November 17, 2022 general

Although there is new information, this blog is largely a repeat of one that I did awhile back. My reasons: new subscribers wouldn’t have seen it; others might have an interest now that they didn’t before (e.g. a friend with migraines); the find-the-root-cause message applies to many other problems; and, so sorry, I needed a shortcut because I’m not so much lazy as behind on accounting (tax season looms) and I need to do some Thanksgiving prep. (Speaking of which check out the Turkey page in the Library for some useful tips and recipes.)  

This topic is personal to me because it is the reason I got into the nutrition field 40 years ago. I had suffered with migraines, and I still cringe to remember the searing pain, nausea, and other effects. I remember all that suffering more vividly than I remember giving birth naturally to a 9 lb. 7 oz. boy (whose big brain came packaged in an extra-large head). For any reader who has not experienced a migraine personally, let me just say, the gal in the photo does not look nearly miserable enough. A migraine is not even in the same zip code of a garden variety stress headache. If you ever had a hangover, that is a better start to empathize…the migraine head pain is much worse, but shares the nausea and sensitivity to sounds, smells and light that might accompany a crushing hangover. I had one of those hangovers and didn’t like it a bit. (I now know to not allow anyone to keep refilling my drink glass like waiters with pitchers of margaritas did at the party before the hangover. New Year’s tip: Obviously, avoiding alcohol is the surest prevention, but a champagne toast is fun. I find it helps to make every second drink water = less alcohol intake and more hydration.)

My migraine headaches started about the time I entered the Ohio State University. I never went to a neurologist, but on a visit to any doctor, I asked about the problem. The only advice I got was to try the latest pain reliever (which did not help and made me nauseous). Once I asked a kindly physician if we could figure out what was causing them. At first, he looked at me like I was speaking Klingon but he did try to help. He asked if my “eyes had been checked” (“yes”) and was I “under stress” (“yes” –all the time but the headaches were only every few weeks). Many years later, I was still having the migraines but finally got help as you will see below, starting in a health food store.

Medical treatments. These days, there are a whole bunch of migraine drugs. This NIH library article details them, their mechanisms and side effects. (Even those that claim to prevent episodes are forcing the body to do something, not fixing whatever imbalance that started the process.) Sometimes, docs prescribe blood pressure medicines or antidepressants. One option that I find particularly scary is to inject migraine sufferers multiple times with Botox (botulism toxin which is produced by the microbe that causes botulism—a potentially fatal type of food poisoning). Besides the cost, the procedure is not without side effects. Certainly that should be a heroic tried only if the natural approach and less dramatic medicine fails.

Causes. The optimum natural way is to discover the root cause of a problem and fix that rather than medicate the symptom even with natural remedies. My own first clue came from a health food store magazine that listed “headache” on the cover. The article talked about migraine “trigger” foods such as chocolate, MSG, cured meats, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, and aged cheeses. It never occurred to me before that something that I was eating might be part of the problem! Avoiding those items helped a bit, but a “trigger” just flips the switch on a preexisting imbalance. I did not find out what my imbalances were until I discovered a nutrition savvy doctor (the late Don Mannerberg, MD, bless his enlightened soul). He taught me that I needed magnesium, B vitamins (especially vitamin B2), and discovered that I had food sensitivities. The food sensitivities in turn were caused by an unhealthy gut (yeast overgrowth). It really did not take long to get rid of most episodes of migraine, but for a while, I still had one monthly. We logically assumed that must have been due to hormones and indeed, progesterone fixed that last one. Thankfully, I have not had a headache of any kind in decades now.

Natural Remedies. While searching for the root cause, nature also offers some relief. Herbs that seem to help include Butterburr and Feverfew. Massage, acupuncture, chiropractic and homeopathy may help. If it is available to you and you open to it, medical cannabis has been shown to help. Before I figured out how to prevent headaches, I got temporary symptomatic relief by lying down in the dark with a microwaveable heating pad on the back of my neck and an ice pack of some kind on my forehead.

If you suffer migraines, your causes might be different from what mine were, but I encourage you to start the search. If you have a different kind of headaches, there may be some clues on the Library headache page.