Treating Migraine Headaches Naturally

A migraine is a specific type of headache that usually occurs as a throbbing pain in the forehead or temples and is often one-sided. It can also include feelings of nausea, depression and sensitivity to ‘flashing lights’ or other visual disturbance known as ‘auras’.

Migraines can be rather debilitating, causing sufferers disruptive sleep or work, and afterwards feeling tired and weak. Those suffering from migraines will often prefer to rest in a darkened room.

Attacks often reoccur and curiously their severity reduces with age. Typically, the intense pain only lasts a few hours, but can continue in some cases for several days.

About three quarters of those who suffer from migraines are women, particularly school-aged children. They are also associated with women’s menstruation period.
Migraines can be classified into two types: those with and those without auras.

Migraines can be set off by a variety of triggers, from tiredness to stress, hormonal changes and foods, such as alcohol, chocolate, peanuts and avocados.

Why migraines happen has been argued for over a century, but is as yet unknown, although a family history is fairly common. There are two main camps: those who believe that migraines are related to epileptic seizures, which start in the nervous tissue of the brain, and those who believe that headache pain is caused by blood vessels in the head when they dilate or contract. In most cases, there is probably more than one factor involved to cause the migraine.

Conventional treatment of acute migraines has been revolutionized by the triptan family of drugs, although other medications have been used. Triptan has been very successful in eradicating the symptoms, imitating the action of serotonin on blood vessels, causing them to contract, but unfortunately it doesn’t work for everyone for reasons that are unclear.

Some natural treatments include taking butterbur root, music therapy, feverfew and magnesium. Acupuncture and yoga are also highly recommended as a defense against migraines.

Natural Remedies for Migraine Headaches

Diet
Diet plays a large role in our susceptibility to migraines, and numerous studies have highlighted that particular foods should be avoided. These include: chocolate (though not always) monosodium glutamate, aspartame, cheese, ice cream, caffeine, and red wine and beer. A Low Tyramine Headache Diet is available from the National Headache Foundation.

Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a traditional form Chinese medicine where needles are inserted at particular points across the body. A number of studies into its use in preventing migraine attacks have shown that individualized treatments for a period of 6 weeks can be just as effective as western medicine. In fact auto-acupressure (self-giving of treatments) replaced outpatient prescriptions for analgesics, ergotamine preparations, steroids, propanolol or methysgeride.

Yoga
Yoga has been shown to demonstrate a significant reduction in migraine headache frequency and associated clinical features, in patients treated with yoga over a period of 3 months. Possibly because yoga works on many levels, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, it is highly recommended as both a preventative and a cure for migraine sufferers.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)
Coenzyme Q10 is similar to riboflavin in its efficaciousness and tolerance levels in tests, offering another possibility for migraine sufferers.

Magnesium
Magnesium is also known to reduce the frequency of migraine attacks, although in some cases it can cause diarrhea and gastric discomfort. Tested on women during their menstruation, magnesium demonstrated a significant reduction of attacks and severity. It has also been shown that a lower migraine-threshold could be related to a magnesium deficiency.

Butturbur
Butterbur root extract (from the daisy family) has been shown in tests on school-aged children to reduce the frequency of migraine attacks by up to 60%.

Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
In Belgium a study has shown that riboflavin (Vitamin B2) is not just very effective, but also has excellent tolerability rates and is low cost, making it a positive choice for migraine sufferers.

5-HTP
5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) is an amino acid that is the intermediate step between tryptophan and the important brain chemical serotonin. Taken as a defense to migraines, it is shown to reduce both intensity and duration rather than the frequency of the attacks in a study completed by 124 migraine sufferers.

Feverfew
In a test at the Department of Medicine at the University Hospital in Nottingham, feverfew, a traditional medicinal herb, was tested on migraines sufferers. The results showed that it both reduced the frequency and severity of migraine attacks. Other studies have confirmed these results, showing no side effects, although a recommended dosage has not been conclusive.

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