I'm going to chime in about headaches. Oh, I have degenerative joint disease by the way. Had it for over 20 years. Used to weigh over 300 lbs and walked with a cane. No longer have to do that.

I rarely had headaches. I did however have nasty TMJ that presented like a toothache. For 16 years. Went to every dentist, doctor. It would come and go. Didn't happen a lot, but once, every few months. Had x-rays, etc. One time the doctor asked me "Melody, do you have arthritis?" I said "oh, yeah" and I explained what type I had.

He told me the joints in my jaw were affected and if I was under stress, or the bariatric temp changed, I might be hit with a bad TMJ attack. He was right on the money.

Well....last year, I was communicating with a family member who so stressed me out, I could not get out of bed for literally 4 days. I held an ice pack to the side of my head.

I thought I would go nuts. I wandered the streets (It was July 3rd of 2010). I was looking for a dentist to pull my back tooth. (This is BEFORFE I found out about the TMJ connection).

Well, I marched into my primary care doctor's office, told him about the stress I was under, he said OH MY GOD, and gave me some samples of various meds. One was an anti-inflammatory med called Arthrotec (I think that was the name).

DID NOTHING.

I took tylenol. Did nothing. I took Aleve, DID NOTHING.

I took them all. DID NOTHING.

I just laid in bed with an alternating ice pack and cold pack to the right side of my head.

Then after 5 days of this, I was able to see my dentist (a specialist in NYC) who is a god to me.

He examined me, took x-rays and said "Melody there is absolutely nothing wrong with your tooth". Doctors had been telling me this for 15 years but when THIS guy speaks, I listen.

He explained that I got a stress related TMJ/headache because of what I was going through. I looked at him and said "This is from stress??? Really??"

and he nodded and said "And the fact that you have arthritis, well it doesn't help the situation"

So what I've done is avoided a certain stressor and so far, I never had another attack like that one. And I hope I never do.

ANd sure, when the weather changes, significantly (like it can go from 40 to 80, and back to 40 in two days (this happened last week, well yeah, my body will respond to that stressor.

But nothing has happened that duplicated what I went through in July of 2010

And I hope it never does.

Stress kills.

I know this because it almost killed me.

And don't let anyone tell you that you have to deal with a certain stressor (like a family member, etc.)

If you can eliminate a certain stressor, (unless it's the weather for example), then do it.

Your body will thank you.

Mine did.

I hope I never go through that kind of pain again.

Take care

Melody