Migraine Relief at the Push of a Button

A study published in The Lancet has found that a hand-held gadget, about the size and weight of a hair-drier could bring migraine relief to sufferers at the push of a button.

Developed by Californian firm Neuralieve, the gadget delivers a magnetic stimulus to the back of the head and interrupts the pain and other symptoms associated with migraine, by calming the over-excited brain cells causing the attack.

Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New Yorks tested the safety and efficacy of the device on 200 male and female migraine sufferers. Half used the actual device, and the other half (placebo group) used dummy equipment. Everyone was instructed to use the device as soon as symptoms started and take note of how long it was before they experienced relief.

40% of the sufferers with the real device were pain-free within two hours compared to 22% of those in the placebo group. There were no serious side effects, and participants found the device easy to use.

Before the device is available to the general public more research is required to confirm the safety and effectiveness of the treatment.

The expected cost will be about £1,000.

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Botox and Migraine

Here’s a potential migraine treatment I hadn’t come across before – botox, better known for its use as an anti-wrinkle treatment.

Dr. Maria Alvarez, a major and a staff neurologist at the Wilford Hall military medical center, said patients who suffer from migraines had reported relief after treatment with botox in the affected areas of the head. “Last year, we had 150 patients and their headaches were reduced in their severity,” Dr. Alvarez said in an interview.

What is particularly encouraging is that in some patients the effects apparently last longer than 9 months, whereas relief due to a “placebo” effect is unlikely to last for so long.

The treatment is not FDA approved, and scientifically controlled studies are needed on a significant number of patients before firm conclusions can be reached – so don’t try this one at home!

Source acknowledged with thanks: SA Communities South 02/25/2010

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A Drug-Free Approach to Treating Migraine

I have been asked a few times to describe how my ebook can help you,  so I decided to make a short video covering some of the main areas included.

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Magnesium for migraines

Those of you who bought my ebook will also have received the bonus free gift, which was the report I produced during my studies about the use of magnesium in preventing migraine headaches.  It’s not giving away any secrets to say there’s much positive research into the beneficial effect of magnesium on migraine.

If you were as convinced as I was by all the research, you’ll want to include plenty of magnesium in your diet, and below is a great recipe I found, which is another excellent way to increase magnesium.

Thanks to professional chef Anton Leyland for use of his video above.  If you’re looking for a healthy way to shed any Christmas pounds,  check out Anton’s smoothie recipes website.

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Remedies for Migraines

Stop Your Migraines!

We’re already a few days into the new year; I hope you had a migraine-free holiday and send my good wishes to you for the year ahead.

A new year is often time to recap and evaluate where we are in areas of our life that we want to improve.  If you are now determined to make changes, you may find here a new approach for migraines treatment.

This is a quick summary of the main areas where complementary therapy, and especially a nutritional approach to migraine can help.  I shall be covering each in blog posts over the next few months, but if  you don’t want to wait,  you can download my natural migraine relief ebook right away.

  • Food intolerance is a major cause of migraine but you would be wrong to just think that chocolate, cheese and red wine cause the problems. For some people, migraines are triggered by foods commonly believed to be healthy.
  • Maintaining a steady blood sugar level is vital is you want to stop migraines.
  • A deficiency or imbalance of vitamins and minerals is important.
  • So is avoiding toxic minerals.
  • Hair Mineral Analysis is a simple and cost-effective way to get eliminate guess-work from choosing your supplements. It reports on nutrient as well as toxic minerals.
  • Because your brain mainly consists of fatty material, check that you eat plenty of good fats, and avoid eating bad fats.
  • Something as common as constipation can cause a problem if circulating toxins aren’t being eliminated quickly enough.  Be sure to keep the correct balance of ‘good’ to ‘bad’ bacteria in your intestine. Check out this special offer for a free sample of a natural constipation remedy on my healthy eating blog.  The offer has been extended.  (It’s NOT a laxative!)
  • Acid / alkaline imbalance should be watched. People often imagine that over-acidity is the problem and are surprised when their supplement recommendation includes hydrochloric acid! Learn why.
  • Following on from under or over-acidity we must consider correct digestion and absorption of food, without which you will never obtain maximum benefit from your food, however well you eat.
  • If stress is a migraine trigger for you but you can’t do anything to calm a stressful life-style, are you making the simple dietary adjustments that can lessen the impact of stress?
  • Hormonal health is something else to consider, especially for women. Your liver works hard to remove old hormones,  so must be kept in peak condition.
  • Because there are non-dietary migraine triggers, remember that many other complementary therapies offer solutions.
  • Are you taking too many over-the-counter painkillers? This could actually increase the number of headaches you experience. Check with your GP or pharmacist.

