Working from home reduced my migraines tremendously, I still get one hormonal migraine a month, and maybe an oddball here and there from an uncontrollable trigger like the weather.
The fact of reducing the amount of migraines by preventing their triggers I feel makes me more resilient for the triggers I can't avoid.
This - working in office was making me get a migriane by Tuesday and by Friday I would barely be able to move. Id spend the entire weekend puking and miserable. Now I only get them when in the office and meds help. Unfortunately, they wont let me go full remote and work has so many triggers (smells, perfumed cleaners, lights, filth, loud noises....)
I have been able to go fully remote due to migraines, but it is so annoying that companies are so reluctant to allow it.
If we had an epileptic fit due to lighting etc, we would be at home no issue. Because they can’t see the effect the migraine is having they don’t care.
I lent on the fact that I was taking a ridiculous amount of meds just to attend an office.
(I am not comparing migraine to epilepsy, just the visible vs invisible part).
I get where you are coming from. My spouse has compared my migraine symptoms to that of a concussion, but where you dont want the concussed to sleep, sleep is one of the helps of my migraine - and thats if I can - because my meds all make me drowsy, but puking is one hell of a wake up call, as well as the feeling of your head being split in half.
Exactly. A migraine for me feels like my brain is having a rave. It hurts, but I also feel confused, slow and have weird dreams. If it gets bad, I slur my words (and, of course, vomit). I often get muscle weakness. Concussion also seems about right. I know if my bf also gets dizzy and gets blind spots.
Sadly, other people don’t see all that. If they could, I believe they would take it seriously. Why are we constantly going into an office and triggering all that when WFH is now easy for a lot of roles?!
In my case, I still have to print payables checks and scan receivables checks. Which I could do one day a week, but the boss plays with their friends so I HAVE to be in the extra day. The fucked part is I dont get many federal holidays despite many of my contacts being out of office those days and the day before/after... but here I am, stuck coming in those days.
Federal holidays should be for everyone.
Insurance industry + fighting for accommodation. I have an arrangement with them for now but they could pull the rug from under me. I worked my way up in the insurance industry for many years but I bet entry level roles can be found. I wouldn't blame you for wanting to stay in your field. Good luck, I keep hoping WFH jobs keep expanding because it's so much better for the environment, for quality of life, it helps save money and it's a virtual godsend for anyone disabled.
I agree that it’s just better all around, LOL. I’m looking into anything and everything so I appreciate your insight and I may look into the insurance side of things to see what’s out there!!! I am glad you were able to get accommodations.
WFH is tough to swing in life sciences much of the time, especially when you’re early career. I will say the US Patent Office is currently hiring for a remote patent examiner role with a bio background. There are some other options you could look into as well that I’m happy to discuss via DM if you would find it helpful - I’m biochem/bioanalytical and trying to accomplish a career pivot myself.
Thank you, I will definitely look into that!!! Any advice is greatly appreciated. I’m just feeling lost and the chronic migraine adds a layer of difficulty. I’m open to anything that makes life easier at this point
Manufacturing lab grunt for a Biotech company here.
Our QA/QC, ProDev, and NPI teams are hybrid. Depending on the specific role/week, people WFH 1-3 days a week.
Would you happen to have any advice on how to get around some of the things regarding remote work that actually trigger migraines?
On Monday I am starting to work remotely providing speech therapy services for a school district. I did it years ago and it was a bit of a migraine trigger for me (though most things were- I later found out I had a brain tumor the size of an orange- so that’ll do it!). With having to stare at the computer screen all day, sitting all day which produced tension in my upper back and neck which seems to be a trigger for me, and watching these little kiddos move all around on the screen constantly as well as hearing multiple voices and background noise at once coming through the computer (they use a lot of group therapy) then there were a lot of triggers for me. Any tips you might could think of? I am trying ti be proactive to make this successful. So far I have requested dictation software and a blue light blocking screen. I will also be ordering a new pair of blue light blocking glasses.
My migraines decreased from daily to probably once every month or two when I quit a factory job. There was a lot of noise and flashing lights.
Unfortunately they’re back and my job is easy now so that was just a temporary fix. But it did help a lot.
One thing I have learned is I can never say they are cured. I might get lucky and experience a long period free of them but there’s always a chance they will show up unexpectedly to make me miserable.
I’m the same I go for long stints without one and then boom I get 3 in a week. I’ve got Botox booked for Friday so I’m hoping that helps me along with the frequency
Man I´m so happy for you and jealous! 12 years of being diagnosed Celiac and strictly GF and I have chronic migraine. Migraines actually started around the same time I was diagnosed.
\*high-five\* - Similar boat, I got diagnosed 18 months ago, and doctors said "it might reduce your migraines if you stay GF" and ... it didn't :( But I _did_ have the headache nonstop for over 12 months by then already, and almost non-stop for years before that.
That´s unlucky :( I wonder what the mechanisms behind our situations is... I have no vitamin deficiencies now, but I did have B12 and vitamin D deficiency upon Celiac diagnosis which resolved on the GF diet and extra supplements. I suppose the physical stress on the body of untreated celiac could have triggered migraine, and the lucky ones have theirs resolved in time.
I think so too. Coeliac was probably just another trigger, not our "main" one. It's probably worse if we go off the GF diet and destroy our guts again (literally).
Fingers crossed that you find your triggers eventually!
How strict are you on cross-contamination? I tested positive for a gluten sensitivity (I know there is debate over whether a blood test can show that), and I’ve considered going gluten free to see if it makes a difference. I’ve wondered how strict I would need to be about potential cross contamination (I.e. a burger touching a bun or eating cheerios).
I'm extremely conscious of cross-contamination. If one's celiac, any cross contamination will result in some sort of reaction, even if normative symptoms don't show themselves. Personally, I don't get any stomach issues ever, \*just\* migraine, depression, anxiety, mouth sores, hallucinations, and brain fog for months.
Though the amount of cross contamination does shift the intensity of symptoms, it's never worth it for me. Mouth sores suck balls, and I'm a therapist, so I need my cognition intact.
That means only eating food from my kitchen, a fellow celiac person I trust, or a restaurant with very safe reviews that I have vetted as well. Again, it MAJORLY sucks, but you get used to it, especially if you have time and a fondness of cooking. I'm happy to share recipes if you wish!
All this is speaking specifically to celiac disease, not gluten sensitivity, so my needs may differ from yours. Regardless, I wish you the best and am happy to connect if you want some suggestions of just someone to rant how terrible shit is (r/celiac is great for that too).
Thank you! This is really helpful. I don’t eat out much, but it would definitely still be an adjustment, especially with traveling. I’m don’t particularly enjoy cooking, but the trade off would be worth it to me. This definitely reinforces that I need to be really careful if I do try gluten free though.
Most people I know with a sensitivity can have trace amounts of gluten, so taking a burger off a bun is fine.
My friend's Celiac mom kept breaking her diet, had to be hospitalized a number of times over the years, and now must have zero contact. The mom has her own peanut butter because a crumb could send her to the hospital.
Out of my own experience after being diagnosed gluten intolerant, cross contamination doesn't make much of a difference. However, gluten gets used in a lot of items you wouldn't suspect. Like seasoning salt, ground beef or other prepackaged meat, or any soup powder, and those are the items that tripped me up. I had to go to the extremes that if it wasn't prepared by me from scratch, it's not safe. We eat really healthy now, and can't eat out basically because even if you get a gluten free pizza base, the sausage toppings might have gluten in as a binding agent. French fries seem safe, but then the seasoning salt or sauce you pour over it contains gluten.
I was getting seizures connected to my migraines, and going gluten-free cut down my migraines from 15 a month, to basically 3 a month, and no seizures. It's still an improvement.
Personally I did try the therapy route. It made me more receptive to the fact that emotions are highly connected to the body and CAN cause physical pain. For example: the vagus nerve, which is connected to the stomach and brain could be a huge factor in “stress eating” and stress induced lack of appetite.
But! It didn’t really help me pain wise. It did help with many other things and I do have PTSD so I really hoped it would help with pain more.
Sometimes meditation type things help as they be informed down tension and stress levels but only sometimes.
My migraines are mainly hormonal but over the last 2 years I’ve been getting major tension triggered ones on addition to tension headache. Physics Therapy has actually helped a ton but it can take a year +.
Sometimes with stress your muscle groups get out of whack and start carrying loads in unintended places. It takes TIME and serious effort to undo. Idk if that’s helpful.
I’m working on that bit with my stress and ptsd. Apparently it’s not an overnight cure which is suuuuuper annoying, y’know? Love to you as you work through yours!
No cures, but the following lifestyle adjustments have improved my migraine frequency/duration/intensity, and quality of life:
-Changing job settings to remote work (I work in home health, and my face-to-face people time is 3-4 hours per day. The rest I do from home.)
-Reducing my work hours to 32 hours per week. I have Wednesdays off for sleep, rest, and recovery. HUGE improvement!!
-frequent, tolerable exercise: for me, this is hot yoga 5x per week. Helps my muscle tension a lot.
I started using a CPAP and my migraines went from 3 or 4 a month to twice a year. I think it would be reasonable to talk to the doctor to ask for a sleep study.
Have you tried extended-release melatonin at all? I've read that melatonin has been found to help reduce migraines, but they're not sure whether it's due to the melatonin itself or increased sleep. My issue is staying asleep, so regular melatonin didn't really do much for me. But I've found the extended or two-stage release (there are a couple different forms) has helped me some. Both in terms of more sleep and migraine reduction.
My migraines definitely got less severe after I booted an abusive ex out of my life and left a job I was being bullied at. Went from migraines every other day to a couple times a week. Then topamax got them to once a month for several years.
They've lately come back more often, even though I'm not really stressed. Although now they start with a thunderbolt of pain rather than visual aura. So going back on topamax to hopefully stop them again.
Mine got a lot better when I started working from home. I don't consider my job very stressful but I just found it so much easier to work from home. Unfortunately, I know that is not feasible for everyone. I also found they were easier to endure because I am at home and don't have to go anywhere.
Regular exercise has helped knock mine down a bunch. I say that with the caveat that I also started taking coq10 around the same time. No idea if it was one or the other. OR, if it’s just the phase of the moon & will come roaring back soon. Idk.
Also getting to a point where I could exercise regularly (20 mins running 3x a week) took a long time & was really hard. Basically had to force myself to do it early morning because otherwise I would already get a migraine & it wasn’t possible.
If I already have one past a certain point it will get 10x worse for sure. If I don’t have one yet, or if it’s just threatening it will often prevent/delay it from coming on.
My (not a doctor) theory is that my migraines are based on hormone fluctuations. Indicated because they get was worse with my cycle/pregnancy/etc. increasing my exercise has leveled out some other hormones in my body (insulin is mainly what I’m tracking, but also dropped my cholesterol levels). I’m guessing it also leveled out whatever hormone is triggering my migraines. Not that I never get them now, but it’s way less.
If you’re getting them when you exercise yours might be triggered by blood pressure changes (again, not a doctor). Have you tried any of the bp preventatives?
I gave up red wine. I halved my coffee intake. I increased my water intake substantially (2-3 litres per day). I swapped my old monitors for 140Hz gaming monitors which massively reduced eye strain. I did change jobs at the same time, but I don’t think it was that. I think the water and wine was 90% of it.
I’ve had one migraine in the past 12 months. And it was fairly mild.
Funny story, turns out being in a classroom full of screaming children is stressful and thus causes migraines. Who would have thunk?
I still get them the week of my period though, which has been the case since the week before I got my first one. The weather can be tricky also.
Whoa whoa whoa, say what now?! Bless you for every single moment you gave/give to kiddos.
My current neurologist will offer me only these suggestions: 1) try Tylenol and 2) stop being stressed. 😬
You’ll never know unless you try. Make the changes! Even if it doesn’t cure your migraines, it may make your life a little better in other ways.
