Anyone here suffer from migraines?

[mutantdonut]

Anyone who has frequent or semi frequent problems with migraines, i'm wondering what you do to alleviate when it's full blown. Or what preventative measures you use to avoid getting one in the first place.

I tried icing which sometimes helps
I tried 420 which doesn't help at all
I tried exercising it off, which only gives very temporary relief
The only thing that works for me is tylenol pm. It hasta be the acetaminophen-diphenhydramine combo.

Anyone else have tips?

 

[EmilyConrad]

I had them for years and they've recently been coming back a lot. Nothing other than prescription medication actually gets rid of mine. A dark and quiet room helps but that's not always an option. I used to take Amitriptyline to prevent them. It's actually an anti-depressant but is often used for migraines. I also had Maxalt for whenever a migraine actually occurred. I think I maybe took it once or twice? The Amitriptyline definitely helped diminish them but those couple times it didn't the Maxalt worked really well. I went a few years without them so there could be better meds out now but those definitely helped me and I'm going back to my doctor to get them again. I hope yours get better soon! Migraines can be so debilitating.

 

[MsDonkey]

I tend to get between 1 and 6 migraines every 2 years (or between 0 and 3 per year, if that makes it easier to think of). If I feel it coming on early enough Ibuprofen (Motrin/Advil) can help, I've also had good luck with Naproxen (Aleve) but I've never had any help from Acetaminophen (Tylenol).

Once the migraine has started, it's really just triage, making the suffering as bearable as possible. I've found hot tea helps me. In addition to any psychological benefit of the comfort I associate with the ritual of drinking tea, caffeine (despite being a vasoconstrictor) has been proven to increase the efficacy of NSAID pain relievers by up to 40% in treating headaches. Also, eating dark chocolate. Again there's a sizable psychological comfort factor; chocolate naturally contains small amounts of caffeine (more in darker chocolate) and also theobromine (a caffeine metabolite, which is also present in tea… not sure about coffee). Theobromine in a vasodilator, meaning it relaxes the blood-vessles, a common contributor to headache pain.

Other than that, lying in bed, in the dark, with as little noise as possible. And a cool pillow on my face.

 

[IvyR]

My biggest tip would be to find out the cause of your migraines. Too many people focus on just medicating themselves and not taking a look at the bigger picture:

Are you stressed?
Are you eating enough? Take a look at your diet in general (too much sodium? Iron deficiency?) Many migraine sufferers keep a Food Diary to try to pin-point what could be triggering them.
Do you have any unknown allergies?
Do your migraines come on before/after/as the weather changes? (or just when more clouds roll in)
How is your posture?
How old is your pillow? Do you get a new one when it is feeling flat?
Are you on any medications that increase/decrease in doses? (birth control, etc)
What kind of migraine are you suffering from? Cluster, tension, etc

This is a huge contributing factor as to why so many migraine sufferers don't find relief. You could be very well ingesting the thing that causes it.
Doctors usually focus on medicating the patient as well. I used almotriptan for a while, but anything from the triptan family (there are many different kinds, one may work for you, others may not) is pretty costly ($10 a pill) so I usually stay away.

There's a lot more studies opening up on studying the causes of migraines, but it can be so different for each individual. I've been suffering for 4 years with my migraines. I would get one roughly every week and a half, though they have become less frequent now because I left my old job that had me extremely stressed to the point of dropping extreme amounts of weight partnered with depression. I still don't know the cause. I've been putting off getting an allergy test because... well I have no excuse. I just haven't gone which is really just dumb of me because I COULD find the trigger by something so simple. But I plan on going very soon.

I've you've had an allergy test done recently (keep in mind your body obviously changes, so getting an up to date one is probably a good idea) then I would start there.

As for medication, I honestly use marijuana but I hate it. Sometimes it makes me paranoid because the amount I need to actually relieve the pain (nothing else works, really. Randomly Mersyndol works but sometimes I can't function due to the codeine) is quite a lot. Obviously I wouldn't advise marijuana unless medical marijuana is legal where you live. Luckily I'm in Canada... ETA: Oh, sorry. Didn't notice the 420 in your post. But incase anyone is reading, yes it's possible that it may help you.

If it's a tension migraine, I would suggest Mersyndol unless you have allergies to codeine. It will make you feel like jelly but sometimes if I take it at night and really try to relax, I'll wake up and my migraine will be far less extreme than it was the night before.

Blah, sorry, word vomit. I've done a lot of snooping when it comes to migraines, because yes, they suck and are debilitating.

 

[SaffronBurke]

When I have them constantly, it's because of stress. I've dropped a lot of friends over the years because all they brought was stress and thus migraines.

However, sometimes they just pop up. Both my mother and my father have a family history of migraines, and I've been suffering from them since the age of 7, with no clear cause of most of them. At first, getting glasses helped to minimize them, and constant migraines with no additional stress is a sign that I need new lenses. However, I still have random ones out of the blue for no determinable reason. I've built up an immunity to most medications, so I mostly try to stay hydrated and in a dark, quiet room, but if it's not going to go away or I don't have that option, I take an Excedrin or two, which I haven't developed an immunity to yet because I won't let myself take them with the frequency that would encourage that to happen.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

In addition to the triggers ivykins mentions I'll also add cheese to the list of things to try avoiding. If you drink/eat diet stuff, look for aspartame. Avoid that poison like the plague. It has around 93 known side effects, migraines among them. MSG is big one to avoid if you like to eat Asian food.

Also, do you check your blood pressure regularly? That would be the one I'd start with.

