How I Virtually Eliminated Migraines – Naturally!

July 19, 2011 By Mandi

Disclaimer: The following are accounts of my lifelong struggle and (almost) defeat of serious migraines. Before embarking on any self-healing journey make sure to do your own extensive research and consult any doctors you need to. I am not “prescribing” any type of healing technique, I am just simply stating what worked for me and could easily work for you too!

My whole entire life I have suffered from intense, debilitating migraines. If you are a migraine sufferer, you feel my pain. You know what its like to not be able to see or speak. You’ve spent days on end vomiting and shaking, laying in a pool of sweat with the blankets pulled over your head. Some of you may have ended up in the hospital before, unable to walk or see straight, with numb limbs and slurred speech. People often think that migraines are no big deal or “just a headache” and you should man up and get on with your day. But the truth is – you can’t. Migraines are horrible, life-altering afflictions and anyone who has never experienced one should consider themselves VERY lucky. Oh darling – I know all of this all to0 well.

But, I have exciting news! In the past few years I have managed to get the 7-12 intense migraines a month I was experiencing down to 1-2 not so bad headaches that can be avoided if I catch them early enough. I did all of this WITHOUT taking drugs.

What Causes a Migraine?

In order to understand how and why certain things can help us and certain things can not, it is important to understand how migraines work. There are plenty of things that can trigger a migraine – menstrual cycle, food, stress, weather, or smells just to name a few. However, the cause of migraines are a little bit more complex. Whatever trigger you have causes blood vessels in your brain to enlarge and send stress signals to other parts of your brain, which then inflame and cause pain. This intense pain then activates the sympathetic nervous system in your body that triggers the nausea, shakes and overall feeling of grossness that we all know and love.

The Problem with Medication

People with severe migraines are often given prescriptions for vasoconstrictors (triptans), which solve that pesky problem of those floppy enlarged blood vessels in your brain that started this whole mess in the first place. For many, these medications are a godsend. At the first sign of a migraine you just pop one and poof… its all gone. You also get a nice little nugget of euphoria to go along with it. I’m not going to lie… I LOVED my Imitrex. I wouldn’t leave the house without it. It helped me finally be able to function in everyday life again without being worried that a migraine would strike. Then, things started to go downhill. The migraines started to get more frequent and more intense. Eventually, I would have to take 3 or 4 Imitrex to get rid of a migraine. Sometimes no amount of drugs would make me feel better. I knew deep inside that something was wrong with all of this. One day, a few years ago, I stumbled across an article discussing the effects of vasoconstrictors on migraines. The idea is that, as with anything in life, when you do things the easy way, you get lazy. Well, my blood vessels were lazy little bastards. They were relying on the medicine for so long that they forgot how to constrict all by themselves. Hence the frequent pain I was feeling that was growing more intense every day.

While Imitrex makes your blood vessels lazy, pain killers can eventually create what are called rebound headaches. Rebound headaches are when the use of painkillers actually causes another headache, creating a viscous cycle of pain and discomfort. If you ever want the migraines to go away you need to stop popping so many pills. This is probably a ballsy statement to make considering I am nothing even close to a doctor. To be quite honest, I didn’t stop taking Imitrex by will. I quit my job, lost my health insurance and couldn’t afford to pay $200 for 10 pills. So I weened myself off of it. I would only take a pill when I felt a doozy starting or if I felt a headache coming on when I had to do something important that day. I would supplement with Excedrin migraine (which is pretty effective in itself) whenever I could. As I was taking less and less Imitrex, I was noticing that the migraines were becoming less frequent and less intense.

As humans we have an amazing ability to heal ourselves with thoughts and diet (as you will see below), and taking pills rarely leads to an answer.. and surely never a cure. Pharmaceuticals toxify our systems, and trigger autoimmune diseases. Pharmaceutical companies are also huge advocates and practitioners of animal testing .

So, what can you do to drastically decrease your migraines in intensity and frequency? The following is what worked for me.

Keep a Diary

Write down everything you eat, drink, feel and experience for thirty days and also note when you get headaches, migraines or even feel kinda icky. This will help you understand what your triggers are and allow you to avoid them. Sometimes finding a trigger can be tricky and you really have to look. I tried keeping a food diary a million times and could never find a trigger. Eventually, I realized that my trigger was gluten, but it took a few days to actually effect me. Other triggers like sugar and caffeine, you will see within a few hours. Look for things like humidity and temperature, your mental state and the tightness in your shoulders and neck. Once you have figured out your triggers, do everything you can to remove them from your life.

Take Magnesium and Feverfew

If you take anything away from this article it would be this: TAKE MAGNESIUM. Get 250mg chelated magnesium supplements and take one every night before you go to bed, always. EVEN if you take a multivitamin with magnesium in it. It takes about 3 months to really get in your system, but you will notice a dramatic decrease in your migraines and you will also notice that they are not as painful. There is a very strong connection between migraines and magnesium deficiency. You may be getting enough magnesium in your diet but you may not be absorbing it (another reason to look into eliminating gluten). Feverfew has also been shown to reduce the frequency of migraines if taken every day.