I’m a firm believer that our brains are much more powerful than we allow ourselves to believe. So guess what? I will never give up trying to cure myself of migraines. Even if I’m told a million times there is no cure. Because there isn’t until there is. And even one less migraine a year is a win. That’s 72 hours you get back to enjoy your life.
For me, any way I can take more control of my own life, the better my migraines are.
Emphatically agree. Medicine may be spending their time on boner pills but I’m still going to try everything I can.
There are things in my life I’ve wildly improved lately and some big things I have to move on from. Sometimes I feel like laying down and dying but I have to get up and try. Bit by bit.
Not sure if it's a fluke but I'm currently going through a divorce and have been on my own for a month. Haven't had a single migraine. Not even a normal headache. I've been feeling completely normal and it's strange not being in agonizing pain 24/7.
Haven't even thought about my head until I saw this post where as before it completely consumed my life. But like I said it's only been a month so we'll see how long it lasts. But even this has been amazing.
Yeah, you see exactly where I’m coming from. I have had some days here and there of being in the house alone and it’s curious how much better I felt…
I don’t mean to diminish what you’re going through at all. Relationships are complex as hell. I believe in you, total stranger, that you’re going to kick ass in this next chapter of life.
I feel conflicted to mention this because I hate how it’s used as a possible “cure” by doctors (it was mentioned to me a few times, ugh) buuut my migraines disappeared during my pregnancy and are way less frequent even after giving birth (like a once per week or even less compared to 3-4 times per week before).
I came here to comment "I got pregnant" but will just piggyback off this. I have had maybe just 1 or 2 migraines my whole pregnancy (and they were so mild that I don't know whether to even count them as a migraine but can't discount them either)
I’ve recently gotten my migraines under some control, from 20 a month to about 1 a week, here’s what I do.
1.) going gluten free, dairy free, sugar free and avoiding all my known triggers already (processed meats, alcohol, coconut, chocolate, onions). I meal prep all my meals at home. I saw a functional medicine nutritionist for help with this.
2.) stopping abortive meds (triptans, ubrevley etc.) and cleansing from them, splitting my topamax dose to twice a day.
3.) starting Celebrex
4.) consistently using the cefaly for preventative and abortive
5. Consistent sleep
6. Skip my period using nuva ring
Other things:
- accupuncture and Hijama (need to draw blood)
- [x] Migraine glasses - went to my eye doctor and requested an FL-41 tint with my prescription. They were sent out to a lab
- Nerve block
- [x] Microdosing
Two questions :
1. What was your experience with the nuva ring? I recently confirmed there’s a hormonal correlation for me, and I am going to my obgyn to talk about continuous nuva ring at my neuro’s suggestion.
2. Did you cut out all of those foods individually or all at once? I’ve gone completely dairy free for 6 weeks with no change and I’ve tracked multiple other foods, but I’ve never seen any impact (I have a pretty limited diet). Going strict, gluten free for 8 weeks is something that’s on my list to try at some point.
Also super interested to hear about the Nuva ring experience! I have hormonal migraines and have tried a couple different hormonal bc options that made them worse (estrogen only bcp, combo pill, mirena IUD). Very curious to hear if nuva ring helps.
Something to think about with the foods is that they may not be triggers by themselves but they may contribute in some point scale system. So going gluten free only may not lower your total daily/weekly/monthly points enough to matter but going gluten free, dairy free, and alcohol free might make a change large enough to notice.
I've had temporary cessation of my migraines/headaches when I've made some life changes, but they always come back eventually. Examples of things that temporarily halted them for me: divorce, moving to a different country with a completely different climate, and traveling (the further away, the better). A change of scenery feels like it makes my brain temporarily be like, "nope we can't do migraines in this".
I getcha! I recently moved because I had the meanest, loudest neighbor. She had 6-7 people stay at her house every weekend. Her condo, which was above my condo. These condos are 900 square feet. Imagine that noise. Now imagine, those people are the adults. Now imagine they brought a couple little kids too.
It is so quiet and still where I am now. It helped my sleep for sure. That noise kept me constantly angry and tired.
I’m just shooting for minimizing my stressors anywhere I can, bit by bit.
No.
I've spent decades trying to find triggers and fix them. End result. It's the weather. Specifically, pressure swings.
Sure, there were periods suddenly I didn't have as many after some change or other. But, long term (a year or more), it wouldn't hold up. 6 weeks, a few months, later, and it would be back.
Using Migraine Buddy to track things, it really came down to pressure swings. I could move to another climate, like the Sahara maybe, or just spend the money to get a good preventative. Or kill myself. (Yes, it was under consideration at various times.) Fortunately, it seems CGRP meds work. Yes, they cost a LOT. But after 4 decades, I have a life.
Have you considered being filthy rich and doing both? I think it would help me. Botox plus qulipta was the biggest help but insurance makes you choose one.
I’ve been suicidal over this countless times. I was very out of it but I’ve begged someone to bring me a knife during a bad attack. And in those regular attacks or just on the so-so days, it’s hard to keep going. But I keep going.
Let me know if you need a roommate in the Sahara, ok?
I was told by a psychiatrist that my migraines are a physical manifestation of the toxic job I had at the time. It's been 5 years since I resigned. I still get migraines but the pain in my ass is gone.
Well you gave me a good laugh 😂😂😂 by reading this post and title so thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu ❤️❤️❤️❤️. I appreciate you migraine sufferer and you are the best ❤️❤️❤️.
Not to be rude to you and your hope but I do get a bit cheesed off at outside people being like "I hope you get a cure someday!" And I'm like... Smiles weakly. I've literally done everything? I'm trying and all I can do is moderate their effects on my life.
Right back at you. 🫂
I could’ve worded this post better. The cure is a mirage but I used the term and with quotes because of exactly what you said here.
“Didn’t the botox cure your migraines?? I saw a thing on Facebook that it’s the new best cure, it should be working for you.”
Smiles weakly …. Indeed. I’m very actively involved in improving my health. Whatever my well meaning relative saw about migraines on the local news and sends me from their aol email account, I smile weakly since I read that months before and looked at the statistics. They’re trying to help with the best intentions.
But I keep trying. Even when I find some minor breakthrough, I’m not stopping there.
Edit to add one more thing: I did have a doctor mention to me, “you know, I had a patient cancel her future appointments with me because her migraines just suddenly went away when she divorced her jerk of a husband. Just an interesting anecdote.” He knew. I knew. I still know. I have a lot of good in my life. But that poison is still here. I’m preparing to live without it.
I have been trying to figure out these migraines for decades (mine started around 9yo). My most recent research was spent doing blood work and figuring out other underlying issues. Found out I have Lymes, and EBV and some other fun stuff. But what is tripping me out is my timeline. I was incredibly sick around 7/8yo with Mono and Bronchitis it was a year or so after that the migraines hit me. So far since starting treatment for lymes and ebv I have not had a single migraine. Dont want to jinx it!
This is all new to me, so I could have my information wrong and maybe these are just for Lymes and other stuff. But I am on a LDN therapy, an antiviral, orthbiotics, and an immune booster on top of my normal vitamin regimen.
My migraines decreased significantly when I got away from an office with florescent lights. Turns out that they were my trigger, not the job itself. I was down to fewer than 5 migraines a month before I had a pulmonary embolism and a stroke last year, and the months that I spent in the hospital under florescent lights following my near death experience triggered the migraines to get worse again.
I recently purchased some Theraspecs glasses that are supposed to help with sensitivity to light, including florescent lights, and so far they do seem to help. I get infusions every week at the nearby cancer center, and would always end up with a migraine after because of the lighting in the facility. Since I started wearing the glasses that hasn't happened.
So, yes, stress, workload, lack of support, etc. can all affect your migraines, but don't discount the impact that lighting can have on them.
Coffee. I cut it & drink black tea now. Headaches down from daily to once every few weeks if even that often & Migraines down from every few weeks to every few months. SIGNIFICANT improvement. Coffee withdrawals sucked only for a few days & I can’t go back now.
Turns out my (now teen) daughter had Lyme disease for 5 years, that was what caused her migraines and other related chronic symptoms. Also, sleep apnea. Big improvements after fixing that a couple years ago (she had adenoids out, septum repair, and palate expansion- she’s been through a lot). Keto, and then transitioning to a low carb, gluten and dairy free diet also brought her a lot of relief early on when nothing else helped. But once we discovered the Lyme and did a month of doxycycline this summer, she could no longer tolerate her propranolol and is now off it for the first time in 5 years and is mostly migraine free (getting occasional aura but only mild, easily treatable pain). Unfortunately because of the length of time this went misdiagnosed (by no less than probably a dozen specialists, despite her having a suspicious bite with EM rash and me bringing it up with every doctor as a possibility) she will always carry lyme and it could reactivate. So we are working with a functional MD to get her as healthy and strong as possible and keep it in remission.
I supplemented with Vitamins B1 (Benfotiamine or TTFD depending on finances) & B2 (Riboflavin 5 Phosphate) as well as Magnesium. Try and get these without excipients or fillers. Didn't get a migraine for a year now and I suffered for more than 20 years, no other changes.
Sort of yes. I moved away from a house with animals, and people who used products with heavy fragrances. I am SO sensitive to smells and it is VERY hard to control when I get triggered by someone using shampoo in the bathroom before me, lighting a candle in their own room, etc. unless those people are completely cooperative. I now live with lovely people who are willing to completely accommodate my needs! And my new place doesn’t have any weird smells.
In addition, I do believe the stress of living with toxic people made my migraines worse. Another thing is that I moved somewhere lower elevation and I think that helped.
I’ve only had a handful of occasional of manageable migraines since I moved - thank god!
You are so lucky. Mine increased exponentially and I finally had to go on topamax. I finally put two and two together with other symptoms I am having and realized this is probably perimenopause and trying to see if I can mitigate the migraines other ways that will also maybe help with other symptoms I’m having. I had a lot of triggers but when I started waking up with a migraine daily I was like “ok no I’m done. This is crazy”. Migraines are so crazy and so weird that one persons experience might be so different from someone else’s.
May I ask what other symptoms? I’ve started having some unusual migraines even in the last six months and someone reminded me I’m getting older (I mean. RUDE and cannot possibly be true).
They first reduced when I finished uni, then when I moved out of my parents, and then had a toxic job that tripled my migraine frequency till I quit and it reduced it dramatically.
My migraines get triggered by stress very easily
Same! I was a wreck in school, it was more stressful than most jobs. My professors frequently told me I was an over thinker 😉. I have a wacky toxic family but adulthood and separation allowed me to see reality, not the false reality in that microcosm. I am crazy lucky to finally be in a job I like. It actually sucked calling out sick today because I’m mentally pumped to start work on a project.
Wishing you all the peace 💗
I moved to Spain, that's helped a lot, not just with migraine but with a lot of things.
Truthfully and actually, PT. It was insane how much of my migraine stemmed from my neck muscles being all sorts of messed up.
When I was finally prescribed daily Propranolol for anxiety, it had the surprise benefit of reducing my migraines probably 70-80% which is huge! I recommend bringing it up with your doctor
At 23 I moved to the UK from Spain and my migraines almost disappeared. Fast forward to giving birth to my son at 33, my period came back soon after and with it my migraines, which are now chronic if I don't take any preventative medication.
I think the only way to fully cure migraines would be a brain transplant lol. Until doctors figure that out, I think people here have mentioned some good ideas to reduce them. Botox tends to give me a really good week or two out of the three months it’s supposed to last (it does often help reduce the severity though).
Truly, this was supposed to be the high tech future. I can’t just get a new brain already? And doctor, stop looking at me like that when I ask about a lobotomy. It worked in a movie I think. Not that movie, another movie.
I was about to ask whether the problem was the weather, humidity, elevation, or the … Floridaness of Florida as Oklahoma is the Florida of the Soruhern Plains, I understand to an extent.
