The Migraine World Summit 2024 - Global Headache Experts in Your Room

Written and verified by Holly Hazen

Are you losing your battle with migraine?

I spent 14 years losing mine! And then another 5 or 6 getting my timing right. And then another 10 suffering some more! So, I can't tell you how important I think this summit is.

Don't suffer alone and in silence...

You can get access to world class migraine doctors at the Migraine World Summit FREE online event.

This year the summit is on from March 6th to the 13th, 2024. 

The Migraine World Summit is your chance to improve your understanding of migraine headaches and get some answers you've been waiting for.

I always say that education and knowledge equals options and choices. Let this add to your education. 

The way I see it, this could change the way you manage your attacks... forever! 

Do you already have a fantastic migraine specialist as your doctor? If not, watch this summit! If you do, watch this summit! And then bring him / her some fresh new ideas you can both use to improve things.

Don't worry, if you miss it live you can still purchase a copy. Or even better, you can buy the package at early bird pricing. This is an incredible opportunity to hear from dozens of leading experts that treat chronic migraine sufferers every day.

Secure your spot now for the next event streaming live in March - click here to register for FREE

Get The Whole 2024 Summit NOW

Get the right help, right now. Right treatment = less attacks.

Full disclosure - I stand to earn a commission from the links on this page if you make a purchase. There is no extra cost to you. Click here for more details.

The World Migraine Summit streams FREE for everyone once a year. If you have already registered previously, you are already on their email list. But to be sure, register anyway so you don't miss it.

The full schedule information is here. If you end up on the main page, just scroll to the bottom of the page to see the schedule link. 

If you've missed it, or might miss it, you can still purchase the whole program which could change your life... so register now and have a look around. Here's the link straight to the access pass.

And get those dates in your diary... right now!

What The Migraine World Summit Does For Me

The Migraine World Summit gives me more confidence to know that I am doing all the right things.

In fact, I watched the first year to see if I needed to change any information here on my website. I was very happy to see that my research was correct and nothing needed to be changed. So it instilled in me a wonderful sense of confidence. 

Each year, I plan the whole week off to watch it start to finish for free and if I just can't manage that, I buy the package to watch at my leisure. Sometimes I buy it just to support them. And there is always more to learn.

I watch the summit to:

• Increase my own confidence and knowledge around the latest effective migraine treatments.

• Keep up to date with what's in the pipeline for future treatments.

• Get the scientific evidence based data on what alternative therapies work, and which ones just do not.
  

• Support migraine research. Investing in the Migraine World Summit supports the Migraine Research Foundation and other organizations dedicated to fighting migraine.

• Save time and money moving forward.
  
  

A huge bonus for me is that there are no perfumes, no bright lights, and no migraine triggers.

I can watch the Migraine World Summit in complete comfort at home.

I sure wish I had this information twenty years ago, I would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars! Yup... probably more. :-(

2024 Speakers I'm excited about!

Here's a list of my top 5 interviews I am excited to watch. I'm always amazed at what I learn each year. Be sure to check out the Migraine World Summit event website for the full schedule this year:

It was really really really really hard to pick just 5 this year but here we go...

The #1 interview I am thrilled about, which has been my new area of focus for the past 4 years around nervous system, stored trauma and the brain's plasticity is...

• The Nervous System, Stored Trauma & Migraine with Irene Lyon, MSc. Master Somatic Practitioner. Day 4!

• Best Exercise Options for People with Migraine with Elizabeth (Betsy) Seng, PhD. Associate Professor of Psychology, Research Associate Professor of Neurology.

• Migraine Biochemistry: CGRP & Beyond with Peter Goadsby, MD, PhD, FRS. 

• Is Migraine a Brain Energy Problem? with Elena Gross, PhD. Neuroscientist, Brain Ritual.

• What to Expect: Nurtec ODT, Ubrelvy, Qulipta & Zavzpret with Matthew Robbins, MD.
  
