Hi All

My wife gets crippling migraines at least once per week and has had them for over 10years. Although they are better when the weather is not drastic they continue and have total control over her life.

She continues to take as many as 7 Tylenol 2's with codeine before I stop her and I am trying desperately to find any other resources. I am actually commencing my first Bowens therapy course this weekend as I have been informed that this physical treatment might help her a lot.

She is not a big caffeine consumer and she drinks glasses of water each day and we eat very healthy meals. She is a non-smoker and is in excellent health.

I am very worried about the likelihood of liver or kidney damage due to her heavy use of medications and I am turning to everyone for any direction that you may be able to provide.

We have tried pure cherry juice with little effect.

Thank you for any direction or suggestions that you may be able to offer.

Cheers

Stephen

Does she eat a lot of foods with a lot of preservatives like message? Does she use diet drinks or diet foods? Does she eat greasy foods or fast foods or junk foods?
The less ingredients the healthier the food is.
She might even try eating organic as much as she can.
She maybe should try eating homecooked meals with little prepacked ingredients and lots of fruits and vegetables.

She might even try going to a chiropractor that is into alternatives because they can get to the root of the problem instead of masking it with pain relievers.

Here is a good website that you might find helpful
Pompa Health Solutions - Welcome to Pompa Health Solutions!

OK, I'm probably the best resource on Weather induced migraines. What you will likely find is that the migraines occur 0-48 hours before rain and if you ask her arthritic friends they hurt within a day of her. Am I warm so far?

I met a guy on the net who did an experiment with me by looking at weather data. He could predict, like he could his wife, when we would get a headache.

A first line of defense would be a medication called Fiorinal. It's a combo med that contains Aspirin/cafeine/butabatal. The latter is a barbituate sedative. The capsule is more effective, but the tablet (if still available) can be broken into smaller bits. The usual done is 1 to 2 caps/tabs up to six x/day.

My arsenal is a lot larger than this, but this is a start.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by N0help4u

Does she eat a lot of foods with a lot of preservatives like msg? Does she use diet drinks or diet foods? Does she eat greasy foods or fast foods or junk foods?
The less ingredients the healthier the food is.
she might even try eating organic as much as she can.
She maybe should try eating homecooked meals with little prepacked ingredients and lots of fruits and vegetables.

She might even try going to a chiropractor that is into alternatives because they can get to the root of the problem instead of masking it with pain relievers.

here is a good website that you might find helpful
Pompa Health Solutions - Welcome to Pompa Health Solutions!

---

Thank you very much for all of your suggestions. We actually eat very very healthy and we enjoy homecooked meals ]]wh at least 2 vegetables per meal, occasionally potatoes or rice but usually just salad of a light pasta, smart portions of chicken and fish primarily and only lean quality meats about once per week.

I know this sounds like I am simply replying to your comments but we have been seeing a chiropractor for just this treatment for going on 6 months now and although the incidents are diminishing they are still to frequent...

At first it was three times a week then 2 now we are every Friday.

I will check out your recommended web site and thank you again for these and any other ideas that you may have to offer.

Cheers

Stephen

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KeepItSimpleStupid

OK, I'm probably the best resource on Weather induced migraines. What you will likely find is that the migraines occur 0-48 hours before rain and if you ask her arthritic friends they hurt within a day of her. Am I warm so far?

I met a guy on the net who did an experiment with me by looking at weather data. He could predict, like he could his wife, when we would get a headache.

A first line of defense would be a medication called Fiorinal. It's a combo med that contains Aspirin/cafeine/butabatal. The latter is a barbituate sedative. The capsule is more effective, but the tablet (if still available) can be broken into smaller bits. The usual done is 1 to 2 caps/tabs up to six x/day.

My arsenal is a lot larger than this, but this is a start.

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Warm, You are right on top of her symptoms... I can tell what the weatehr is gooing to be like in 22 days without any weatehr report... It si scarey.. Bright sunblight in her face in eth car can almost bring her to tears instantly as well.

Is Fiorinal something that will be easy to find?

Thank you again for these and any other ideas that you may have to offer.

Cheers

Stephen

Fiorinal is a prescription medication. http://www.ask.novartispharma.ca/dow...al_scrip_e.pdf

Neurontin in high doses like up to 3600 mg/day might also be useful. Most general practitioners will not prescribe that high. It helps a little as a preventative.

Since you mentioned that the headaches are on fridys, this may be indicative of the "weekend headache". e.g a headache that occurrs when the stress of the week is removed. I don't know how that fits.

With migraine, it's trial and error. First and foremost it's to identify the trigger and then try to reduce or remove it. Foods are generally easy to identify. Pay attention to artificial sweetners such as Neutrasweet, Aspertame etc. Weather is more difficult. Menstral cycles are yet another trigger.

She may have tension migraines if she is having them regularly on Fridays. When I had bad migraines mine would be doubly worse on Saturdays. Sort of a "end of the week" let down in the stress department. Please refrain from taking that many Tylenols a day as it can and will cause permanent liver damage.

