Migraine headache prevention is the most important part of migraine therapy- even more so than finding the right painkillers to relieve migraines. Once a migraine attack strikes, there’s little you can do to prevent symptoms like throbbing headaches, nausea, or fatigue; by implementing migraine headache prevention tactics, you save time that you would have ordinary spent waiting out migraine headaches. Also, you reduce your dependency on prescription migraine headache painkillers that cause harmful side effects and rebound headaches. Migraine headache prevention reduces the frequency, severity, and duration of migraines, and also cuts down on the amount of time spent recuperating afterwards.
Migraine headache preventives
Unlike painkillers and opioids, certain preventive treatments are formulated for everyday use in migraine headache prevention. These include prescription drugs used to treat other illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, stroke, epilepsy, and depression. Examples of preventative migraine treatments include Topamax, Maxalt, Ergotamine, and Zoloft. Side effects of certain medications like Topamax may include short-term memory loss, fatigue, disorientation, and sometimes, migraine headaches.
Migraine trigger avoidance
In addition to taking medications, it’s important to find out what’s causing your migraine headaches, so that you can start preventing them. This is a crucial step in migraine headache prevention, though it may take some time. To start, download a migraine headache diary from the internet, and start using it to track relevant information like diet, weather, mood, and medications. These are important clues- they help you discover your migraine triggers, so that you can cut migraines out of your life.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
Natural, complementary medicine has come a long way since the 60s, and researchers today recognize its beneficial impact on migraine headache prevention. Certain CAM techniques offer ways of reducing migraines frequency naturally, without causing harmful side effects or rebound migraine headaches.
Many CAM practitioners advise incorporating these migraine treatments into your complete migraine headache prevention plan:
- Relaxation, meditation, guided imagery
- Yoga, tai chi
- Gentle aerobic exercise
- Physical therapy
- Restrictive migraine dieting, allergen testing
- Biofeedback
- Acupuncture
- Vitamins, minerals, and herbs formulated to benefit migraine sufferers, including vitamin B2 (riboflavin), coenzyme Q10, magnesium, and butterbur.