MIGRAINE HEADACHE

Another one of my major symptom is migraine headache. Before my illness, I used to have migraine headache like a couple of times a year, which I considered pretty normal. But after my illness, I have been getting it like a couple of times a week. When I was in USA, one time my headache was so horrible that I had no choice but to visit the emergency room. Apparently many doctors in America are still ignorant about migraine headaches. Though I told them it won't do me any good, but they still shot me up with a massive dose of Demerol/Vistaril. That put me to sleep for a few hours and woke up again with the same headache. Since then, I swore I'd never go to the emergency rooms ever again, unless they put me in a body bag or put me in a five point restraint first.
I found that a medicine called \"Axert\" worked wonders to treat migraine headaches, at least for me. However, its extremely expensive even with insurance. And since I came to Australia, I lost my insurance in USA. Furthermore, the Australians have a different formulary compare to the Americans. Unfortunately, they don't have this medicine here that I consider a wonder drug. I have been relying on an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine which I can legally purchase through the Internet, called \"Excedrin Migraine\". The ingredients are exactly identical to \"Extra Strength Excedrin\". Its really just a combination of Acetaminophen (also known as Tylenol in USA, or Paracetamol in Australia \"APAP\") 250mg, Aspirin \"ASA\" 250mg, and caffeine 65mg. It does help a bit, but not nearly as effective as Axert.
I am very skeptical of those so-called \"alternative\" therapy or treatments. However, I am nearly at the end of my tether. I discussed my situation with a trusted friend, who also happened to be a neurologist. He told me that he had seen \"miracles\" with acupuncture (to treat migraine headaches) and bee venom therapy (to treat chronic severe knee pain). According to my research, none of these can really be considered as main stream medicine, and none of them is proven to be effective. I wonder if anyone of you have any first hand experience and what the results may be???

I've added some more information on: Migraine Headache/s for other users.

Overview: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraine_headache

Usually migraine causes episodes of severe or moderate headache(which is often one-sided and pulsating) lasting between several hours to three days, accompanied by gastrointestinal upsets, such as nausea and vomiting, and a heightened sensitivity to bright lights (photophobia) and noise (phonophobia).

Approximately one third of people who experience migraine get a preceding aura.[4]

The word migraine is French in origin and comes from the Greek hemicrania, as does the Old English term megrim. Literally, hemicrania means \"half (the) head\".

Migraine is widespread in the population.

In the U.S., 18% of women and 6% of men report having had at least one migraine episode in the previous year[5] Wrongdiagnosis.com reports that 10% of people have been diagnosed with migraine and 5% have migraine but have not been diagnosed,[6] with seriousness varying from a rare annoyance to a life-threatening and/or daily experience.

Treatments are typically expensive.

Periodic or unpredictable disability can cause impoverishment due to patients' inability to work enough or to hold a job at all.

Migraines' secondary characteristics are inconsistent.

Triggers precipitating a particular episode of migraine vary widely. The efficacy of the simplest treatment, applying warmth or coolness to the affected area of the head, varies between persons, sometimes worsening the migraine.[7]

A particular migraine rescue drug may sometimes work and sometimes not work in the same patient. Some migraine types don't have pain or may manifest symptoms in parts of the body other than the head.

Available evidence suggests that migraine pain is one symptom of several to many disorders of the serotonergic control system, a dual hormone-neurotransmitter with numerous types of receptors.

Two disorders — classic migraine with aura (MA, STG) and common migraine without aura (MO, STG) — have been shown to have a genetic factor.[8] Studies on twins show that genes have a 60 to 65% influence on the development of migraine (PMID 10496258 and PMID 10204850 ).

Additional migraine types are suspected and could be proven to be genetic. Migraine understood as several or many disorders could explain the inconsistencies, especially if a single patient has more than one genetic type.

However, still other migraine types might be functionally acquired due to hormone organ disease or injury.

Three quarters of adult migraine patients are female, although pre-pubertal migraine affects approximately equal numbers of boys and girls.

This reveals the strong correlation to hormonal cycling and hormonal-related causes or triggers.

Hormonal migraine is a likely consequence of periodically falling hormone levels causing reduction in protein biosynthesis of metabolic components including intestinal tract serotonin.

Again, thanks Scott. I am sure many other members here are very appreciative of your informative comments.

think ill start an alllternative section here somewhere...or can someone else do it...

there are things you can do in addition to wot doctors recomend with regard to most conditions that are causing yuou discomfort in your daily living.

yep ill start a section for alternative and/or complementary therapies, but may not be able to put links up or write in the headings for a few days.

just a sta4rter for you

Sleep lots
if you want to eat certain foods, stop and watch your reaction to them...may be triggers..
be relaxed..
use breathing techniques..
lots of fresh air..open windows etc.
stay off alcahol
use lavender oil and t-tree oils around the place
be aware of the cumulative effects of medicationeg painkillers...constipation....dehydation..etc..( i actually found taking less painkiller worked better than high doses)
its difficult talking about your particular problems as you havent told us wot your ilness and disability is.....and headaches could be part of your conditionn...
different painkillers affect people differently,..of the codeine/paracetamol group, i found there was only one brand that i could tolerate, the others gave me a different headache !!!

ive just read this back, and it comes over as a bit wishy washy....sorry.........


.....xx suzan xx........

LOL. Thanks anyway. Hm, nothing new, really. LOL. But very nice of you to post here.

a lot of people with fibromyalia and lupus get migrains, and if you are allergic to many things/hypersensitve to things, like i am sensitive to alcohol, perfumes, paints, deodprant, i will suddently get on within minutes, if i put off eating and sleeping i get them, and other things that your allergic to does it., and if i don't get the headache i get runny noses, or my troat closing up, it depends on the substances i come in contact with.other substances burn my skin or i get hives. my doc used to prescribe me betta blockers for it like atenalol, but it never worked. i just have to turn the lighs out and be in the dark, lay down, be still for a while, sometimes they don't go away till the next morning after i got some sleep, and i just take ibuprophen, the only pain pill i can tolerate.