Migraines: Self-care measures can head off the pai

[WVsnowflake]

Migraines: Self-care measures can head off the pain
Date updated: April 28, 2006
Content provided by MayoClinic.com
Medication is a proven way to treat - and prevent - migraines. But medication is only part of the story. It's also important to take good care of yourself. The same lifestyle choices that promote good health can reduce the frequency and severity of your migraines. In fact, combining lifestyle measures with medication is often the most effective way to handle migraines.

www.revolutionhealth.com/conditions/headache/migraine/what-you-can-do/self-care-strategies?msc=62690

[suzyq475]

It kind of sounded like it was contradicting itself. Sleep, but don't try to sleep. Hot & cold compresses, caffene, but not too much caffene.

I've had migraines for the past 30 years. There are days when I can barely hold my head up and there are other days when I can do everything I need to do with them. The worse ones are the ones where I feel like I'm going to throw up at any second. The only thing that makes them go away is to actually throw up. Problem is, most of the time I don't.

They finally contributed most of my headaches to degenerative disc disease. Seems I've had it for a long time and some of the nerves are damaged to the point where they don't think even surgery will help.

I've tried every medication known to man and they have either no effect or very little effect on them. The one I especially liked was a 2 part treatment. One pill was to prevent them, the other was to get rid of them when (not if but when) I got them. The second pill was worse than the headache it's self. It was sort of a peppermint flavored thing I had to put under my tongue. It made me sick every time I had to take it and to this day I still gag if I smell peppermint. I asked the doctor what the point was to the first pill when they already knew it wasn't going to work. He didn't have an answer.

They tried the shots once too. That was a pleasure and a joy! It knocked me out, my heart rate went way up, then went way down, blood pressure dropped and it took them 45 minutes to revive me. When I woke up, the doctor said, "well, I guess you can't take those anymore." Gee, ya think?

Flourescent lights, those candle light bulbs, flash lights and the sun seem to trigger them sometimes, or at the very least make them worse. I pretty much hang out with my shades on most of the time during the day. And depending on the lighting, I also wear them at night. A woman at a restaurant told me I couldn't wear them inside because people would think I was a drug addict.

Whatever! I told her that I don't wear them to keep people from seeing my eyes, I wear them to keep my damn head from exploding and to mind her own damn business. I doubt that she would have said anything if I'd had a red tipped cane or a seeing eye dog with me! But who knows?