Migraines

[paigetheoracle]

I suffer from migraines and wondered if any research had been done to find out if blood thinners like Warfarin had been tried as treatment? My reasoning is thus. I got my migraines originally because I found a situation intolerable and exploded emotionally about it. This led to a rise in blood pressure and my heart pumping blood round the system faster than normal, which led me to wonder if that increased clotting through collision of blood cells (Stroke seems to follow on from migraines).

 

Question two. Have decompression chambers been tried as treatment? The reasoning behind this line of enquiry is that I know the are now being tried to treat various conditions in the UK because they are an under used resource, and I wondered if (as migraines are supposed to be caused by the blood vessels expanding rather than contracting) could external pressure adjustment stop them, if they are really something like a form of the bends? (At the same time I got the migraines I started having indigestion problems (anger speeding up or slowing down the process?) as well as copious wind problems; joints needing cracking all over the body, which I understand is supposed to be a sign of gas build up as well as periodic lower back pain (trapped wind)).

 

Dr Henry Bieler in his book 'Food is the best Medicine' suggested that migraines were fermentation headaches (glorified hangovers) and I'd agree (It might also explain the gaseous side effects already mentioned). Before I lost my temper I never had them and heat (anger) plus wheat and the yeast in bread as well as sugar from cakes and biscuits, would complete this scenario and explain it.

 

Lastly, an observation. Of late I've been getting vertigo. This I put down to relief of symptoms: Noise sets off the attacks and a holiday where this first occured was in a nature reserve (isolated house, miles from anywhere) that to me indicated relief from the pressure that started things off. Noise pollution created internal pain, through pushing my consciousness down and in as relief let it rise up and out - hence the vertigo, is how I saw it (noise destroys (breaks up concentration) - silence allows insight (creation of thought)),:hyper:

[Chacmool]

First of all, you have all my sympathy. I have suffered from migraine all my life (yes, even as a child) and it is a terrible affliction you can't describe to someone who hasn't experienced it.

 

I think Warfarin has been tried, with varying success. But I do like the idea of decompression chambers. It's a great alternative to drilling a hole in your skull, which I feel like doing whenever I get a migraine attack.

 

It's difficult to establish what role food really plays, and I think it might differ from person to person. For instance, I don't find that cheese and chocolate - two of the usual "culprits" - have a serious effect on me. However, yeast seems to be a general offender for many health problems in many people, and is best avoided. It's just so damn difficult!

[paigetheoracle]

Yeh, I don't really have any obvious problems with cheese or chocolate either but mould may be a problem, not only in the form of yeast but think of rye bread and St. Anthony's Fire (my namesake), for its negative effects (Penycillin may be our friend but other fungi strains are not). I do know wine is a trigger for me and although it's only supposed to be red that affects you, I learnt white is no better.

 

I can remember where I was when Kennedy was shot and migraines remind me how he must have felt but in Groundhog Day form (it's the left side of the head with me - three days in bed,;) terminated half the time with retching and vomitting).

[Mercedes Benzene]

Fortunately, I have never had a migraine. People I know who get them say they are terrible, but I'm sure that I could not even begin to imagine the pain.

[paigetheoracle]

Well you could but I wouldn't advise it! (It's dull and long lasting - bit like George Bush in office - and you know how painful that is, unless you're a supporter of his). I can always laugh about it after but during is another thing. In the UK we have a saying about laughing on the other side of your face and that's the irony of it - usually one side of your body gets affected and not the other.

[Mercedes Benzene]

bit like George Bush in office

 

ohhhh woowww... ;) :lol:

[medicography]

my mom too suffers from migraines and believe me, itz really really awful..can understand u..i cant see my mom suffering so much..jus kills the wits out of me..i hope u r taking your medications properly and yeah, wen you get migraines, dont hesitate to go outside and breathe fresh air.

[Queso]

How does marijuana work for migraines?

 

does it help at all?

