Migraine

Where to begin. I have had migraines since I was 5, at least. I remember getting them in school, throwing up in the playground from the pain, and sitting in the classroom with my head on the desk hoping that everyone would leave me alone but being asked by every class member in turn what was wrong. They are a bit of a haze to be honest, I couldn’t tell you how often I got them or how long they lasted until after the phase in my life where I psyched myself up to persist with the GP and get to see specialists (several false starts where emotionally I just gave up). These specialists seems kind of disgusted that I didn’t have a chart to flourish at them - I couldn’t tell them basic things like how often I got them, how long they lasted, or which side of my face they affected. I didn’t realise I was supposed to know all of this and I wasted a lot of appointments to be honest. 

They increased to be every week, lasting three days. And then there was the post-drome. The few days after where I was cancelling my bank cards only to find them minutes later, putting the jam in the microwave, and getting on the wrong train home. Painkillers didn’t work, and the only ones that eased the pain, kept me wide awake and nauseated. I would get blurred vision, be unable to feel my face, and my digestive system would protest violently. I couldn’t live like that. More than half my week was spent in agony, nausea, confusion, and insomnia, plus that nameless despair from laying down in the dark and silence for hours on end. 

Once I got to see a specialist at a stage where I knew what I was asking for, I tried;

Triptans - well to say I had a bad reaction is an understatement. Several hours physically unable to move my body, and Bell’s palsy, resulting in a 111 call where they sent paramedics. 

Amitriptyline - this muscle relaxant made me so drowsy in the evening, and groggy and unable to properly wake up in the morning

Nortriptyline - this one helped a lot. It reduced the length of a migraine, and prevented the ones that were caused by strain or tension in my neck. But they didn’t completely eliminate them, and a friend and I both felt they caused weight gain. 

A breakthrough came when I tried magnesium. I had avoided it with minimal research, due to having read it lowered blood pressure - my bp is already way too low causing a host of issues. But eventually more and more migraine articles led me to it, and I delved a little deeper. I tried tablets - well most supplements that you buy on the high street are synthetic and don’t get absorbed, leading people to sweepingly label vitamins a placebo or ‘expensive wee’. They’re not totally wrong, but that’s a narrow view. So I tried a few supplements, didn’t really notice anything. Research said that there were many types of magnesium and that the ones I was taking passed through the gut causing issues. (https://www.naturalnews.com/046401_magnesium_dietary_supplements_nutrient_absorption.html )This led me to try a high street spray - started to notice an improvement. Then I went online and ordered a high quality spray - apparently it should tingle if you’re deficient, and you can only absorb what your body needs through your skin. When I say magnesium changed my life, I can’t overstate it enough. Up to 80% of the population is deficient in this - and deficiency has a host of side effects. It helped me with many issues, but I’ll stick with migraine here. Three days of hell weekly was a thing of the past. I was having maybe two a month, and not always three days long. 

Hormones - yes, here we go again. I learned that a drop off in oestrogen caused migraines. No wonder that in the eight months I was taking the mini pill, I only had three migraines. However, the other side effects of the pill (see Pill blog) eventually outweighed this, and I had to come off it. But armed with this discovery, I pursued other ways to deal with hormonal migraines. 

Starting with cutting dairy. I’m lactose intolerant so I shouldn’t be having it anyway, but we all have a lactose intolerant friend who lives on buttery cheese omelettes, don’t we. Don’t we?? I couldn’t stomach milk or ice cream, but without immediate side effects from butter, cheese, yoghurt etc I blithely carried on. Until I read this https://www.larabriden.com/what-dairy-does-to-periods/

A lot of vegan info tells us we’re not meant to consume milk products as adults, and not from other species, and it’s full of hormones that aren’t great for us. And we can’t avoid hearing about unhealthy practices in the dairy industry. Makes sense but - yum? But the problem for many of us the hormone issues are worse than we knew. Milk contains over 60 different hormones including progesterone, testosterone, insulin, and a growth hormone. Research varies on this, but we know our hormones are a delicate balance. Cow dairy in particular (apart from the lovely Jersey cow) has a protein that stimulates inflammation (inflammation = BAD) and mast cells, which our wombs are full of. This releases histamine and seriously affects periods. The protein doesn’t affect everyone. If you’re already having issues - it’s worth giving your body a break and seeing how you go. Perhaps you don’t have to go full vegan to reap the benefits. 

For me? Just over one month cutting dairy (with a few slip ups) and eggs (this might just be me), and I went two periods with no migraine. I’ll update after a few more months of this.