  

And that's just a few of the days! Take a look at the credentials of these people. So many great minds right here for you and me to learn from. You can see the full schedule after you register here - click here to register for FREE

---

Click here for my articles from a few of the Migraine World Summit interviews:

Invaluable Summit Highlights - 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |

---

Ok, this page is just too long.... the highlight links are above. 

2022 Migraine World Summit Highlights

This page is getting so long, here are some links to the talks I have written about so far:

• Food and Diets: A Nutritionist’s Take On How They Affect Migraine

• 10 Strategies to Boost Brain Health
  
  

2021 Migraine World Summit Highlights

• Sex Headaches: Serious or Just Awkward?

• How to Manage Weather Triggers
  
  

2020 Migraine World Summit Highlights

Lyn Griffiths, PhD. - What are MTHFR gene mutations and how do they affect migraine?

Epigenetics. Genes play a role in methylation and there is a susceptibility gene for migraine. There are vascular genes to consider as well. Mutations are in 9% of the population - which means they would have double copies of the gene abnormality. Homocysteine levels will be increased in the blood if you have this gene!

You can take a supplement that increases certain B group vitamins - Folate and VIT B levels in the diet - will help it work faster. This can help to reduce migraine with aura. Green leafy vegetables will help. With double mutation - any food with vitamin B will help.

Potential Cure

There are a number of new treatments around now - Monoclonal antibodies - CGRP is one of these - with very good results.

Triptans aren’t effective for everyone - these aren’t cures for everyone who takes it. She thinks everyone is too different to be able to have one treatment for everyone. She wants to see targeted treatment for each individual.

Hemiplegic migraine - developed a ‘cure’ for that type of migraine. Diagnostic testing is now available for 1 of 3 known genes, and they are testing 20,000 other genes.

Sub-type of migraine with aura has a determined gene group.

She says this should help to diagnose people more effectively and then help with more targeted treatment choice(s).

In time, these two will go hand in hand for individuals. First find the gene combination and then be directed to targeted treatment.

How Pain Works in the Migraine Brain - Patricia Pozo Rosich, MD, PhD

For my summary notes on Patricia Pozo Rosich's interview - click here.

MUST WATCH 2019 Migraine World Summit Encore

Dr. Andrew Charles, MD – The New Era of Migraine: Hope and Help

Dr. Andrew Charles' opening night talk, which the summit streamed for us in the encore, shocked and amazed me. Here's what shocked me:

• The hypotheses of migraine being a vascular disease... is wrong. The blood vessels do not dilate during an attack causing the pain.

This is a MUST WATCH talk... this single opening day encore, is worth the cost of admission!

In 15 minutes, you will understand SO much more about what a migraine is, what it does, and what you can do about it. Here's what amazed me:

THE GOOD NEWS is even if nothing is working for you right now… science has led us to a chemical cause of migraine, this shows we can develop migraine specific treatments, it raises the possibility of more targeted medicine to abort attacks based on an individual’s chemistry.

He leaves us with that message of optimism and hope. "This is a great time for migraine patients."

He covers so much more and all I can say is… watch it! If it's down now, there are a few featured talks you can watch now... so get over there!

2019 Migraine World Summit Highlights

David Dodick, MD - Controlling Unresponsive Chronic Migraine

This is one of my absolute favorite talks from the Migraine World Summit (Day 7). Here's just a couple of key points he made...

First of all, I felt like crying about 3 times watching the talk with Dr. David Dodick.

I wanted to say "no headache centers here, no integrated clinics, no pain rehab program, just 25+ years of suffering with poorly prepared doctors guessing at drugs. And no internet" when I first got diagnosed. Back to the talk...

"What slips us into chronic migraine?"

So many migraine sufferers start out with episodic migraine and then they progress to chronic attacks. These are some risk factors:

• Frequency of headache and using acute medications - you should be reassessed if you suffer from 1 attack a week.

• Snoring – obstructive sleep apnea - or another sleep disorder.

• Obesity increases the risk by 5 fold. These patients get prescribed diet and exercise – low carb diet and exercise have good results. Exercise has found to be as effect as some of the prophylactic medication.

• Anxiety and depression increase the risk of it moving towards chronic by 3 times.

