home remedies for migraines

[Rising Phoenix]

this is not for medical advice.... I've spoken to the doctor, I know why I have them, when they will go away so I'm not worried. Just have to deal with them until the side effects calm down. But in the meantime, any sufferers out there have any tricks for the pain/nausea....last night I dunked my whole head under a super hot faucet, that helped enough for me to get some sleep....thanks guys :loveya:

[PassingFair]

1. If your sinuses are involved....

Try boiling a pot of water. Add a
SMALL dollop of VICKS (tm) Vapo-Rub,
put a towel over your head, and
breath, coming up for air when you need
to.

This only works if sinus is a component of
your headache (it usually was with mine.)

Also, I found that COLD, not heat worked
best on my neck and forehead. Ice packs to
the base of my head/neck helped.

My migraines were/are BASILAR.

[Rising Phoenix]

2. thanks, I'll try that

I think the sinuses are involved as my whole face hurts.....it is a side effect from a new med (which by the way is working fantstically) and they should pass in a week or two.....its been almost a week.

[livetohike]

3. 40+ years migraine sufferer here

Before Imitrex, I would fill a bathtub of warm water, sink down in it, put a wet washcloth over my sinuses and eyes....keep adding hot water to the tub. Try to relax enough to go to sleep (or the ER if the nausea got so bad leading to dehydration).

If you don't have a tub, just a shower stall, stand there until you use all the hot water.

Good luck :hug:. I sympathize with you.

[Rising Phoenix]

4. thanks

sorry about your pain

I actually just took the hottest shower and am drinking boiling hot chamomeille tea.....took tylenol and sudafed and ativan

and put a call into my doc for something stronger as the one this morning is a real doesy! I can't even eat I'm so nasueas and my left eye feels as if it is about to explode.

:hug:

[livetohike]

7. Oh yeah, I forgot about GatorAde

If you have someone to go get some for you....the ER doctors always told me to sip on that at the first sign of nausea - Sip - not chug. Need to replace those electolytes to ward off dehydration which will make your head hurt worse.

Imitrex is a miracle for me. Problem is, I wake up with my migraines. I hardly ever feel them coming on, so I'm in full blown migraine mode. I've been doing Imitrex injections for 13 years now.

[Rising Phoenix]

10. I'll have my mom pick me up some today

I just threw up so the pain has lessened a bit.....

[halobeam]

22. I think Immitrex is prescription

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. If you have someone around who gives good neck and shoulder massages,

that helps ease the muscular tension that can both come from and aggravate headache pain.

[Rising Phoenix]

6. sadly I don't

but I'd sell my soul for a massuse or a hot tub right now

[PassingFair]

8. Yoga helped me.

It didn't make the pain go away, but it allowed me to
isolate the pain.

When I was in the throes of a headache, I was in a
"world of pain" and I couldn't really tell where it
was coming from....bad headaches are like that, in
fact, I was pretty sure I didn't WANT to know where
the pain was coming from, I was too AFRAID to "look"
at the pain internally...


but, it WON'T kill you, and if you meditate your way
into the pain, if you ISOLATE the muscles involved, it
will tell you a lot about how to let part of it go.

A lot of my pain was muscle reaction (stress) to the
migraine. Once I relaxed that, I could marvel at the
ball of throbbing pain in head.

Often, I wouldn't, couldn't feel better until I had
thrown up and gone to sleep, that was the only "cure".

Hormones played a HUGE part in my migraines, and they
are tapering off nicely now, I am also on a medication
that seems to ward them off. Personally, I think that
hormone levels, atmospheric pressure and stress are the
main culprits in my case.

I am looking forward to menopause!

[Rising Phoenix]

11. thanks for the advice

it is that time of the month, and the new meds....so I think my body is rebelling

good to know it won't kill me, because a minute ago I thought I was dying

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. can you sister give you a massage? around the temples?

[Rising Phoenix]

12. hi sweetie

she's at work.....but she made me take a hot shower and made me some tea before she left.....thank love

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. i am very sorry. i would try to rest your eyes a little. so no tv/comp stuff

i know that helps me w.my headaches

:hug:

[Rising Phoenix]

16. yes

I'm feeling a little better but am very tired now....so I"m off to take a nap....thanks everyone for talking me through the pain.

[spinbaby]

14. Here's what I worked out

First, you take two aspirin. Not Tylenol or Advil, plain old aspirin. I don't know why, but it seems to work better for migraines.

Make a hot cup of something caffeinated with sugar in it.

