as a FORMER migraine sufferer, I have found what works for me and hope to help others...

Hi, I'm a first time poster here.

I woke up this morning remembering a show about people who suffered brutally bad migraine headaches. I used to be one of those people. I used to get the nausea, vomiting, extreme sensitivity to light and sound as well as the utterly debilitating pain. Whole days would have to be spent in bed, with the curtains drawn tight, ice packs on my head and neck... in utter misery.

These days, I live a normal life free from migraine pain 99% of the time. And when I do start to get a migraine, it is easily fixed, and MUCH milder than before (no more lost days suffering in a dark room). Best of all, I don't need to take any medications.

Now, I hope to help others find the same freedom from pain. Please note: These are the solutions that worked for me. These may not help everyone, but for those of you who it might help, I *strongly* recommend you give my suggestions a try. I'll touch on several topics ranging from posture to diet to drugs.

For one, join a gym and exercise. Do neck and back exercises. Get your whole body in shape. Lose that gut! Jog, run, bike, swim! Any one of those will get you in better shape. Push yourself to get fitter, leaner, healthier. Not only will you help reduce the number of migraines you have, but you'll look better too and will probably live a longer, happier life! Do what you find fun but for crying out loud do something that gets your muscles working and your blood pumping for a good hour or more!

And while you're exercising, keep yourself well hydrated. In fact, I've found dehydration can also trigger migranes whether or not I'm working out. I carry two 1L bottles around with me that I fill up periodically throughout the day. I try to make sure that when I urinate it is never more than *slightly* yellowish, and definitely not dark or cloudy. If it ever is, I immediately go drink a glass of water. Make that a habit: yellow pee = drink a glass of water. Sip water throughout the day. Keep yourself hydrated.

Speaking of drinking fluids, cut back on your soda consumption! That stuff is absolutely terrible. The human body wasn't designed to try to eek some sort of hydration from a syrupy-sweet concoction of high fructose corn syrups, sugar, and artificial chemical flavorings. Don't get me wrong-- I very much like how a carbonated drink can cleanse the pallete, particularly when I'm eating... but now I make my own sodas. I've been drinking this particular drink for close to 5 years and I haven't grown tired of it. It's a very complicated recipe however, but here it is: Fill a glass slightly over halfway with seltzer water (I use the Safeway brand), add 100% grape juice (from Costco) and ice. Drink and enjoy. If it's a hot summer day, it's all the better. Also try it the next time you eat anything greasy. I've experimented a bit and used different juices and many tasted quite good, but for me-- grape soda is a de-li-cious alternative to the crap that multi-billion dollar soda companies spew out.

Another thing I've found I need to keep to an absolute minimum: pork. This kills me because bacon tastes good! Pork chops taste good! Ham is mmm mmm good! It's also an almost guaranteed headache in 1 hr or so. It took me a LONG time to put the correlation together, but like clockwork, if I eat a bacon cheese burger (or any other pork)... in 30 mins or so I can already feel the tension starting at the back of my head (typically where it meets my neck). In an hour or two-- depending on how much I've consumed-- I'll have a full bore throbbing migraine. So-- like sodas-- I try to keep my pork consumption VERY limited (more as a light garnish than a meal).

In fact, there's a few different foods I've found that can trigger a headache, and I've semi-casually tried to keep track of them. I know that fresh morel mushrooms fried in butter are one of the true great mycological delicacies of this world. But a plate full of them is like a swift kick in the skull. In fact, I'd prefer a kick in the skull, because that pain eases sooner than the headache from the morels.

I won't go into my list of foods (I'm too tired at this point anyway), but each one of you should keep track of what you eat and when you get headaches. If you ate something at lunch and found that a few hours later you had a migraine, sometime later try eating that same food again (but not as much) and see if you get the same results. I've cut back on my overall sugar intake and have had some good results too. See what works for you. And remember, there's no need to suffer: It's all about moderation... in some cases, extreme moderation. But hey, cutting back on a few things here and there is a very small price to pay for a lifetime free of migraines.

So ok, that's pretty much it from me. I can't be certain that everything I listed above is what helped me alleviate my migraine headaches, but I definitely DO feel that those suggestions I listed have improved my health and well-being overall, and some-- if not all-- have resulted in a dramatic reduction in my headaches.

If I had to rank them in their impact, I'd definitely say that exercise is #1, followed very closely by having a GREAT chiropractor-- both of these tie in closely with maintaining a good posture. Next most important is keeping myself well hydrated and reducing my soda consumption (except for healthy doses of delicious grape soda). Cutting out pork is a no-brainer for me, since I've seen time and again the direct correlation, but each of you may have different "trigger foods"-- so I highly recommend finding those. Cutting way back on high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated foods might be good for just my overall well-being, because I've certainly felt healtier and more energized since I've cut back on items containing these. Perhaps it's because from what I've read, these two are known to be shockingly bad for the body-- yet somehow they're included in so many foods??-- so it's a no-brainer to try to minimize my consumption of them.

