Migraine and headache patients are used to popping pills to manage their pain , but not every remedy comes from the medicine cabinet . These seven alternative therapies might be your answer to pain relief .
Migraine and headache patients are used to popping pills to manage their pain , but not every remedy comes from the medicine cabinet . These seven alternative therapies might be your answer to pain relief .
30 HEAD WISE | Volume 1 , Issue 3 • 2011
Adopting a gluten-free diet has helped Seattle attorney Sarah Lawer control her migraine pain .
The Perfect Complement
By Allecia Vermillion
Amos Morgan
Since childhood ,
Seattle attorney Sarah Lawer has been plagued by migraines brought on by exercise and heat . But as she grew up , her migraine triggers evolved .
“ All my life , I ’ ve just tried to power through headaches ,” Lawer says . “ But you get them and eventually you can ’ t ignore them .”
Like most migraineurs , she was willing to try almost any- thing to make the pain go away . Over the years , she experimented with a host of prescriptions and non-traditional therapies , including massage , acupuncture and biofeedback , each resulting in varying degrees of success .
Ultimately , it was ridding her diet of gluten that helped Lawer manage her migraine pain . According to the National Headache Foundation ( NHF ), the diet that she has followed is unusual and used primarily for celiac disease . Its effects could be due to many other factors , such as : age ; spontaneous remission , which often occurs ; a change in lifestyle ; or the elimination of many of the multiple triggers associated with migraine . Most clinicians believe that in about 30 percent of migraine sufferers , diet can be a factor . Migraine patients are particularly susceptible to changes in lifestyle , such as missing a meal , oversleeping , fatigue and dieting . The food and beverage items that are most often cited as triggers to a migraine attack include chocolate , cheese , fermented or pickled foods , caffeine , and alcoholic beverages — in particular , red wine . For most migraine and headache sufferers , managing head pain is a simple matter of taking prescription or over-thecounter medications . For some unfortunate individuals , drugs just don ’ t work .
This uncertainty leads many people to try complementary or alternative therapies , a range of techniques that can be used in tandem with traditional medications . Some of these approaches have proven effective in clinical trials , while others have largely anecdotal support .
“ If a person believes in it , there ’ s a chance it might work ,” says Kathleen Farmer , PsyD , a psychologist with the Headache Care Center in Springfield , Mo .
Here are seven common complementary therapies — many of them relatively inexpensive — that could be your key to migraine and headache relief .