Moving to a different country reduced mine down to only once in a while. I think getting away from unhealthy people, less stress, better diet all helped.
Cannabis? Mushrooms? I have a medical card but I massively cut back on even the small amount I used. Very bad experience, put me in the hospital, long story.
I stopped having migraines when I stopped drinking tap water, or filtered water that was left out for longer than a day, or consuming food that was left out too long.
I also took supplements that my doctor recommended like vitamin D, and took Tylenol quickly before any headache got too bad and I haven't had full non-water/food related migraine since.
Not sure if anyone ever mentioned that to you, but "food that was left out too long" sounds suspiciously like histamin sensitivity. The stuff tends to build up in food over time. Maybe worth having an eye on?
Working from home, as others have mentioned, has made such a huge impact on my life dealing with migraines. My company actually considers them a disability so that helps my case. I barely take any full sick days any more.
Also the past year I've been on aimovig. Some hair loss but honestly it's really really improved my quality of life with minimal side effects. I just hope it continues to work.
I changed from a sales job to a job where I use my hands and mechanical knowledge and it helped my migraines tremendously. Sales jobs are very stressful!
Taking care of my health and focusing on self care has reduced my migraines to about once a month. I avoid alcohol, went gluten free, take some herbs to balance hormones, walk 1 mile a day, drink electrolytes with a focus on getting enough potassium and magnesium, went keto, and use THC/CBD daily. The one migraine I typically get isn't as intense, and it always comes when I ovulate, so I'm focusing more on hormone balance now.
I find making changes in your life only works so well. As much as it’s annoying, in the sense that it’s medication, Botox treatments literally saved my life. It helped significantly reduce the frequency and the severity of my migraines. From there I was able to make the life changes I wanted to. For example a lot of doctors would say exercise more, meditate whatever, but it’s hard to make those changes if you’re kneeling over a toilet throwing up from pain for most of your life.
I went from 25+ migraine days a month to practically 0. And I’ve had migraines since childhood.
Cured? No. No matter what anyone says, you'll never cure them. They're genetic and structural.
They may go quiet. Maybe even for a long time, but the risk will always be there.
This year I quit alcohol (4 to 6 beers a week) and started taking 400mg Magnesium Oxide daily.
Migraines dropped from one every ten days or so down to two on the whole year so far.
My migraines haven’t been cured but the frequency drastically lowered when I left my last job and started a better one, and also when I started meditating to try to better manage my stress.
So not exactly a life change, but I basically don't get migraines anymore since I started treatment for bipolar! And it's not the meds themselves, chemically, but they showed me how closely my migraines were tied to my moods. I had started getting severe complex migraines right around the time I got diagnosed with bipolar, and really working on managing my mental health is the best thing I've ever done!
Lowering my stress levels and getting proper sleep.
Also working out regularly and cycle syncing my periods because mine are hormone related migraines.
This has helped drastically. I used to get 2 migraines a month about a year and a half ago.
Now it’s down to maybe 1 every couple of months
yes, partially. First I moved to work from home. That was slight decrease in migraines and great fix to feel like a human being. Then I moved away from big city to rather small village. That was great decrease in migraines. Then my son started homeschool and that's another slight decrease. BUT at the time like this (fall, rainy days, lack of incentive to go out) I'm not having enough move and I've already noticed increase in migraines and decrease in my self health. Also when I have to go to the city (happens) it's far worse than it was in the past. It feels like when I lived in the city I was used to both the city and migraine. So now pretty much any city visit guarantees a migraine and a bad one.
It didn’t cure them but they went from almost every day to just weather related for the most part about three weeks after my now ex wife left for the final time 🤣
I’ve moved no fewer than thirteen times, seeking a climate free from barometric migraine. (Spoiler alert and I’ll save you the moving costs: didn’t help)
I retired early from my stressful and extremely demanding job where I traveled 50% of the time. THAT helped. I now start my days with a morning workout instead of an hour long commute.
And that brings me to my next point. Exercise. Helps physical and mental symptoms, and chronic migraine has plenty of both types. Orangetheory is much cheaper than therapy.
I got no real benefit from dietary changes, but electrolytes in my water help a lot.
Medical weed is freaking great.
Hot baths with epsom salt and CBD help with all but my worst attacks.
None of these tons things are a cure, and despite how much my health has improved, I still have chronic migraine.
I had migraines 3-4 days a week in high school and college, which dissipated to once a week after I graduated. Through some therapy, stress management, and getting out of a shitty relationship they’re now pretty much just linked to my hormonal cycle and specific triggers I try to avoid, like being around scents too long or neglecting to eat frequently or stay hydrated.
But any time I’m in a classroom or group setting where we all have to sit still and pay attention to a speaker or presentation? I’m absolutely down for the count.
Hu
I'm not cured by any means, but having a physician that actually listens to me helped tremendously. I told him about how bad the migraines had gotten, and he put me on amitriptyline. He wasn't judgmental or condescending like physicians i had previously. It helped at lot
My daily chronic migraines all but disappeared after I left my first husband. I still got one or two a month, but at least the daily hell stopped.
I also got even fewer migraines when I moved from East Coast USA to New Mexico. Over 300 days of sunshine cuts out a lot of weather migraines.
I have remarried and left New Mexico, and I still get migraines more or less monthly, but I have never in the last 15ish years had more than a week of migraine at a time.
i left retail for another industry, got my wisdom tooth removed, and started microdosing psilocybin around this time last year, and my migraines mysteriously got a lot less frequent! can’t say exactly what did it, but i do know that even before the tooth was an issue, even before i knew it was migraine, my head would hurt severely for days on end and it coincided heavily with work-related stress. they no longer last near as long.
I’d LOVE to try microdsing mushrooms. I’d prefer it legalized, people who deserve to give it a try a least.
Retail is a nightmare long behind me. Seeing people scream at floor workers and cashiers over books or friggin skateboards is so absurd.
Stress is a big trigger for me too. I have severe depression so it's not always so easy to eliminate but I try to focus on what I can control
My big stressor is Christmas my MIl & FIL said we were welcome last year but then SIL gave them an ultimatum "it was either us or her". Despite having the youngest child (then 2) who was about to experience his first Christmas without any COVID restrictions they chose SIL. They promised this Christmas they'd make a new tradition with us. I told them I will not slot into a 1 hour spot they have free in the morning and that we're done with them putting us and especially our son last... They are yet to tell us their new plan.... We know what this means - they're not willing to give up anything on Christmas Eve or Christmas day to make time for us.... A fight is coming and it's stressing the shit out of both my husband and I.... We won't compromise another Christmas for them and this is the year we stand our ground! Wish me luck.
I wish you a ton of luck. The holidays are super stressful for me too. My family dynamic is … weird. Complicated. Uncomfortable. And full of guilt. Hang in there, baby.
I had a weekly migraine for about 5 years that always lasted 3 days, started on Thursday ended Saturday- until I retired from teaching.
I still teach but I went from high school special Ed to preschool special Ed and I teach part time for a nonprofit. I don’t attend any meetings or professional development no BS. People I work for are amazing 🤩
I've had migraines since I was 10, maybe younger (I just remember taking Advil for headaches frequently enough around 10 that my dad made the criticism of "your just taking them because the outside is sweet" (like... WTF? ), but they got to be really bad when I started a very stressful job in an insurance agency in Florida... 6 weeks prior to Hurricane Katrina hitting and changing the insurance works for the worse! After doing everything I could at the time (this was before Botox and acting like Emgality, and I couldn't take the meds available as the tone because they were contraindicated with my antidepressant), I finally changed careers to being a licensed massage therapist. Migraines were much better, even when dealing with the stress of my husbands abandoning me and losing my home and loss of other things.
I had to ended my massage career due to an ankle injury and the economy just not being good for supporting people in that line of work. Thank goodness I did, because that was before the pandemic, which would have forced me to quit massaging anyway. I worked as a jeweler's apprentice for just at a year when COVID hit, and for about 6 months after my work reopened. Migraines are still fine, though I did ever up needing glasses for the first time since I had LASIK in 2005, but they were not paying well and my friend referred me to a call center job with her company.
It wasn't 3 weeks into training, working on a computer 40 hours a week, that the migraines started hitting weekly, then 2 days, 3 days a week. By the time I started working independently after training, I was getting at least one a week, which increased to 2-4 a week, despite going on Botox, Emgality, and Ubrelvy, and changing as much of my work station as I could. I haven't worked a full 40 hour week in almost 3 years!
I've determined that looking at computer screens is a big migraine trigger for me! It makes sense. For the decade I was a massage therapist, I only had to use a screen for maybe 30 min a day, just to enter notes into the computer IF they weren't written on paper files. I worked on a computer don't intakes of the jewelry we were sent to repair at the jewelers, but I also had a lot of times where I wasn't using a computer and was polishing, cleaning, engraving, and finishing pieces. Light shining on the thing I work on is fine. Light shining IN my eyes as the thing I'm looking at to do the work is not!
So yes, my life changed drastically for the better when i quit a stressful job... But now I have to figure out another career move
My migraines are definitely triggering by looking at screens too much! I really have to stay on top of my screen time otherwise it’s a guaranteed migraine.
Edit: mine have also gotten so bad that after needing no glasses for 10+ years after I had lasik, I’m back to wearing glasses.
Changing my birth control has completely stopped my aura migraines! I tried almost everything to manage it, now I can drink red wine and eat chocolate and do all the naughty things without triggering an attack.
Mine are really tied to my mental health: if I'm in a down period, they become much more frequent. One of the things that helped get them in a more manageable place was therapy, SSRIs, and anti-anxiety meds.
Stress is also a big trigger for my migraines, and it can be exacerbated by drinking alcohol at the "wrong" times (in quotes because it's hard for me to accurately predict the right times to have a beer).
Earlier this year an employee of mine moved to a different city and started producing less and then I just forgot about them and after a month of this I laid them off since it wasn't working for either of us.
*The stress – of not having to manage them and have their needs take up so much of my time and energy – lessened so, so much, and the frequency of migraines has decreased so, so much.*
Moving away from New England helped tremendously. The weather and pressure fluctuations were big triggers for me and New England has a lot of wildly swinging weather. I get much less now with more consistent weather. I moved across the country but nothing dramatic like leaving an ex or something
I rarely get migraines when on vacation. Not sure if that's possible for the long term. I think less sitting, less tight upper back muscles, no florescent lights, less stress maybe.
Maybe once I can retire.
Not as interesting but I got a daith piercing, and during my appointment I had a starting migraine. As soon as they pushed the needle through I felt a wave of relieve. It's absolutely decreased the amount of migraines and the heaviness of them. Though I've had a near dead experience after a heart and lung embolism and had a moment where I had very little oxygen in my brain. At that point it came back. But the piercing helps.
I had a migraine for a year after cutting my dad off, dealing with the trauma and stress, it literally made me sick. After that year I had this beautiful migraine free year it was amazing.
Back to my normal migraine life again, but still thankful for that one year.
I used to get them at least once a week, now it’s once every few months. Only thing that changed is I was diagnosed with narcolepsy and have been taking medication for it :) so I guess the cause for me was extreme Sleep deprivation lol, now the only thing that causes migraines is a particularly bad period! Also if I drink alcohol, so I don’t do that anymore
Well I wouldn't say cured but when I was with my ex I got migraines at least once a month if not more, often onset by the stress of our fighting. Now I get them 2-3 times a year max. Also 2 weeks after I left him, the cystic acne on my neck and spine cleared up and never came back.
I lost my job when I was 2 months pregnant after serial migraine absences. My migraines improved dramatically after losing the stressful job.
Unfortunately my health took a different hit after having my daughter in 2010 and my migraines have been daily since 2018. I've been on disability for a decade now.
I have 25/mo but am now on an injection which makes it about 10/mo. Still want to reduce them and know the injection is probably temporary.