If anything-- or any combination of things-- that I've suggested helps to minimize the number and severity of your migraines, then I am truly glad. Hopefully you'll be able to live a life nearly pain-free. These days, I very rarely get headaches, and if I do, they are MUCH milder than the migraines I used to get. So mild in fact that I take a Tylenol or aspirin as a last resort, and more often than not I simply take no pain medication at all. (And this is coming from someone who once even tried Demerol-- an opiate-based pain killer!-- to try to help my migraine pain.)

If after doing some or most of the things I've suggested you're finding that your migraines are gone or nearly so, I'd be happy to hear about it, so please feel free to send me an email! Those of us who've suffered through nearly constant migraine headaches (I used to get them sometimes every 3-4 days) know that NOBODY deserves to live a life of such utter misery.

Best of luck to all of you.

Sincerely,
Lawrence E.

p.s. -- hello /u/2020sbear

Post Edited (tritium_pie) : 4/11/2020 12:41:42 PM (GMT-6)

anyone here know why my headaches are on my face next to my ears and by my temples. My doc says my ears are fine . He said i did have water behind my ears and sinus trouble. He prescribed me loratadine and it does nothing. My nose is fine.

He first said it was my bp being up but now that its down he says its the ziac bp med. Now he prescribes me verapamil even though my bp is down  to take with the ziac but i still have the headache.

It feels like pressure, stuffy head, pounding, Not sure if thats my heartbeat i here when i touch my head or thats what  a headache is.

Benjamin,

Good advice. I don't know how you went from opium to nothing at all but you did - amazing! I have white-knuckled the "no meds" to get off the rebound cycle but I just can't stand the pain! I wish I could afford a good chiropractor. I'm presently on disability. However, I did get chiro and it didn't work. In fact, it might have made things even worse! I have been working really hard on my posture but you made me realize something. I've been working so hard to keep my shoulders back and realized that my neck is probably still forward. I think us migrainers have to try everything but how do you explain getting a migraine when the weather changes, when you smell strong perfume (YUCK!) or you are in a noisy place. That's life and I don't know how to avoid those things and it is sooo frustrating! Also, how did you determine your food triggers? I keep a diary and stay away from the big ones but for the life of me I can't figure out my food triggers. I know of a few but since I get migraines nearly everyday, I think it could be something that I'm eating. Either that, or hormones. At least you don't have to worry about that! Anyway, thank you for your advice.
K.

Post Edited By Moderator (Annuk) : 10/15/2006 8:39:25 AM (GMT-6)

Anne - how do I update my profile to add my addy?

ttwarrior i have the same pains, including severe trigeminal pains.

wondering if you have tried oxygen ?
do you smoke? i do and am extremely in need of quitting.

dont know much its only been very recently tht i recieved help seeing as everyone in my home town tookl me for a crakhead.

must be something with the veins passing there on the side of my head.
have had great succes with oxygen.

was also told it might arterial arthritis or something...sorry hard to think right now its only been 6 days tht im starting to regain my sanity.

if you discover anything new info please please let me know eh.

peace......allen

I to have been diagnosed w/an atlas subluxation, my headache history contains 5 years of chronic daily PAIN!  I have been to several dr's thru out the years w/little to no relief.  I was rec. to another chiro by a friend of the family, after having prior treatment w/no success I was reluctant to once again go to another chiro, however I was feeling desprate so I fiqured I would give it a try.  My chiro is a specific chiro, which means he's a subluxation specialist.  After having my x-rays done I was told that all my years of pain and suffering was due to the first bone in my neck (atlas) compressing against my brainstem.  I was also told after 1 year of treatment and a bunch of money I would be pain free.  Here is my question to the original poster, it has been close to 3 months and unfortunatley I've not noticed any relief..SO HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?( My chiro claims to be patient this is normal) DOES IT SOUND LIKE I GOT RIPPED OFF?  I told him prior to spending all the money that I'll believe it when I see it, but he told me that is a normal repsonse and he has a 99 perc success rate.  So I spent the money and got really excited, now Im just scared that I got my hopes up for nothing.  How familiar are you w/ subluxations?  Any feedback would be appreciated.....Ty in advance

First and foremost, I need to reiterate that I am not a doctor or chiropractor, so I'm not claiming my reasoning is correct. All I know is that I've done what I stated above and have found dramatic and immediate reductions in the number, length and severity of my migraine headaches. That said, any "advice" or "ideas" I may provide below are my best guesses from the info I've gathered over the years. If my reasoning is not quite right, my apologies-- but I can absolutely speak from experience regarding the results... which have dramatically improved my quality of life. All that said, I'll go ahead and try to answer your questions...

