headaches & migraines

Headaches & Migraines

Posted on by Tamie Bilazzo

The 4 phases of a Migraine

  1. Prodrome Phase: About 2/3 of migraine sufferers experience vague changes (physical / emotional) 2 hours to 2 days before the headache starts. Symptoms – fatigue, excessive yawning, less appetite, food cravings, mood changes, muscle stiffness, dizziness, digestive changes and frequent urination.
  2. Aura (visual migraine) phase: About 1/3 of migraine sufferers experience visual migraine which you see flashing (often silver gray colored) zig zag light and wavy lines start at the corner of eyes and get bigger and bigger. It usually last for as short as a few minutes to as long as 1 hour before the headache begins. Sometimes just visual migraine but no headache follows.Some also have temporary trouble speaking or feel tingling / numbness on the one side of face.
  3. Headache (Pain): Moderate dull achy pressure to severe throbbing pain usually on one side, lasting from 4 hours to 3 days. Some experience nausea, vomiting, and many experience sensitivity to sound, light smells (5 senses) and movement (riding a car will be very uncomfortable in this phase). Some sufferers may be unable to work or socialize during this phase.
  4. Postdrome: Feeling exhausted, difficulty to concentrate and some feel depressed if #3 phase lasted long time.

There are many prescriptions in the market for headache and migraine and most sufferers take the medication before it turns into a full-blown migraine. I can treat with acupuncture and / or be able to prescribe herbal medicine as your alternative choice based on the symptoms. This approach is less invasive and have fewer side effects.

Migraine Causes

Poor Blood Circulation

Patients who belong to this category often complain for stiffness of neck and shoulder, and pressure on the eyes. The treatment will improve blood circulation, relive inflammation, and relax muscles.

Stress

Patients who belong to this category often complain about the pain affecting the temples, eyes, one lateral side of the head, fever, bitter taste in the mouth, insomnia, rapid pulse, anxiety, panic attack etc…The treatment – focus to bring the stress level down by balancing the autonomic nervous system.

Hormone Imbalance

Patients who belong to this category often complain the pain on the one side of eye / eye blow. The pain is throbbing natured severe level and usually complain “nothing works”. 90 percent of time women suffer from this kind of migraine attack and the main cause is period – before period, during the period, after the period and sometimes during the ovulation. Most women suffer from PMS and their period usually start with dark dime to quarter sized clots. It is all due to the changes in estrogen and progesterone level. The treatment will be focused on balancing hormone level. I see a lot in my clinic.

Allergens

Patients who belong to this category often complain the pain the forehead, and cheek bones. Get allergy test and found out what you are allergic for and avoid the foods, dust, tree etc… you are tested for allergic. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are very helpful (w/o getting shots and medications) adjunction with avoiding your “allergic” items.

Deviated Nose / Trauma

This is the most challenging category to treat. Often people go to get many different kinds of medications (often high dosage), botox and trigger shot injections. If those do not work, surgery is the next. If you have deviated nose and get headache very frequently, you might find out the severity by nose rinsing. If the saline sinus rinse solution do not come out from other side of nose, your nose deviation is severe. Otherwise, nose rinsing helps as well as acupuncture and herbal medicine.

Suggestions

Keep a detailed log of when your headaches occur. The log includes food and drink intake. Caffeine, Chocolate, Aged cheese, Red wine. Too much or too little sleep might be the trigger to your headache. I suggest my patients to rub sombra cream or peppermint essential oil (only a few drops) as well as herbal tablets when it is still in prodrome stage. It will avoid your headache to get blow up. If you have a tension headache, rub in at the temple, scalp 1.5 inch outside the ears and shoulder and neck. It also help you to sleep deeply!

Lastly, think about taking “Food Sensitivity Testing” which is not the same as “Food Allergy test”. Please check “Food Sensitivity Section” on this site for more detail.

Resources:

Tamie Bilazzo