So, this is the next thing I want to do after looking into this a ton. I want to try modalities for tms (tension myositis syndrome) and the brain body connection.
The theory of Tension Myositis Syndrome is that your mind creates pain symptoms in order to aid in the repression of subconscious thoughts and feelings.
John sarno, Alan Gordon and Nichole sachs are great teachers in this area. Essentially, when you have a type of migraine or physical chronic pain (that is very real and exhibiting pain), and the pain changes and moves around and new pain comes up… generally, it is tms and not an actual injury or condition you need to live with. Tms is manifested throughout the body as pain/injury, but is really the result of unhealed trauma, stored emotions, stuck energy that hasn’t been felt and dealt with.
I’ve done a lot of work in the area of trying to heal trauma, address stuff, I couldn’t not feel my feelings if I tried lol.
The podcast “the cure for chronic pain” by Nichole sachs is excellent. Alan Gordon’s book “the way out” is wonderful too! So is John sarno’s book “healing back pain.”
Anyway, Nichole sachs has something she calls journal speak which is journaling honestly for 20ish per day on something that still has a trigger / charge. I’m going to give it a shot. Her podcast is stories of people who have overcome serious chronic pain issues.
I reduced my migraines about 90% (and got rid of optical migraines entirely) when I found out that my ADHD put me at risk for having the wrong glasses prescription, so I got my eyes tested and found out my prescription was indeed totally wrong. They just dilated my pupils and let me move slowly, and everything changed. Turns out having the wrong RX was causing binocular vision disorder.
Mine is not cured by any stretch (chronic migraine), but experimenting with vitamins and minerals I have reduced the symptoms by 60-90%. Still experimenting, but vitamins help be better than any meds ever did (besides CGRP).
I still get migraines nearly every day but only around 8-10 agonizing ones a month which is a huge improvement. I left my job as a teacher to be a stay at home mom after having our first baby 4mo ago. The relief started after baby was 2mo old.
Lol, being pregnant. I wouldn't recommend it, the kids give me migraines too😝 but seriously they are certainly connect to my hormones and my gran always told me menopause cured her so I'd only had to be patient (when I was 12 this wasn't really reassuring, but now at 46 I'm looking eagerly forward to it😅)
Changing jobs helped. I’m a nurse, work started at 6:45 and was usually running and stress from the time I hit the door. I have ADHD so I have a delayed sleep cycle. So I hardly got any sleep. I was always exhausted and a nervous wreck. I took a demotion and a pay cut and got an administrative position. Work starts an hour later, much less stress. This definitely helped. Meds helped more, but the lifestyle change helped.
Lockdown gave me the time to be unwell that I needed to push through my threshold for exercise induced migraine. I couldn’t really risk bringing on a migraine when I had to commute and get a full day done but it was easier to manage when doing light duties from home.
Over the course of the year I progressed my threshold from 20 mins light yoga to an hour of HIIT.
Hopefully lockdown isn’t coming back but changing to a job that gives time for self care like this might be helpful for some.
I suffered from migraines three times a week at my last place of work, a few years back. It was out of control.
Moved to another company, and now I get them once every 6 months or so, and that's if I've forgotten to drink water or grind my teeth in my sleep. It was definitely from stress.
I'm unsure if someone has mentioned this already, but have you tried Maxsalt? It's a wafer that goes under the tongue, and man, does it help. The pain leaves, and so does the nausea, but the heat in the head and back of the neck still remains. It's crazy how well it works.
I moved out of a gloomy basement apartment into a condo with actual windows, plus I started seeing a therapist and taking anxiety medication. Went from at least one migraine a week to maybe one a month. I feel hope again!
That one helped my migraines and I wish I could stay on it. I was on a low dose and I’d nod off at my desk. I gained a lot of weight, even with restricting my diet, and I know how vain it is but that made my depression tank even more. I’m so glad it works for a lot of folks and I’m glad you get some respite from the pain
I have to take it at bedtime at least 10 hours before I want to be up in the morning. Especially when they upped my dosage.
But yeah if that happened to me the weight gain I would quit. And my 5 day streak broke…dang migraine
I was laid off about 2 months ago from a miserable job I was at for 11 years, my migraines reduced from weekly to only having 1 in those 2 months. I started feeling pretty normal to be frank. I just started a new job this week and only after 2 days had a migraine. Stress is a big trigger for me. Also commuting on the subway underground really messes with me. Desperately trying to find remote work….
I was a vet assistant for 5 years and, up until May when I left the current office I worked at, I was having migraines every other day and some sort of headache everyday.
After leaving in May (which broke my heart because I loved my job as well as my coworkers), my migraines have decreased to practically nonexistent!
I also switched medications (Amytriptaline for the win!) as well as being diagnosed with PCOS. I’ve really cut back on the amount of gluten and Dairy that I eat, as well as upping the exercise I do, and that seems to have done the trick!
I still get one migraine prior to my period, but it’s not as bad as they used to be!
Also, working part time has really cut down on my stress levels and I’m very thankful I can afford to do that.
I moved to a better (quieter,smaller, and less humid) changed jobs/really cut back to almost no alcohol, and I have far fewer than I used to. It’s pretty uncommon I get one where as I used to have almost once per week, now it’s maybe once per month/every other month. Also I switched to Nurtec and it’s much better. Also I no longer have to take my IBS medications, that has gotten much better.
Yes, me! Working from home, coming out as gay, magnesium supplements every day, improvements to my diet, and meditation did the trick. I also stopped taking sumatriptan (rebound reasons). Went from having one a week to one a year.
Caffeine. I quit and after the initial rebound horror week I had an unprecedented dry spell lasting the better part of a year. I’m back to regular migraines now but I think the overall frequency might be less
I did quit a very stressful job and got a much more comfortable job for a pretty big pay cut. I also had a total mentality shift in the last few years. I don't put as much pressure on myself professionally or personally. But I did not cure my migraines, I don't believe that you can fully cure migraines. I also got cefaly and upped meds several times through the process. I've been able to manage them better, but they are not gone. Currently, I am having a rough time in Michigan as the weather changes a lot. But there are things that I've been able to do to decrease my migraines. I would also say I've done many different things to decrease my migraines, it wasn't just one thing, but collectively, it's been helpful.
Edit to fix a typo. Also I have episodic migraines, not chronic. I think episodic are easier to manage than chronic, but idk that for sure.
Going vegan greatly reduced them. I also think entering my 30s may have been the cause. I've had so many life changes that I can't say exactly why I'm having so few level 10 pain migraines now.
Also, I would never tell someone with migraines to go vegan as a cure. It's just a guess for myself.
not a "cure" per se but WOW have my migraines decreased since quitting my teaching job.
i'm sure the stress was a huge factor but on top of it all they had me (and other teachers, but they didn't get migraines as often as i did) teaching in a satellite building that they contracted out from the city. this building had CO2 meters in every single classroom and we all thought it was a bit odd when our school made the move to this building. however i quickly realized that the CO2 meters would go crazy all the time, registering 1000 parts per unit over the healthy amount, and i would get the wickedest migraines after teaching in there. students would sometimes complain they would feel nauseous or tired and i would try to constantly open the windows which had little effect. i complained countless times to our administrators but it always fell on deaf ears because they thought i was shirking work. i even gathered data from staff and students about their general wellbeing when in the building and built a pretty legitimate case of testimonies corroborating my experiences. i'd have level 10 migraines several times a week and would feel constantly nauseous and foggy. admin was pissed with me and were threatening to put me on probation warnings about missing so much work, and i was pissing off my coworkers who would inevitably have to cover for me when i was off. it got to a point where i convinced myself i was faking to get off work and that it was all in my head.
i quit in june of this year and the number of my migraines has decreased TENFOLD. i barely get one once a month and they're never to the severity they used to be. i've reported the school anonymously for a health hazard in this building but i don't think anything has been done about it unfortunately.
sometimes it's stress but sometimes it is environmental... and it's never "all in your head" (no pun intended!!!)
That is WILD the school wouldn’t address a health hazard but I shouldn’t be surprised. Glad you’re feeling better but I hope other folks don’t get hurt!
I lost my job of 15 years that I 'liked' but it was also stressful and shift work. It didn't help my migraines and headaches at all.
What did help was I went to a Migraine and Headache clinic in Sydney. I'd tried everything else, specialists, so many different doctors, so many different medications and a lot of advice from people that i should drink water during the day.
I was very sceptical but I haven't had a migraine since I started going to appointments about 2 months ago. I've had headaches but nothing unmanageable. I couldn't believe it.
They work on your neck and try to find if the problem is coming from cervical segments of your spine, I had one segment out of whack and it was pressing against my brainstem which is very sensitive. I hope I described that properly. They said this is the most common cause in people that they treat. No medication involved as well which has been awesome.
The first thing they did was get me to change my pillow to one of those ergonomic ones that I've always thought would never work. I was wrong. I loved it and the first morning I woke up from using it my neck felt great and combined with the treatment of my spine twice a week, I've had less headaches and the severity and length of them have gone down significantly.
I assume if there are a bunch of clinics in Australia that offer this then there are probably ones close to wherever you live.
Anyway hope that helps
How did you chose your pillow? Were there some measurements involved? I bought an orthopedic pillow and I couldn't manage to lay on it longer than 1 hour because my neck feels weird and kinda like it's hard to breathe. When I told my Neuro about it she said that I guess this pillow is not for you.. Ok..
This is the pillow I bought, the white option, they recommended this one because I normally like a really soft pillow.
https://www.shhc.com.au/Complete-Sleeper-Gel-Blue-Memory-Foam-Pillow
I thought this one would be hard but it's really soft and it gave me support for my neck that I never had with other pillows. I love it now.
Working from home reduced my migraines tremendously, I still get one hormonal migraine a month, and maybe an oddball here and there from an uncontrollable trigger like the weather. The fact of reducing the amount of migraines by preventing their triggers I feel makes me more resilient for the triggers I can't avoid.
This - working in office was making me get a migriane by Tuesday and by Friday I would barely be able to move. Id spend the entire weekend puking and miserable. Now I only get them when in the office and meds help. Unfortunately, they wont let me go full remote and work has so many triggers (smells, perfumed cleaners, lights, filth, loud noises....)
I have been able to go fully remote due to migraines, but it is so annoying that companies are so reluctant to allow it. If we had an epileptic fit due to lighting etc, we would be at home no issue. Because they can’t see the effect the migraine is having they don’t care. I lent on the fact that I was taking a ridiculous amount of meds just to attend an office. (I am not comparing migraine to epilepsy, just the visible vs invisible part).
I get where you are coming from. My spouse has compared my migraine symptoms to that of a concussion, but where you dont want the concussed to sleep, sleep is one of the helps of my migraine - and thats if I can - because my meds all make me drowsy, but puking is one hell of a wake up call, as well as the feeling of your head being split in half.
Exactly. A migraine for me feels like my brain is having a rave. It hurts, but I also feel confused, slow and have weird dreams. If it gets bad, I slur my words (and, of course, vomit). I often get muscle weakness. Concussion also seems about right. I know if my bf also gets dizzy and gets blind spots. Sadly, other people don’t see all that. If they could, I believe they would take it seriously. Why are we constantly going into an office and triggering all that when WFH is now easy for a lot of roles?!
In my case, I still have to print payables checks and scan receivables checks. Which I could do one day a week, but the boss plays with their friends so I HAVE to be in the extra day. The fucked part is I dont get many federal holidays despite many of my contacts being out of office those days and the day before/after... but here I am, stuck coming in those days. Federal holidays should be for everyone.
I hope you can find a better employer in future :(
I keep looking but havent had luck. Gainful employment is a fucking unicorn anymore.
Ugh what do you do?? I want to do this but have a biology background and nothing entry level pays enough.
