Life comes to a standstill during a migraine. Everything hurts and every activity takes extra effort. You want your head to stop pounding and for your life to get back to normal. A migraine is a throbbing, debilitating pain that affects hundreds of millions of people around the world each day. Most people instantly take over-the-counter medication, but if the migraine is severe enough, these won't take care of the pain. This is why some people are trying new migraine treatments to help alleviate the pain and eliminate symptoms.
It wasn't until the 1980s that researchers were able to put together strong enough drugs to stop migraine pain once it began. However with some of these drugs came serious side effects. Some people simply couldn't take them because the migraine drugs didn't mix well with medications for heart disease or other conditions. Another downside was if the drug wasn't taken during the first hour of a migraine, it wasn't a lot of help.
This is why anyone suffering from migraines is interested in any new treatments being developed. Doctors are also focusing more on prevention and working to disable a migraine headache before it ever starts. One suggestion is to take preventative drugs regularly to help stop the headaches from ever starting. These drugs work with chemicals in the brain and/or on blood vessel inflammation that can lead to a migraine.
Another way of treating migraines is to fine-tune everyone's healing for themselves. The idea here is to have the person take fewer drugs, avoid as many side effects as possible and gain control over their condition. By looking at the patterns of when a migraine headache occurs, you also start to learn what triggers it. Once you know this, you can take steps or prescribed medication during the window of time you'd best benefit from it.
Finding the right time to take your migraine medication is very important, almost as important as finding the right medicine. The FDA is currently researching a migraine treatment called Trexima, which combines the migraine drug Imitrex and naproxen sodium (contained in Aleve and other over-the-counter medications). This drug stops blood vessels from dilating - which is the main source of pain in a migraine headache.
For those who can't take drugs or aren't happy with the possibility of side-effects, there are a few new supplements showing promise - magnesium, riboflavin, and coenzyme Q10.
It makes sense to combine healthy eating, exercise and cutting back on drinking alcohol and smoking (or cutting them out) to give your body the best possible chance of fending off migraine headaches.
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