 

I know it's GREAT for upset stomaches and headaches, but ... migraines?

 

Any experience here?

[Chacmool]

I couldn't go to work today because I have a horrible migraine. I barely made it home yesterday, and it was torture to drive to the pharmacy this morning. I'm nauseous and my skin is uncomfortable on my body. I'm dizzy and my skull seems to be to small to keep my brain inside. Interestingly, I feel like when I skip a dose of my meds (which I haven't done) for bipolar disorder - most notably my brain feeling like its sloshing around in my head, and a craving for salt. In short, I feel shitty.

[CraigD]

How does marijuana work for migraines?

 

does it help at all?

 

I know it's GREAT for upset stomaches and headaches, but ... migraines?

 

Any experience here?

I’ve never had a migraine headache, but know a bit of the clinical history.

 

Marijuana doesn’t appear to have any potential to prevent or shorten the duration of a migraine, or reduce pain. It does appear effective in lessening nausea and the inability to eat, and was commonly prescribed by physicians for this purpose until it became illegal in the 1930s. Since the acute phase of a migraine can last a long time – typically up to 3 hellish days – improving a patient’s ability to eat is significant, and reducing vomiting (which about 30% of migraine patients experience) can be critical, to avoid dehydration.

[paigetheoracle]

I couldn't go to work today because I have a horrible migraine. I barely made it home yesterday, and it was torture to drive to the pharmacy this morning. I'm nauseous and my skin is uncomfortable on my body. I'm dizzy and my skull seems to be to small to keep my brain inside. Interestingly, I feel like when I skip a dose of my meds (which I haven't done) for bipolar disorder - most notably my brain feeling like its sloshing around in my head, and a craving for salt. In short, I feel shitty.

 

I get the terrible skin feeling too - it's like I can feel every single bit of dust coming into contact with it, it's horribly sensitive to touch. I don't have an obvious craving for salt but I do notice excessively dry lips that no amount of drinking quenches.

 

Shitty just about sums it up! I had a saying for this head thing but it was aimed at life in general - "Life for the spirit is a size ten foot in a size five shoe" and that's how I feel most of the time but when it reaches my head and involves migraines, oy vay, that's exaggeration!

 

Talking of dizziness, I remember being on a campsite with an attack and people coming back late at night and making a noise and I just wanted to get out of there but couldn't stand up and keep my balance.

 

I'm fed up with my nausea - it just makes me sick!

[Michaelangelica]

This was facinating bit of trivia I thought.

http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3277&Itemid=27

IT MAY COME AS A SHOCK

Written by AMANDA SCHAFFER

Tuesday, 07 November 2006

A.D. 41 In ancient Rome doctors treated the throbbing pain of migraine headaches by applying an electric fish like the black torpedo, top, directly to the head.

 

2006 It doesn't smell and its shocks are more predictable, but the occipital nerve stimulator, implanted in the head and buttocks, operates on the same principle, bottom.

 

In ancient Rome, patients with unbearable head pain were sometimes treated with jolts from the electricity-producing black torpedo fish, or electric ray.

 

 

Scribonius Largus, physician to Emperor Claudius, was a staunch advocate of the remedy. “To immediately remove and permanently cure a headache, however long-lasting and intolerable, a live black torpedo is put on the place which is in pain, until the pain ceases and the part grows numb,” he wrote in the first century.

 

Electric fish have long disappeared from the medical armamentarium. And patients with headaches are most frequently treated with pharmaceuticals.

 

But recently, electrical or electromagnetic devices that hark back to the head-zapping torpedo fish have come into vogue among the country’s most prominent migraine researchers. Two different kinds of stimulatory devices are now in large-scale clinical trials for possible use in patients with the most severe migraine cases. Many researchers believe that such devices are likely to play a greater role in migraine treatment in the future.

 

Roughly 30 million Americans suffer from migraines, an inherited neurological disorder characterized in part by painful, throbbing headaches.