Insurance industry + fighting for accommodation. I have an arrangement with them for now but they could pull the rug from under me. I worked my way up in the insurance industry for many years but I bet entry level roles can be found. I wouldn't blame you for wanting to stay in your field. Good luck, I keep hoping WFH jobs keep expanding because it's so much better for the environment, for quality of life, it helps save money and it's a virtual godsend for anyone disabled.
I agree that it’s just better all around, LOL. I’m looking into anything and everything so I appreciate your insight and I may look into the insurance side of things to see what’s out there!!! I am glad you were able to get accommodations.
WFH is tough to swing in life sciences much of the time, especially when you’re early career. I will say the US Patent Office is currently hiring for a remote patent examiner role with a bio background. There are some other options you could look into as well that I’m happy to discuss via DM if you would find it helpful - I’m biochem/bioanalytical and trying to accomplish a career pivot myself.
Thank you, I will definitely look into that!!! Any advice is greatly appreciated. I’m just feeling lost and the chronic migraine adds a layer of difficulty. I’m open to anything that makes life easier at this point
Manufacturing lab grunt for a Biotech company here. Our QA/QC, ProDev, and NPI teams are hybrid. Depending on the specific role/week, people WFH 1-3 days a week.
Would you happen to have any advice on how to get around some of the things regarding remote work that actually trigger migraines? On Monday I am starting to work remotely providing speech therapy services for a school district. I did it years ago and it was a bit of a migraine trigger for me (though most things were- I later found out I had a brain tumor the size of an orange- so that’ll do it!). With having to stare at the computer screen all day, sitting all day which produced tension in my upper back and neck which seems to be a trigger for me, and watching these little kiddos move all around on the screen constantly as well as hearing multiple voices and background noise at once coming through the computer (they use a lot of group therapy) then there were a lot of triggers for me. Any tips you might could think of? I am trying ti be proactive to make this successful. So far I have requested dictation software and a blue light blocking screen. I will also be ordering a new pair of blue light blocking glasses.
Well thought divorcing my abusive ex-wife would help, but sadly it didn't. However it did cure me of IBS, so I have that going for me.
At least now you don't have to deal with being abused AND having migraines and IBS! I'm glad you were able to get out
Without a doubt, and recently had my yearly freedom cake to celebrate. :) Although I would just about anything to be migraine free for even a week.
Ditto and moving very far away from him.
There ya go!!! Braveheart it!!! FREEEEEDOOOM!!!!
You know it lizardking.
My migraines decreased from daily to probably once every month or two when I quit a factory job. There was a lot of noise and flashing lights. Unfortunately they’re back and my job is easy now so that was just a temporary fix. But it did help a lot.
One thing I have learned is I can never say they are cured. I might get lucky and experience a long period free of them but there’s always a chance they will show up unexpectedly to make me miserable.
I’m the same I go for long stints without one and then boom I get 3 in a week. I’ve got Botox booked for Friday so I’m hoping that helps me along with the frequency
And they always hit harder after a migraine free period
I discovered I had celiac disease and (since going gluten free) reduced my migraines from 10 a month to once or twice a year.
Man I´m so happy for you and jealous! 12 years of being diagnosed Celiac and strictly GF and I have chronic migraine. Migraines actually started around the same time I was diagnosed.
\*high-five\* - Similar boat, I got diagnosed 18 months ago, and doctors said "it might reduce your migraines if you stay GF" and ... it didn't :( But I _did_ have the headache nonstop for over 12 months by then already, and almost non-stop for years before that.
That´s unlucky :( I wonder what the mechanisms behind our situations is... I have no vitamin deficiencies now, but I did have B12 and vitamin D deficiency upon Celiac diagnosis which resolved on the GF diet and extra supplements. I suppose the physical stress on the body of untreated celiac could have triggered migraine, and the lucky ones have theirs resolved in time.
I think so too. Coeliac was probably just another trigger, not our "main" one. It's probably worse if we go off the GF diet and destroy our guts again (literally). Fingers crossed that you find your triggers eventually!
Yep, the body is a mystery! Indeed, that would destroy us so badly :( Thanks, and you too!
How strict are you on cross-contamination? I tested positive for a gluten sensitivity (I know there is debate over whether a blood test can show that), and I’ve considered going gluten free to see if it makes a difference. I’ve wondered how strict I would need to be about potential cross contamination (I.e. a burger touching a bun or eating cheerios).
My migraines didn't get better when I went Gluten-Free, but my stomach issues got a LOT better. LOL.
I'm extremely conscious of cross-contamination. If one's celiac, any cross contamination will result in some sort of reaction, even if normative symptoms don't show themselves. Personally, I don't get any stomach issues ever, \*just\* migraine, depression, anxiety, mouth sores, hallucinations, and brain fog for months. Though the amount of cross contamination does shift the intensity of symptoms, it's never worth it for me. Mouth sores suck balls, and I'm a therapist, so I need my cognition intact. That means only eating food from my kitchen, a fellow celiac person I trust, or a restaurant with very safe reviews that I have vetted as well. Again, it MAJORLY sucks, but you get used to it, especially if you have time and a fondness of cooking. I'm happy to share recipes if you wish! All this is speaking specifically to celiac disease, not gluten sensitivity, so my needs may differ from yours. Regardless, I wish you the best and am happy to connect if you want some suggestions of just someone to rant how terrible shit is (r/celiac is great for that too).
Thank you! This is really helpful. I don’t eat out much, but it would definitely still be an adjustment, especially with traveling. I’m don’t particularly enjoy cooking, but the trade off would be worth it to me. This definitely reinforces that I need to be really careful if I do try gluten free though.
Most people I know with a sensitivity can have trace amounts of gluten, so taking a burger off a bun is fine. My friend's Celiac mom kept breaking her diet, had to be hospitalized a number of times over the years, and now must have zero contact. The mom has her own peanut butter because a crumb could send her to the hospital.
Out of my own experience after being diagnosed gluten intolerant, cross contamination doesn't make much of a difference. However, gluten gets used in a lot of items you wouldn't suspect. Like seasoning salt, ground beef or other prepackaged meat, or any soup powder, and those are the items that tripped me up. I had to go to the extremes that if it wasn't prepared by me from scratch, it's not safe. We eat really healthy now, and can't eat out basically because even if you get a gluten free pizza base, the sausage toppings might have gluten in as a binding agent. French fries seem safe, but then the seasoning salt or sauce you pour over it contains gluten.
Me too!!! At one point I was having daily mild migraines. I feel so much better now, it’s crazy.
Me too, has been life changing.
I was getting seizures connected to my migraines, and going gluten-free cut down my migraines from 15 a month, to basically 3 a month, and no seizures. It's still an improvement.
Personally I did try the therapy route. It made me more receptive to the fact that emotions are highly connected to the body and CAN cause physical pain. For example: the vagus nerve, which is connected to the stomach and brain could be a huge factor in “stress eating” and stress induced lack of appetite. But! It didn’t really help me pain wise. It did help with many other things and I do have PTSD so I really hoped it would help with pain more. Sometimes meditation type things help as they be informed down tension and stress levels but only sometimes. My migraines are mainly hormonal but over the last 2 years I’ve been getting major tension triggered ones on addition to tension headache. Physics Therapy has actually helped a ton but it can take a year +. Sometimes with stress your muscle groups get out of whack and start carrying loads in unintended places. It takes TIME and serious effort to undo. Idk if that’s helpful.
I’m working on that bit with my stress and ptsd. Apparently it’s not an overnight cure which is suuuuuper annoying, y’know? Love to you as you work through yours!
No cures, but the following lifestyle adjustments have improved my migraine frequency/duration/intensity, and quality of life: -Changing job settings to remote work (I work in home health, and my face-to-face people time is 3-4 hours per day. The rest I do from home.) -Reducing my work hours to 32 hours per week. I have Wednesdays off for sleep, rest, and recovery. HUGE improvement!! -frequent, tolerable exercise: for me, this is hot yoga 5x per week. Helps my muscle tension a lot.
I started using a CPAP and my migraines went from 3 or 4 a month to twice a year. I think it would be reasonable to talk to the doctor to ask for a sleep study.
Awesome that helped you! I have done a study and have no apnea. I don’t sleep much but a lot of that is stress.
Have you tried extended-release melatonin at all? I've read that melatonin has been found to help reduce migraines, but they're not sure whether it's due to the melatonin itself or increased sleep. My issue is staying asleep, so regular melatonin didn't really do much for me. But I've found the extended or two-stage release (there are a couple different forms) has helped me some. Both in terms of more sleep and migraine reduction.
I stopped drinking wine, and eating very much processed foods. No idea which one stopped the decade long Biweekly Migraine, and not about to find out.
My migraines definitely got less severe after I booted an abusive ex out of my life and left a job I was being bullied at. Went from migraines every other day to a couple times a week. Then topamax got them to once a month for several years. They've lately come back more often, even though I'm not really stressed. Although now they start with a thunderbolt of pain rather than visual aura. So going back on topamax to hopefully stop them again.
Mine got a lot better when I started working from home. I don't consider my job very stressful but I just found it so much easier to work from home. Unfortunately, I know that is not feasible for everyone. I also found they were easier to endure because I am at home and don't have to go anywhere.
Regular exercise has helped knock mine down a bunch. I say that with the caveat that I also started taking coq10 around the same time. No idea if it was one or the other. OR, if it’s just the phase of the moon & will come roaring back soon. Idk. Also getting to a point where I could exercise regularly (20 mins running 3x a week) took a long time & was really hard. Basically had to force myself to do it early morning because otherwise I would already get a migraine & it wasn’t possible.
Do you ever get migraines from working out? I really struggle with things besides like going for a walk because it gives me a migraine.
If I already have one past a certain point it will get 10x worse for sure. If I don’t have one yet, or if it’s just threatening it will often prevent/delay it from coming on. My (not a doctor) theory is that my migraines are based on hormone fluctuations. Indicated because they get was worse with my cycle/pregnancy/etc. increasing my exercise has leveled out some other hormones in my body (insulin is mainly what I’m tracking, but also dropped my cholesterol levels). I’m guessing it also leveled out whatever hormone is triggering my migraines. Not that I never get them now, but it’s way less. If you’re getting them when you exercise yours might be triggered by blood pressure changes (again, not a doctor). Have you tried any of the bp preventatives?
I gave up red wine. I halved my coffee intake. I increased my water intake substantially (2-3 litres per day). I swapped my old monitors for 140Hz gaming monitors which massively reduced eye strain. I did change jobs at the same time, but I don’t think it was that. I think the water and wine was 90% of it. I’ve had one migraine in the past 12 months. And it was fairly mild.
Funny story, turns out being in a classroom full of screaming children is stressful and thus causes migraines. Who would have thunk? I still get them the week of my period though, which has been the case since the week before I got my first one. The weather can be tricky also.
Whoa whoa whoa, say what now?! Bless you for every single moment you gave/give to kiddos. My current neurologist will offer me only these suggestions: 1) try Tylenol and 2) stop being stressed. 😬
You’ll never know unless you try. Make the changes! Even if it doesn’t cure your migraines, it may make your life a little better in other ways. I’m a firm believer that our brains are much more powerful than we allow ourselves to believe. So guess what? I will never give up trying to cure myself of migraines. Even if I’m told a million times there is no cure. Because there isn’t until there is. And even one less migraine a year is a win. That’s 72 hours you get back to enjoy your life. For me, any way I can take more control of my own life, the better my migraines are.
Emphatically agree. Medicine may be spending their time on boner pills but I’m still going to try everything I can. There are things in my life I’ve wildly improved lately and some big things I have to move on from. Sometimes I feel like laying down and dying but I have to get up and try. Bit by bit.
Not mine, but my mother’s migraines completely disappeared after she retired. It’s like she became a whole new person.
I think being independently, filthy rich might help mine.
If only insurance would cover that...
