Exercises for migraines
Funny that I read this article today, because I woke up with the beginnings of a migraine around 3 this morning. My migraines are usually hormonal because of my peri-menopause, so I drank soymilk (to even out my fluctuating hormones) and this time I took some willow bark pills rather than Tylenol. They seemed to work well so I’ll try that again next time instead of Tylenol.
Do you think the stretches in the article are useful? What do you do for your migraines? Any tips for me?
I take preventative meds (Topamax and a beta blocker) and I have my neurologist on speed dial. Probably not the answer you were hoping for. I am currently in a really bad pattern of getting headaches/migraines just about every day. We're working to break the cycle and prevent them. I'm also working to lose weight and get into a better exercise plan. Challenging while working full time with two toddlers, but I bought a Kinect for Robin for Father's Day, so I am determined! Seriously, when I get a really bad migraine, I end up having to make a direct call to my neurologist for injections. It's terribly frustrating. It happens about once a month or every three weeks. Otherwise, I'm taking Aleve, or Tylenol-3 (which is codeine). It's all that pretty much only dulls the pain. This all happened after I had kids. When I was pregnant and breastfeeding I wasn't having any migraines.
ReplyDeleteBefore that, mine were hormonal as well as triggered by certain foods, lack of sleep, certain weather patterns and before I got glasses... my eyes. I am told that once I hit menopause I will probably no longer have any migraines at all... something to look forward to. The preventative medication, Topamax, that I am taking, is one that I have had the most promising results. It's just a matter of finding the right dosage, I think. In the meantime, while my body is adjusting to the dose, my brain turns a little bit to mush. Luckily, I'm not a writer, so I don't have to remember words or anything. :) It takes about a week for by brain to catch up to the medicine.
Anyway, that's my story. It's very frustrating. All that to say when I read the article, my reaction was, stretching? I don't think stretching would help my headache. I think it would make me throw up! Or crawl up in a ball and cry. Or possibly yell at someone. That might happen, too.
I hope you get relief from your migraines. I hope stretching will relieve your migraines! It sounds like you might get some relief from yours slightly more easily than mine. I pray that you do!
Karen Parrish
That's so awful! I'm so sorry about that! My doctor said that my migraines are not that bad since I was getting them twice a month as opposed to every week. Now I know what she was talking about! How weird that yours will go away with menopause whereas mine started with peri menopause. We're all so different.
DeleteI know that since mine aren't as bad as yours, if I hit it with soymilk and Tylenol when it first appears, I can usually prevent it from getting worse, but if I don't do anything (like if I'm sleeping) then it gets full blown and the only thing I can do is try to dose myself with something (hard to do when my stomach is so queasy) and go to sleep. I might try this stretching thing when my migraines first appear to see if it really does help stem them from getting worse.