Migraines - for those who suffer from it, is a recurring, unrelenting and painful occurrence that they have to deal with.
With medical science not able to completely cure it, migraine sufferers feel that they have to live with it.
For those who are unaware about migraine, here are some facts- Migraine is a condition that affects about 16-17% of the population.
It is three times more common in women than men.
Mostly characterized by one sided headaches, migraines can cause excruciating pain in the temples followed by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound.
There can also be flashes of light or blind spots.
Migraine pain once started can last from 2 hours to days.
Migraine triggers differ from person to person.
Some of the triggers are light, food, stress, sounds and weather.
Once a migraine attack starts there are very few ways to stop it.
So preventing migraine attacks is a better approach than relieving the symptoms when they occur.
Here are some of the ways to manage migraine: Like the number of triggers, even ways to manage differ from person to person.
You can try different methods and adopt something that suits you best.
Consult your doctor before trying any new method or technique.
Environment: Many of the migraine triggers are light and sound, so you have to make sure that you try to keep away from places with harsh lights and too much noise.
If you cannot avoid these places completely, at least keep your room dark, quiet and cool which will relax you.
Exercise: All doctors agree that exercise helps to relieve some of the symptoms of migraine.
Exercise helps to keep away stress, fights depression and releases endorphins that make you feel happy.
Supplements: Magnesium is known as a muscle relaxant easing pain.
Sometimes, deficiency of magnesium can cause migraines and taking supplements for these are known to help with migraine pains.
Vitamin B2 or Riboflavin also has a similar action and helps with migraine pains.
Ask your doctor before you start any supplements.
Eating habits: Migraine attacks can occur when you are hungry for a long period of time.
So be consistent with your meals, eat them at the same time.
Also never skip breakfast; this will prevent many attacks that are triggered with hunger.
With food being the trigger to many, identify your food trigger and make sure that you keep away from it.
It is recommended to keep away from sugar, caffeine, cheese, chocolates, citrus foods which are common triggers.
Avoid the Sun: For those sensitive to sun, going out in the sun can cause piercing headaches.
So whenever you are going out in the sun, carry umbrella or hats.
Use sunglasses that protects from UVA rays.
Stress: Stress is a very important trigger for migraine so you have to be effective in dealing with stress.
Having a relaxed, positive and an upbeat attitude really helps in managing migraine.
Ginger: For people with frontal headaches, ginger helps to relieve the pain quite fast.
Many people have experienced that taking half a teaspoon of freshly ground ginger can stop migraines before it starts.
Even vomiting and nausea are greatly assisted using ginger.
Remember that it only works with 2 out of 3 of people and causes discomfort of the abdomen in others.
Sleep: For those with migraine, everything has to be kept in balance including sleep.
You need to be consistent with your sleep time and should avoid staying up late.
Keep a Migraine diary: Here you note the time of the attack, what were the possible triggers and the intensity of the attack.
Reading the notes will help you in identifying the pattern and will help you to manage migraine better.
When you have a migraine attack: * Damp cloth: Using a damp cloth over your face and your neck will ease any sore muscles and relieve the symptoms.
* Pressure on the nerves: Sometimes putting pressure on the nerve which hurts the most helps to relieve the pain.
* Between the eye socket and the eyebrow: First, find the nerve between your top eye socket and your eyebrow.
Pressing this nerve will make your body send out natural pain relievers.
Surprisingly, this pain reliever is more powerful than the morphine drug.
Alternative therapies: For a disease like migraine, you should not depend on just one line of treatment to relieve the pain.
Alternative therapies mentioned below are known to be very useful for some.
Ayurveda: According to Ayurveda, migraine results from disorders of the three doshas that is Vata, Pitta and Kapha.
Ways of treatment include, shirodhara or hot head massage, medications like Shatavari, brahmi and exercises like Yoga and Pranayam.
Since migraine is due to imbalance of the doshas, certain changes in the diet are recommended.
Naturopathy: According to naturopathy, it is the toxins in the body that cause migraines.
Dr.
Sharad Nayampally, a naturopath believes that "detoxification of the body is very important in treating migraines.
" He describes one way of detoxification, "water therapy, here you should drink water 1-4 glasses of water as soon as you wake up without even brushing.
Water balances the blood pressure and cleanses the body.
After half an hour of drinking water you can brush and resume your morning ritual.
" He also recommends Pranayam and abdominal breathing i.
e.
deep breathing through the stomach.
Acupressure: When allopathic drugs don't always work, acupressure and acupuncture are known to be effective in dealing with migraine attacks.
In acupressure certain points in the body are stimulated to help relieve the pain while acupuncture involves needles stimulating some points in the body to relax the nerves.
Don't believe that you have live with the pain, try different techniques, use tools like meditation, do light exercises and help yourself manage migraines.