Migraine Pain is Contagious, Costing U.S. Businesses Billions Annually

Oct. 15, 2009 - PRLog -- SAN FRANCISCO—Doctors at the International Headache Congress recently reviewed several studies shedding more light on the significant pain U.S. businesses experience from migraine headaches. The studies say workers’ migraines cost companies $13-$24 billion annually in lost productivity.

Dr. Stephen Landy, a clinical professor of neurology at The University of Tennessee School of Medicine and director of the Wesley Headache Clinic, led one of the key studies that found disturbingly high costs—obvious and hidden—to businesses:

• Absenteeism: 11% of migraines resulted in a full day of lost work. Additionally, 5% of migraines resulted in a late arrival to work and 12% of migraines resulted in an early departure from work.
• “Presenteeism,” or working at reduced capacity: study participants reported working full days during 62% of their disabling migraine attacks, saying at best they labored at 75% their normal capacity, on average.

These results come from 509 migraine patients reporting how their three most recent workday headaches impacted their work, if at all.

But this is no small or isolated issue for U.S. employers when more than 30 million Americans—18% of women and 6% of men—suffer from migraines. What’s more, the headaches are most prevalent among working age people in the 25-55-year-old range, and millions of these people experience migraines almost daily.

Landy recommends employers and migraine sufferers take the chronic headaches and their treatment more seriously because “this can be a real disability with huge economic and humanistic impact.” For employers, he also says it’s smart business to encourage employees to explore proactive treatments including:

• Medical assistance: A physician may recommend a drug regimen to prevent, mitigate or relieve migraine attacks.
• Drug-free therapy: Some patients respond favorably to acupuncture, physical therapy, biofeedback, or hot & cold treatments.
• Lifestyle adjustment: Multiple studies have found significant benefits in exercise, rest, and a healthy diet that avoids migraine triggers.

Based on his years of headache research, Landy also invented his own drug-free alternative for alleviating migraine pain: The Headache Reliever™ treatment band. It’s clinically proven to provide optimal relief to 87% of headache patient sufferers by combining a pressure band that compresses blood vessels with reusable gel packs that can deliver muscle relaxing heat or vascular constricting coolness and soothing.

“My clinical studies indicate that The Headache Reliever provides safe, effective, non-pharmacological therapy and relief in a cost-effective way,” said Landy. “There’s nothing else like it on the market, so it has a place in every migraine sufferers home, maybe even in every business’ medicine cabinet too.”

Of note, Landy enlisted Brand Griffin, a spacecraft designer working with NASA, to optimize the design for ease of use… because even simple things can be difficult when one is operating in zero-G space, or suffering from a migraine attack.

The Headache Reliever is now available from national retailers including Target.com, Hammacher Schlemmer and Amazon.com, with more stores to follow. It is manufactured by AbsolutelyNew, Inc., in partnership with Landy and Griffin.


Additional resources
• Interviews with Dr. Stephen Landy can be scheduled upon request
• Downloadable, print-quality Headache Reliever images are available at www.photobucket.com/absolutelynew
• Landy's clinical research can be read in The Archives of Family Medicine and Headache Quarterly (now Headache and Pain: Diagnostic Challenges, Current Therapy)

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AbsolutelyNew is the consumer goods company that partners with inventors to launch breakthrough products. The company’s Science+Technology Division also helps innovators launch new devices and technologies into businesses. Products in AbsolutelyNew’s portfolio span a range of categories and can be purchased in stores and catalogs, online and on TV. Headquartered in San Francisco, AbsolutelyNew is privately held with venture capital backing from Artiman Ventures. For more information, visit www.absolutelynew.com.