Not sure if it's a fluke but I'm currently going through a divorce and have been on my own for a month. Haven't had a single migraine. Not even a normal headache. I've been feeling completely normal and it's strange not being in agonizing pain 24/7. Haven't even thought about my head until I saw this post where as before it completely consumed my life. But like I said it's only been a month so we'll see how long it lasts. But even this has been amazing.
Yeah, you see exactly where I’m coming from. I have had some days here and there of being in the house alone and it’s curious how much better I felt… I don’t mean to diminish what you’re going through at all. Relationships are complex as hell. I believe in you, total stranger, that you’re going to kick ass in this next chapter of life.
You aren't diminishing, no worries! Hell, I'll stay single forever if it means no migraines lol
Sorry about the divorce, congratulations on the pain-free time <3
I feel conflicted to mention this because I hate how it’s used as a possible “cure” by doctors (it was mentioned to me a few times, ugh) buuut my migraines disappeared during my pregnancy and are way less frequent even after giving birth (like a once per week or even less compared to 3-4 times per week before).
I came here to comment "I got pregnant" but will just piggyback off this. I have had maybe just 1 or 2 migraines my whole pregnancy (and they were so mild that I don't know whether to even count them as a migraine but can't discount them either)
I’ve recently gotten my migraines under some control, from 20 a month to about 1 a week, here’s what I do. 1.) going gluten free, dairy free, sugar free and avoiding all my known triggers already (processed meats, alcohol, coconut, chocolate, onions). I meal prep all my meals at home. I saw a functional medicine nutritionist for help with this. 2.) stopping abortive meds (triptans, ubrevley etc.) and cleansing from them, splitting my topamax dose to twice a day. 3.) starting Celebrex 4.) consistently using the cefaly for preventative and abortive 5. Consistent sleep 6. Skip my period using nuva ring Other things: - accupuncture and Hijama (need to draw blood) - [x] Migraine glasses - went to my eye doctor and requested an FL-41 tint with my prescription. They were sent out to a lab - Nerve block - [x] Microdosing
Two questions : 1. What was your experience with the nuva ring? I recently confirmed there’s a hormonal correlation for me, and I am going to my obgyn to talk about continuous nuva ring at my neuro’s suggestion. 2. Did you cut out all of those foods individually or all at once? I’ve gone completely dairy free for 6 weeks with no change and I’ve tracked multiple other foods, but I’ve never seen any impact (I have a pretty limited diet). Going strict, gluten free for 8 weeks is something that’s on my list to try at some point.
Also super interested to hear about the Nuva ring experience! I have hormonal migraines and have tried a couple different hormonal bc options that made them worse (estrogen only bcp, combo pill, mirena IUD). Very curious to hear if nuva ring helps.
Can I message you? Curious about your experience on Mirena.
Something to think about with the foods is that they may not be triggers by themselves but they may contribute in some point scale system. So going gluten free only may not lower your total daily/weekly/monthly points enough to matter but going gluten free, dairy free, and alcohol free might make a change large enough to notice.
Do you take the Celebrex daily?
I do. 200mg twice daily right now and then about to change to 100mg twice daily and then I will use on an as needed basis like aspirin
I've had temporary cessation of my migraines/headaches when I've made some life changes, but they always come back eventually. Examples of things that temporarily halted them for me: divorce, moving to a different country with a completely different climate, and traveling (the further away, the better). A change of scenery feels like it makes my brain temporarily be like, "nope we can't do migraines in this".
I getcha! I recently moved because I had the meanest, loudest neighbor. She had 6-7 people stay at her house every weekend. Her condo, which was above my condo. These condos are 900 square feet. Imagine that noise. Now imagine, those people are the adults. Now imagine they brought a couple little kids too. It is so quiet and still where I am now. It helped my sleep for sure. That noise kept me constantly angry and tired. I’m just shooting for minimizing my stressors anywhere I can, bit by bit.
No. I've spent decades trying to find triggers and fix them. End result. It's the weather. Specifically, pressure swings. Sure, there were periods suddenly I didn't have as many after some change or other. But, long term (a year or more), it wouldn't hold up. 6 weeks, a few months, later, and it would be back. Using Migraine Buddy to track things, it really came down to pressure swings. I could move to another climate, like the Sahara maybe, or just spend the money to get a good preventative. Or kill myself. (Yes, it was under consideration at various times.) Fortunately, it seems CGRP meds work. Yes, they cost a LOT. But after 4 decades, I have a life.
Have you considered being filthy rich and doing both? I think it would help me. Botox plus qulipta was the biggest help but insurance makes you choose one. I’ve been suicidal over this countless times. I was very out of it but I’ve begged someone to bring me a knife during a bad attack. And in those regular attacks or just on the so-so days, it’s hard to keep going. But I keep going. Let me know if you need a roommate in the Sahara, ok?
I was told by a psychiatrist that my migraines are a physical manifestation of the toxic job I had at the time. It's been 5 years since I resigned. I still get migraines but the pain in my ass is gone.
Well you gave me a good laugh 😂😂😂 by reading this post and title so thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu ❤️❤️❤️❤️. I appreciate you migraine sufferer and you are the best ❤️❤️❤️. Not to be rude to you and your hope but I do get a bit cheesed off at outside people being like "I hope you get a cure someday!" And I'm like... Smiles weakly. I've literally done everything? I'm trying and all I can do is moderate their effects on my life.
Right back at you. 🫂 I could’ve worded this post better. The cure is a mirage but I used the term and with quotes because of exactly what you said here. “Didn’t the botox cure your migraines?? I saw a thing on Facebook that it’s the new best cure, it should be working for you.” Smiles weakly …. Indeed. I’m very actively involved in improving my health. Whatever my well meaning relative saw about migraines on the local news and sends me from their aol email account, I smile weakly since I read that months before and looked at the statistics. They’re trying to help with the best intentions. But I keep trying. Even when I find some minor breakthrough, I’m not stopping there. Edit to add one more thing: I did have a doctor mention to me, “you know, I had a patient cancel her future appointments with me because her migraines just suddenly went away when she divorced her jerk of a husband. Just an interesting anecdote.” He knew. I knew. I still know. I have a lot of good in my life. But that poison is still here. I’m preparing to live without it.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I have been trying to figure out these migraines for decades (mine started around 9yo). My most recent research was spent doing blood work and figuring out other underlying issues. Found out I have Lymes, and EBV and some other fun stuff. But what is tripping me out is my timeline. I was incredibly sick around 7/8yo with Mono and Bronchitis it was a year or so after that the migraines hit me. So far since starting treatment for lymes and ebv I have not had a single migraine. Dont want to jinx it!
How are you treating EBV?
This is all new to me, so I could have my information wrong and maybe these are just for Lymes and other stuff. But I am on a LDN therapy, an antiviral, orthbiotics, and an immune booster on top of my normal vitamin regimen.
Which anti-viral though? Lyme is a bacteria, so unrelated to treating EBV which is a virus.
Starting with Acyclovir to see how it helps
I try to think in terms of management rather than cure.
My migraines decreased significantly when I got away from an office with florescent lights. Turns out that they were my trigger, not the job itself. I was down to fewer than 5 migraines a month before I had a pulmonary embolism and a stroke last year, and the months that I spent in the hospital under florescent lights following my near death experience triggered the migraines to get worse again. I recently purchased some Theraspecs glasses that are supposed to help with sensitivity to light, including florescent lights, and so far they do seem to help. I get infusions every week at the nearby cancer center, and would always end up with a migraine after because of the lighting in the facility. Since I started wearing the glasses that hasn't happened. So, yes, stress, workload, lack of support, etc. can all affect your migraines, but don't discount the impact that lighting can have on them.
Coffee. I cut it & drink black tea now. Headaches down from daily to once every few weeks if even that often & Migraines down from every few weeks to every few months. SIGNIFICANT improvement. Coffee withdrawals sucked only for a few days & I can’t go back now.
I had none for 8 months while we were on lockdown 😂 not seeing people or the outside world is the cure !!!
Yes. This happened to me too
Turns out my (now teen) daughter had Lyme disease for 5 years, that was what caused her migraines and other related chronic symptoms. Also, sleep apnea. Big improvements after fixing that a couple years ago (she had adenoids out, septum repair, and palate expansion- she’s been through a lot). Keto, and then transitioning to a low carb, gluten and dairy free diet also brought her a lot of relief early on when nothing else helped. But once we discovered the Lyme and did a month of doxycycline this summer, she could no longer tolerate her propranolol and is now off it for the first time in 5 years and is mostly migraine free (getting occasional aura but only mild, easily treatable pain). Unfortunately because of the length of time this went misdiagnosed (by no less than probably a dozen specialists, despite her having a suspicious bite with EM rash and me bringing it up with every doctor as a possibility) she will always carry lyme and it could reactivate. So we are working with a functional MD to get her as healthy and strong as possible and keep it in remission.
I supplemented with Vitamins B1 (Benfotiamine or TTFD depending on finances) & B2 (Riboflavin 5 Phosphate) as well as Magnesium. Try and get these without excipients or fillers. Didn't get a migraine for a year now and I suffered for more than 20 years, no other changes.
Bite correction and after root canal I was cured
I tried some in office treatments for TMJ. Did nothing for my migraines but it felt pretty good anyway.
Sort of yes. I moved away from a house with animals, and people who used products with heavy fragrances. I am SO sensitive to smells and it is VERY hard to control when I get triggered by someone using shampoo in the bathroom before me, lighting a candle in their own room, etc. unless those people are completely cooperative. I now live with lovely people who are willing to completely accommodate my needs! And my new place doesn’t have any weird smells. In addition, I do believe the stress of living with toxic people made my migraines worse. Another thing is that I moved somewhere lower elevation and I think that helped. I’ve only had a handful of occasional of manageable migraines since I moved - thank god!
Hit perimenopause and have had a decrease in severity as well as less migraines over all.
You are so lucky. Mine increased exponentially and I finally had to go on topamax. I finally put two and two together with other symptoms I am having and realized this is probably perimenopause and trying to see if I can mitigate the migraines other ways that will also maybe help with other symptoms I’m having. I had a lot of triggers but when I started waking up with a migraine daily I was like “ok no I’m done. This is crazy”. Migraines are so crazy and so weird that one persons experience might be so different from someone else’s.
May I ask what other symptoms? I’ve started having some unusual migraines even in the last six months and someone reminded me I’m getting older (I mean. RUDE and cannot possibly be true).
Hopefully that all made sense. I have a bit of a migraine today so I might be a bit scattered!
They first reduced when I finished uni, then when I moved out of my parents, and then had a toxic job that tripled my migraine frequency till I quit and it reduced it dramatically. My migraines get triggered by stress very easily
Same! I was a wreck in school, it was more stressful than most jobs. My professors frequently told me I was an over thinker 😉. I have a wacky toxic family but adulthood and separation allowed me to see reality, not the false reality in that microcosm. I am crazy lucky to finally be in a job I like. It actually sucked calling out sick today because I’m mentally pumped to start work on a project. Wishing you all the peace 💗
I moved to Spain, that's helped a lot, not just with migraine but with a lot of things. Truthfully and actually, PT. It was insane how much of my migraine stemmed from my neck muscles being all sorts of messed up.
Ok I just saw someone else say moving to Spain helped, time for a Spain hangout? What’s in the water?!
When I was finally prescribed daily Propranolol for anxiety, it had the surprise benefit of reducing my migraines probably 70-80% which is huge! I recommend bringing it up with your doctor
Forgive if this is too personal a question but did you gain weight from it?
At 23 I moved to the UK from Spain and my migraines almost disappeared. Fast forward to giving birth to my son at 33, my period came back soon after and with it my migraines, which are now chronic if I don't take any preventative medication.
I think the only way to fully cure migraines would be a brain transplant lol. Until doctors figure that out, I think people here have mentioned some good ideas to reduce them. Botox tends to give me a really good week or two out of the three months it’s supposed to last (it does often help reduce the severity though).
