Management of Migraine Headaches
I used to have severe migraine headaches at least once a week. They would start with small blurry spots in my field of vision which became larger as the time went by. After that I would get severe headaches that usually lasted until I went to bed for the night. The next day I usually had a mild headache that responded to pain killers. My doctor had prescribed some of the latest medication for migraine but unfortunately nothing seemed to work for me.
I had tried to find out what trigger my migraines. Medical literature mention some often cited triggers of migraine such as chocolates but my migraines were not correlated with consumption of these food. After much experience and trial, I came to the conclusion that my migraines did not have a dietary trigger, rather they were related to my eating and sleeping patterns. I realized that not eating when hungry had a very high correlation with my migraines. Also, sleeping less than 7 hours or more than 9 hours often caused a migraine for me.
Upon realizing this, I was able to drastically reduce my migraine headaches. I would make sure I had a good meal when hungry and that I realigned my life to dedicate more time to sleep and refrained from "sleeping in" on the weekends. The changes were almost instant. The frequency of my migraines went from once a week to many weeks right away and the intensity and duration of each migraine attack was also improved greatly.
It has been a few years since then. I hardly get any migraines at all anymore. I sometimes get a migraine headache in spring or fall each year. Although it has the same characteristic as my old migraines (i, e, the blurry vision), the attacks are much milder, and are over in about an hour or two. These are mostly just annoyances now and a couple of pain killers will take care of them.
I hope you find this helpful if you get migraine headaches. Feel free to comment.
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Wow thanks for the info. I just had a horrible migraine yesterday all day. I haven't felt that bad since I had meningitis. I have tension headaches and chronic allergies that I suffer from daily but boy was that migraine a kick in the you know what. I do have a slight headache today but nothin like yesterday. My doctor won't prescribe topamax until I try all the allergy meds because he thinks my headaches could be allergy related. I also don't have healthcare coverage.
I used to get migraines around the time of my menstrual cyle. Also if I was out a long time in the sun with no hat.
I used to get "killer" migraines, but have finally grown old enough that I don't have many of them any more. Now I'm down to just the "normal people" headaches. But, I did learn that drinking Gatorade HELPS diminish the pain. It makes it easier to function and be in the light. The Gatorade does not take the headache completely away, but does cut the pain down for me. I make it sickeningly sweet and chug the whole glass down right away. I know that this does not work for everyone, but if it helps only one more person, that person will be able to function better with the migraine.
the problem with migraine headaches is that the trigger for one person, may not be the same for the next person with migraines, sometimes it takes alot of studying to figger out what your own trigger is. In my case, I get migraines from studying on the computor too much. I realize this, but I still enjoy studying so much, that I continue until I can not tolerate the pain and have to stop for the day.