Cindy McCain Helps Raise National Awareness to Conquer Migraine

Pledges to Take Messages for More Awareness and Research Funding to Congress
PHILADELPHIA--(Business Wire)--
Cindy McCain, wife of U.S. Senator John McCain, today announced she would work
to raise awareness of migraine among the public and health professionals and
pledged to take her message to leaders in Washington to increase funding for
research into migraines, a condition that affects some 36 million Americans.
Mrs. McCain recently revealed publicly that she has suffered severe migraine
attacks for the last 15 years.

Mrs. McCain described her commitment and agenda in a keynote speech before 1,200
migraine specialists attending the 14th International Headache Congress, hosted
by the American Headache Society, this week in Philadelphia.

"I intend to work with our political leadership in this country," she said, "to
raise their awareness of the public health importance of migraine." Mrs. McCain
said she will call on both the legislative and executive branches of government
to increase research funding for migraine and to create networks that will
encourage researchers in many biomedical fields to share information and
collaborate on solutions.

"I intend this appearance to be the first of many that are aimed at raising
awareness both in the medical field and among the public," she told the doctors.

Mrs. McCain is one of an estimated 36 million Americans whose lives are
disrupted by the disabling effects of a migraine attack. For her, migraine can
be severe enough to require hospitalization.

"I have seen migraine`s potential to transform, nearly instantly, a productive,
healthy, and happy individual into a bedridden patient, wracked with pain and
nausea, forced to rearrange or abandon numerous commitments to family and work,"
she said. "I can hardly begin to describe the number of times I have had to
cancel events, tell my family that I could not fulfill responsibilities, or
abandon professional commitments, all because that familiar twinge of impending
migraine."

Currently there is no cure for migraine and very few treatment options,
according to the American Headache Society. More than 400 scientific papers -
many on promising new areas of research - will be presented at the conference.

"Make no mistake: we must move ahead," she said. "For me, the fight against
migraine is personal. Finding a cure would not only provide relief to my
struggle, but more importantly, a relief for the millions of individuals that
are in some dark room, alone and in pain, away from work and family, missing out
on the best things life has to offer - missing out, indeed, on life itself,"
said.

Mrs. Cindy McCain
Keynote Address
14th Congress of the International Headache Society

September 10, 2009

Thank you for permitting me the privilege of addressing the 14th Congress of the
International Headache Society here in Philadelphia. It is an honor to be with
you, who work so tirelessly to reduce the suffering that migraine inflicts on a
great portion of humanity.

This meeting, entitled Independence from Headache, is taking place a few blocks
away from Independence Hall, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the most important
document in our nation`s history - the Declaration of Independence. What is
poignant about this is that he wrote this document in the six weeks after he
emerged from a prolonged migraine attack that had him confined to bed for 6
weeks. This is a bold reminder of what`s possible as we strive together to
provide independence from headache for countless millions of sufferers.

I`d like to express special thanks to Dr. David Dodick of the Mayo Clinic. Dr.
Dodick, President-Elect of the American Headache Society, is a stellar
researcher, a superb clinician, and is a wonderful spokesman for the cause that
brings us together today.

That cause - reducing the suffering that attends migraine - is one that has
great personal resonance for me. I have, for many years, been a migraine
sufferer, and I can attest to the enormous personal and social costs that
migraine inflicts. While the physical pain that migraine exacts may constitute
the most graphic demonstration of their enormous cost, that is just the
beginning. Migraine sufferers are nothing less than the victims of a
debilitating disease, and I believe we should view migraine itself as a
disability.

I have seen migraine`s potential to transform, nearly instantly, a productive,
healthy, and happy individual into a bedridden patient, wracked with pain and
nausea, forced to rearrange or abandon numerous commitments to family and work.
It has happened to me. It continues to happen to me. I can hardly begin to
describe the number of times I have had to cancel events, tell my family that I
could not fulfill responsibilities asked of me, or abandon professional
commitments, all because that familiar twinge of impending migraine. And there
is something uniquely dispiriting about lying in a shaded room, alone and
waiting for the pain to subside, hearing the happy sounds of life going on
outside.

I have spent my public career in humanitarian service, on the boards of
organizations like OPSMILE and the HALO demining trust, and I have traveled the
world on behalf of these and similar causes. In the course of my travels, I have
seen both great suffering and great hope. In the cause of migraine prevention,
today I see both.