This quick summary shows some of the many different topics you can consider in your search for a drug-free approach to beating your migraines. Tackle them one by one and you should find relief.

For immediate delivery of an ebook with detail about these topics and including recommendations for other natural, alternative approaches to treat and prevent migraine, visit my website:

http://www.natural-migraine-alternatives.com

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Chlorella and migraine

Yaeyama Chlorella

Uses of Chlorella

I have been asked if I use a supplement to support the healthy lifestyle that migraine sufferers (and everyone) should aim for.

Yes I certainly do, because I have seen so much evidence showing that even fruit and vegetables and other “healthy” food today is nowhere near as nutritious as it was in, say, the 1950s.

Also the chemical load is so much higher in the modern world, that we are in danger of overloading our body’s natural detox mechanisms.

One school of thought is that this may be a cause of migraine headaches, so more and more people are looking for detox remedies and supplements that will support the body’s detoxification systems.

Chlorella is the supplement I have used for several years now.  More specifically, I use Yaeyama Chlorella which is a strain of Chlorella Vulgaris thought to be superior because it is more nutrient dense.

If you decide to buy some Chlorella, I suggest you visit my supplier’s online store.

First, you will want to know a little more about Chlorella, and why you might choose to use it.  The nutritional profile and health benefits are on my supplier’s website, where you can also watch a short video to learn mor.  Supplementing with Chlorella can be beneficial in treating a wide range of health problems brought about by our modern lifestyle.  But don’t just take my word for it, check out these Chlorella user testimonials.

To support my migraine clients I am currently researching an ebook on the specific ways Chlorella can help with detoxification of environmental toxins. I know this will be of interest to many of my readers who have had a Hair Analysis to check for heavy metal toxicity.  As I research my ebook and study this remarkable supplement the more applications I discover.  When the ebook is ready for release I will make it available as free information here, so keep checking back.

If you have used Chlorella for migraine (or any other health condition) and found it helped you, please post your story here to encourage others.

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Migraine and Food Intolerance Testing

What do parties and migraine have in common? You will probably jump to one of two conclusions (alcohol or late nights) and while you could be correct there is another common link, according to food intolerance specialists YorkTest Laboratories.

Apparently as the party season approaches there is an increase in the number of patients suffering from the symptoms of food intolerance – such as arthritis, IBS and bloating. This could be because people are eating foods to which they are intolerant without knowing the ingredients, or because they are consuming larger amounts of a particular food than usual. Often it can be a previously unsuspected intolerance that is suddenly triggered.

Being aware of any susceptibility to an intolerance could prevent  much inconvenience and discomfort.  Research in conjunction with scientists at York University shows that chronic inflammatory disease is linked with food intolerance and simply becoming aware of problem foods and excluding them from the diet can bring relief.

It’s well known that there are links between migraine and food intolerances and there are many methods of testing; my preferred method is described in this article on food intolerances and migraine.

Prevention is better than cure, so if you’d like to take a low cost test to check if you have a food intolerance probably the best price is available from Amazon. Click here and go to  the bottom of the page that opens for an ordering link.

If the test identifies that you have an intolerance you can look at alternative methods of finding out the particular foods implicated and how to avoid them in future.

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Migraine and Reiki

Ever interested in learning something new, I was pleased to receive this message from Lara.

Lara says:

I have suffered from migraines for over a year now. I’ve been to many doctors, specialists, tests, medicines, massage, websites, articles, etc all trying to heal myself.

My new method of trying to heal it is with Reiki. It has been the most pleasant healing process and most effective. I am not attuned to energy healing myself (yet) so I contact healer friends when I have an attack and they are always so happy to send healing energy my way with distance healing.

