Treating Sinus, Migraine, and Cluster Headaches, My Way : An allergist's approach to headache treatment - Softcover

I love to treat patients. I respect them highly, but I am often amazed at their limited knowledge about allergy. In my practice I find that this lack of knowledge especially hurts those who suffer from headaches. Although they may realize that allergy makes their skin itch, nose run and breath wheeze, they so often do not know that it also makes their heads hurt. It does; it is one of the most frequent causes of headaches. Because they did not know, they could not fight their allergies and they suffered years of pain needlessly.

Many health care professionals, including allergists, share this lack of knowledge. They do not believe that allergy causes headaches. Even when they recognize the allergy/headache correlation, they do not know how to treat their patients who suffered this pain. Their patients suffer great pain that changing the environment and diet could reduce or eliminate.

I regret this lack of effective treatment, especially because of the painful headaches I suffered before I learned to control them. To help, I decided that I would specialize in treating allergic headaches. For years I studied my patients' headaches, identifying the foods and environmental conditions that cause them. As my treatment became more and more successful, I learned to follow an effective program that helped relieve my headache-suffering patients. This program is the subject of Treating Sinus, Migraine, and Cluster Headaches, My Way.

As my treatment progressed, my patients repeatedly asked my to tell them where they could learn more about their headaches. After telling them for years that I was unaware of any book that could help them, I realized that they needed and deserved this help. This thought prompted me to write this book; my patients tell me that they find it a helpful resource and return to its pages often. I hope that it will similarly serve you.

I am Dr. William E. Walsh and I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota where I attended St. Luke's Grade School, Cretin High School and St. Thomas College, graduating in 1959 with a B.S. in premedical studies. I studied medicine at Creighton University and graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1963. After interning at St. Paul, Ramsey County Hospital, I served in the Air Force from 1964 to 1966.

Our base hospital had no allergy clinic to serve the many service men and women and their families who suffered from allergy so I started this clinic. I found that I enjoyed treating allergic patients. This interest remains as fresh today as when I first discovered it in 1966. Realizing that I needed further training to give my patients the best results of which I was capable, I studied allergy as a fellow of the Mayo Clinic. Graduating in 1970, I established my own clinic in St. Paul.

In 1972 and again in 1982 and 1989 I passed the tests of the Board of Allergy and Immunology, certifying and recertifying my status as a specialist in allergy. I am a fellow of The American College of Allergy and a clinical professor at the University of Minnesota where I teach allergy to resident doctors.

I believe strongly in the value of research in allergy; as a fellow at the Mayo Clinic, I co-authored studies on penicillin allergy. In practice I have published studies on the characterization of cyclodextrans and on skin test reactions and food allergy.

My practice is a consulting practice in allergy; I diagnose and treat complicated allergy problems in patients referred by family doctors, internists, pediatricians and other specialists. To learn more about my practice, please visit my website at www.salu.net/allergypub.