This doesn't work for everyone, but it sometimes helps me. Acupressure of the feet.
http://www.chinesefootreflexology.com/4points/
This was just the first link I googled, there's others that may explain it better.

 

[xDollPartsx]

I have gotten migraines for almost as long as I can recall, I've seen every doctor, specialist, neurologist you name it. Been on meds that didn't work or didn't work and made me useless and tired every day. Opted to just have a constant headache that worsens to the point of almost blindness and uncontrollable dry heaves at least once every couple weeks or years. I am a huge science geek so in his time I've read study upon study of triggers and causes and treatments, though some is still speculation, mine are either food and drink based and/or some kind of sunlight allergy(hence the constant vampire jokes from my family). I usually would end up in the ER once a month for extreme dehydration from the nausea and incoherent because of pain(and I have a super human pain threshold). Once I starting cutting out things that either contained high amounts of nitrates or by produced them in my body I haven't been back to the ER in almost a year. This includes when I drink alcohol, I used to think I just couldn't drink even one beer or glass of wine because I got a hangover with a migraine the next day... Then did more reading... Clear alchols don't produce the same trigger chemicals as dark colored ones, I stopped drinking beer and red wine(which is painful as I love both) and I can get rip roaring drunk and have zero hangover(not that this is the main purpose of any of it just stating an observation). So I suggest what others have and try cutting out these foods or drinks and see what happens.

 

[goldenaye666]

Sinus pressure from 101 allergies and eye strain from working on a computer are the primary causes of mine. Taking a nap or at least laying down with my eyes closed helps the most. The lack of visual stimulus and the changes to my equilibrium & blood pressure I assume are why it helps.

 

[Red7227]

Mine were muscular. I used to see a chiropractor to help deal with them, but now I have eliminated them with stretching and exersize.

 

[AmberCutie]

Had an unrelenting headache for 2.5 days last week. I learned the hard way that it's bad for your body to take 2 doses of Advil followed by 3 doses of Tylenol over that period.

My stomach/liver is giving me a talking-to since yesterday.

 

[jeff98902]

In the past I have suffered from debilitating migraine headaches for years! Cluster headaches,nausea, with heaving. And extreme light & sound sensitivity. I once described the pain to someone as the feeling of a power drill bit being used on your skull repeatedly; while trying to vomit! There are no pills made that have ever worked well for me. During the episodes I would have to lay in a extremely dark room with absolutely no sound till the pain lessened. And that would sometimes take hours. Now the good part, I about a year ago one of my best friends got married, And his wife is from China. I was to meet them for dinner but canceled because of a migraine episode. The next day my friend said that his wife feels that I should go see a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, about the problem of my extreme headaches and that it might help.
I was game for anything to help with the pain. With the help of his wife I found a Doctor in the Seattle International district. "ChinaTown" as it used to be called. The doctor asked me about what foods I ate and if I did not like to be out in bright light?! No western doctor ever asked me that! I said yes extreme light sensitivity. He said that I should go to a optometrist for special glasses for light sensitivity. He then wrote out a long list of Chinese herbs for me to get that would help with the headaches and some foods to avoid eating. At the pharmacy the ingredients looked very strange and came in a big bag all mixed together. Now the crazy part was that I was not to ingest any of this but to make a tea and pour it into a bowl and inhale the fumes. So kind of a aroma therapy mix with a humidifier effect. I must tell you the roots and herbs smell horrible but this method as been working for me. If a migraine starts this "tea concoction" helps greatly and most times stops them from happening. Also, I did go to an optometrist and was diagnosed with Photophobia. The eye doctor said that I most likely have had it my whole life.
I now wear prescription lenses that are for light sensitivity. Like the polarizing glasses fishermen wear but in a more pleasing looking frame.
I feel that the glasses help, I have been out in the sun without them a couple of times and notice the symptoms of the migraine starting.

And thanks to mutantdonut for starting this thread and the others for posting on here. It is comforting and informative to know other people have gone through the some of the same pains as I have! None of my personal friends have never experienced a migraine and could never relate to me while having them.

 

[gonegirl4]

unfortunately I do! My biggest advice would be that if you can, get yourself to a neurologist (preferably a headache specialist) I take a lovely little cocktail of pills that keep my migraines at bay now
this week for the first time ever I forgot to get one of my scripts filled, and cue two days of debilitating pain the only thing that cuts through it for me is orgasm (and the real reason I'm a camgirl comes out! ) but seriously, I'd be lying in a dark room not able to do anything at all for the pain, but if I can push through enough to get myself off the difference is incredible!

 

[AmberCutie]

the only thing that cuts through it for me is orgasm (and the real reason I'm a camgirl comes out! ) but seriously, I'd be lying in a dark room not able to do anything at all for the pain, but if I can push through enough to get myself off the difference is incredible!

I always think that it'll help me, but the raise in my heart rate during masturbation/at climax makes my head pound worse.

 

[Ambers Troll]

I don't suffer from migraines, but have seen others go through it...the link below may help on the diet front... was watching this episode of food hospital just hours ago.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2011-11-01/the-food-hospital-the-boy-who-ate-himself-better
"The Food Hospital regime eliminated certain cheeses, processed meats, chocolate and citrus fruits, all of which contain amines: natural compounds linked to migraines. Louise had already cut out well-known triggers including juice and cheese, but added to that list of banned foods were full-fat milk, peanuts, dried fruits and additives. Harvey was also prescribed vitamins and minerals: riboflavin, magnesium and coenzyme Q10, which are thought to help because of the way they act on the brain. "