Did You Know...?

• Over 90% of children will have a headache at least once in their childhood (The Detroit News)
• Migraines affect around 30 million people in the U.S. (Migraine Headaches)
• Approximately 75% of people who suffer migraines in the U.S. are women (Migraine Headaches)
• Only 10% of headaches are caused by serious illnesses and infection (Headaches)
• Approximately 5% of young children and 10% of teens get migraine headaches (Headaches)
• Migraines affect approximately 6% of men and 18% of women (Allergies and Migraine Headaches)
• Migraines cost society over $30 million dollars each year (Migraine Headaches – The Most Commonly Used Nutritional Supplements for Migraine Prevention)
• Depression is three-times as frequent in those who suffer with migraines (Migraine Headaches – The Most Commonly Used Nutritional Supplements for Migraine Prevention)
• Americans consume about 200-300 mg of caffeine daily, or approximately 2-3 cups of coffee (Caffeine and Headaches: What you Need to Know
• Less than 2% of people suffer from rebound headaches from overuse of pain relievers (Caffeine and Headaches: What you Need to Know)
• Over 85% of women and 82% of men that suffer from severe migraines have had headache-related disability (Migraine Headaches, Vision Effects)

Essential and Foundation Questions

Essential Question:
How do headaches and headache medications affect people's day-to-day lives differently?

Foundation Questions:
1. What is neuroscience and what do neuroscientists do?
2. How many people in the United States are affected by headaches?
3. How do headaches in children, teenagers, and adults differ?
4. What is thought to be the best way to prevent or treat migraines?
5. What are the most common triggers of headaches and migraines?
6. What are the most common symptoms of headaches and migraines?
7. What are common side effects of treatments of headaches and migraines?
8. How can you prevent and treat headaches and migraines?
9. What types of diseases/health issues can cause headaches?
10. How much does stress impact headaches and migraines?

January 14

Today I found 16 different websites to use for my project on neuroscience and headaches. I also started thinking about my "essential question" and have narrowed it down to a few questions that I can choose to use.

Project Idea

At first, I had two major topics for my graduation project, a health fair and neuroscience (studying headaches). I wanted to integrate the topics and use neuroscience as a topic or booth in the health fair, but decided it would be too much to do, so I decided to forgo the health fair idea and just focus on the neuroscience idea. For my project, I want to study neuroscience and the effects of headaches on different people. Some ideas I have are to:

• Do research on neuroscience
• Survey people on the effects of headaches on them, such as how they affect their lives or how often they get headaches
• Research the different types of medications that cure headahces/migranes and figure out what medications have different effects on different people
• Figure out the root causes of why people get headaches/migraines

Medicines that I already know of that deal with treating/preventing headaches/migranes are:

• Imitrex
• Asprin
• Ibuprofen
• Acetaminophen
• Relpax
• Frovatriptan
• Naproxen Sodium
• Amitriptilene

First Post

a. I have heard about some of the past graduation projects that students have completed at City High. I remember that we took a lot of surveys for students' graduation projects in the past, as well as watching presentations and doing certain activities. Of the graduation projects I've heard of, everyone has had a good experience and had found a topic that was of interest to them.

b. One idea I had for my graduation project is to hold a health fair, that way I could choose different health topics I am interested in and also include health organizations. Another idea I had was to do something with Girl Scouts, but I'm not specifically sure what.

c. One concern I have about my graduation project is that I will choose a good topic that I am interested in, and be able to follow through with it. Also, I want to be sure I don't overwhelm myself with too many things to do for the project at one time.