Migraine Cures

Migraine cures have varied widely through out the years. Bizarre treatments were developed and centuries ago "tripanning" meant opening the skull to let the pain out. (Ugh!)

Migraine cures are being promoted widely throughout the Internet and many of them quite frankly are false!

I recently came across one with over 100 tips to prevent headaches. Well, about 30 of them are the same things just reworded! Another product floating around the net right now is "Head On". Quite honestly this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen for headache treatment. It is a wax (I repeat WAX) stick with a small amount of a few herbs in it. You are supposed to rub it on your forehead during a headache and it will magically take it away!

Please don't waste your hard earned money on items like this.

The product to the right is called "migraine magic" but I doubt it magically takes the headache away.

Although many studies have been done in the field of headaches in regards to herbs and alternative treatments, to date only a handful have been proven sucessful in migraine prevention.

Feverfew, vitamin B2, and magnesium have helped reduce the frequency and severity of migraine.

Other herbal remedies may also help headaches. One of the newest discoveries in the treatment of cluster headache and migraine is occipital stimulation. This is a surgical procedure to insert a stimulator at the back of the head to over stimulate the occipital nerves.

The result is a feedback method to the central areas of the brain that are responsible for triggering headaches. Read more about occipital stimulation for cluster and migraine headache.

Migraines and PFO

There has been interest in recent years about the connection between migraines and PFO's or patent foramen ovale. This is a small hole in the wall of the heart between two chambers that pump blood.

We are all born with this, but in about 80% of the population, this hole closes spontaneously.

In some migraineurs, the hole is still open.

So what is the connection between a PFO and migraine? Well, at the present time we are not sure.

It has been noticed that many times when this hole is closed surgically, migraines improve or even disappear. Again we are not exactly sure why. There are several theories, but I won't get into that here.

The bottom line is this: there are only a few studies to date on migraines and PFO's and the inital indications are that you should probably NOT have a PFO closed to try and cure migraines.

The evidence is not strong enough at the present time to show that this procedure will improve your headaches.

In fact, we had one patient we advised, not to have this done. He had no cardiac symptoms (chest pain, strokes or MI) and yet he insisted on having his PFO closed. His headaches actually changed and became more frequent.

I should mention that PFO's seem to be more strongly associated with migraine with aura.

Other Surgical Options

Another surgical option that my patients bring up is placement of electrodes at the base of the skull.

Once again, this surgical method brought interest when it was broadcast on television.

This method involves a surgical implatation of the electrodes near the back of the skull, the occiptal nerves. These nerve are just under the skin and if inflamed result in cervicogenic headache, and occipital neuralgia. Many times these two types of headaches may cascade forward and be a cause of migraine.

If this is the case, then the surgical treatment may be of some help, but would be considered only if medications have failed. The device eventually overstimulates the nerves so no pain is felt.

The surgery is being offered at various clinics in the United States, one of which is The Michigan Head and Pain Center.

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, PREVENTION is the key in migraine management, (as there really are no migraine cures) and most of this can be managed with lifestyle changes.