MIGRAINE
More than 36 million Americans suffer from painful, disorienting headaches known as migraines, their days hijacked by a blinding, full-body assault. Worse, they hit when you least expect them. A storm moves in? So does a migraine. Miley too loud? Throbbing agony. A period due? A stressful presentation? Ted from sales wearing Drakkar Noir? Here comes the boom. “I’d never heard of them before,” tennis champ Serena Williams once said about menstrual migraines, which cost her a first-round match. “They were really splitting headaches. Mine went from the left to the right side of my head…and I couldn’t focus. I was so dizzy and nauseated, and I was really tired.”
SYMPTOMS
Left untreated, migraines typically last from four to 72 hours and can be accompanied by neck pain and nausea, followed by exhaustion. And episodes can strike two to eight times per month (or more), according to the National Headache Foundation. While the tendency runs in families, the exact cause of migraines, which affects more women than men, is unknown. One theory says migraines are kick-started by abnormally low levels of serotonin, a brain neurotransmitter that regulates pain perception.
“Think of your migraine as a wave,” says Carolyn Bernstein, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “When one hits, it sets off a cascade of cellular events throughout the brain, triggering responses that may differ from a regular headache. For some people, it’s nausea; for others, it’s pain in the face or jaw.”
And that wave is more like a tsunami: Headaches are the number two cause of disability in the United States and one of the top causes for the loss of workplace productivity. More than 18% of women and 8% of men between the ages of 18 and 55 will suffer from what is technically defined as a migraine, and it’s likely that still more suffer from a milder set of symptoms.
REMEDIES
The key to stopping them may involve a bit of Minority Report detective work: trying to prevent a crime before it starts. Here’s how to plan your anti-migraine strategy:
TRIGGER HAPPY
Your first step is to be familiar with the list of possible triggers. They include—but aren’t limited to—barometric pressure changes, too much or too little sleep, stress, bright sunlight, intense heat or cold, muscular tension, hormonal shifts, loud noises, chemical odors or perfumes, overexertion and a broad range of foods that includes aged cheese, chocolate, caffeine, canned foods, artificial sweeteners, MSG, red wine, beer and processed foods of all sorts.
KNOW YOUR SYMPTOMS
Next is recognizing your personal symptoms. A lucky few will be able to identify one or two triggers. For most, it’s not so clear. Common symptoms include auras—bright, wavy lines of light or blind spots in your vision—vomiting, widespread muscle pain, dizziness, ringing in the ears, even partial paralysis. Others may include numbness or tingling in the extremities, extreme drowsiness or sudden irritability preceding a full-blown attack.
GET READY
The third part of the migraine solution is arming for battle with an arsenal of natural weapons, says Bernstein. Common cures that may assuage certain symptoms include drinking hot water and tea to cleanse the lymph system, taking an antihistamine to relieve sinus pressure and immediately cutting the lights. Here are six integrative remedies to help you treat and prevent the pain.
NATURAL RX
Tools to help you manage and treat headache pain
Researchers are starting to understand that opiates used to treat migraines should be a short-term solution only; scientists Julie Wieseler, Ph.D., and Linda Watkins, Ph.D., at the University of Colorado, Boulder, have found that the opioid pharmacotherapies often used to treat migraine pain, become less effective with repeated use. Try these first:
1. JOURNAL THE JANGLING
Only a lucky few will be able to pinpoint two or three definite signs that a monster migraine is coming on. “People don’t realize how many symptoms they’re already having,” says Audrey Halpern, M.D., a holistic neurologist and founder of the Manhattan Center for Headache and Neurology in New York City.
Start a diary well before symptoms appear so you have a step-by-step plan for when pain hits. For example, Halpern urges sufferers to keep a daily food log leading up to a migraine or to journal headache patterns—anything to narrow down the trigger list. Be sure to jot down the dates of PMS, altitude sickness, work stressors and dietary fluctuations.
2. DETOX YOUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
According to ayurveda, India’s traditional system of medicine, your digestion is a key factor in chronic headaches, so practitioners emphasize detoxification. “A migraine is a sign that the digestive system isn’t removing waste effectively,” says John Douillard, D.C., director of the LifeSpa Ayurvedic Retreat Center in Boulder, Colo. He likens the problem to a clogged drain. “If you have too much mucus in your intestinal tract, the drains can get clogged, which creates toxicity in the lymph, resulting in dilated blood vessels—or headache.”
To lubricate the intestinal lining, drink tea with demulcent herbs—like slippery elm, marshmallow or licorice—every day, says Douillard. To clean your lymphatic system, take sips of hot water every 15 minutes for two weeks. Toxins that can be removed from the body with teas include caffeine, alcohol, smoke and food additives. Try Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat ($5.50 for 16 tea bags; traditionalmedicinals.com).
