, including itching, rash, and hives that can happen within hours and up to 1 month after receiving AJOVY. Common side effects of AJOVY include injection site reactions.
Please click here for full U.S. Prescribing Information for AJOVY® (fremanezumab-vfrm) injection.
Dealing with migraine can potentially throw your life out of balance. When an attack strikes, it can mess up your routine and make you feel like your life is on hold. One step may be looking at ways to try to reduce the number of migraine days in your life. Lucky for you, we have a few suggestions that may help.
Keep A Journal
One way to figure out your migraine triggers — the foods, habits, and environmental factors like light, certain smells, and even the weather (2), that can make your migraine symptoms kick in — is to start tracking them. Buy a nice notebook, or use your favorite note-taking app. Set aside a few minutes every day to write down any activities you did that day and any subsequent symptoms you experienced. After a while, you may start seeing helpful patterns between your lifestyle and your migraine attacks.
Avoid Your Food Triggers
Now that you’ve been writing down your meals and snacks, you might start to notice your symptoms can come after you eat certain foods. Common headache trigger foods include alcohol, cheese, chocolate, caffeine, and more, according to the Cleveland Clinic (3). But does this mean your new culinary life is going to be a drag? No way! Trigger foods can often have easy replacements. For example, if cheese can trigger your migraine attacks, try swapping it out for a non-dairy alternative.
Talk To Your Healthcare Provider About Long-Acting Treatment
Migraine attacks can still happen even when you’re paying attention to your potential triggers, so talking to your healthcare provider can help you find effective coping strategies. Your healthcare provider can schedule some tests to make sure your symptoms aren’t coming from another condition, and they can also talk to you about what are known as “long-acting” medications like AJOVY, which provides lasting protection until the next dose and helps to reduce the frequency of your migraine attacks (4). AJOVY is long-acting, so you can take it just 4 times per year. Or, you have the option to take it once a month.*† Find out more about the treatment on AJOVY.com, and talk to your healthcare provider to find out if AJOVY may be right for you.
AJOVY is indicated for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults. Do not use AJOVY if you are allergic to AJOVY or any of the ingredients in AJOVY. For continued Important Safety Information, please see below.
Drink Some Water
Hydrating is always good advice, but believe it or not, as many as one in three migraine sufferers are triggered by dehydration (5), according to the American Migraine Foundation. If you tend to forget to hydrate throughout the day, the Mayo Clinic suggests keeping a reusable water bottle close at hand (6) and setting a "sip time" to make it part of your routine. These simple steps may help keep migraine attacks at bay while treating your body right.
Get Some Shut Eye
Get consistent and high-quality shut eye, which is a possible key to preventing a migraine attack (7). The reasoning is pretty interesting: Similar regions of your brain are responsible for controlling sleep, mood, and headache (7), according to WebMD. Since those regions use similar brain messengers, a disruption in one (like not getting enough sleep) could lead to a disruption in another (like potentially triggering a migraine attack). To help these parts of your brain continue to play nice, strive to clock in the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep per night.
Manage Workplace Stress
Stress is a common migraine trigger (8). What can be especially challenging to maneuver is work-related stress, since you can’t avoid it altogether. To cope with stress, some psychologists recommend using mindfulness techniques (9) like practicing acceptance. Instead of avoiding a difficult situation, it may be helpful to try figuring out why some things stress you out, then solving that problem head-on.
Take Time For Self-Care
Speaking of stress, you probably need to slooooow dowwwwn. When was the last time you made a date with yourself? If you have to look at the calendar, you’re way past due. While you have that calendar out, make a date with yourself. Do something relaxing that you never have time to do. Maybe cook your favorite meal, have a bubble bath surrounded by candles, lose yourself in a good book, do some yoga... whatever you want, just as long as you enjoy it.
**“Long-acting” and “lasting protection” defined as reduction in monthly average migraine or headache days (chronic migraine: 4.6 and 4.3 fewer headache days of at least moderate severity with monthly and quarterly dosing, respectively, vs 2.5 with placebo; episodic migraine: 3.7 and 3.4 fewer migraine days with monthly and quarterly dosing, respectively, vs 2.2 with placebo) measured over a 12-week period following a monthly 225 mg SC dose or quarterly 675 mg (225 mg x 3) SC dose.
*“Long-acting” defined as efficacy measured over a 12-week period following a 675 mg (225 mg x 3) SC dose.
†Quarterly dosing is 675 mg administered as three 225 mg SC injections every 3 months. Monthly dosing is one 225 mg SC injection each month.
Please see more Important Safety Information below.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Do not use AJOVY if you are allergic to AJOVY or any of the ingredients in AJOVY.
AJOVY may cause allergic reactions, including itching, rash, and hives that can happen within hours and up to 1 month after receiving AJOVY. Call your healthcare provider or get emergency medical help right away if you have any symptoms of an allergic reaction: swelling of your face, mouth, tongue, throat, or if you have trouble breathing. Talk to your doctor about stopping AJOVY if you have an allergic reaction.
Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, and if you are pregnant, planning to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding.
Common side effects of AJOVY include injection site reactions.
Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away. These are not all the possible side effects of AJOVY. For more information, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist.
Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You are encouraged to report side effects to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.
APPROVED USE
AJOVY is a prescription medicine used for the preventive treatment of migraine in adults.
Please see Patient Information Leaflet within the full Prescribing Information.
References:
1. AJOVY® (fremanezumab-vfrm) injection Current Prescribing Information. North Wales, PA. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
2. Migraine Symptoms and Causes: Mayo Clinic. (2020, January 16). Retrieved August 20, 2020 from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-headache/symptoms-causes/syc-20360201
3. Headaches and Food: Cleveland Clinic. (2014, August 7) Retrieved August 20, 2020 from https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9648-headaches-and-food
4. AJOVY® (fremanezumab-vfrm) injection Promotional DIGITAL PI. Retrieved May 20, 2022 from https://www.ajovy.com/globalassets/ajovy/ajovy-pi.pdf
5. Top 10 Migraine Triggers and How to Deal with Them: American Migraine Foundation. (2020, July 27) Retrieved August 20, 2020 from https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/top-10-migraine-triggers/
6. Want to stay hydrated? Drink before you're thirsty: Mayo Clinic (2018, September 14) Retrieved August 20, 2020 from https://www.mayoclinic.org/want-to-stay-hydrated-drink-before-youre-thirsty/art-20390077
7. How Managing Sleep Problems Can Prevent Migraines: Web MD. (2019, April 2) Retrieved August 20, 2020 from https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/how-managing-sleep-problems-can-prevent-migraines
8. Common Triggers: The Migraine Trust.(n.d.) Retrieved August 20, 2020 from https://www.migrainetrust.org/about-migraine/trigger-factors/common-triggers/
9. The Mindfulness Skill That Is Crucial for Stress: Greater Good Magazine (2019, October 28) Retrieved August 20, 2020 from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_mindfulness_skill_that_is_crucial_for_stress
FRE-44319
June 2022
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