Migraines

a lass at work gets them and was on about a plant that you chew the leaves and its helped( no its not weed).
Its an old wives tale/remedy...butterbur or summat?
 


Chesterladmackem said:
a lass at work gets them and was on about a plant that you chew the leaves and its helped( no its not weed).
Its an old wives tale/remedy...butterbur or summat?
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Feverfew. You can get it in tablet form from Boots/Holland and Barrett etc.
Worked for me, usually allowing me to sleep it off. Haven't had migraine for ages but it was a bugger in my 20s and 30s. Lost peripheral vision and blurred central vision; flashing like seeing stars; numb fingers; lost the power of speech; pounding headaches. It was seriously debilitating. You have my sympathy mate.
 
Man About Town said:
Any way to avoid? Had one start just before I went to bed last night, had trouble reading text then the flashy zigzag shit at the side of my vision, so thought "here we go, best go to bed before thumping headache starts", woke up the next morning and fealt like i'd been punched in the back of the head.
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This is where you're going wrong marra.
 
Mine feel like my head is in a vice, start seeing red blotches everywhere I look and eventually pretty much can't see. I end up feeling sick and dizzy before having to sit in a pitch black room.

I've bought a black-out blind which helps, but I went to the doctor and asked for a prescription of tablets that one of the lasses at work uses and says it works....

The doc refused to prescribe me them as 'its classic addict behaviour' :eek::lol:
 
I’ve had the Aura, no headaches, just loss of vision at point of focus and shimmering to the left, thought I was having a stroke as did A&E as I was referred to Sunderland Royal Stroke Unit. Scary as when it happens. Couldn’t even drive my car until they decided it was a migraine. Had one in May and one in June and nothing since.
 
KEV_CALL85 said:
i’ve been getting them since i was at junior school i’m 32 now, anyone get numbness and weakness down one side of the body like hands, legs and even speech. sometimes that starts first before i get the actual headache.
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Aye I’ve had them before. Ended up in hospital for 4 days, though it was a stroke but it was just a rare form of migraine
 
I don’t get the lights thing. Mine are usually head feeling like it being squeezed in a vice. Heightened sense of smell. Trouble talking. Difficulty walking. Paracetamol never even seems to get anywhere near it, usually just have to ride it out by going to bed.

Never had to ring in sick or leave work early because of an attack for a few years. Mind you used to always have at least one arsehole saying the typical “don’t see what the big deal is, it’s only a headache man” rubbish.
 
Started getting them when I was about 10 ( I’m now in my 60s) full aura and headaches.
I now just get the silent migraine with the zig zag aura and the spaced out feeling , one trigger is definitely pollen but I also can get them with weather changes and tiredness.
 
I used to get them more regularly around 30 years ago. Not so much now, but they still happen from time to time. People talk about the visual aura which is the most common, but not everyone gets this - I get a characteristic taste in my mouth, and apparently even more rarely some people experience a characteristic smell. I was never able to identify any food triggers. Mine are most definitely most often stress-related, but one of the things I discovered was that it's not about the stress as such for me but the release of stress that does it. This is apparently quite common. For example, a few hours after I handed in the final piece of work for my MSc I had one of my worst ones. One doctor explained to me that there is a thing called the weekend migraine. What happens is you slog through the week in a stressful job, then go home on a friday night and relax - the stress is off, saturday is wiped out by a migraine, sunday you are feeling all washed out and starting to recover, then you wake up on monday morning feeling bright & fresh and ready for your next weekly dose of lovely stress. Rinse & repeat.
 
Man About Town said:
Any way to avoid? Had one start just before I went to bed last night, had trouble reading text then the flashy zigzag shit at the side of my vision, so thought "here we go, best go to bed before thumping headache starts", woke up the next morning and fealt like i'd been punched in the back of the head.
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Migreleave tablet - my mam swears by them.
Take one when you get the aura vision thingy, then the other one if it gets into a headache.

I get the same mate, they are shit - but thankfully of late, I only get the aura, and resting seems to work for me.
 
For those that don't suffer from them its almost impossible to describe, but new research suggests that its a type if visual epilepsy rather than a constriction of the blood vessels (which most medicine was geared to) which makes sense as that would be a Transient ischaemic attack (remember only blood vessels have pain receptors in the brain, so it makes sense this is what it was seen as). The fact is that changes to daily circadian rhythms and extra stress causes the. There can be weird idiographic triggers like, wine, cheese etc, but most, like traditional epilepsy can be geared to stressors. The best way if dealing with them is sleep, and massive painkillers. Traditional migraine medication for the reasons above don't generally work. So relaxants, sleep inducers and painkillers work the best (for reference I've been on preventatives, needle kits and regular meds for them). Covering all bases: Best way is to take good care of yourself, this time of year and spring take antihistamines to help sleep and irritants that discourage sleep, avoid obvious triggers, wear sunglasses or avoid bright sunlight, and make sure your eating/sleeping is as regular as possible.
 
Dark Traveller said:
I don’t get the lights thing. Mine are usually head feeling like it being squeezed in a vice. Heightened sense of smell. Trouble talking. Difficulty walking. Paracetamol never even seems to get anywhere near it, usually just have to ride it out by going to bed.

Never had to ring in sick or leave work early because of an attack for a few years. Mind you used to always have at least one arsehole saying the typical “don’t see what the big deal is, it’s only a headache man” rubbish.
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Try "Anadin" Extra, (Paracetamol,Caffeine and Aspirin. I tried all sorts of tablets but these are my lifesavers.
 
I’d get a blind spot, I remember once watching Roy Keane getting interviewed on Sky Sports and only being able to see half of the tele. Then the horrendous headache starts.

Haven’t had one in more than four years touch wood.
 
Man About Town said:
Any way to avoid? Had one start just before I went to bed last night, had trouble reading text then the flashy zigzag shit at the side of my vision, so thought "here we go, best go to bed before thumping headache starts", woke up the next morning and fealt like i'd been punched in the back of the head.
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There is no easy way to avoid them. However, if you learn your migraine triggers you can reduce them. I've suffered migraines since I was about 12/13 and still get them now some 30 years later. I did learn that the combination of stress and fatigue were my triggers so I am able to manage them a bit better. That said, just when I thought I had the better of migraines, their meaner cousin "cluster headaches" showed up and knocked my ass to the floor. With the cluster headache there is no warning (as I get with a migraine) and the pain is significantly worse... If that's not enough they leave me with olfactory hallucinations, so all I can smell for a day or so after is cigarettes....
 
Man About Town said:
Any way to avoid? Had one start just before I went to bed last night, had trouble reading text then the flashy zigzag shit at the side of my vision, so thought "here we go, best go to bed before thumping headache starts", woke up the next morning and fealt like i'd been punched in the back of the head.
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Mine always seem worse in spring or autumn. Sure it’s related to lack of sleep, which is the only remedy for me. Ibuprofen as SOON as you feel any symptoms coming on as the stomach stops digesting soon after they start apparently
 
I went through a phase of getting them about 20 years ago. Seemed to be connected with overdoing it physically / artifical lighting. Played footy then went to work doing evening shift. An hour later and had kaleidoscope vision followed by throwing up, going home and sleeping for about 14 hours! Used to take migraleve when they were coming on and that seemed to stop / reduce symptoms of most of them. Then they just stopped.
 
I use Rizatriptan tablets and believe me if you have real migraines paracetamol and other off the shelf medication do not work .Triptans massively reduce the effect of a migraine and can stop the attack all together if caught in the first 20 minutes of an attack starting.
 

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