• Allodynia. Having Allodynia also increases your risk to become chronic. This means that central sensitization has increased and is on its way to becoming chronic. So you must initiate proper treatment as soon as possible.
  

• Other chronic pain syndromes.

• Genetics and the risk factors above.

• Other comorbid diseases.
  

**Are your triggers actually triggers... or are they symptoms?**

Keep it simple in your diary:

• whether you had attack that day;

• if it was mild, moderate or severe;

• how long it lasted and

• what you took.
  
  

That's all the information he needs that informs his decision making on how he’s going to treat you. As far as triggers go... a trigger needs to be consistent - 75% of the time it must trigger an attack. You can chase your tail with triggers. His job is to raise our threshold so we can live a little more fully and not be afraid to go outside in the glaring sunlight or have a glass of red wine with dinner (so we’re not chasing imaginary triggers).

And then there’s that conversation around what is a trigger? Some triggers are actually the attack already starting in the brain and leading to symptoms within the attack process. Mood swings and food cravings (chocolate) can be part of the process, these frequent symptoms are not triggering. Make the triggers irrelevant just by raising your threshold.

There have been so many great talks on the Migraine World Summit, here's one more I wanted to share highlights on: Angel Moreno, Nurse Practitioner - Can A Keto Diet Help With Migraines?

You can still get access to the Migraine World Summit here:

2018 Migraine World Summit Highlights

Peter Goadsby, MD - The Keys to Finding New Treatments 

I found this one really hard to summarize... I found it one of the best of the Migraine World Summit. So settle in, this is a long highlight!

Dr. Goadsby covered how patients can work more effectively with their doctor to communicate their experiences.

Your diary should represent what you are trying to say. It’s proof that you’ve got a lot of headache days. Make it summarized and be precise about what you need to say! Don’t bombard your doctor with a huge amount of information – but break it into small chunks.

Work out your message and work out how to support your message.

Your doctor needs and should take a good history to get the diagnosis right.

It’s not just about how bad the pain is, if you can communicate the disability it is causing you... a diary and a MIDAS form filled out… would be a good place to start.

Commonly overlooked or under rated treatments:

• Dose for body weight

• Timing - TREAT WHEN MILD

• Time of exposure - you must give it time to work

Dosing by body weight for acute treatments example:

900 mgs of aspirin – under dosing for say a 70 kg person;

600-800 mgs of ibuprofen would be a more appropriate dose for ibuprofen and migraine; 

Naproxen – 500-1000 mgs for a 70 kg adult would be a reasonable dose.

This bumps up against medication overdose.

It's important to use the medication when the pain is not yet full force – take when still mild.

The two most exciting things in the migraine world according to Dr. Goadsby at the Migraine World Summit this year are neuro-modulation and the CGRP drugs.

Now we have CGRP and monoclonal antibodies that block the CGRP pathway that is activated in migraine. 

Specifically designed to stop migraines.

CGRP itself is a peptide - 37 amino acids - and it circulates in the blood, it’s in the brain, involved in migraine process. It’s elevated in migraine. 

If you infuse it in, will trigger migraine, if you block it, it will stop an attack. This means acute treatment.

On a preventive side, the CGRP acts at a receptor, a place that turns things on, so these antibodies are being designed to either block that receptor so that CGRP can’t get on there OR mop up the CGRP’s so they have no effect. 

Monoclonal antibodies come from a single source. They have the immune path, the immune end, mutated away, so they don’t do anything immune. They don’t change the immune system itself.

And in doing that they reduce frequency and severity of migraine.

4 of them are in development – 3 currently filed in the US already. We can expect to hear more about that soon.

He talked about tolerability earlier, usually his slides on side effects are embarrassing – not in this case.

The current studies are proving very optimist with around 10,000 people testing this CGRP monoclonal antibodies treatment.

If you’ve failed with numerous medications, or have lost years… have hope because in the very near future you have a very good chance that this will help.

Have Hope! CGRP Antibodies Showing Promising Results.

