Migraine Headache Relief And Treatment

One of the most painful experiences an individual can have is that of a truly bad headache. Most would disagree because of issues such as being cut, stabbed, or shot, but headaches are constant issues that cause trouble throughout the body and not just the head. This is even worse when those headaches are severe enough to warrant the name of migraine.

What are Migraine Headaches?

Migraines are a type chronic headaches that cause excruciating pain for many hours up to several days at a time when they occur. The symptoms of these headaches generally revolve around pain so severe that the one afflicted will desire nothing more than to crawl off into a dark quiet place and curl into a ball. Other accompanying symptoms or warning signs include seeing auras, nausea, tingling in the arms and legs, and vomiting.

What Can Be Done About Migraine Headaches?

Unfortunately there is not singular medical cure for migraine headaches. The unfortunate individual afflicted with this type of headache can only treat the symptoms and attempt abortive procedures that will curtail the onset of such a headache. The typical treatments for migraines are abortive and medicinal in nature. Other methods include changing the diet, proper exercise, and changing the overall lifestyle.

The Abortive Method

This method of migraine treatment centers on attempting to stop a migraine before it starts at the onset of the issue. Typically this involves medication that stops a headache in its prodrome state or limits the capacity of a headache immediately after it begins. Some of these medications are injected into the thigh and others come in the form of a thin wafer that will melt on the tongue. The later type is generally considered to be of higher benefit to individuals that suffer from vomiting during their migraines.

Abortive drugs include the triptan family of drugs that affect the serotonin levels in the body. These are only useful to treat headache related pain and will do nothing for the other types of pain that often can accompany such headaches such as back pain. A few of these drugs are Imitrex (Sumatriptan), Relpax (Eletriptan), and Frova (Frovatriptan).

Preventative Method

This method is not meant to abort the headache but to try and prevent it from occurring as frequently. This is a type of treatment method that is used for people with severe migraines that occur multiple times a week. Typical conventional medicine for this type of migraine treatment are the kinds used to treat high-blood pressure, beta-blockers like Inderal (propranolol) and allergy medication such as Benadryl (diphenhydramine)

Food Related Remedies Both Preventative and Abortive

Preventative methods of changing an individual’s diet begin by determining what type of food sources cause their headaches to occur. The two most common culprits are:

- Gluten: This dietary nutrient is found primarily in grain such as wheat. There is an actual happy outcome from acknowledging and discovering the extent of migraines caused by gluten. If the one afflicted by gluten related migraines stops ingesting this substance there is a very high chance that their migraines will stop altogether.

- Caffeine withdrawals can be quite severe but additional entry of caffeine into the body can allow for relief of this issue. Removing it from the system altogether and sticking to a no-caffeine policy will lead to possibly weeks, even a few months, of headaches and lowered energy levels in the body. However, after this finally passes the body will no longer be dependent on caffeine and those migraines will generally stop occurring on a more permanent level.

Home treatments

Changing of the weather is often cited as a reason someone has a terrible, migraine, headache. This is actually true and most of the time this is caused by either very low or very high temperatures combined with humidity. The rapid change from one situation to another is also a trigger. To prevent this try to limit exposure to rapidly changing temperatures and attempt to maintain full body temperature in all areas. Leaving the head exposed in the winter while the rest of the body is wrapped up is a sure way to cause a migraine to occur.

Another home remedy that can be used is generally the only one that works for many people. This remedy is heat, pressure, and sleep. In short, if nothing else works then the only way to ease a migraine is to reassert the body temperature; such as soaking in a hot bath for a while with most of the body immersed, especially the closed eyes and top of the head. Do not submerge the open mouth and nose for safety reasons. This activity once completed is then followed-up with some method of applying pressure to the skull such as wrapping a pillow, towel, or sock tightly around the head, not too tightly but enough to add pressure. This is then followed by closing the eyes and trying to fall asleep.