I woke up this morning and found your blog and knew I had to share my story. Just last night, 3am, I woke up with a migraine I had been trying to shake off for over a day. I went to my computer & emailed everyone I knew to send me healing. I was desperate as the migraine was reaching the point of severe pain & I was desperate for relief.

I sent the email and as I went back to sleep I felt great energy surround me, strong energy, very peaceful & soothing. I woke up this morning and my migraine is completely GONE. I feel 100% myself again. I’m so grateful to have found a source of relief. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. It has turned my pain around completely.

Although, I still get these migraines, since starting Reiki as a healing treatment, there have been fewer attacks (as I use to get them 1 or 2 a month) & the pain is weakened significantly.

I’m so so grateful and look forward to the day of when I am attuned to help heal myself and others.

Jessica Miller is who demonstrated Reiki for me & who really informed me about energy healing…
http://www.reikimastery.com/

Thanks for sharing your story, Lara.  Please keep us posted on your progress.

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Migraine and Hypnotism

Anyone who has bought my migraine ebook will be aware of the section on hypnotherapy, commonly referred to as hypnotism, and migraine. The book mentions some trials where hypnosis was used successfully for migraine.

Hypnosis  has been used as one of the oldest healing techniques since the ‘sleep temples’ of ancient Egypt. However, in 1955 the British Medical Association endorsed the practice of hypnosis and since that time it has been recognized as a valuable addition to conventional medical treatment, despite the popular myths of mind control incorrectly suggested by “stage hypnotism”. The therapy is also recognized by the American Medical Association and the American Dental Association.

There are two main approaches someone may take to hypnotherapy – either find a professionally qualified practitioner, or use self-hypnosis.  Some people find the latter approach less worrying because no third party is involved.

Your can learn self-hypnosis online, free, with Learn Hypnosis in 5 Days - a professionally created course. The first lesson of the free hypnosis course will be emailed to you immediately and then will then get further hypnosis course instalments every 2 days, and a monthly newsletter ‘Inspired Minds’.  Register right away for your free course.

NOTE: Contraindications for hypnosis

Your medical practitioner should always be consulted before you use hypnosis / hypnotherapy for migraine or tension headaches. Any pain is a warning signal from the body, and you should first check out with your physician that the pain of your migraine is not due to any other condition. In particular, hypnosis is contraindicated for anyone suffering from epilepsy, clinical depression, heart or breathing problems, allergies, psychiatric illness or anyone using recreational drugs.

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Migraine and corn

Those people who have subscribed to the free migraine mini-course on the right will have seen my article on migraines and corn.  If you’d like to see the whole series, please subscribe.

One 19 year old reader (Sally – name changed to protect client anonymity) contacted me to tell me that she’d been baffled by the migraines she had been getting for as long as she could remember. Her Mum was a migraine sufferer and had discovered that hers were coming from spicy foods and chocolate. However Sally can eat all those things without getting any problem.

After some excellent detective work, Sally discovered that on eating certain cereal based foods and pies she always get a headache but didn’t when she excluded those foods. Reading the ingredients in both foods one common ingredient was corn starch.

Sally checked all her food to see what had corn starch in them, and found out pretty much everything contained starch. She says: “I don’t know any foods to eat without corn starch, and without cutting out half my diet.  I am petite and also trying to gain weight. How am I suppose to do that when I have to cut out pretty much all my food?”

This is a common problem. My first suggestion would be to confirm that corn starch IS the problem, by following a diet that excludes it completely for three weeks, and see what effect this has on the migraines.

Sally – you can still eat a healthy and varied diet for such a short time, following a plan such as this No Starch Diet on an Internet forum. (Any-one who is in under medical care, pregnant or breast-feeding should consult their health-provider before changing their diet.)

Follow the above plan for three weeks and see what happens to the migraines. (Be aware that any intake of starch in the exclusion period will put you at risk of a migraine.)

If you decide that corn starch IS the culprit you can decide whether the corn based products are worth the migraines!

Another thing to try is re-introducing individual culprit foods one at a time, to see if it is one food in particular or just corn starch in general that triggers your migraine.  It may be that eating the same cereal based product every day is the problem, and rotating them with different cereal bases (say wheat, corn, rice, soya) over several days can remove the problem. If you eat these foods only occasionally, the problem may go.

Hope that helps, Sally.

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