Then you run a hot tub of water and get together an ice pack.

Sit in the hot water and hold the ice pack to your head while sipping your hot drink. Oh, and the bathroom lights should be out.

[gbate]

20. I used to swear by aspirin for my migraines, but now it makes the nausea and vomiting worse.

[Connonym]

15. :hug:

migraines suck. I sometimes have success with caffeine, a heating pad around my neck and an ice pack over my eyes. Hope you feel better soon.

[RainDog]

17. my experience...

I've had migraines for years. When I'd get one in the past, I couldn't sit or lie down because of the pain. I used to pace up and down the hallway until I threw up, which was simply a matter of course in the whole experience... more than once. dry heaves that make your head pound more. I found I had to have ALL the lights off where ever I was because the pain was so intense from simply having a light on. I couldn't keep any excedrine, etc. down b/c of the throwing up.

Even tho it sometimes helped for someone to massage my back, to keep it from totally kinking up, even that felt bad after a while because I couldn't walk. Walking helped, I think, because lying down meant the blood flow to my head was more intense.

I've used cold rags on my forehead and that's helped some. sometimes a short cool shower helped, but I couldn't stay in the shower too long because then I wasn't walking...

anyway, I used to just go through this whole experience until I fell asleep from exhaustion... and woke up with a migraine hangover that would last another day. One time I went to the emergency room because the pain was so intense. I had a prescription for migraines for a while, but if I didn't take it early on... and like someone else here noted, I often wake up with a migraine so that didn't necessarily happen... then it was useless because I couldn't keep the medicine on my stomach.

Then, after at least 15 years without even being around anything of the sort, a compassionate person offered me a medicinal herb. I didn't have insurance so I couldn't even consider going to the hospital. But the strange thing was, the herbal remedy worked better than anything. Within seconds. Absolutely no nausea. Pain down to nothing. Able to function, while in the past a migraine would knock me out for one day, then impair for another day with the after effects. It was astonishing, to me, that managing pain could be so simple and with basically no side effects... it, as I noted, mitigated any of the side effects of the migraine itself, which no pharma med did.

just relating my own experience. certain laws are counterproductive, sadly.

[youthere]

18. That was going to be my suggestion.

[youthere]

19. I'm so sorry you're suffering...

I've only had migraines a handful of times in my lifetime, and honestly...I'd rather go through childbirth again. The times I've had them, it's helped to put a warm pack on the back of my neck and do some slow breathing and try to meditate until the pain medication kicks in. I hope you get well soon.

[Rising Phoenix]

21. Update

checked with the doc....he informed me it is hormones, not my new med causing the migraines.....yay :woohoo: cause I really like the new meds and didn't want to have to go off them. So I took some midol and so far so good......thanks everyone!

[halobeam]

23. honest question

midol helps with hormones? I get migraines triggered by hormones too.

[Rising Phoenix]

27. I don't know

but it helps with the symptoms of your menstrual cycle and so far my nausea is gone, I was actually hungry enough to eat dinner and the headache has calmed to a dull tired feeling, I think the migraine hangover.....maybe it would have gone away on its own.....but who knows.

[angel823]

28. me too

I used to get migraines right before my period (hormone drop). Started taking a calcium/magnesium/zinc supplement and it helped a lot.

Angel

[FloridaJudy]

24. I swear by cold

A bag of frozen peas works nicely in a pinch as a cold-pack. Of course, then I face waking up the next morning with my head in a puddle of pea-juice...

Dark and quiet also help. My migraines have gotten much better with anti-depressant medication. The one I'm on is old and cheap, but has some nasty side effects. It's worth it, though: I used to get what the neurologists charmingly describe as "suicide headaches". Now not only don't I get them as often, but the ones I do get are much less severe. Check with your doc.

[zingaro]

25. There's really good advice here. I would add

about the herbal remedies - see if you can ask someone in your area who's familiar with chinese medicine or any other herbal remedies for suggestions.

Also, there is a pressure point in the webbing between your thumb and first finger - down in the meaty part. When you have a headache you will notice immediately where it's sensitive. If you can't bear to put very firm pressure on it, have someone else do it for you. It helps. Sometimes if I can catch it early I can stave off a big migraine with that.

Hormone headaches suck. I've had them since my doc put me on some hormone therapy for some totally unrelated things and honestly I'd rather have the headaches than the other symptoms so I've been working on remedies too. Hope it helps.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

26. A Neti Pot with ice cold water

One of my friends who gets bad migraines swears that this is the only thing that does her any good.