Migraine and headaches prompt new research focused on military personnel

U.S. Army - Army Spec. David Hunt says migraines have curbed his military career.

By Christian Torres, Published: November 7 2011

Army Spec. David Hunt made it through a year of deployment in central Iraq largely unscathed. But two years after returning to the United States, he faces medical retirement from the military.

As Hunt, 37, describes it, there’s “really not any place” for him in the Army because of chronic migraine, the condition that has plagued him ever since an off-duty auto accident in 2006.

He has fought the symptoms — nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light — through deployments to the Arizona-Mexico border as well as Iraq. He recalls one particularly bad migraine hitting while he was alone and on guard in Arizona, and he vomited while seeking shelter from the harsh sun. “I did everything I could to just sit up and keep watch,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/migraine-and-headaches-prompt-new-research-focused-on-military-personnel/2011/10/24/gIQAlS0RvM_story.html