Lifestyle Modifications
Why I Finally Added Self-Care To My Migraine Toolbox
Having lived with migraine for as long as I can remember, certainly from very early childhood, one of the coping mechanisms I learnt early on was to push through. For many of us with migraine, or in fact any other chronic disease, “pushing through” often becomes a way of life. However, one of the things…
Read MoreMigraine Myths: You Get Migraine Because You Don’t Take Care of Yourself
Do you ever feel judged for having migraine? Like everyone in your life believes that if you were just a little healthier you would be cured and feel better? Or maybe it’s you who is hard on yourself when a migraine attack strikes. Have you ever blamed yourself for an attack and thought … “If…
Read MoreMigraine Myths: Only Medication Can Help Migraine
Don’t we all wish there was a magic pill that could cure our migraine forever?! Unfortunately, that is just not the case. Migraine is a complex neurological disease that presents itself on a wide spectrum of frequency, severity, symptoms, attack triggers, and responses to treatments. While medication is an important part of any treatment toolbox, it’s…
Read MoreMigraine Myths: Migraine Only Lasts 4-72 Hours
Have you heard that migraine attacks only last between 4 and 72 hours? Many people believe this to be true, but unfortunately, it’s a myth. In fact, migraine attacks can last much longer than a few hours or a few days, sometimes lasting weeks, months, or even years. What Is Status Migrainosus? According to the…
Read MoreDo You Have an Individual Exercise Plan?
“I was a marathon runner until my migraine became intractable chronic daily. I lived to run. It was my physical and psychological outlet. Then…boom…it came to a screeching halt. I began walking, which soon became my lifeline. That is until 2 years ago when I developed vestibular migraine and had 3 serious falls while walking.…
Read MorePreventive Care Toolbox
With approximately 40 million people in the US alone living with migraine and a stunning lack of mandatory education on headache disorders in medical schools, many people with migraine remain at a loss how to navigate preventive treatment. Visits to doctors often end up with a “one and done” attitude, not taking into account the importance of a toolbox approach. Between following insurance denials and guidelines for step therapy, and a devastating shortage of certified headache specialists, patients living with this disabling disease often find themselves without adequate and current information. Having a preventive care roadmap can go a long way to help figuring out how to maintain a quality of life that most people take for granted.
Read MoreMigraine Symptoms: Brain Fog
Brain fog is another common and often debilitating migraine symptom. Like fatigue, brain fog can occur at any phase of a migraine attack. In the prodrome and aura phases, brain fog can be an early warning sign that an attack is beginning. It can last through the attack stage and continue on through the postdrome phase, lasting for hours or even days. In fact, some people experience varying levels of brain fog all the time. Brain fog is a challenging and invisible migraine symptom.
Read MoreManaging Acute Pain: Building a Migraine Comfort Plan
We’ve all had those moments. You’re going about your day when suddenly that all too familiar pain starts building as a migraine attack shows up, hell-bent on taking over. The anxiety and stress about what is to come creeps in. Often, the first step in controlling the pain is keeping calm, which is easier said than done! For times like these, it may be helpful to create a migraine comfort plan so you can be prepared and have everything you need close by in order to help you get through an attack.
Read More6 Easy Ways to Beat Holiday Stress
As the countdown to Christmas is underway, here are 5 simple things you can do to beat that last minute holiday stress.
Read MoreBeyond Medication: Sleep and the Migraine Brain
If ever there was a tale of a complicated relationship, it is the story of sleep and the migraine brain. Get too much sleep, and you will likely trigger an attack. Get too little, and you are also likely to trigger an attack. Feel tired and take a nap, and yet again that can trigger an attack. Fatigue is a highly common and debilitating symptom among those with migraine, and yet many report migraine wakes them up and is the cause of not getting enough sleep. To complicate matters even more, for many, sleep is often the only thing that relieves the pain of a bad attack, and getting quality sleep at night has been shown to reduce head pain. So how do we navigate this ever so complicated relationship?
Read MoreBeyond Medication: Diet and Migraine Management
Maintaining a well-balanced diet is critical to overall health and well-being. For those of us with migraine, what we eat and when is especially important. As is the case with all migraine treatment options, figuring out what to eat and what to avoid can be an ongoing challenge. You may be able to eat something one day, while another day it seems to trigger an attack. While at times frustrating, making dietary changes can help you better manage life with migraine.
Read MoreBeyond Medication: Movement for Migraine
There are many proven health benefits of exercising, which is why adding movement to your daily routine can be a powerful way to manage life with migraine. Exercise releases endorphins, or “feel-good hormones,” which act as our body’s natural pain killers. They help relieve stress, boost mood, improve sleep, and make us feel better overall!
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