She needs to see a good neurologist and have a good physical work up done. If she has been having these for 10 years something is definitely out of whack with her system. It could be a poor circulation problem that is causing the veins in her head to constrict causing extreme pain. I took Fiorinal for years but it was not a true migraine that I had but a pinched nerve in my upper neck causing excruciating pain in my head. After so many years of taking the Fiorinal I had to have regular liver/blood tests to be sure my liver was not harmed. I had true migraines that were successfully treated with a combination of Inderal and Elavil over a period of 8 months. The neck accident happened about 5 years later.

On another thought. She might have a tumor in her head. No, I am not kidding about this. One of the first tests a good neurologist will do is perform a MRI to make sure there is no tumor growing in your head causing extreme pain. Better safe than sorry. A co-worker of mine kept having severe headaches and when his vision started getting blurry and he went to an eye doctor, the eye doctor immediately referred him to a neurologist who did an MRI and found a tumor growing next to his pituatary gland and operated immediately. I don't tell you this to scare you but to WARN you that having pain lasting for 10 years there is something definitely not right and needs to be addressed. I personally don't care for chiros and would never go to one.

Was told by a specialist that codeine actually causes headaches and isn't ideal for migraine sufferers. Maybe going back to the doctor could help. I'm on something called zolmitriptan and it works. Does she have any preventative medication?

I've been told that my food allergies contribute to my migraines. I also have sinus problems. It's difficult for me to not eat the foods I love, so I put up with it. If I drink caffeine along with the meal, it usually lessens the pain.

Otc's tend not to work for crippling migraines. And like others pointed out, too much tylenol can cause liver damage. I agree with going back to the dr. a dr can help her figure out what the trigger is, help her prevent the migraines and help her figure out what medication will actually help her when she does get migraines. Fiorinal works for keepitsimple. For my mother imitrex helped when she got migraines. And for me, just staying away from my mother (ok, or any extremely stressful situation) keeps me from even getting migraines.

I'm taking a natural herb called feverfew that greatly reduces frequency and severity of migraines, you can find them in pill form at the drugstore. When I feel one coming on, I take 2 aspirin and a cup of coffee right away, this can often stop a migraine before it gets too bad. A great prescription drug called Amerge is very effective if taken right away. Some other tips are go to bed and get up at the same times every day, don't skip meals and get exercise. Check to see if you have any food sensitivities. I also get migraines before snow and thunderstorms and hot, humid weather doesn't help either. Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stephen63

Hi All

My wife gets crippling migraines at least once per week and has had them for over 10years. Although they are better when the weather is not drastic they continue and have total control over her life.

She continues to take as many as 7 Tylenol 2's with codeine before I stop her and I am trying desperately to find any other resources. I am actually commencing my first Bowens therapy course this weekend as I have been informed that this physical treatment might help her a lot.

She is not a big caffeine consumer and she drinks glasses of water each day and we eat very healthy meals. She is a non-smoker and is in excellent health.

I am very worried about the likelihood of liver or kidney damage due to her heavy use of medications and I am turning to everyone for any direction that you may be able to provide.

We have tried pure cherry juice with little effect.

Thank you for any direction or suggestions that you may be able to offer.

Cheers

Stephen

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Stephen,
I was born with migraines and had every kind you could imagine.
All the medications quit working after a while, and I tried everything made since the early 1960's.
Once a migraine starts, it has to run its course, but to get some relief she might try an ice pack on the back of her neck and upper back, lie down in a dark room for about 15 minutes.
If she can recognize the warnings one of the prophylactic medications might help taken quickly enough.
See a physical therapist - not a chiropractor - who can identify vertebrae that are twisted, not out of alignment.
While I was pregnant, I was able to use bio-feedback to manage them. I could divert the bloodflow to my hands instead of my head.
As has been noted, a healthy diet, free of known allergens helps. The amino acid tyramine is a known trigger for migraines. Try to avoid it, and it's in a lot of foods.

Finally, I have a personal TENS unit that works very well at managing the pain, and if I use it early enough, stops the migraine from full blown hell.

Good luck to you both.

I am a little late for this thread but I will tell you what I had done for my migraines.

I spent years battling them and in the end my doctor prescribed tablets used for patients with high blood pressure.

One of the side effects of using the blood pressure medication was no migraines!

Obviously it can only be used by certain people and you have to have a full check-up by a doctor before they can be prescribed but it really helped me.
Because my blood pressure was lowered there were a few side effects such as dizziness when I stood up too quickly as well as my feet were cold but give me that over migraines any day!!

I just wanted to give kudos to this thread. I've dealt with migraines since 9 and no doctor I have ever been to has been kind to me about them. I took naproxen for a while but it didn't help much. Nowadays when they are really bad I just take a shower, vomit, and sleep as much as possible. You've made me rethink asking a doctor about these again. Thanks bunches :o

It looks like the main ingredient in your link is phytonutrients and antioxidants.
Those are good for just about anything especially build up of plaque in the arteries and I'd say help balancing blood pressure.
So I can see how that would be good for migraines.

Try taking magnesium supplements. CALM is a good brand that dissolves/activates in hot water especially well.

My wife had those also, nothing seems to work except a nature remedy which reduce those by 80%.

SeaVegg
www.itvventures.com
800-942-2443

How about water intake? Is your wife drinking plenty of water? Drinking water really is good for a lot of health issues. Many people today are not drinking enough water, if any at all.