Wednesday, September 8, 2010

2 Effective Natural Ways to Get Migraine Headache Relief

Migraine headache remedies come in two flavors, temporary fixes or long-term help. Treatments are either meant to give you fast relief or are intended to change a behavior or correct a problem that will lead to long term help. Below are effective natural treatment methods that can help relieve symptoms over the long term.

1 – Niacin therapy

There are many herbal, vitamin, and mineral supplements that have been shown to help migraine sufferers relieve their pain. A migraine headache occurs when the blood vessels around the brain become enlarged or swollen and then encroach upon sensitive nerves. At first glance you would think niacin, also known as vitamin B3, would actually make a migraine worse due to the fact that niacin will increase the size of the blood vessels. However, taken in the right amount it can help relieve migraine headache pain.

In addition to relieving migraine pain it can also lower blood pressure and help reduce depression. However, if too much is taken it can lead to negative effects such as nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal distress, and other conditions. Niacin is a water-soluble vitamin that is removed from the body very quickly. For this reason it normally must be replenished daily to give the best results.

The best way to take niacin is to start slowly and build up. Starting with 25 mg four times a day, ideally after food has been eaten, is usually a small enough amount that most people can handle easily. If too much is taken the body will become flushed, red, and a warm sensation will be felt. If this happens you can simply wait until these symptoms go away and then take a reduced amount the next time.

Most people will not experience any flushing with 25 mg four times a day, unless possibly taken on an empty stomach. If no flushing occurs with these amounts increase it from 25 mg to 50 mg the following day. Each day that goes by where you don’t experience any flushing symptoms, you will increase the amount by 25 mg. If you reach 100 mg four times a day, continue taking this amount daily, but do not increase it from this level.

Let me give you an example that will demonstrate how to determine the correct amount. A person takes 25 mg four times the first day and feels no flushing. The second day this person takes 50 mg four times and still feels no flushing. The third day this person takes 75 mg and still feels no flushing. The fourth day this person takes 100 mg four times and still feels no flushing. This person will continue taking 100 mg four times a day. However, if this person felt flushing at 100 mg they would then lower it to 75 mg four times a day. Whenever flushing is felt the dosage should be dropped to the previous amount that did not cause flushing and maintained at that level.

2 – Find and eliminate food allergies

If a specific food causes a migraine it is called a migraine trigger. One migraine headache remedy is to find food triggers and eliminate them if they exist. This is done by keeping a headache journal that includes everything you eat, when you eat it, and many other details. The problem with headache diaries is that most people maintain them incorrectly and spend a lot of time without any results. If you expect to find headache triggers you must keep a proper diary.

Triggers can be any factor that leads to a migraine attack such as food, stress, weather, and many other factors. Common food triggers are milk, MSG, sugar substitutes, wheat, nuts, cheese, caffeine, citrus fruits, avocados, and alcohol, but there are many others.

To learn more about how to cure your migraine headache disorder, just Click Here.

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