hopefulmigrainer-- Regarding your lack of results after visiting chiropractor, I'm thinking it's either a) you are not subluxated or have built up pressure between your vertebrae, or b) the chiropractor you visited is one of the *majority* of unskilled chiropractors out there. >> EDIT: I will expand on my experiences with chiropractors-- what to expect, what to watch out for, etc.-- in my next posting. Pls just give me a few days or so. <<

As far as getting a headache from weather changes, I actually experienced that recently myself. I awoke at 4am, sat up and when I turned my head slowly to the left and right, I could hear crackling sounds in my upper vertebrae. From my (limited) understanding, these are tiny bubbles that form in the fluid between my upper vertebrae, and my best guess is that when the barometric pressure drops, the bubbles expand and cause pressure on nerves and sensitive tissues. I went in to my chiro that day, was adjusted and heard the loud "cracks" and afterwards, when I turned my head to the left and right, no more crackling sounds. Oh yeah, and no more headache or feeling of pressure. You heard me right: Instant Relief. (Mind you, when I have gone in for an adjustment with a full-blown migraine, it still takes some time for the pain to diminish, most likely because it takes time for the inflammation to go down.)

I also have experienced getting a migraine (or these days, the tension I used to get that preceeded a migraine... but typically no headache afterwards), when I smell particular chemical-type scents. The best example that I know of is getting into a car that has vinyl dashboards that has been baking in the hot sun with the windows closed. Oh man, that's an almost instant headache. So, what I typically do is of course to open the doors wide and let some fresh air in before I sit down. If it's my car, of course I always try to park in the shade, barring that I put up one of those reflective dashboard sunblockers, and I keep the windows slightly open (maybe 1/2" or so). And I still let the car air out before I sit in it.

There are other smells that cause my neck and upper shoulder muscles to tense up, and as far as why this leads to a headache, the way I imagine it is that my muscles are now pulling my vertebrae tighter together, increasing the fluid pressure and making the bubbles shift or further worsening any subluxation that is present-- the end result being strain and pressure on nerves and sensitive tissues, leading to a migraine. That's what I've noticed in myself anyway.

Regarding your food triggers, it'd be tough to figure those out if you're getting migraines nearly every day no matter what you eat. Heck, it could be a variety of things all working in conjunction. So rather than guessing what could be causing your issues, let me expand on what I've done to help deal with "trigger smells".

Fresh air-- I always try to have my living space airing out, windows atleast cracked open and atleast once a day I'll throw the windows and sliding doors wide open to clear out the stale air. All sorts of chemicals exist in our homes that our bodies did not evolve to constantly inhale and have to deal with cleaning out (if they can at all). For this same reason, I like to have a lot of plants in my home. (I've heard that "Mother-in-law's tongue" is a really good plant for cleaning out airborne toxins. Not sure what its proper name is.) And at work-- of course-- Go Outside. Get some fresh air, rather than breathing office air all day.

As far as hormones being the cause of your migraines, I have to disagree. We weren't designed to have our own bodies cause us to be debilitated by brutal pains in our heads. If it was hormonal, our ancestors would've starved to death or met the business end of a saber tooth tiger. So while your hormones may fluctuate throughout the day, I firmly believe there's something underlying that-- with the hormonal fluctuation-- gets exacerbated and leads to a migraine. Find that root cause, and you can have all the natural hormonal shifts of the human body without the pain.

Lastly, when you read my initial posting, are you actively working to eat and live a healthy life? Are you overweight? Do you exercise? Do you eat a lot of sweets? What about sodas or things with high fructose corn syrup? Do you drink enough water? I ask these questions not necessarily to hear your answer, but to get you to ask yourself point-blank. If you want to live happy you have to live healthy. Maybe it's time for a dramatic change in the "same ol" diet/lifestyle you live. Try eating strictly vegan for a while, for example. Living your lifestyle currently means you experience migraine headaches... so keep changing your lifestyle/routines for the better until the headaches go away. That's what I did, and it worked!

Best of luck!

- - - - - -

chewy (and others)-- I'll get around to responding to your posting sometime soon. I work at a startup company and it is very challenging mentally, leaving me quite exhausted at the end of the day (when I typically ride the train home and write on this forum). You might've noticed I try to take the time to compose a comprehensive reply to legitimate questions (that I haven't answered in some form earlier). All that said, if I was still suffering from my migraines I would NEVER be able to hold such a great job, no matter how mentally taxing it may be.

mine is unlimited visits for 160 a month, i signed up yesterday but feel like im being ripped off so far.

First visit he pressed on my back twice, couldnt I have done that myself lying on a hard floor with a tennis ball or something underneath?