Live data from Hacker News

Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

nature.com

231–240 of 246 posts

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

#231

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…

> actually meditate and feel your muscles relaxing

Could you provide a short description of how you approach this? E.g. how do you start and which muscles do you focus on, etc.

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

#232

I've suffered from migraines all my life. It worsened as I've gotten older. One day long attacks turned into three day long attacks. Then turned into five day long attacks. I've taken various preventatives and abortives over the years to varying success. It runs in my family so I never thought to see a neurologist for them. A couple years ago I had a bad string of them and my medicine wasn't really touching it, so I…

Did you have any side effects from the medication, or was it pretty smooth sailing?

I'm on Emgality, and haven't noticed any side effects at all.

Honestly the worst part of it has been getting special approval from insurance; sometimes they don't cover much of it but right now the manufacturer provides a savings card that brings it down to $35/month.

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

#233
I am suffering from migraine since 20 years and it's really painful. In 20 years, the only causes that I can infer are sleep deprivation and weekend.

I found some relief with acupuncture: a bench of sessions of acupuncture reduce the intensity and increase the distance between two attacks. In the last years I was prescribed triptanes and they are very effective to me, but I feel "strange" when I get them.

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

#234

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…

As a counter-antidote: I know several people now who have experimented with psychedelics with the goal of addressing mental health issues who ended up significantly worse. One of them got stuck with a nagging feeling that the world wasn’t quite real that lasted for a very long time, which resulted in a lot of anxiety.

I firmly oppose the use of LSD under any circumstances, as it often marks the beginning of self-destruction, no matter how justified the reasons may seem. In my experience, those who have used LSD inevitably see their lives spiral into chaos.

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

#235
Migraines are the absolute worst. On average I would get 6-8 a year. My triggers are primarily not eating frequently enough, bright lights and constant loud sounds. Knowing that, I mostly am able to avoid them and I can usually tell early enough when one is coming on to course correct. I never really explored any medication with my doctor because it was infrequent enough that I didn't really think of it. Then I had the worst migraine of my life. Typically I would vomit some as it starts to get really bad. Usually at that time I'm already laying on the bathroom floor because there are no lights of any kind in my bathroom that aren't tied to the switch. Also I rapidly alternate between being freezing cold and burning up so the cold floor is ideal (I also bring a blanket.) If it has hit this point I'm often in there for 4-6 hours before I can at least move to the bedroom.

The worst one, however, I spent 8 hours in the bathroom and for that entire 8 hours I never stopped vomiting. Well, I did, but only because there was nothing left inside of me. Dry heaving for that amount of time is not fun and it is even worse when combined with the terrible pain of the migraine. I never want to have that happen again. I genuinely don't know how people who get Migraines once a week or even more often can do it. If I got migraines like that every few days I would have blown my brains out a long time ago.

I try to avoid my triggers as best as possible but I was also prescribed sumatriptan as a last resort to take if I know it is going to hit. It has its own side effects that suck but it sucks a lot less than the migraine it prevents.

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

#236

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…

I had a headache that seemed like a cluster headache and I took lsd every week for about 3 years, I'd get 5 days headache free out of 7 - was wonderful.

Then I met a gp who actually helped and mentioned indometacin and because that worked I was diagnosed with chronic parosysmal hemicrania.

PPIs didn't work, so I took ranitidine but eventually my stomach couldn't take the indometacin anymore and I had to stop it - the headaches returned.

Then I had an abcess in my jaw that almost killed me of sepsis and had to have two surgeries on my jaw and spent a month in the hospital on antibiotics. CPH didn't return.

Now I take a mild dose of propranolol daily and I rarely have headaches or migraines.

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

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

thank you so much. now i just need to track down which magnesium of the 4 dozen you're supposed to supplement to help vitamin D do its job. My research on stuff like this is slow going because i always get nerd-sniped by the mechanics of the minerals and metals in our bodies.

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

#239
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also do the bending while swallowing trick that was on HN sometime back Could you share the link for this, if you can find it?

Dont have the hn discussion link, but it was this paper that was posted. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9106553/

Yes it's this one.

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

#240

I was diagnosed with migraine as a kid when I was 10. The doctor made me undergo a battery of tests including a contrast CT scan that consumed aj entire day, only to confirm at the end of the day that it was migraine. The migraines weren't even that debilitating but my mom was just being extra careful. After that, I still got headaches at a good frequency and tried all sorts of specialists from orthos to opthalmologi…

Gerd and the like are sometimes caused by too little acid. Maybe your GP can discuss HCl pills to take if you feel a flare up coming? I only get bad reflux a few times a year and I use baking soda, so I never think to buy HCl at a pharmacy. Best of luck.

But baking soda is basic while HCl would be acidic?
Post reply on HN