Serene Branson - How To Thrive In Your Career Despite Migraine

I wrote about her episode back in 2011, here’s the link - Reporter Serene Branson: Not A Stroke Just A  Migraine

This was a rare case example of Transient Aphasia that can look like a stroke that unfolded on live TV.

She never knew that her speech was so impaired until she watched it later. And after she got off the air, then she felt the numbness in her tongue and cheek and the arm – then she got scared.

It took her a year of researching and finding the right treatment and she now has it all under control. She’s currently a migraine advocate and journalist on CBS-2/KCAL-9 and a proud mom of 2.

This transient aphasia can occur in the aura phase or as part of a hemiplegic attack.

Teri Robert - They Don’t Get It: Educating Family & Friends On Migraine

"Knowledge is the best prescription." ~ Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop 

Education will empower you. Education is as important as our treatments. 

We will be better equipped to deal with doctors. Research shows that when we are part of the decision-making process we have better outcomes. 

Education makes us less frightened, and less anxious. If you get a new symptom – i.e. hemiplegic – that paralyzes one side of body – it can be terrifying.

Migraine disease steals a great many things from us if we let it.

When you’re panicking – ask yourself these questions:

• Ok – stop – is this the worse migraine you’ve ever had?

• Are you having symptoms you’ve never had before?

• Do you really need to go to the ER or is your migraine making you panic?

Banish the migraine guilt... this disease is not your fault!

2017 Migraine World Summit Highlights

Dr. Goadsby – Top 10 Migraine Myths to Bust

The Myth Around Food Triggers

The hypothalamus drives you to eat. 6 - 8 hours is the premonitory phase... it’s biology.

Eat what you like and you’ll still get an attack. Symptoms are part of the biology of an attack. Chocolate is NOT a trigger!

He also said migraineurs will benefit from using the Golden Rule of Regularity with sleep, meals and exertion. Migraine biology wants us to be creatures of habit.

Diagnosis is straightforward. Management is tricky.

Dr. Andrew Charles – Recognizing and Treating 4 Phases of Migraine

The 4 phases of migraine. You need to know this to get your timing right. Soooo important. 

If you get moody and irritable – your partner will notice. Use that as an early warning signal.

Neck pain is common in the premonitory phase of the attack, food cravings, light sensitivity, yawning, excessive urinating. For some fatigue is far worse than the pain. The phases merge and overlap and multiple brain regions are being affected. 

He said to treat your prodrome with caffeine to help with fatigue, mood changes and brain fog!

In my personal experience, that only works effectively if you don't drink it every day. So - experiment.

Dawn Buse, PhD - Is Migraine Affecting Your Personal Life?

Keep living your life!

Talk with those around you in advance. Have a backup plan, and plan ahead.

If you feel left out or isolated, as this condition can, get pictures and a video from a friend. Some participation is better than none for some of us.

Children are resilient – parents can talk it out with them; give them ways to help out – cold wash cloth, bring water, let them come and help.

Dr. Lawrence Newman - Best Acute Treatments You May Not Have Tried

Only 5% of people are getting the right treatment!

Why triptans don’t work:

1. Doctor prescribes the wrong dose - there is a minimum and maximum dose. He suggests starting with the highest dose and watch for side effects and then reduce dose the next time. 

2. Wrong formulation. You must also treat the nausea in most cases. 

3. You wait too long. If you wait 40 minutes other pathways come into play and make the triptans less effective. Timing is everything.

Wrong dose and dosage causes us to take more pills.

You will need to have coping strategies and a plan for pain management setup to survive chronic migraines... until we find a cure!

Click Here For The Migraine World Summit

Connect With Others In The Private Facebook Group

The impacts of migraines cannot be overstated.

It can affect you in all aspects of life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. As well as socially, financially and cognitively. It can be very isolating.

But you already know that, because you are here reading this.

The Migraine World Summits private Facebook group will help you connect with others that completely understand what you are going through.

I hope you're as excited as I am to have access to this information!

If you miss the free annual summit, you can still get access to your own copy of the recordings. Don't miss out.

Get Access To The Migraine World Summit

Get control and get back to your life.