MIGRAINE PROBLEM SOLVED !

Brain and nerves
1

I want to share my success story with other people who could benefit from it. I was at a point of having more than 20 migraine days per month, now I'm down to only 1 or 2 per month. This has taken 3 years of trial and error and careful note taking, but worth it.

FOOD : I have omitted gluten, dairy, alcohol, chocolate, preservatives like nitrites and sulfites ( processed meats and dried fruit ) asparagus and a few others triggers. No "white death " ie salt, sugar, white flour, mayonnaise, salad dressings, gravy thickened with flour, etc.

DRUGS : I did several drug trials , found that the most commonly prescribed drugs were worse than useless, BUT, Flunarazine is an effective preventive, also Gabapentin. The Flunarizine causes me depression after 2 months, so I alternate 2 months Flunarizine, 2 months Gabapentin.

MIGRAINE ATTACKS : As we all know, nothing stops a migraine once it is in full force- I tried all the wacky remedies out there. However, if my migraine starts gradually over 20 minutes, I have a chance to stop it from ramping up into a full blown migraine. Try this : pinch the cartilage flap in the ear, the one that is used for Daith piercing-look it up for a photograph on the web. Pinch hard with your fingernails and hold the pinch for 2 minutes. You may have to repeat it. It works for me, and lends some credence to Daith piercing, which apparently works for some people.

EXERCISE : I find hard exercise temporarily removes my 24 hour a day low level non migraine headache. However, several hours after hard exercise can be a problem for migraines. I prevent the problem by eating a snack right after a workout, drinking 6 glasses of water and replacing electrolytes with salt and baking soda dissolved in water and orange juice.

Good luck to all migraine sufferers !!!......Jim.

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Hi Jim,
Great news that you have sorted your migraines.

My story is almost identical to yours, ALL the prophylaxis drugs failed to help me and I have changed my diet to cut out most of what you have mentioned and my attacks have gone from an average of about 12 a month to about 5, I’m still tweeking things but my gut feeling is it is dairy with me.

I have started to use CBD (Hemp Oil) and that seems to help aswell, I have cervical spondylosis which can sometimes trigger the headaches/migraines and the pain is certainly reduced.

Hope you remain pain free and thank you for sharing your story

YL

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Hello Yorkshire : You are on the right track, keep cutting out specific food groups and take notes. I forgot to post the idea of avoiding other triggers : Wood smoke, cigarette smoke, perfumed cleaners and dryer sheets, stressful situations , and bright lights.

Although I have reduced my migraines to a trickle, I still have a 24 hour a day low level headache that has not responded to anything. A recent MRI of my neck and skull revealed a few problems that may be the culprits : One vertebrae is pushed back into the spinal cord, fixable with physio and exercises( making progress on this ). Then several vertebrae have stenosis plugged foramen spaces, no room for the nerve roots, so they have found other routes to the brain( not fixable ) and a soft tumor sitting close to the optical nerves, but outside the brain membrane ( too risky to operate on ). So, I may be stuck with the 24 hour low level headache. I’ve had it for so long that it seems normal…jim

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Hi Jim,
Trouble is I have never found a trigger in over 40 years so it’s really difficult. The triggers you mentioned in your last post I avoid aswell. I even wear tinted prescription glasses to avoid the light.
We do have our own business which is stressful and unfortunately cannot be avoided.

I had an MRI which showed damage to C4, 5 & 6 which I know does cause me problems, but my migraines go back longer than the damage to my neck.

Sorry you have the background headache, thankfully when I don’t have a migraine I am completely pain free.

Maybe one day I’ll get there, probably just before I’m pushing up the daisies!!!

YL