[Michaelangelica]

I suffer from migraines and wondered if any research had been done to find out if blood thinners like Warfarin had been tried as treatment?

Funny you should ask.

The herbal prophylactic for migraine is 2-3 feverfew leaves a day.

Over time (1-2 years) this has been shown to eliminate or reduce markedly the incidence of migraine attacks by 90% or more.(research from Guy's Hospital Migraine Clinic London.)

It turns out that Feverfew (Chrysanthemum parnethium?) has "aspirin like" chemicals. Hence it's name.

[Michaelangelica]

I usually try to keep the Alzheimer's thread up to date but in doing that I found this surprise

New Use for an Alzheimer’s Drug

Andrew Charles, M.D., a Neurologist with UCLA School of Medicine, says researchers believe migraines occur when there is an abnormally high level of electrical activity across the surface of the brain (the cerebral cortex). This phenomenon is called cortical spreading depression. Investigators are looking at ways to interrupt or prevent this abnormal electrical activity, and hopefully, prevent a migraine from occurring.

 

One treatment under study is a drug called, memantine (Namenda®). Memantine was approved in 2003 to treat memory problems in patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease. Studies suggest it may be able to inhibit cortical spreading depression, and thus, a possible treatment for preventing migraines.

 

In a preliminary study, 54 migraine patients were given memantine twice a day for at least two months. Two-thirds of the participants experienced a significant decrease in the frequency of migraine and a significant improvement in function.

Alzheimer's drug for migraine : News : WHOI HOI-19

Had afew links at the bottom of the article that might be of interest too

For general information on migraines:

American Headache Society, ACHE - American Headache Society Committee for Headache Education

The National Headache Foundation, The National Headache Foundation

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

 

For information on the drug, Memantine, Namenda Alzheimer's Symptoms Treatment – Namenda.com

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

I suffer from migraines and wondered if any research had been done to find out if blood thinners like Warfarin had been tried as treatment? My reasoning is thus. I got my migraines originally because I found a situation intolerable and exploded emotionally about it. This led to a rise in blood pressure and my heart pumping blood round the system faster than normal, which led me to wonder if that increased clotting through collision of blood cells (Stroke seems to follow on from migraines).

 

Question two. Have decompression chambers been tried as treatment? The reasoning behind this line of enquiry is that I know the are now being tried to treat various conditions in the UK because they are an under used resource, and I wondered if (as migraines are supposed to be caused by the blood vessels expanding rather than contracting) could external pressure adjustment stop them, if they are really something like a form of the bends? (At the same time I got the migraines I started having indigestion problems (anger speeding up or slowing down the process?) as well as copious wind problems; joints needing cracking all over the body, which I understand is supposed to be a sign of gas build up as well as periodic lower back pain (trapped wind)).

 

Dr Henry Bieler in his book 'Food is the best Medicine' suggested that migraines were fermentation headaches (glorified hangovers) and I'd agree (It might also explain the gaseous side effects already mentioned). Before I lost my temper I never had them and heat (anger) plus wheat and the yeast in bread as well as sugar from cakes and biscuits, would complete this scenario and explain it.

 

Lastly, an observation. Of late I've been getting vertigo. This I put down to relief of symptoms: Noise sets off the attacks and a holiday where this first occured was in a nature reserve (isolated house, miles from anywhere) that to me indicated relief from the pressure that started things off. Noise pollution created internal pain, through pushing my consciousness down and in as relief let it rise up and out - hence the vertigo, is how I saw it (noise destroys (breaks up concentration) - silence allows insight (creation of thought)),:hyper:

 

Yes, blood thinners like Warfarin and aspirin are being used for miagrine.

 

Vertigo due to noise: Theridion ( a homeopathic remedy)

[InfiniteNow]

a homeopathic remedy

According to every trustworthy scientific/medical source I've read, that is a contradiction of terms.