When a fellow migraine sufferer in the medical field urged Dr. John Clark to try supplements to prevent his headaches, he admittedly was skeptical.
Since childhood, Clark experienced episodes of intense head pain and nausea with sensitivity to sound and smell at least two or three times a week. In medical school, he diagnosed himself with migraines.
“There were times I would finish in the cath lab, I would get the kid to recovery and then I would go down to my office and puke,” said Clark, an Akron pediatric cardiologist.
Open heart surgical nurse Lynn Urbanic encouraged him to take omega-3 fish oil and vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin, after discovering the combination prevented her own headaches.
He reluctantly agreed — and didn’t have a migraine for a week, and then another week and then a month.
“I never went a month without having a migraine,” he said.
Still skeptical, he tried “testing” the supplements with all his usual migraine triggers: drinking a glass of wine at night, eating lunch meat, not getting enough sleep.
“I feel like I’m migraine proof,” he told Urbanic.
And that’s how Migraine Proof was born.
Clark and Urbanic — along with Clark’s nephew, biomedical engineer Chris Lorkowski — launched Migraine Proof last year
“People are so desperate to feel better,” Urbanic said. “So many people have been having similar responses to this.”
Urbanic had suffered debilitating migraine headaches about twice a month and less severe headaches about three or four times a week. She started taking a cocktail of supplements a couple of years ago at the suggestion of her neurologist.
Several published medical studies have shown fish oil can reduce the frequency, duration and severity of headaches. In another study, riboflavin treatment reduced headache frequency from four days per month to two days per month.
Urbanic said she initially took five different types of natural supplements, but she cut out several because of side effects through trial and error before settling on using fish oil and riboflavin.
Since taking the supplements regularly, she said, she has experienced only a few migraines.
“The combination is working,” she said.
Clark said it’s unclear exactly how the combination works, but omega-3 does have anti-inflammatory and membrane-stabilizing properties that also are recommended for heart health.
Before starting Migraine Proof, Urbanic had to purchase the riboflavin online and take the pills along with fish oil.
As word spread about their migraine relief, Urbanic and Clark got requests from friends and acquaintances for their secret to success.
“What’s your recipe?” people would ask.
One day, Urbanic said to Clark, “If we could just bottle it and put it in pill form ...”
Clark began researching the idea and found a manufacturer in Pennsylvania that could put the B2 vitamin and fish oil together in a capsule form.
The nutritional supplement retails for $19.99 for a one-month supply or $54.99 for a three-month supply.
“We wanted to keep it affordable,” Urbanic said.
Clark and Urbanic declined to release financial details about their company, including the amount they invested to launch the venture.
But Clark said the company should be able to turn a modest profit as sales volume grows.
“There are 36 million migraine sufferers in this country,” he said.
For now, many of the orders are placed online on the company’s website (www.migraineproof.com) and filled by Urbanic out of her Northeast Ohio home. Since launching online sales in the spring, she has filled hundreds of orders.
As the company grows, she said, they probably will get a distributor to help.
The company also finalized deals recently to sell Migraine Proof in several area Buehler’s and Ritzman Pharmacy stores.
Yvonne Inman, 44, of Medina, is among the repeat customers who heard about Migraine Proof through word of mouth.
Inman began experiencing migraines with intense pain and nausea when she was 18. Since then, she could count on getting a migraine before vacations or big events.
“They have ruined so much of my life,” she said. “I hate, hate, hate them.”
Her neurologist mentioned taking B2 and omega-3, so she decided to try Migraine Proof after hearing about it from an acquaintance.
Since she started using the supplement, she said, she’s had one migraine in six months.
“It’s removing that fear,” she said.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or cpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/CherylPowellABJ.