Natural Healing Migraines

Having endured migraine headaches since I was a young girl of five years old I have dealt with too many within my lifetime. If there were a magical pill I could take to end them for the last time I certainly would do that, but there is no magical pill so I have learned ways to deal with them so I control them and not the other way around.

Last summer I wrote an article about how to ease migraine headaches and limit how much they control my life. Those migraine headaches medicines both prescription and over the counter just make me far more ill, so I do not use them very much.

Most people who do suffer from migraine headaches also report that medication taken at the wrong time will set our bodies into vomit mode. When your head is pounding the last thing you want, is your body to vomit, so why take medicines when you know it will happen? I have had countless iv fluids and even been hospitalized before I found the answers I sought for so long.

You need real migraine headaches help and it is not going to come out of a bottle or even a shot if you do not watch what you eat on a daily basis. Trust me, one that one folks, I have found a way to control my pain simply but avoiding food and other triggers.

Did you know that some of the very foods you eat could cause migraine headaches? It is true and once I had heard this long ago I searched for a book and found it. That book is long gone but the lessons learned remain with me today many years later because I learned that migraine headaches can be caused by certain foods.

Hot dogs, processed cheese, lunch meats and chocolate all are migraine headaches triggers. Limiting these foods can help; my limit is two grilled hot dogs (which I love) before the migraine headaches sets in. I did write an article on these as well and you can locate more of those food triggers here.

This is a great idea to figure out what triggers migraine headaches, but there are so many triggers out there. These migraine headaches triggers not include not only foods but stress and things in our environment as well. It surely is enough to make your head spin.

Creating a trigger notebook will allow you to see a pattern of your migraine headaches and once you see the patterns you can realize what your triggers are. All you need to do is write down foods you ate during the day, stress levels, and what is happening around you.

Sunlight is a trigger for me, so I try to stay out of it, but even inside I must guard against it. Sunlight streaming through a window will set off migraine headaches, as will sleeping on too flat of a pillow.

If I do happen to get migraine headaches even with the precautions that I take, I try rubbing my neck, taking a hot shower, take a few capsules of fever few or use a hot rice bag to relieve the pain. A rice bag is a great way to relieve the pain from migraine headaches. These rice bags are great for any type of pain that you maybe experiencing and can be made any size.

Migraines and Salt Intake

Many people do not realize the effects that salt has on their bodies. After I had my heart attacks in October of 2009, I had to go on a low salt diet, as do all heart patients. Within months, I realized that the migraines that plagued me since I was five years old were suddenly gone.

Migraines had affected me since I was a child. These migraines occurred at least three times a month and sometimes they landed me in the hospital. When I was about thirty-five, I learned that processed foods made these headaches worse so I cut back on those foods.

For instance, I cut back to two hot dogs at a cook out and I had a slight headache not that raging one I had when I ate three. In the summer time at cookouts, I would eat three grilled hotdogs but I rarely ate them other times in the year. I did eat a lot of cheese and sandwich meat because it was cheap, as a single mom, I pinched pennies.

After the heart attacks, I began reading labels to make sure I was staying on the low salt diet. Cold cuts, hotdogs, sausage, and cheese went off my diet for the most part, because they were high in sodium. The benefit for me was lower blood pressure and the migraines virtually disappeared. I have had a few since then but they are very rare and always occur after I splurge on sodium-laden foods.
Occasionally when I will eat too much salt, the migraines come back because the blood pressure goes up. I can feel it. Most of us do not realize the effects that our food intake does to our bodies.

Unfortunately, after some people have heart attacks they still did not limit the salt and their blood pressure remains high. Therefore, they have recurring heart attacks. I am very careful about what I put in my body. I am anal about salt intake because I am scared to death to have another heart attack.

I am very careful when I go out to a restaurant. I order baked chicken or a chef salad, but the heavily seasoned items are off my list of eatable foods. Instead of the beer battered Haddock I love, I opt for baked fish which is lightly seasoned and not breaded. I choose a baked potato instead of the French fries, which are usually salted before they come from the kitchen.

For picnics or parties where there is a wide array of food, I will always go for the plain looking foods. I also make a low salt dish to pass so that I know at least there is one thing I can eat. Being on a low salt diet does not mean I have to eat bland food or go hungry. It simple means I need to make better choices and if this means I get the added bonus of the rare migraine it is a great choice.

Migraines, Blood Pressure and Salt Intake

If you are experiencing migraine headaches which are limiting your daily activities, and medications do not seem to help, I may have the solution for you. This is my personal observations over the years, as I have been suffering from migraines since I was five years old.

When I was growing up I had the usual childhood, ate the same things my siblings ate, yet the food did not affect us all the same. Three out of seven siblings got migraine headaches that bothered us to various degrees. I was the only one that was hospitalized for a migraine that lasted a week, but the three of us who suffered had numerous doctor visits.

I suffered three heart attacks within four days shortly after I turned forty-three and I began to watch what I ate. I was put on a low salt diet, as are most heart patients. It is commonly known that salt will increase blood pressure and if you have a high enough blood pressure, you have either a stroke or a heart attack.

I took my diet seriously and counted the milligrams of salt I consumed. I used a plain sheet of paper and wrote down the numbers I got from reading sodium levels on packages. I gave up foods, which seemed to have high amounts of sodium such as cheese and processed foods.

I also switched to sea salt that was recommended. What I learned is sea salt has just as much sodium as regular table salt has in it.. A quick read of labels on the grocery shelf will show that information. It is in your best interest to read every label that goes in your cart, no matter what product you are buying in the grocery store.

Before long the first anniversary of my heart attacks was coming around, and I realized that it had been over a year since I had a migraine. I realized that for myself there was a direct correlation between salt intake and migraines. As long as I keep my sodium intake below that limit of 2,000 milligrams, the headaches stay away. One those rare days when I have too much sodium I will get a migraine headache complete with the vomiting, sensitivity to light and of course the pounding headache.