Change the way you think

I suffered from migraines for so long that I considered them a part of me. I always referred to them as “my migraines” like they were a child of mine that I cuddled and loved. Bad idea. Separate yourself from your afflictions. Try to keep your ailments off your mind as much as possible. The less you think about them the less they will happen. Its The Secret, or something like that. Sadness, hopelessness and anxiety can also be severe migraine triggers. The benefits of positive thinking and relaxation are profound with any ailment. Take some time every day to meditate and relax your mind. Say affirmations every day. Something like “I am incredibly healthy and thriving. I never feel any pain and am in the best of health.” If you convince yourself that your migraines don’t control your life, you will find that you really do.

Exercise

Exercise helps solve every problem you could ever have, and you should do it for at least 30 minutes every day. It really helps relieve stress, which is an obvious trigger. It helps increase your intake of oxygen, which will greatly help. You will also sweat out toxins and metabolize possible triggers quickly. Some people do find that rigorous exercise is a migraine trigger, but that is not a reason to stop all together. Go for a light stroll every night after dinner. Practice gentle yoga. Just move your body and move it often.

Breathe Right

I have breathed away migraines before. For serious! Deep breathing while concentrating on relaxing your body (concentrating on upper back, shoulders, neck and face) can put an end to your pain or at least make it much more tolerable. If you are a yogi, you will find that your pranayama breathing can help immensely. Learn more here.

Acupuncture and Massage

You can get acupuncture to specifically help with migraines, both as a preventative measure and as pain-management. I have had a lot of success with acupuncture and its use for the treatment of migraines is well documented. I would also recommend, if you can afford it, getting a deep tissue massage once a month. If that is not an option, employ the use of your friends and loved ones!

Raw Foods

Something else I’ve noticed is that when I am eating more raw, alkaline foods the migraines are non-existent. In fact, when I did my 30 day raw adventure, I only had two migraines the entire time and they were very minor. Some would say that the increased mineral absorption helps prevent migraines and the live enzymes help create an overall alkaline balance in the body that keeps all physical ailments at bay. Some would also say that the overwhelming amount of toxins in conventional and processed foods also cause migraines. Now I know that eating raw is a huge commitment, and unrealistic to some lifestyles. However, I would highly recommend drinking one green juice a day and making sure you increase your consumption of raw fruits and veggies. (Keep in mind that some foods in raw form might be migraine triggers for you!)

Get in Tune with Your Body

Start paying attention to what you feel like when a migraine is about to come. There are usually warning signs if you look close enough. Some people will get a pain in their neck or jaw. Others will feel dizzy. It might just be a “feeling” you can’t explain. When you start to feel this way, go into a dark, quiet room, lay down, and do some deep breathing. If you are at work or somewhere you are unable to do this, try to relax a bit, slow your mind, and breathe deep. Sometimes when I feel a migraine coming on I drink a green juice and/or a big glass of water with a teaspoon in apple cider vinegar. Sometimes massive doses of alkalinity can scare a migraine away.

Keep Record

Make sure to take note of the days you get a migraine or headache on the calendar. Try to write as much information as possible so you can pick up on a pattern. Make note of the intensity, length and any possible triggers. If you are female, make sure you write down your menstrual cycle to see if the migraines come during any specific time of your cycle.

This will also be helpful to see if any of the aforementioned tactics work for you. We are all different people and the things that have worked for me may not work for you and vice versa. Keeping record will aid you in experimenting with different tactics. Remember, it takes at least 3 months of change before you will see results.

In Short

To sum up an insanely long post, here is the plan that I use to keep migraines at bay.

Daily

Meditate for 20 minutes.
Take a good multivitamin, magnesium supplement and feverfew supplement.
Exercise for at least an hour.
Make sure I am breathing deeply and evenly, especially when I am feeling stressed or anxious.
Eat a diet high in raw foods. Drink a green juice every morning. Avoid trigger foods.

Monthly

Get acupuncture specifically for migraine prevention.
Get a deep tissue massage.
Evaluate the previous month and try to find a pattern in migraines.

When I feel a migraine coming on

Lay in a quiet room with an eyemask on and relax.
Breathe deep healing breaths.
Drink a green juice or a water with some Apple Cider Vinegar.
If the migraine comes and it is intense and debilitating, usually one Excedrin Migraine will do the trick! (Just a little over a year ago I was taking 300mg of Imitrex and multiple Excedrins! I’ve come a long way, baby!)

Thankfully, Most of these lifestyle changes like exercise, eating raw and meditation are habits that everyone should have, migraine or not. On top of preventing extreme headaches you will feel more energetic, healthier, and lose weight if you need to. You may also find that some of your other ailments might disappear as well!