(no subject)

[serene]

Someone on a list I'm on had a migraine, and I offered to geek about how I got rid of mine.

I participated in a headache study for Kaiser, and these are the steps I took:

1) For two weeks, I wrote down every headache (and there were SO many more than I had thought -- I was having five to ten headaches a DAY; not that many migraines, but one a month or so) and took notes about what was happening -- had I just eaten dairy (to which I know I'm sensitive)? was I stressed out? etc. Also, they had me keep track of medications and caffeine (I don't do caffeine except on rare occasion.)

2) They made me/us cut out all caffeine and headache medication -- even aspirin -- for two weeks. Turns out most headaches are called "Rebound headaches" and are the result of your body reacting to having been on medication. My headaches went down by more than a half after that.

3) I cut out (or way down) the foods I noticed were abundant around headache time (from the journal they had me keep)-- for me, it was milk, chocolate, and really salty foods.

4) I started getting daily exercise.

5) I reacted *quickly* if I did get a headache -- they gave me some powerful migraine meds which I never ended up needing, but the *second* I feel a headache coming on, I take aspirin and/or caffeine, and it usually goes away in minutes.

I estimate that I've gotten maybe a headache a week since I did these things, and only one migraine this year. That's down from 50-60 headaches a week and a migraine a month, so I feel like I've effectively eliminated them. I hope some of this works for you.

Comments

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

#5 is really important for me. Toughing it out is a huge mistake. :p

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Yep. I'm convinced I've averted more than one migraine by paying attention and medicating *quickly* when I start getting a headache.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've found the same, both with headaches and backache.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

yeesh, I would have sawed off my head if I had 50-60 headaches a week.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

You say this...

But there are many days when I have a low level headache almost constantly (somtimes, upon awakening). It's frequently more noteworthy when I *don't* have a headache. So I don't always notice them enough to medicate, or do much beyond being annoyed.

But, I thankfully don't tend to get migraines. Have gotten a few, but they are rare. They run in my family, though.

My headaches seem to relate to insufficient sleep, stress, and sinuses, most frequently.

[danger-chick.livejournal.com]

I get bad headaches from sinuses, so I guess I am imagining that you are dealing with that level of headache constantly. If I had to deal with that type of pain constantly, I probably would saw off my head. I found if I treat my asthma/allergy symptoms, then I don't have any problems.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Well, they weren't all bad ones, and some were barely there, but yes, I have so much more energy and joy since my head doesn't ache nearly constantly.

[lyrical1.livejournal.com]

I'm in the process of doing something similar (the step 1 part). I'm hoping it doesn't lead to another round of elimentation eating. Hate that. And it always leads to fewer foods I can eat each time we do it. My allergies have been way out of control, and thus so are my headaches. Northern California didn't help a whole lot.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oh, sweetie, what a drag. *hughughug*

My triggers are wierd

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Some of them are atypical.

The ones I have identified so far are:
--cigarette smoke (sometimes hard to avoid walking through or near that)
--red wine (I gave it up)
--air pollution (what can I do? Can't move out of town!)
--too much sunlight (I may be mistaken on this, but it seems to tip over a regular headache into a migraine)
--too many nitrates
--coffee (not caffeine--it's some other alkaloid in coffee, not in tea or colas) No loss. I never liked it.

I do take a calcium channel blocker daily, as I was waking multiple times per night with headaches, and I have a lovely headache zapper med. I feel MUCH better.

Re: My triggers are wierd

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you worked it out!

Re: My triggers are wierd

[(Anonymous)]

For the sunlight trigger, have you tried the big
polarized sunglasses that wrap around your head to
shield the sides of your eyes as well as the front?
I've found they help. So does wearing a hat with
a brim (though not a tight hat.)

I'm also sensitive to something in coffee that
isn't caffeine. Most migraine "experts" don't
believe this. I've had a neurologist offer me
a cup of coffee...when I said it was a trigger,
he said, "That's ok, it's decaf." I can't even
eat coffee-flavored ice cream! I've noticed that
I dislike, or eventually come to dislike, some
of my stronger triggers. I think it's my
subconscious trying to protect me.

Your neurologist didn't pay attention in Chem I

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

There are at least a dozen alkaloids in coffee. That's why it's so bitter. It's perfectly possible to be allergic to or triggered by one of those, and not sensitive to caffeine. I, too, have had migraines after drinking decaf.

The sunlight problem seems to come into play only when I have a headache to begin with. It may be that this is happening when I have the beginnings of a migraine anyway, and that the sun's not the trigger.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

I think that for me headaches are usually caused by lack of sleep, or heat or glare.

[If] I remember [it correctly] about 20 years ago a friend of mine was working on a program to track and look for patterns/correlations with all sorts of life issues such as moods, sleep, diet, headaches, etc. -- I should set up something like that myself one of these days, as I'm always meaning to start keeping more health information anyway.

[firecat]

Some things that caused headaches for me in the past:
-high blood sugar
-eyestrain due to high blood sugar
-low blood sugar (I had a two week headache when I tried glucophage for the first time)
-dehydration
-lack of caffeine
-pre-menstrual hormones

I don't get very many headaches since I got the diabetes properly treated. Yay!

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

It's making me feel all cheerful that so many people are saying their headaches are gone or almost gone. I'm so glad!

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I have a recurrent headache problem which is completely treatable with ibuprofen, so I don't worry about it too much, but I've recently (in the last six months or so) linked it to dehydration. Anybody else have this experience?

Also, my beloved ten-year-old niece just had 10 days of severe headaches, now better but unexplained (like most headaches). Anybody with experience of sudden severe headaches in children want to let me know what they learned?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

My migraines started when I was 8. Lots of people
had their migraines start around the beginning of
puberty, and a 10-year-old girl might be about
that age. The first few hormonal cycles involve
a lot of changes to the body, even if she's not
menstruating yet.

A 10-year-old is becoming more independent. Has
she been skimping on food or sleep? Eating
unfamiliar foods that might be triggering
headaches? Some kids experiment with tobacco or
alcohol, and it takes a while to figure out that
it's causing headaches (especially when a kid
has a delayed reaction.)

This is less likely, considering the severe
headaches went away by themselves...but sometimes
a kid complaining of persistent severe headache
*really* has an ear infection. Or maybe the kid
needs glasses, or different glasses. She might
even have injured her neck in sports, or in a
fall.

When you talk to her, these are things to
consider for figuring out what might have
happened before. And also things to be
careful of, in case she has another attack.
She might not.