Migraine , constitutes the number one reason for visits to neurologists, and one
in four American households has a migraine sufferer. Migraine today afflicts an
estimated 36 million Americans, and the majority of migraine sufferers are in
the prime years of their working lives. Indeed, research being presented this
week at the International Headache Congress indicates that Migraine costs
American business enormous amounts in lost time and lost productivity. Beyond
the personal pain and disability that employees endure, it is estimated that
migraine costs more than $20 billion a year in direct medical expenses and lost
time on the job.

A recent study estimates that 36 percent of returning Iraq war veterans suffer
from migraine. Beyond the pain that headaches inflict on these brave warriors,
migraine in soldiers results in impaired duty performance, constitute a frequent
cause of sick call visits, and result in significant disability in over one
third of the afflicted servicemen and women. We owe it to them to find a cure.

Even more dramatically, it is estimated that possibly 12 million Americans -
individuals generally left out of studies on migraine - suffer attacks on more
days than not, some -- every single day of their lives. This is not just a
cause; it`s a crisis. This plague is acute, widespread, damaging on a personal
and social level, and it demands attention, research, and treatment.

Unfortunately, that has not always been the view of the medical community or
society at large. For years, migraine has been viewed at best as an annoyance
for both sufferers and physicians, and at worst, dismissed as a psychological
problem that was "all in your head." Migraines are poorly understood, and their
sufferers have long been associated in the popular and medical mind with
psychological fragility, rigidity and ambitiousness. They were, many believed,
the more or less unique province of females, or of those who were unable to will
themselves out of a psychologically-induced migraine state.

Nonsense. Whether or not there exists anything approximating a "migraine
personality," new studies demonstrate - and the testimony of millions of
Americans supports - that we are dealing with a legitimate, complex, and unique
neurological phenomenon, one that is susceptible to medical treatment and
demanding of further research. As physicians dedicated to reducing suffering and
improving health, you have a responsibility to look for - and find - the best
treatments to help the millions suffering from this disability.

That`s not always the case today. Even as the understanding of migraine, and of
migraine sufferers, slowly changes, the medical community has yet to respond by
devoting the time, energy and resources it will require to arrest this invisible
plague. Having become personally acquainted with the various forms of headache
treatment over the past years, I am astonished by the lack of progress in the
field and the by the dearth of significant advances in treatment. To cite just
one example, no medication has ever been designed specifically for the
prevention of migraine. Instead, we are the recipients of accidental finds, such
as the use of Botox for cosmetic reasons, beta-blockers for high blood pressure,
or anticonvulsant drugs for epilepsy, depression or bipolar disorder.

That, I`m afraid, isn`t good enough. Given the astonishing global prevalence of
migraine, its enormous cost to our societies, and the pain and suffering it
inflicts on its victims, we cannot stand idle any longer. The days of dismissing
suffering patients with little more than a prescription and a wish for better
tidings, until they reappear again and again, with the same symptoms or worse -
those days are over. I personally believe that now is the time to dedicate
ourselves to limiting, arresting, and ultimately ending the scourge of migraine.

That is why I have dedicated myself to enhancing the understanding and awareness
of migraine, and to facilitating the progress of its research and treatment.
Recall that this is a disease that afflicts at least a tenth of the global
population and is considered by the World Health Organization as one of the most
disabling medical disorders in existence. It is time to start down a path toward
the end of migraine.

For my part, I will work with our political leadership in this country - and I
strongly encourage all you to do the same - in order to raise their awareness of
the public health importance of migraine. In making funding and policy
decisions, our leaders in the executive and legislative branches must understand
the scope of the problem we are here to discuss, and the need to create
integrated research networks that can bring together doctors and researchers
from a number of fields to share information and collaborate on solutions.
Today, such centers abound for critical diseases like cancer. Not one exists for
migraine.

And I intend this appearance to be the first of many that are aimed at raising
awareness both in the medical field and among the public. Only when we, as a
country, understand the scope of migraine`s impact, and when we are prepared to
deal forthrightly and realistically with a disabling disease that afflicts
millions, can we move ahead swiftly toward better treatments - and, one day,
perhaps, a cure.

Make no mistake: we must move ahead. For me, the fight against migraine is
personal. Finding a cure would not only provide relief to my struggle, but more
importantly, a relief for the millions of individuals that are in some dark
room, alone and in pain, away from work and family, missing out on the best
things life has to offer - missing out, indeed, on life itself. If the work of
medicine is to heal humanity and reduce suffering, it is hard to think of a more
immediate calling than to the treatment of migraine.

Thank you very much.

For American Headache Society:
Martha Cid, 917-348-3751
marthac@mbooth.com
or
Joyce Yaeger, 646-301-1544
joycey@mbooth.com

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