When a migraine strikes though, whatever the cause, it’s an extremely painful, distressing and nauseous experience.

There can be many triggers which cause the headaches to start. It’s generally agreed that it can be anything from an allergy or allergies, to way of life, alcohol consumption, illness, and even not enough sleep.

There are various things that can be done to help to alleviate the symptoms. Your G.P. may prescribe medication which will help to reduce pain level, but remember some medications can in fact trigger a migraine in the first place so be careful.

Women, for instance, who take the birth control pill or H.R.T. sometimes find that this will cause them to suddenly have a migraine when they have never experienced one before.

Rest is one of the best ways to cope with a really bad migraine attack, and lying in a darkened room, trying to remain calm will definitely help.

Massaging with Lavender oil is another aid. With thumb and forefinger gently massage between the eyebrows, slowly moving your fingers up over the forehead, and gradually down to the outer edges of your eyes, and back behind the ears and down the neck. You must be very gentle when massaging as you don’t want to make the situation worse by rough handling.

Your diet may also play a part in your suffering, so it’s a good idea to ensure you’re on a diet of lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. Try to avoid processed foods, and fatty foods, as they will exacerbate your problem and wont do you much good generally.

Drinking water and fruit juices all help to keep your body in good working order, provided of course you’re not allergic to any type of fruit.

Allergies to certain pollens and grasses, and even a hot sunny day, can bring on a migraine, so try to pinpoint what you think might be causing the problem and eliminate it.

If you are a naturally anxious person, or are going through a particularly stressful time, try to counteract this with relaxation techniques such as yoga, dancing classes, painting and drawing, or even just lying down and practising deep breathing.

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If you’re a migraine sufferer then you’ll undoubtedly have been to your G.P for medication. There are several medications available now and no doubt they do help to alleviate the symptoms of a migraine.

Unfortunately medication can also add to the sickness you may be experiencing and can make you unable to function at all. Added to that, if you’re allergic to aspirin say, there’s a limit as to what tablets are available,

Therefore it’s down to you to find a method of making the migraine more bearable so that you can carry on with your daily tasks.

At the onset of a migraine your natural instinct is to curl up in a ball and crawl into a hole. This is not necessarily a bad idea! However, this is often not possible and so in order to soldier on it’s a good idea to try to learn some techniques in relaxation.

The blood supply to the brain becomes restricted during a migraine attack and relaxing the muscles in the neck and shoulders will help to combat some of the restrictions and give a small amount of relief.

Anxiety, stress and anger all play a part in migraine attacks, and although it’s often difficult to control these emotions, in the long run it will be in your best interest to do so.

If you’re aware of what’s causing your migraine headache then it’s much easier to learn to control it.

Unbeknown to you, you may be allergic to certain foods or medication. Try to determine what they are by making a note each time you have a migraine attack by going over your diet for the last few days. It can sometimes be something you’ve consumed days before, so don’t only think of what you have just eaten.

Try to keep a diary of your foot intake, your activities, where you have been, what you have done, as this will give you some idea of what may have led up to the attack.

Once the migraine headache is under way aromatherapy can often help to alleviate the symptoms, so look into the possibility of having aromatherapy massage. Some people find lying in a darkened room with aromatherapy candles helps o alleviate the pain.

If your sinuses are blocked this could be the cause of your migraine so it’s a good idea to inhale hot water with a few drops of eucalyptus oil.

As you can see, there are various home remedies for migraine relief so relax and consider each one carefully.

Deciding if you are able to go out when you have a migraine is a tough decision.  You are in pain, you do not feel well, and more likely than not you are not thinking clearly.  The ability to determine when you are okay to leave home when you have a migraine is a big part of learning to manage your condition.  Here are a few things to take into consideration when deciding if you are in or out for the day.

How do you feel?

Yes, you have a migraine, but can you function?  Only you know your personal headache pattern, is it likely to get better or worse from where it is now?  What’s your mood?  Are you sufficiently enthused about the day to be willing to function while in pain?

