Constant headache for 8 years - advice welcome

Hello

My brother has suffered from a pain in his head for the past eight years - sometimes it's worse than others,but he tells me it's always there. He bravely manages to just get on with life, and sometimes it's easy to forget about his affliction, but recently it's started really getting him down so I wanted to try and help by doing a bit of research of my own. He's been taking prescribed meds - Tramadol - as well as standard pain killers - Paracetomal and Ibruprofen, none of which seems to make much difference. Under GP guidance (thankfully a new doctor!), he's recently been weaning himself off the Tramadol as it wasn't actually helping him with the headaches. He tells me he's been prescribed a low dose of anti-depressants. He's hoping to get a referral from his doctor to the max fac dept at the hospital as she thinks it might be more of a max fac issue that neuro - not sure of the details yet, I'm due to see him soon. He went to see a neurologist many years ago and they told him he had 'atypical headaches' but weren't really able to help. He also had an MRI scan that didn't show up anything. He went to see a homeopathist last week who thinks she might be able to help - has advised him to lay off the Red Bull, certain foods etc. He's tried acupuncture, but he didn't think it worked.

Not sure what I'm asking really.. I'm sure there isn't a one-size fits all solution for everyone, but if anyone has an advice or this sounds familiar and you did find something that helped, I'd love to hear about it. Am already curious about 5-HTP after reading some bits on the forum, and might do a bit more investigation into that...

Thanks

Helen

I've had a headache since November 2012. I finally was able to see a neurologist earlier this year for it and the trigger incident was a hemiplegic migraine and after I described the last two years, he said that the headache I've had since then has been a migraine (of varying strengths).

Despite numerous medications over the last few years and the one I'm on now, it's still here. So, I guess I can't really offer much constructive advice, BUT I have found that going with lifestyle changes can improve physical ailments (adding vitamin D can sometimes help with inflammation, etc) so that's something worth looking into I think.

Chamomile tea is supposed to be good for migraines. I drink a cup of it every day, usually when I know that I may be exposed to something that'll trigger a worsening of my headache. Maybe that's something your brother might be interested in trying.

I used to get headaches and learned that bad posture can cause them. There's a book you can google called "Eliminating Pain Your Guide to a Better Lifestyle" that explains it, how you can improve muscles imbalances and posture and relieve a lot of conditions.