Can you beat MAV naturally without drugs? they are making my life a living hell.
Some 40% can manage this with lifestyle modification. The other 60% need a migraine medicine on top of lifestyle mods.
S
Thanks Scott.
Would be interesting to hear some peoples stories of various natural solutions that gave them some improvement/relief!
I wouldn’t get hung up on the word “natural” in any of this. It’s meaningless.
Use lifestyle modification first as outlined in the MAV Survival Guide. If that fails you could start by adding CoQ10, B2 and magnesium if that eases your nerves about drugs. Note however that these three things have active ingredients in them and may give you just as hard a time as any other medicine out there. In fact I have fewer side effects on Paxil (none) than I ever did taking magnesium or even vitamin C (massive headaches).
S
— Begin quote from “simonw”
Thanks Scott.
Would be interesting to hear some peoples stories of various natural solutions that gave them some improvement/relief!
— End quote
I think you need to define what you mean by ‘natural solutions’ before anyone can give you any meaningful advice. The term can mean anything to anyone.
If you mean you want to just adjust your lifestyle, then as Scott pointed out you can do that - by trialling diets/eliminating food triggers, regulating your sleep, undertaking regular moderate exercise, exploring psychological treatments like CBT and the like. That’s fine - it’s a great idea to give those things a run if you want to avoid medicines.
If you’re talking vitamins or other supplements then that is not natural at all. That means ingesting substances far in excess of what would occur ‘naturally’ as part of a normal, healthy diet.
If you mean things like acupuncture or chiropractic - well, sticking needles in your body or having your neck cracked doesn’t occur in nature either.
Like Scott said - if you want to try ‘natural solutions’ what that means is lifestyle modifications.
Victoria
Thanks all, apologies for not making myself clear, without becoming too pedantic Victoria, please excuse my ignorance I am simply referring to anything that doesn’t involve the use of drugs.
I am getting better through diet, taking things from the antiinflammatory and specific carb diets. Getting rid of wheat, grains and dairy really really helps.
I take vitamins C, B’s, magnesium and COQ10 per Scott’s recommendation. I discovered magnesium helped when I got so much better each time I had breathing problems, for which I was taking extra mag.
I’m trying to figure out the exercise, because I get hurt so easily and feel tired. But when I get it right, I can feel that helping enormously, too.
Ive been doing the migraine diet, avoiding gluten for the most part (for other reason too, not migraine related), and taking magnesium and B12. I’ve been doing much better over the last year but it was a slow improvement. Although I have to say for me hormones played a huge role in my flare up. And I think that situation is calming down.
I think you should start with diet and lifestyle changes and see if it helps. If you still don’t feel well, be open to medications. From what I’ve heard they really help.
Good luck!
Joy
Thanks for your stories! I am also trying a gluten and dairy free diet at the moment, but whilst on drugs that are provoking my symptoms I guess its hard to gage whether its having a positive effect or not. I was a bit skeptical about the gluten/dairy as I have been eating it my whole life and never had any obvious sensitivities to it. I really find it hard to pin down my triggers, there is a very interesting book I would recommend everyone to read called ‘The Ultramind Solution’ by Dr Mark Hymen, I can relate a lot of it to migraine management.