Weather It Hurts

Weather can be very temperamental …you know, with all the lows and highs, ups and downs. Where I live, weather can spring up from almost anywhere; one moment it will be sunny and bright, then the next time you turn around it is storming and lightning all over the place. Plus, if you live up north, you could really be snowed in for a number of days and with icy road, no one would want to drive. Yes, weather can be unpredictable, truly ruin your beautiful day and schedule that you have planned out so carefully. Migraines, like weather, can ruin your day or even your whole week. They are incurable, unbearable and intolerable to be around. The migraine headache is the number one reason for men and women in the States to miss work due to an illness. These vascular headaches are crippling and can only be helped through the use of a migraine treatment. Throughout this article, we will look at different aspects of the migraine world.

When Not To Sing
For me, I sing all the time, especially at Christmas; it really makes life merry and bright. However, when I have a migraine, I do not sing. I can’t sing because it hurts tremendously when I do sing. My head swims and gongs with every note that resonates within me. When you sing, the sound resonates through head to expose the sound which as you can imagine increases the headache’s intensity. You see, a migraine occurs when blood vessels in the head expand and swell causing you to release a chemical in your head. This chemical attacks your arteries which create an enormous amount of inexpressible throbbing. This pain doesn’t just stay in the head region; it can travel down through your neck and back. It can make you nauseous, dizzy and might even cause you to vomit. Doesn’t sound like your typical day in the park, right??? So, how can you kick this debilitating nuisance? What steps must be taken to eliminate a migraine’s frequency and intensity? Your only hope is by avoiding triggers, if possible and using a migraine treatment option.

Triggers To Avoid
First, you have to identify and then purpose to avoid plausible triggers in your life. Triggers are, for the most part, things you come in contact with; they can be environmental (outside the body) or physiological (inside the body). Some of the triggers you might need to avoid could be: certain foods like chocolate, certain beverages like Coke or alcohol, caffeine enriched substances, weather changes like mentioned above, bright places like the beach, loud places like a rock concert or even smelling uncomfortable scents like smoke or dirty feet. Unfortunately, you can’t always avoid every trigger because if you did, you would be hermit with no contact to the outside world, kept in a padded room. Irony would win as your trigger would be padding.

Massage Therapy: A Migraine Treatment
When you hear the word massage, many of you will think of a deep tissue or Swedish massage. However, what many Swedes don’t know is that a deep tissue massage will many times cause a migraine rather than affecting a change in your current migraine pattern. Don’t use deep tissue as part of your migraine treatment plan. You see, one of the triggers for the onset of a migraine is tension in the neck and back muscles. Instead of focusing on large muscle groups though, it has been determined that effective results can be seen if your smaller muscles located along the spine are given attention. These muscles, also known as sub occipital muscles, are obscure to most people that you almost need a professional to even point them out. Massage therapists will take the upper neck muscle, which is as long as the tip your thumb and connects the base of the skull with the C-1 vertebrae, and use specialized methods to relieve the tension, thus minimizing the intensity and frequency of the migraine. Many therapeutic massages will not only use these touch techniques, but will supplement them with heat or even add a scent of lavender or peppermint to the room. All of these migraine treatments will help to “beat” your migraine

Tags: Acetaminophen (a.k.a. Tylenol), migraine pain, migraine relief, Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), over the counter medication, treating migraines