MIGRAINE TREATMENT



If the headache was relieved by pressing on the temporal arteries, your migraine treatment can be to continue pressing.

This is hard on the fingers, so rotate between index, middle and ring fingers applying the pressure. Rest your chin on the heel of your hands while you do this, with your elbows on a table so that you don’t have to hold your arms up without support.

Pressing on your superrficial temporal artery

Keep the pressure up for 5 minutes.

This isn’t easy, but if you do the pain will not return immediately, giving your hands time to recover.

You may have to repeat the pressure a few times, but this is better than a blinding headache lasting all day.

The migraine attack will burn itself out, hopefully within an hour or so.



Acupuncture

Using needles or laser, acupuncture is a very effective migraine treatment. It can be used to prevent migraine and to treat acute attacks.

Two of the more important points are Large intestine 4 and liver 3. acupuncture point Li 4 position

Li 4 is just under the edge of the second metacarpal bone, when you grasp it as shown. Move up and down the bone until you find a decidedly tender spot.




acupuncture point liver 3 position

Liv 3 is at the back end of the groove between the long metatarsal bones of your big toe and the next toe. Again here the spot is tender if it is related to your problems.



Magnesium and migraine treatment

Intravenous magnesium plus procaine, is an effective but expensive treatment for acute migraine attacks, and magnesium orally is used for prevention.



Food intolerance in migraine treatment

80% of adult migraine sufferers have food intolerance as a factor causing headaches. This is discussed further in the section on sinus headache



 In a recently published trial3, 30 patients diagnosed with migraine without aura had IgG blood tests for food allergy, and compared their migraine on and off these foods.

They averaged allergy to 24 foods of the 266 tested.
In 6 weeks they averaged 3 fewer migraine attacks, when avoiding these foods.





Cervical spine fixations

When people get about one migraine a year, I do not expect to find any cause I can usefully help with.

If someone suddenly starts to get migraines more frequently than before, the commonest reason I find is that they have put their neck out.

Detailed examination of one’s neck is not easy. I’ve written a course designed to teach this skill, and will make this available at some stage. Chiropractors or osteopaths are your best resource to diagnose and treat your neck, after a medical assessment.

Headache present every day, is not (just) migraine. The most migraine causes is about three attacks per week.



Coenzyme Q10

Along with magnesium and riboflavin, this is another nutrient of value in preventing migraine attacks.

1 to 3 mg. per kgm per day, as a liquid gel formulation of CoQ10, was used in a study...

Hershey et al, Headache: 47(1)2007 PP. 73-80



Intranasal lignocaine

From published studies this is an effective treatment for what was termed migraine. I have no experience of this treatment, and suspect that the headaches studied, originated from pressure between the nasal septum and turbinates.


Peppermint oil roll on or spray

Very useful, very quick and convenient migraine treatment.



Botox injections may help "imploding" (constricting) migraines.

But not in "exploding" (bursting) headaches.

One trial1 in 2006 found this, and a recent study2 has confirmed it.

In the first trial, there was no difference between those responding and resistant to Botox, in frequency of migraine attacks, prevalence of medication overuse, symptoms such as aura, photophobia, dislike of noise, nausea, vomiting or throbbing.

Only the above descriptions of their pain, were different.

My guess is that the constricting headaches were primarily or predominantly due to muscles tension, hence responsive to paralyzing the muscles with botox - and the bursting headaches were primarily or predominantly vascular.



Daily headaches? - think muscle tension

From migraine treatment page to sinusitis page.



Migraine and the pill

Classical migraine has the vascular headache plus vomiting plus some neurological deficit (the aura)- visual disturbance, numbness, weakness or loss of balance.

The visual disturbance may be fortification spectra - zig zag bright lines, or scintillating scotomas - shimmering blobs obscuring a part of one's visual field.

This condition doesn't go well with the oral contraceptive pill. There is a slight risk of stroke - a case of the risk is low but the stakes are high.

It is now commonly accepted that, in migraine with aura, the use of combined oral contraceptives is always contraindicated, and that they must also be suspended in other migraine patients if aura symptoms appear.

Other risk factors (tobacco use, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity and diabetes) must be carefully considered when prescribing combined oral contraceptives in migraine without aura patients, in particular in women aged over 35 years.



References for migraine treatment page

1. M. Jakubowski et al Exploding vs. imploding headache in migraine prophylaxis with Botulinum Toxin A Pain. 2006 December 5; 125(3): 286–295.

2. Christine C. Kim et al Predicting Migraine Responsiveness to Botulinum Toxin Type A Injections Arch Dermatol. 2010;146(2):159-163.

3. Kardiye Alpay et al Diet restriction in migraine, based on IgG against foods: A clinical double-blind, randomised, cross-over trial Cephalalgia 2010;30:829.


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