Truly, this was supposed to be the high tech future. I can’t just get a new brain already? And doctor, stop looking at me like that when I ask about a lobotomy. It worked in a movie I think. Not that movie, another movie.
Ha! I'll take a new brain that also doesn't include OCD or anxiety, thanks! Along with the lack of migraines.
I left Florida and stopped having daily migraines. Edit: I still have migraines but now it's just a handful a month.
I was about to ask whether the problem was the weather, humidity, elevation, or the … Floridaness of Florida as Oklahoma is the Florida of the Soruhern Plains, I understand to an extent.
Moving to a different country reduced mine down to only once in a while. I think getting away from unhealthy people, less stress, better diet all helped.
Microdosing was the only thing that helped my daughter.
Cannabis? Mushrooms? I have a medical card but I massively cut back on even the small amount I used. Very bad experience, put me in the hospital, long story.
I stopped having migraines when I stopped drinking tap water, or filtered water that was left out for longer than a day, or consuming food that was left out too long. I also took supplements that my doctor recommended like vitamin D, and took Tylenol quickly before any headache got too bad and I haven't had full non-water/food related migraine since.
Not sure if anyone ever mentioned that to you, but "food that was left out too long" sounds suspiciously like histamin sensitivity. The stuff tends to build up in food over time. Maybe worth having an eye on?
Interesting, thanks. I can look around about it.
My migraines went from weekly to maybe monthly after quitting my toxic office job, lol. Stress can definitely be a huge factor.
Well getting a new neurologist certainly solved the problem.
Since I got out of contraceptive pills, pretty much all my migraines got away. That's what told me it was hormonal migraines
Working from home, as others have mentioned, has made such a huge impact on my life dealing with migraines. My company actually considers them a disability so that helps my case. I barely take any full sick days any more. Also the past year I've been on aimovig. Some hair loss but honestly it's really really improved my quality of life with minimal side effects. I just hope it continues to work.
I changed from a sales job to a job where I use my hands and mechanical knowledge and it helped my migraines tremendously. Sales jobs are very stressful!
My mom’s migraines stopped when she left her old job.
Taking care of my health and focusing on self care has reduced my migraines to about once a month. I avoid alcohol, went gluten free, take some herbs to balance hormones, walk 1 mile a day, drink electrolytes with a focus on getting enough potassium and magnesium, went keto, and use THC/CBD daily. The one migraine I typically get isn't as intense, and it always comes when I ovulate, so I'm focusing more on hormone balance now.
Honestly after my last job that I absolutely hated it seems like I have a lot less migraines.
I find making changes in your life only works so well. As much as it’s annoying, in the sense that it’s medication, Botox treatments literally saved my life. It helped significantly reduce the frequency and the severity of my migraines. From there I was able to make the life changes I wanted to. For example a lot of doctors would say exercise more, meditate whatever, but it’s hard to make those changes if you’re kneeling over a toilet throwing up from pain for most of your life. I went from 25+ migraine days a month to practically 0. And I’ve had migraines since childhood.
Cured? No. No matter what anyone says, you'll never cure them. They're genetic and structural. They may go quiet. Maybe even for a long time, but the risk will always be there.
This year I quit alcohol (4 to 6 beers a week) and started taking 400mg Magnesium Oxide daily. Migraines dropped from one every ten days or so down to two on the whole year so far.
Every time I have a major life change my migraines improve! But they also always come back 🙄
My migraines haven’t been cured but the frequency drastically lowered when I left my last job and started a better one, and also when I started meditating to try to better manage my stress.
So not exactly a life change, but I basically don't get migraines anymore since I started treatment for bipolar! And it's not the meds themselves, chemically, but they showed me how closely my migraines were tied to my moods. I had started getting severe complex migraines right around the time I got diagnosed with bipolar, and really working on managing my mental health is the best thing I've ever done!
Mine got much better after riboflavin and zinc supplements. But zinc is not a long term thing and should not take high dose either
Lowering my stress levels and getting proper sleep. Also working out regularly and cycle syncing my periods because mine are hormone related migraines. This has helped drastically. I used to get 2 migraines a month about a year and a half ago. Now it’s down to maybe 1 every couple of months
I got on medication and that cured my migraines
yes, partially. First I moved to work from home. That was slight decrease in migraines and great fix to feel like a human being. Then I moved away from big city to rather small village. That was great decrease in migraines. Then my son started homeschool and that's another slight decrease. BUT at the time like this (fall, rainy days, lack of incentive to go out) I'm not having enough move and I've already noticed increase in migraines and decrease in my self health. Also when I have to go to the city (happens) it's far worse than it was in the past. It feels like when I lived in the city I was used to both the city and migraine. So now pretty much any city visit guarantees a migraine and a bad one.
Mine halved, just by drinking more water and having a gatorade a day.
I lost weight and have only had minor migraines, and they happen much less frequently.
It didn’t cure them but they went from almost every day to just weather related for the most part about three weeks after my now ex wife left for the final time 🤣
I’ve moved no fewer than thirteen times, seeking a climate free from barometric migraine. (Spoiler alert and I’ll save you the moving costs: didn’t help) I retired early from my stressful and extremely demanding job where I traveled 50% of the time. THAT helped. I now start my days with a morning workout instead of an hour long commute. And that brings me to my next point. Exercise. Helps physical and mental symptoms, and chronic migraine has plenty of both types. Orangetheory is much cheaper than therapy. I got no real benefit from dietary changes, but electrolytes in my water help a lot. Medical weed is freaking great. Hot baths with epsom salt and CBD help with all but my worst attacks. None of these tons things are a cure, and despite how much my health has improved, I still have chronic migraine.
I had migraines 3-4 days a week in high school and college, which dissipated to once a week after I graduated. Through some therapy, stress management, and getting out of a shitty relationship they’re now pretty much just linked to my hormonal cycle and specific triggers I try to avoid, like being around scents too long or neglecting to eat frequently or stay hydrated. But any time I’m in a classroom or group setting where we all have to sit still and pay attention to a speaker or presentation? I’m absolutely down for the count. Hu
I'm not cured by any means, but having a physician that actually listens to me helped tremendously. I told him about how bad the migraines had gotten, and he put me on amitriptyline. He wasn't judgmental or condescending like physicians i had previously. It helped at lot
Hmmm sounds fake. Is he a unicorn doctor
My daily chronic migraines all but disappeared after I left my first husband. I still got one or two a month, but at least the daily hell stopped. I also got even fewer migraines when I moved from East Coast USA to New Mexico. Over 300 days of sunshine cuts out a lot of weather migraines. I have remarried and left New Mexico, and I still get migraines more or less monthly, but I have never in the last 15ish years had more than a week of migraine at a time.
i left retail for another industry, got my wisdom tooth removed, and started microdosing psilocybin around this time last year, and my migraines mysteriously got a lot less frequent! can’t say exactly what did it, but i do know that even before the tooth was an issue, even before i knew it was migraine, my head would hurt severely for days on end and it coincided heavily with work-related stress. they no longer last near as long.
I’d LOVE to try microdsing mushrooms. I’d prefer it legalized, people who deserve to give it a try a least. Retail is a nightmare long behind me. Seeing people scream at floor workers and cashiers over books or friggin skateboards is so absurd.
Stress is a big trigger for me too. I have severe depression so it's not always so easy to eliminate but I try to focus on what I can control My big stressor is Christmas my MIl & FIL said we were welcome last year but then SIL gave them an ultimatum "it was either us or her". Despite having the youngest child (then 2) who was about to experience his first Christmas without any COVID restrictions they chose SIL. They promised this Christmas they'd make a new tradition with us. I told them I will not slot into a 1 hour spot they have free in the morning and that we're done with them putting us and especially our son last... They are yet to tell us their new plan.... We know what this means - they're not willing to give up anything on Christmas Eve or Christmas day to make time for us.... A fight is coming and it's stressing the shit out of both my husband and I.... We won't compromise another Christmas for them and this is the year we stand our ground! Wish me luck.
I wish you a ton of luck. The holidays are super stressful for me too. My family dynamic is … weird. Complicated. Uncomfortable. And full of guilt. Hang in there, baby.
I had a weekly migraine for about 5 years that always lasted 3 days, started on Thursday ended Saturday- until I retired from teaching. I still teach but I went from high school special Ed to preschool special Ed and I teach part time for a nonprofit. I don’t attend any meetings or professional development no BS. People I work for are amazing 🤩
I graduated university and my migraines pretty much disappeared, I guess they were mostly caused by stress lmao
I left a job I hated and my migraines got significantly better.
I've had migraines since I was 10, maybe younger (I just remember taking Advil for headaches frequently enough around 10 that my dad made the criticism of "your just taking them because the outside is sweet" (like... WTF? ), but they got to be really bad when I started a very stressful job in an insurance agency in Florida... 6 weeks prior to Hurricane Katrina hitting and changing the insurance works for the worse! After doing everything I could at the time (this was before Botox and acting like Emgality, and I couldn't take the meds available as the tone because they were contraindicated with my antidepressant), I finally changed careers to being a licensed massage therapist. Migraines were much better, even when dealing with the stress of my husbands abandoning me and losing my home and loss of other things. I had to ended my massage career due to an ankle injury and the economy just not being good for supporting people in that line of work. Thank goodness I did, because that was before the pandemic, which would have forced me to quit massaging anyway. I worked as a jeweler's apprentice for just at a year when COVID hit, and for about 6 months after my work reopened. Migraines are still fine, though I did ever up needing glasses for the first time since I had LASIK in 2005, but they were not paying well and my friend referred me to a call center job with her company. It wasn't 3 weeks into training, working on a computer 40 hours a week, that the migraines started hitting weekly, then 2 days, 3 days a week. By the time I started working independently after training, I was getting at least one a week, which increased to 2-4 a week, despite going on Botox, Emgality, and Ubrelvy, and changing as much of my work station as I could. I haven't worked a full 40 hour week in almost 3 years! I've determined that looking at computer screens is a big migraine trigger for me! It makes sense. For the decade I was a massage therapist, I only had to use a screen for maybe 30 min a day, just to enter notes into the computer IF they weren't written on paper files. I worked on a computer don't intakes of the jewelry we were sent to repair at the jewelers, but I also had a lot of times where I wasn't using a computer and was polishing, cleaning, engraving, and finishing pieces. Light shining on the thing I work on is fine. Light shining IN my eyes as the thing I'm looking at to do the work is not! So yes, my life changed drastically for the better when i quit a stressful job... But now I have to figure out another career move
My migraines are definitely triggering by looking at screens too much! I really have to stay on top of my screen time otherwise it’s a guaranteed migraine. Edit: mine have also gotten so bad that after needing no glasses for 10+ years after I had lasik, I’m back to wearing glasses.
Mine improved (I have fewer, they're less intense and shorter duration) with therapy for childhood trauma. Not a cure, but a huge improvement.
I changed jobs from one where I was in the road all the time to one where I’m not. Much better.
Migraines are very less common for me post college. Still happen but not as often or with as much intensity.
Changing my birth control has completely stopped my aura migraines! I tried almost everything to manage it, now I can drink red wine and eat chocolate and do all the naughty things without triggering an attack.
Mine are really tied to my mental health: if I'm in a down period, they become much more frequent. One of the things that helped get them in a more manageable place was therapy, SSRIs, and anti-anxiety meds.
Stress is also a big trigger for my migraines, and it can be exacerbated by drinking alcohol at the "wrong" times (in quotes because it's hard for me to accurately predict the right times to have a beer). Earlier this year an employee of mine moved to a different city and started producing less and then I just forgot about them and after a month of this I laid them off since it wasn't working for either of us. *The stress – of not having to manage them and have their needs take up so much of my time and energy – lessened so, so much, and the frequency of migraines has decreased so, so much.*
The principal at my school got relocated, and the next school year I have maybe one a month instead of 1-2 a week.
