Migraine Treatments: Part 2
Here at Innovations Health, we’re dedicated to providing you with the quality chiropractic pain management you need. This is why we’re talking about practical treatments for a common everyday pain that many people have to manage. Last time, we discussed the benefits of chiropractic practice on the body to assist with migraines. In this article, we’ll discuss the hormone replacement treatment for migraines, as well as other holistic options for your in-between appointment migraine issues.
Hormone Replacement Therapy for Migraines
Since most migraines are caused and exasperated by hormone fluctuations, hormone therapy could prove to be beneficial for the treatment of your symptoms. If you do go down this path, it’s crucial that you tell your hormone therapist about your inclination to migraines, especially those who experience aura. Migraines with aura will, again, be accompanied by troubles seeing, numbness, trouble finding words and speaking, and potentially smelling things that aren’t there. This is important because your hormone therapy will have to be regulated. Though, recent studies have pointed to hormone therapy being a perfectly safe form of treatment for women with migraines with aura, it should be noted that harsh hormone manipulation has a small chance of increasing the probability of a stroke. Which is why you should be extremely careful when taking pregnancy prevention measures, and carefully avoid hormone manipulation on top of whatever you’re using to treat your migraines.
Other treatments
Triggers
Avoid triggers, as previously mentioned, red wine is a major culprit for triggering migraines because it possesses a chemical called tyramine. This chemical will work to activate serotonin levels, which is why wine makes you feel good. But in an unbalanced environment it can trigger a migraine, which no one wants. You’ll have to watch out for certain medications, such as the pre-mentioned birth control pills as the hormones will almost certainly set off migraines. Other medications to be wary of are those with a nausea side effect, a lot of the time the heat and turmoil your body experiences while nauseous will cause a migraine. Other triggers will come in the form of fatigue, sickness and hunger. Your body is already overcompensating when these things occur and it can push it over the edge into the migraine danger zone. Stress is a definite cause of migraines, as well as hormone level changes. This is why women are particularly susceptible during their menstruation period.
Beyond chiropractic and hormone therapy treatments for your chronic migraines, you may want to play with some at home remedies for a more immediate response to a migraine so it doesn’t manage to ruin your day, as they can at times. The first thing you should do in the interim between your appointments for chiropractic migraine management or hormone therapy treatment is find some treatments that work for you. In that regard, we have a few tips to help you relieve your symptoms.
Signals
Begin with reading your body’s signals to you. Look for strange food cravings, mainly salt, and sugar. Observe your energy levels and mood changes, if you’re getting randomly cranky that point to a hormone flux which could be the onset of a migraine. Watch out for feeling stiff for no reason, especially in your neck, and having a strange need to urinate more often. Constipation and diarrhea aren’t only just unpleasant after-effects of bad food choices, they also might be warning signs that you’re going to get a horrible migraine soon.
Pain Relief
Start off with prescription strength ibuprofen, or 4 100mg tablets at the onset of a migraine. This will act as an extremely efficient anti-inflammatory which will help with your shrinking blood vessels. It’ll help as a blood thinner as well, because it’s much easier to push a thinner liquid through a tiny tube rather than a thick, sluggish substance.
Another thing that will almost always help, in fact, it seems to be the only thing most people with migraines can agree on, is to go sit in a dark, quiet room. Cold compresses or on painful areas will relieve some of the discomforts as well.
Essential Oils
You might try scent stimulations to assist with your symptoms. Many report results with lavender, basil oil, and eucalyptus. These can be applied to your temples, your pulse points for throughout the day stimulation ( you’ll also smell really good), or under your nose like a mentholated topical ointment.
Alter Your Diet
As a long-term solution, you might consider testing out what sort of food acts a trigger for you and actively avoiding those foods. A couple of major ones to look out for consist of dairy products, high-fat fruits -like avocado, citrus, and meats with nitrates like bacon and hot dogs. Recent studies have pointed to a couple chemicals acting as reactants that appear in food like monosodium glutamate, tyramine, and anything that’s been fermented. The major offenders are unfortunately peanut butter and chocolate and onions. So avoid everything you enjoy and you’ll probably be fine, or take a migraine. After all, there’s always eucalyptus and ibuprofen.
Don’t actually give up on yourself and life because of some inconvenient headaches. Instead, check out our chiropractic migraine management services and hormone replacement therapies to help with your symptoms. Together at Innovations Health, we’ll find a treatment regimen for you that works.
We’re very excited to hear from you. Schedule an appointment today and we’ll start you down the path to higher functionality throughout the day. Feel free to read more about our hormone replacement therapy here. If you’re interested in strictly chiropractic help access, Innovations Health for all of your chiropractic pain management.