3. TAP YOUR TEMPLES
Ignited by muscular stress or biomechanical tension (repetitive stress from raking leaves or baling hay, for example), migraines may be minimized by touch therapy. A small study in the American Journal of Public Health found that regular massage greatly reduced the number and duration of migraines. Twice a week for a month, subjects received a 30-minute massage focusing on muscles in the back of the neck, base of the skull and cranium. Afterward, compared with a placebo group, the massage patients reduced their average number of monthly migraines from seven to two; overall headache duration was halved from eight hours to four. A University of Miami Medical School study published in the International Journal of Neuroscience compared two groups of migraine sufferers; one who only took their meds for a month, the other who also got weekly massages; 60% of the massage group had no migraines for the entire month.
TRY AROMATHERAPY MASSAGE. If you’re home and feel the warning indications, try combining self-massage with aromatherapy by sitting silently and calmly, says Laurie Binder, M.S., doctor of acupuncture and OB-GYN nurse practitioner. Massage your temples lightly with a few drops of lavender or rosemary essential oils with a carrier like sunflower oil. Lightly move your index fingers in slow, circular motions: Start at the center of your forehead at the hairline and proceed to the temples, then continue behind the ears and finally to the back of the neck. Aim for a minimum of 10 minutes, says Binder. Bodywork and craniosacral therapy massage also help you relax, improve blood flow and correct misalignments that contribute to headaches.
4. GET NEEDLED
Acupuncture—using needles to stimulate certain energy points on the body—may have the same effect as medications like Imitrex and other triptan, anti-migraine drugs. Both release chemicals that cause blood vessels to constrict, according to the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.
A German study published in Cephalalgia shows that people who suffer from chronic migraines may benefit from acupuncture to reduce the severity and frequency of headaches. Researchers from Charité University Medical Centre in Berlin followed more than 15,000 adults who had been suffering from either migraine or tension-type headaches at least twice a month for a year or more. Of these patients, 1,613 were assigned to receive acupuncture in 15 sessions over three months in addition to usual care, while 1,569 continued with only the usual care alone. Over six months, acupuncture patients reported significantly greater reductions in headache pain than those who continued with usual care. Headache frequency fell significantly in patients assigned to acupuncture over a three-month span: from 8.4 headache days per month at the start of the study to 4.7 headache days at the end.
TRY ACUPRESSURE. Do-it-yourself digital massage in a dark, quiet room works wonders for some, says Binder, who integrated acupuncture, massage and Traditional Chinese Medicine into a DVD called Acupressure and Breathing for Childbirth. To relieve head distress, press the hollow between the front and back neck muscles (just behind the ear at the base of the skull) on the side where the pain is occurring. Press for three minutes, stop for two minutes, then repeat three to five times in a row.
5. CULTIVATE CALMNESS
While directing his first feature film, Ben Affleck was hospitalized with a migraine. “I hardly slept,” he said. Stress makes everything worse, says James Gordon, M.D., founder of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. According to Gordon, when you’re worried or strained, you’re much more likely to suffer migraines, and your hands will grow cold and your heart will beat faster. Consider a few gentle yoga postures to increase your body temperature and decrease your blood pressure and muscle tension, too. “Since stress is such a major contributor to migraines, anything that promotes relaxation is beneficial,” says yoga instructor Luciana LoPresto, L.M.T., based in Southern California. “Ease into your gentler yoga poses and do not jump right into poses that may cause strain or trigger an attack.”
She suggests doing restorative postures to quiet the nervous system. Keep your head above the heart for most of the poses if the headache is just beginning, she urges. “Keep blood flowing away from the head to reduce pressure that may cause a migraine.” Restorative yoga poses such as Savasana, or any comfortable, cross-legged pose, are appropriate. When all else fails, says LoPresto, who suffered migraines after a concussion, try the “Legs up the Wall” pose:
HOW TO DO IT: Lie with legs and tailbone leaning against the wall, your sacrum flat on the floor. Straighten your legs up onto the wall with your shoulders and head also on the floor. Extend your legs straight up the wall and keep your shoulder blades flat on the floor. Rest your arms out to your sides on the floor comfortably, close your eyes and breathe deeply for 10 minutes.
6. HERBAL ESSENCE
One of the best long-term natural strategies is taking supplements to lessen the frequency and severity of migraines. “Most natural strategies that ease migraines can take several weeks or months to show results, so many supplements are unfortunately abandoned prematurely,” says Stuart Stark, M.D., medical director of the Neurology & Headache Treatment Center in McLean, Va.
MAGNESIUM: This simple mineral has muscle-relaxing properties and may stave off a migraine by preventing blood vessel spasms, notes Maureen Williams, N.D., a naturopath in private practice in Victoria, B.C.
RESEARCH: In a study published in Cephalalgia, patients who took magnesium every day for 12 weeks reported significantly fewer migraine attacks (versus those taking a placebo) after only nine weeks.
DOSAGE: 600 milligrams a day, according to the Cephalalgia study
RESEARCH: The herb was shown to significantly reduce migraine frequency in some people, according to the journal Neurology.
DOSAGE: 100 milligrams, three to four times a day
RESEARCH: Clinical studies are inconclusive but feverfew has been used as a migraine treatment in folk medicine.
DOSAGE: 100 milligrams, three times a day
RESEARCH: A study published in the journal Neurology found that CoQ10 could reduce migraine frequency by up to 50%.
DOSAGE: 100 milligrams, three times a day
