THE LOW DOWN ON MIGRAINES;
I have been in the holistic healthcare biz for most of my life. I am also a migraine sufferer. It runs through all of my family- both matriarchy and patriarchy. I dedicated myself to clean foods in my teens (now 60) and to discovering the healthiest ways to deal with migraines among other issues. I only met two allopathic (western medicine) doctors in my entire life that understood migraines. One was the Dr. that first prescribed the Fiorinal and codeine about 30 years ago, (NO acetaminophen because it simply doesn't work and is super hard on the liver- only aspirin, caffeine, bualbital and codeine) and the other doctor was one just about 7 years back that suffered from migraines and taught me that you always need to have a back up plan. she was brilliant! you need to have a stage one and stage two plan. Some medications cause what is called a rebound migraine...I have found that with medications like Excedrin, and others.
I have NEVER found Ibuprofen or Aleve or other over the counter medications to be helpful with true migraines. Other doctors tried to say that Fiorinal and codeine is not a recommended medication anymore. They tried to give me everything under the sun, from beta blockers , Imitrex some blue pill and all kinds of crap that simply did not work!!! I would end up in the emergency room throwing up and getting a shot of super high powered stuff like demoral or morphine which knocked me out for days. Fiorinal and codeine, bualbital and aspirin allowed me to take one cap when I felt an onset and then usually avert the migraine and continue with my daily life. I realized there were a few patterns to my migraines...some stress related, some because I used Splenda for a while,(toxic artificial sweetener) I then changed to whole organic stevia- (be sure to read your labels). Some of my migraines were definitely hormonal coming right before ovulation or before or during my menstruation. I also found a pattern that would happen if I got into a cluster migraine phase of several days the Fiorinal and codeine would interrupt that cluster phase and break it up for months at a time even. Other causes were barometric changes - even build pressure before earthquakes. So don't be hard on yourself. Do your best to live a healthy life. Healthy eating, living a happy life, exercise, monthly acupuncture and chiropractic appointment, massage, dance, meditation, hypnosis and stress management all really help...and sometimes allopathic medication that works for you specifically is the answer. Another big find that has been helpful that I did not discover until menopause is the injections of vitamin 9 A/B Lypholized. I think more and more info will be coming out about this. I have been using fiornial and codeine for over 30 years and have never had a problem with overusing it. It definitively interrupted several migraines a month for me in the beginning because my body needed to remember what it was like to not have that pain. Now I may need it once in a month or not for several months at all. If you are concerned with addiction then this may not be right for you. Always check with a Doctor that YOU trust and remember that no one knows your body better than you do.