What did you take?

Stop and think about your pain relief for a minute.  Did you take an over-the-counter remedy, or something a little stronger?  If it was a prescription medication, go read the label and see what it says about driving and operating heavy machinery.  If you aren’t supposed to do those things, it’s probably a good idea to hang out at home.  This is not a hard and fast rule since only you know how you react to a medicine, particularly one you are familiar with.  If you don’t think you’ll be impaired by your medications, great, but really think about it first.

Why?

Why are you going out?  Basically, you have to decide how important it is that you go out.  Work is important, but not if you have a job where potentially impaired function can be dangerous.  Errands can always be run later.  The class play?  That might be worth it, if you can handle it.

Below are a few techniques that can help ease the pain of a migraine.  Not all techniques work for all patients.  While some migraineurs find comfort in cold, at least as many are more uncomfortable in the presence of cold.  The same is true of heat used for pain relief—for some it helps, for others it makes the pain worse.

Apply a compress, hot or cold, to point on the head where pain is most severe.  This is frequently on the temple where a large artery runs, or in front of the ear, another arterial locale.

For patients who feel their migraine pain “stabbing into the back of the eye” a damp cloth (warm or cool) laid over the eyes often provides relief.  As a side benefit, covering the eyes in this manner also eases the discomfort of photosensitivity for many patients.

Taking a hot or cold shower with the water directed at the head and neck is another method to try, as is taking a warm (neither hot nor cold) bath.  The latter is further enhanced with the use of appropriate aromatherapy techniques.

Some patients find relief in by alternating hot and cold cloths at the point where the migraine pain is most intense.  Sometimes hot and cold used simultaneously can ease the pain.  A migraineur may apply a cold compress on their forehead while at the same time soaking their feet in a container of warm water.

Rarely are patients simultaneously sensitive to both hot and cold, but it should be watched for.

However, it’s not always easy to discover which foods are the culprits. One way is to keep a food diary. Get a small notebook, with each page representing one day. On each daily page make three columns. The first column will contain the hours in the day. The second column will be a list of the foods eaten that day. And the third column will list the symptoms that you experience.

As an example, if you had eggs and toast for breakfast at 8 AM you would write “eggs and toast” in the food column that corresponds with 8 AM. Make a note of everything that is eaten on this list and at what time they were eaten.

When you eventually experience a migraine headache you write “migraine headache” or “headache” down in the symptoms column at the time it began. For example, if one of your headaches begins at 2 PM you will write “headache” in the symptoms column for 2 PM.

It may take a few weeks or even a few months, but after experiencing a few migraine headaches, with the help of the food diary, you will be able to tell which foods cause headaches. Over time, by figuring out which ingredients in these foods are causing your pain, you will be able to eliminate these ingredients and relieve some pain.

Another very common cause of tension headaches and migraine headaches is just plain stress. People who experience tension can get headaches from their increased tension.

Relieving tension can often relieve migraine headaches. Tension can be relieved in many ways such as with biofeedback training (as explained above), taking a warm bath or shower, lying down and resting in a quiet dark room, putting something cold on the back of the neck (at the base of the skull) or having someone massage your neck muscles and possibly your temporal region to help relieve your tension and muscle spasms. Regular exercise can also, over time, reduce tension.

These are just a few of the many natural treatment methods that are available to migraine headache patients. They are all considered safe and are effective for many people. If you have headaches it may be beneficial to try some of these treatments or search out others on your own. But as always it is a good idea to talk with your doctor before attempting to treat yourself for a health problem.

Part One of this article Here >>> Migraine Relief Alternative

People are different from each other. A natural treatment that might relieve one person’s migraine headaches may not relieve someone else’s.  But on the same measure, just because one migraine headache treatment does not work for one person does not mean it won’t work for you. There are many effective alternatives to taking medication when it comes to relieving migraine headaches. One of these alternative methods may be just what you have been looking for.

