Live data from Hacker News

Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

nature.com

161–170 of 246 posts

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#161

I used to get frequent migraine attacks - there were times when I would be down 3 days in a week, just unable to be productive. A lot of it was induced by stress. I then tried something novel - I took some LSD. I had an intense psychedelic trip, dug deep into my psyche, realized I was a giant ball of anxiety. The anxiety's root cause was ultimately a fear of mortality (around the same time, my dad was going through a…

Stress is a common migraine trigger.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#162

I started having migraines in my late teens after drinking too much alcohol at parties, I used to think they were hangovers. It was only much later, after getting migraines in daily life, I found out after visiting a neurologist that those hangovers were migraines. Been having frequent migraines ever since, most of the time triggered by stress. Often I'd have attacks 3-4 times a week, fortunately the intensity is not…

Just so people are aware there are several types of magnesium supplements and they all do different things. One of them is for relieving constipation and will not help with migraines, probably. For instance I've recently started trying magnesium glycinate as a sleep aid. Anyhow I don't know which is which so I look it up.

It's glycinate too.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#163

Any other migraineurs share what I call "Silver Bullet Fatigue" at trying new treatments? I've been at this for six decades with no magic solution for my own migraine problems, and I've lost count of all the neurological investigations, meds, scans, treatments, and helpful or sometimes utterly silly suggestions that have come up short over the years. Some have come close but had undesireable side effects, others made…

I'm like this with back pain. I just reminisced the other day about when I was a teen I could straddle on a brick wall and pull with my arms to twist my torso around my hips and just pop the f out of my lower back and hips, then I could stretch and move normally again.

This worked for like 2 months. I've tried tiger balm, tens, chiro, heat, cold, exercise, every medicine.

I have theracane, davinci back tool, and a long suffering wife who will stand on my back to put enough pressure on the muscles to help.

Tumeric, CBD. 7-hydroxymatiglynine nullifies the pain but I puke 60% of the time I take it, about 4 hours later.

Mostly I just lay very still and whimper.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#164
Anecdotal, but: I know someone with relevant migraine problems did a log of everything she was eating or doing, searching for possible triggers. After a few weeks there were a couple of suspects: glutamate, chocolate, and also some legumes. Removing these worked and reduced greatly the amount and extent of the problem. Currently legumes is ok sometimes, but consuming one of the first two is almost a guaranteed episode.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What personal observation makes you think everybody has a migraine all the time?

The pounding pain that corresponds with heartbeat. It makes me think there are nerves that register this all the time but there's some part of the nervous system that filters that signal out.

Also tinnitus is said to always be present but the brain can fail to filter it sometimes.

Like right now for me wtf

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#167
post #122

I tend to get migraines occasionally. For me the trigger is stress. So if I can try to avoid stress, I wouldn't get migraines as quickly. Sadly, in modern life it's sometimes hard to avoid stress. Maybe 5 years ago, to treat my migraines, my girlfriend advices me to visit a massage therapist in Pattaya, as he's helped many people, Thai and foreigner, to get rid of migraines. I had a message session at his shop (inclu…

I have also noticed that for some reason hot showers and also shoulder and head massage help seem to help a lot, but only about as long as I am in the shower or have the massage. And also putting Vicks VapoRub on scalp seems to help a lot, but it is quite messy. However, a triptan medication I have started to use recently, seems to help even more.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#168
post #59

I got my first migraine in my early teens. I was over at a friend's house and we were playing in the basement on a summer day, then went outside where the sun reflected off a window into my eyes. It would start with a shimmering pattern obstructing my vision where the bright light was, which would grow into a c shape and get bigger until it surrounded my vision and then faded away. About 15 min after the shimmering p…

I sometimes get shimmering patterns which I think they call visual migraine or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma but thankfully mine don't go on to migraine proper. They often seem set of by a bright light outside the center of vision like I'm reading a book with sunlight coming in from 45 degrees.

I've been getting scintillating scotoma for over 50 years. They've changed character over the years from widespread fortifications to virtually no scintillation at all but always progress from a bright spot to a large blind spot to an expanding toroidal blind region with vision restored at the origin point until they pass out of my field of vision. They used to lead to headaches and sometimes speech deficits or other somatic experiences (like sizzling on my tongue and lips) but now I just get mild abdominal discomfort. With a couple of notable exceptions it lasts about an hour.

I have learned that while they're inconvenient, they're harmless and I just generally continue with whatever I was doing when they began. I have never been able to discern a trigger: they appear to come on completely randomly.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#169
post #59

I got my first migraine in my early teens. I was over at a friend's house and we were playing in the basement on a summer day, then went outside where the sun reflected off a window into my eyes. It would start with a shimmering pattern obstructing my vision where the bright light was, which would grow into a c shape and get bigger until it surrounded my vision and then faded away. About 15 min after the shimmering p…

I sometimes get shimmering patterns which I think they call visual migraine or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma but thankfully mine don't go on to migraine proper. They often seem set of by a bright light outside the center of vision like I'm reading a book with sunlight coming in from 45 degrees.

I used to get these two or three times a year, but then I had heart surgery last summer and had five in the first day after I came round from the anesthetic, and two or three every day for weeks after that. They've now settled down to one every few days. Annoying, but they go away fairly quickly and just leave me feeling a bit tired and headachy for a few hours.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#170
To hell with the drugs that they throw at you for headaches. It's your diet, lifestyle and poor sleep that's drives this bus.

I'll save you 10 years of my suffering and the awful side effects induced from the cocktail of drugs in this article and say I've reversed cluster headaches and can now tell when anything is not good for my body goes into it.

I did an elimination diet, I skip breakfast usually, and did 1 successful session of hyperbaric oxyegen treatment and it's completely changed my life.

Ive been able to continue ketosis periodically and am adding foods back now 1 by 1 to see what induces pain and believe it or not your body will tell you.

My latest revelation was legumes which tricks you, high in carb item that apparently is a different type of carb that doesn't digest in the bottom of your gut like other carbs. (1)

This list of positive side effects can only seen as a miracle to me from being on the edge of survival (my clusters were headed towards a manic state)

-I don't get down and cynical at all like I used to -my daily energy is a magnitude of about 5x stronger -confidence and positivity are the first reactions i have now so it's greatly uplifted everyone around me - there is a level of even keel rationality that I have now that I've never ever had - just alot more calmer overall and easier to get the busy mind not to overworry

I've tried many drugs and techniques but everything felt like a bandaid on the problem and not actually addressing it

Big and large psychedelic doses, triptans, cgrp, mood stabilizers, steroids. If they had it i tried it.

It took about 1 month of major diet changes to start feeling better. A year in now and the two things that feel the worst for setting off mild nero inflamation are 1-not getting good sleep and 2-eating highly processed foods

Your mileage may vary, everyone reacts to food differently.

1 - https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3...

Post reply on HN