No More HeadachesEliminate headaches without medication

If you feel head pain, it is wise to visit a doctor. There are many different things that could be going on. There are some conditions such as stroke or blood clots that require immediate treatment and delay could be costly. However, once frequent head pain has been diagnosed as ‘migraines’, there are many different steps that can be taken.

The standard medical route (and one often sought by people experiencing migraine) is to look for a pharmaceutical solution. The internet is full of blogs commenting on huge varieties of medications that people experiment with, trying to make the pain go away. Some blogs even recommend shopping for a doctor who will prescribe the medications that you insist upon. These blogs also frequently talk about side effects, such as memory loss, slurring of speech and other symptoms. Out of desperation, millions of people are damaging their brain and bodies through the use of prescription drugs.

At a site proclaiming to be an authority about migraines, recent articles have linked blood clots, brain damage and stroke to migraines. Great. Just what your average migraineur needs to think about while dealing with pain. The fear awakened by these thoughts can make migraine pain worse, as mental conflict is a huge stimulant during a migraine experience.

For many people, the immediate reaction to these fearful thoughts is that medications must be necessary since the ‘disease’ is so dangerous. Unfortunately the viewpoints presented are exaggerated and slanted, leading the reader towards fear. Migraines are fueled by a whirlwind of thoughts. If you are afraid that your blood vessels may burst, migraine pain can become even more extreme. You may be thinking ‘If I don’t take a pill to relieve this headache then I could die.’

The reality is that all of the research used for the articles presents a narrow viewpoint and the summarization is misleading. The article Fear and Deception explains that there is no proof that migraines cause brain damage, only that people with long-term migraines OCCASSIONALLY had more brain lesions that those without migraines. Of course the researchers failed to investigate if long-term pharmaceutical use had any effect on the brain tissue.

As for the statement by MAGNUM that ‘More people died from Migrainous Stroke last year than were murdered by handguns’, the reader is once again being deceived. The number of handgun murders in the US averages about 12,000 per year. That is a lot of people and each case is tragic. However, compared to the 30-50 million migraineurs in America this number is a minute percentage. The intention of the statement is to pair the fear of being shot by a handgun (a common fear these days) with the fear of dying from a stroke during a migraine experience. The fears that are stimulated tend to prod people towards the use of medications. A lot of what you read on MAGNUM’s site is slanted the same way.

In article published by the American Heart Association in the 1991 ‘Stroke’ journal, Doctor Ashfaq Shuaib states ‘Migraine is a common neurological disorder occurring in 20-30 % of the population. It is therefore not unusual to find patients with cerebral infarction who also have a history of migraine.‘ and concludes ‘Autopsy-documented cases of migraine-stroke are rare.‘

In a more recent study, ‘Relation between migraine and stroke’; Drs. MG Bousser and KM Welch, The Lancet Neurology - Volume 4, Issue 9 (September 2005), the conclusion was ‘Despite the relation between migraine and stroke, migraine as a primary headache disorder is mostly benign.‘

If you experience new or frequent head pain, I agree with the importance of being checked out by a medical doctor. However, once the doctor determines that there is nothing wrong except migraines there are other paths to healing besides medications. Worrying that your migraine may turn into something worse only makes the migraine worse. Instead, learn how to quiet your mind, calm down the whirlwind and take the first step towards empowerment. It is possible to learn how to not have headaches.

Copyright 2008 Glenn Stewart Coles