Chiropractic adjustments, or chiropractic manipulations, are a very popular natural treatment method for headache relief. Patients with migraine headaches have been visiting chiropractors for over 100 years, and with very good results. Studies have shown that over 80% of headache patients find relief with chiropractic care. Plus, chiropractic treatment has been shown to be extremely safe. Spinal problems do cause headaches and by correcting these spinal problems many headache sufferers find welcome relief.

Biofeedback is another form of treatment that is safe and can be effective in eliminating pain. Biofeedback is a training program designed to help a person develop the ability to control their autonomic (involuntary) nervous system. Functions that are normally automatic can be controlled voluntarily. This technique makes it possible for a person to control their own heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, and of course, the relaxation of their tense muscles.

Stress can cause tension, which can lead to muscle tightness (muscle tension) and cause headaches. By relaxing these tense muscles, especially in the neck, it is possible to relieve the tension causing the migraine headaches. With biofeedback, once the technique is learned there is no longer any need for the biofeedback equipment. The patient with migraine headaches can now produce the desired effect at any. They can control certain bodily functions, such as muscle relaxation, which can help reduce and relieve their migraine headaches.

Most people are unaware that too much salt can cause headaches. And by simply lessening the salt intake headaches can sometimes be prevented.

Food allergies or sensitivities can also cause migraine headaches. Certain foods such as cheese, alcohol, monosodium glutamate (a food additive), nuts, beans, caffeine, chocolate and onions can cause migraines.

Part Two of this articles >>> Migraine Relief Alternative

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are over 800 vital energy points in the human body.  These points lie along meridians that run throughout a person’s body.  Chi, or life energy, flows along the meridians and through the energy points in healthy people.  Chi that is blocked or overabundant near particular energy points causes illness and pain.
Acupressure massage applies pressure to these energy points in order to release chi and stimulate the body’s own healing mechanisms.  The energy points are massaged with the fingers, thumb, or occasional blunt object with medium pressure in a circular pattern.
The simplest acupressure a migraineur can learn is an all-over head massage.  This technique just requires the practitioner to massage the scalp as though they were washing their hair.  Sit with the elbows resting on a table to prevent arm strain and the head resting lightly in the hands to perform head and neck acupressure.

Moderate pressure applied to the GB20 points offers the best relief for migraine pain.  They are on either side of the neck, approximately one inch to each side of the spinal column just below where the skull and neck muscles connect.  GB20 also goes by the more romantic-sounding Chinese name “The Gates of Consciousness”.

Migraineurs seeking to relieve their headache and neck pain should practice deep breathing while using the thumbs of both hands to press firmly on the GB20 points for one to two minutes.  If this is painful at first, home practitioners can start out by pressing and releasing the points in five to fifteen second intervals.

Sometimes the abdominal symptoms show up without the other typical migraine symptoms.  When they do, a patient is said to be experiencing an abdominal migraine.  An abdominal migraine is pain, usually varying from mild to medium, in the abdomen.  The pain is either along the midline or unspecified and is frequently accompanied by abdominal tenderness, cramp-like spasms, bloating, vomiting, and loss of appetite.

Since abdomen pain can be caused by a wide variety of conditions other causes need to be ruled out before a diagnosis can be made.  In a classic abdominal migraine, no gastric cause for the pain can be identified.  Migraineurs need to let their doctors know about their migraines when they experience unspecified abdominal pain so that the doctor knows abdominal migraine may be a possibility.

Abdominal migraines are most common in children.  Children who experience abdominal migraines frequently grow up to be migraineurs.  While abdominal migraine is not unheard of in adults, it is rare.  Like most other types of migraine, it is also more common in females than in males.

While the exact cause of abdominal migraines is unknown, it is highly likely to be related to serotonin deficiency.  Serotonin deficiency has been linked in several studies to migraines, and 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gastric system.  Serotonin deficiency causes cascading waves of nerve reaction in the brain when triggering a migraine and a similar process may be in effect in the abdomen. More Info >>> Migraine Cure