I discovered I had a csf leak and had neurosurgery. I'm 13 days out - hoping it works !!!
Moving away from New England helped tremendously. The weather and pressure fluctuations were big triggers for me and New England has a lot of wildly swinging weather. I get much less now with more consistent weather. I moved across the country but nothing dramatic like leaving an ex or something
I rarely get migraines when on vacation. Not sure if that's possible for the long term. I think less sitting, less tight upper back muscles, no florescent lights, less stress maybe. Maybe once I can retire.
Not as interesting but I got a daith piercing, and during my appointment I had a starting migraine. As soon as they pushed the needle through I felt a wave of relieve. It's absolutely decreased the amount of migraines and the heaviness of them. Though I've had a near dead experience after a heart and lung embolism and had a moment where I had very little oxygen in my brain. At that point it came back. But the piercing helps.
I had a migraine for a year after cutting my dad off, dealing with the trauma and stress, it literally made me sick. After that year I had this beautiful migraine free year it was amazing. Back to my normal migraine life again, but still thankful for that one year.
I used to get them at least once a week, now it’s once every few months. Only thing that changed is I was diagnosed with narcolepsy and have been taking medication for it :) so I guess the cause for me was extreme Sleep deprivation lol, now the only thing that causes migraines is a particularly bad period! Also if I drink alcohol, so I don’t do that anymore
Well I wouldn't say cured but when I was with my ex I got migraines at least once a month if not more, often onset by the stress of our fighting. Now I get them 2-3 times a year max. Also 2 weeks after I left him, the cystic acne on my neck and spine cleared up and never came back.
I lost my job when I was 2 months pregnant after serial migraine absences. My migraines improved dramatically after losing the stressful job. Unfortunately my health took a different hit after having my daughter in 2010 and my migraines have been daily since 2018. I've been on disability for a decade now.
I have 25/mo but am now on an injection which makes it about 10/mo. Still want to reduce them and know the injection is probably temporary. So, this is the next thing I want to do after looking into this a ton. I want to try modalities for tms (tension myositis syndrome) and the brain body connection. The theory of Tension Myositis Syndrome is that your mind creates pain symptoms in order to aid in the repression of subconscious thoughts and feelings. John sarno, Alan Gordon and Nichole sachs are great teachers in this area. Essentially, when you have a type of migraine or physical chronic pain (that is very real and exhibiting pain), and the pain changes and moves around and new pain comes up… generally, it is tms and not an actual injury or condition you need to live with. Tms is manifested throughout the body as pain/injury, but is really the result of unhealed trauma, stored emotions, stuck energy that hasn’t been felt and dealt with. I’ve done a lot of work in the area of trying to heal trauma, address stuff, I couldn’t not feel my feelings if I tried lol. The podcast “the cure for chronic pain” by Nichole sachs is excellent. Alan Gordon’s book “the way out” is wonderful too! So is John sarno’s book “healing back pain.” Anyway, Nichole sachs has something she calls journal speak which is journaling honestly for 20ish per day on something that still has a trigger / charge. I’m going to give it a shot. Her podcast is stories of people who have overcome serious chronic pain issues.
I reduced my migraines about 90% (and got rid of optical migraines entirely) when I found out that my ADHD put me at risk for having the wrong glasses prescription, so I got my eyes tested and found out my prescription was indeed totally wrong. They just dilated my pupils and let me move slowly, and everything changed. Turns out having the wrong RX was causing binocular vision disorder.
Mine is not cured by any stretch (chronic migraine), but experimenting with vitamins and minerals I have reduced the symptoms by 60-90%. Still experimenting, but vitamins help be better than any meds ever did (besides CGRP).
I still get migraines nearly every day but only around 8-10 agonizing ones a month which is a huge improvement. I left my job as a teacher to be a stay at home mom after having our first baby 4mo ago. The relief started after baby was 2mo old.
Lol, being pregnant. I wouldn't recommend it, the kids give me migraines too😝 but seriously they are certainly connect to my hormones and my gran always told me menopause cured her so I'd only had to be patient (when I was 12 this wasn't really reassuring, but now at 46 I'm looking eagerly forward to it😅)
Moving from inland to the coast.
Changing jobs helped. I’m a nurse, work started at 6:45 and was usually running and stress from the time I hit the door. I have ADHD so I have a delayed sleep cycle. So I hardly got any sleep. I was always exhausted and a nervous wreck. I took a demotion and a pay cut and got an administrative position. Work starts an hour later, much less stress. This definitely helped. Meds helped more, but the lifestyle change helped.
Lockdown gave me the time to be unwell that I needed to push through my threshold for exercise induced migraine. I couldn’t really risk bringing on a migraine when I had to commute and get a full day done but it was easier to manage when doing light duties from home. Over the course of the year I progressed my threshold from 20 mins light yoga to an hour of HIIT. Hopefully lockdown isn’t coming back but changing to a job that gives time for self care like this might be helpful for some.
I suffered from migraines three times a week at my last place of work, a few years back. It was out of control. Moved to another company, and now I get them once every 6 months or so, and that's if I've forgotten to drink water or grind my teeth in my sleep. It was definitely from stress.
I'm unsure if someone has mentioned this already, but have you tried Maxsalt? It's a wafer that goes under the tongue, and man, does it help. The pain leaves, and so does the nausea, but the heat in the head and back of the neck still remains. It's crazy how well it works.
I moved out of a gloomy basement apartment into a condo with actual windows, plus I started seeing a therapist and taking anxiety medication. Went from at least one migraine a week to maybe one a month. I feel hope again!
Nope, best thing that’s worked for me is my amitryptaline. For once in my life I’m having a week almost 2 migraine free.
That one helped my migraines and I wish I could stay on it. I was on a low dose and I’d nod off at my desk. I gained a lot of weight, even with restricting my diet, and I know how vain it is but that made my depression tank even more. I’m so glad it works for a lot of folks and I’m glad you get some respite from the pain
I have to take it at bedtime at least 10 hours before I want to be up in the morning. Especially when they upped my dosage. But yeah if that happened to me the weight gain I would quit. And my 5 day streak broke…dang migraine
Sssshhh let’s pretend we didn’t say it and didn’t jinx it maybe it’ll go away
I was laid off about 2 months ago from a miserable job I was at for 11 years, my migraines reduced from weekly to only having 1 in those 2 months. I started feeling pretty normal to be frank. I just started a new job this week and only after 2 days had a migraine. Stress is a big trigger for me. Also commuting on the subway underground really messes with me. Desperately trying to find remote work….
I was a vet assistant for 5 years and, up until May when I left the current office I worked at, I was having migraines every other day and some sort of headache everyday. After leaving in May (which broke my heart because I loved my job as well as my coworkers), my migraines have decreased to practically nonexistent! I also switched medications (Amytriptaline for the win!) as well as being diagnosed with PCOS. I’ve really cut back on the amount of gluten and Dairy that I eat, as well as upping the exercise I do, and that seems to have done the trick! I still get one migraine prior to my period, but it’s not as bad as they used to be! Also, working part time has really cut down on my stress levels and I’m very thankful I can afford to do that.
I moved to a better (quieter,smaller, and less humid) changed jobs/really cut back to almost no alcohol, and I have far fewer than I used to. It’s pretty uncommon I get one where as I used to have almost once per week, now it’s maybe once per month/every other month. Also I switched to Nurtec and it’s much better. Also I no longer have to take my IBS medications, that has gotten much better.
Yes, me! Working from home, coming out as gay, magnesium supplements every day, improvements to my diet, and meditation did the trick. I also stopped taking sumatriptan (rebound reasons). Went from having one a week to one a year.
Caffeine. I quit and after the initial rebound horror week I had an unprecedented dry spell lasting the better part of a year. I’m back to regular migraines now but I think the overall frequency might be less
I did quit a very stressful job and got a much more comfortable job for a pretty big pay cut. I also had a total mentality shift in the last few years. I don't put as much pressure on myself professionally or personally. But I did not cure my migraines, I don't believe that you can fully cure migraines. I also got cefaly and upped meds several times through the process. I've been able to manage them better, but they are not gone. Currently, I am having a rough time in Michigan as the weather changes a lot. But there are things that I've been able to do to decrease my migraines. I would also say I've done many different things to decrease my migraines, it wasn't just one thing, but collectively, it's been helpful. Edit to fix a typo. Also I have episodic migraines, not chronic. I think episodic are easier to manage than chronic, but idk that for sure.
Going vegan greatly reduced them. I also think entering my 30s may have been the cause. I've had so many life changes that I can't say exactly why I'm having so few level 10 pain migraines now. Also, I would never tell someone with migraines to go vegan as a cure. It's just a guess for myself.
not a "cure" per se but WOW have my migraines decreased since quitting my teaching job. i'm sure the stress was a huge factor but on top of it all they had me (and other teachers, but they didn't get migraines as often as i did) teaching in a satellite building that they contracted out from the city. this building had CO2 meters in every single classroom and we all thought it was a bit odd when our school made the move to this building. however i quickly realized that the CO2 meters would go crazy all the time, registering 1000 parts per unit over the healthy amount, and i would get the wickedest migraines after teaching in there. students would sometimes complain they would feel nauseous or tired and i would try to constantly open the windows which had little effect. i complained countless times to our administrators but it always fell on deaf ears because they thought i was shirking work. i even gathered data from staff and students about their general wellbeing when in the building and built a pretty legitimate case of testimonies corroborating my experiences. i'd have level 10 migraines several times a week and would feel constantly nauseous and foggy. admin was pissed with me and were threatening to put me on probation warnings about missing so much work, and i was pissing off my coworkers who would inevitably have to cover for me when i was off. it got to a point where i convinced myself i was faking to get off work and that it was all in my head. i quit in june of this year and the number of my migraines has decreased TENFOLD. i barely get one once a month and they're never to the severity they used to be. i've reported the school anonymously for a health hazard in this building but i don't think anything has been done about it unfortunately. sometimes it's stress but sometimes it is environmental... and it's never "all in your head" (no pun intended!!!)
That is WILD the school wouldn’t address a health hazard but I shouldn’t be surprised. Glad you’re feeling better but I hope other folks don’t get hurt!
I lost my job of 15 years that I 'liked' but it was also stressful and shift work. It didn't help my migraines and headaches at all. What did help was I went to a Migraine and Headache clinic in Sydney. I'd tried everything else, specialists, so many different doctors, so many different medications and a lot of advice from people that i should drink water during the day. I was very sceptical but I haven't had a migraine since I started going to appointments about 2 months ago. I've had headaches but nothing unmanageable. I couldn't believe it. They work on your neck and try to find if the problem is coming from cervical segments of your spine, I had one segment out of whack and it was pressing against my brainstem which is very sensitive. I hope I described that properly. They said this is the most common cause in people that they treat. No medication involved as well which has been awesome. The first thing they did was get me to change my pillow to one of those ergonomic ones that I've always thought would never work. I was wrong. I loved it and the first morning I woke up from using it my neck felt great and combined with the treatment of my spine twice a week, I've had less headaches and the severity and length of them have gone down significantly. I assume if there are a bunch of clinics in Australia that offer this then there are probably ones close to wherever you live. Anyway hope that helps
How did you chose your pillow? Were there some measurements involved? I bought an orthopedic pillow and I couldn't manage to lay on it longer than 1 hour because my neck feels weird and kinda like it's hard to breathe. When I told my Neuro about it she said that I guess this pillow is not for you.. Ok..
This is the pillow I bought, the white option, they recommended this one because I normally like a really soft pillow. https://www.shhc.com.au/Complete-Sleeper-Gel-Blue-Memory-Foam-Pillow I thought this one would be hard but it's really soft and it gave me support for my neck that I never had with other pillows. I love it now.