MIGRAINE HEADACHES

Hello:

About 2 weeks before Gerneral Lee surrendered to bring the American Civil War to an end, General Grant was suffering from one of his many bouts with migraine headaches.  

As is stated in John Kordic's book called, --- Clouds of Glory; this phenomena happened often when General Grant was experiencing unrelenting stress.   The two Generals held in their hands the fate of thousands of soldiers and this fact weighted heavily on Grant's mind.

The fact that nothing is written about migraines bothering General Lee points out the differences in effect of the same kind of stress on two different people whose response is obviously different also.

The type of help provided for this problem at that time was placing one's feet in hot water, applying a mustard poultice to one's wrists and/or the back of one's neck.

On approximately April 9th, 1865 when Grant received Lee's letter acquiescing to the terms of surrender; Grant wrote that his migraine headache was instantly cured.   One more example of how a "thinking" or purely mental problem could make itself evident through physical means.   

Of course those who favor genetic factors to understand this problem will put forward the truth that the two men reacted differently to this problem.  In my mind, Grant showed the stress in his migrarine headaches and Lee showed the stress in the using up of or the weakening of his heart. 

Genetic or behavioral, --- nature or nurture, that makes this subject difficult and it becomes prudent to always rule out physical causes for migraines, before looking for psychological ones.