Family Life

09.03.09 | FL News Team

Getting a little nip-and-tuck could help keep the migraines away. A new study shows that the plastic surgeon may have more success helping cure migraines than the neurologist. Doctors performed a cosmetic procedure called a forehead lift on a number of patients who suffered from multiple, crippling migraines every month. Some lost as much as half the month to the mysterious headaches.

More than 80-percent of those who got the operation said they experienced far fewer migraines, compared to a still-impressive 55-percent of those who got a sham operation. In half the cases of the forehead lifts, symptoms disappeared altogether. Only four percent of the sham group could say the same. Researchers theorize it all has something to do with the tiny nerve endings in the temples and other pressure points where the migraines pop up. All the patients had previously tried Botox, the wrinkle-smoothing injections, which numbed those nerve endings and gave them a few months of relief. The forehead lifts do the same thing but permanently. The findings are published in the journal "Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery."