Non-Drug Solutions to Migraine Pain

By Bonnie Jenkins, Advanced Natural Medicine

Anybody who thinks that a migraine is just another headache hasn't met my husband, Bob. Some people describe their migraines as a spectacular laser light show pulsating and exploding in sync with the pain in their heads. Others view migraines as an incessant, stabbing pain coupled with nausea and narrowed vision. But for Bob, migraines are simply debilitating - a pain so vivid it can only be understood by fellow sufferers.

Bob has suffered from migraines since he was a kid and has learned to live with them. Over the past 20 years, I've learned to live with them too, at least as an observer, and have learned a lot about how and why they occur.

Migraines can last for a few hours or a few days. They appear to have a strong genetic component and commonly occur among family members - Bob's mother gets them too. They’re a vascular event, meaning they are generally characterized by changes in the brain's blood vessels. Many scientists now believe migraines are caused by a sequence of chemical changes that cause these blood vessels to constrict, then dilate -resulting in throbbing pain. Such blood vessel changes are caused by a fluctuation of serotonin, a naturally occurring neurotransmitter that mediates pain.

Pulling the Trigger

If you spend much time with someone who has chronic migraines, you'll no doubt hear about "triggers" - substances that can bring on a headache. Migraine sufferers have linked an excessive intake of sugar, alcohol and junk food to their headaches. In addition, flavorings, colorings, pesticides, allergenic foods such as wheat and soy, artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, preservatives such as sodium nitrate, food additives like monosodium glutamate, and heavy-metal contaminants in tap water may also be culprits. Studies have also found that foods rich in the amino acids tyramine and phenylalanine can prompt changes in blood vessel tone. Some tyramine-rich foods include fermented products such as beer and wine as well as pickled products, bananas, figs, prunes, pineapples, raisins and cheese. Phenylalanine is found in chocolate, turkey, pork, wild game, wheat germ and ricotta.

But foods and chemicals aren't the only triggers. For people like Bob, a simple change in the weather is enough to bring on a migraine and humidity seems to be the biggest culprit. Bacteria may also play a role. Doctors at a recent infectious disease conference reported that about one in five migraine sufferers carry the bacterium helicobacter pylori, the same bug that's linked to ulcers. In their study, the doctors put half of their patients on a three-week course of antibiotics. The other half – the lucky half – got the antibiotics plus a course of probiotics. A year later, half of the people in the antibiotic group still got migraines – but only 20 percent of the probiotic group did. And the headaches they did get occurred less frequently, were less severe and shorter.

Pain-Free Options

For generations, all conventional medicine could offer migraine sufferers was aspirin. Then, when the prescription migraine drugs, Imitrex and Zomig became available in the early 1990s, many sufferers saw a miracle in the making. But it wasn't long before users began to experience some unwanted side effects. It seems that Imitrex raises blood pressure and can cause chest and throat pain. It can also trigger anxiety and depression, difficulty breathing and tremors. And Zomig can have serious cardiovascular consequences, including heart attack. Another drug often used to treat migraines is Sibelium, a calcium channel blocker. But long-term use of this drug can lead to depression and weight gain. More serious are reports that Sibelium sometimes induces Parkinson's disease.

Fortunately, researchers are uncovering a growing number of non-drug solutions to migraine pain. One of sciences "new" discoveries is feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium), an herb traditional healers have used for centuries to treat migraines. Feverfew's active ingredient, parthenolide, blocks the production of the compounds in our bodies that cause pain. Feverfew also thins the blood - one of the primary reasons it is so effective for migraines. A recent review of the clinical data concluded that feverfew is more effective than a placebo. In one clinical study of 72 people, researchers found that feverfew not only reduced the frequency and severity of migraines, those taking the herb experienced a reduction in the incidence of vomiting associated with migraines.

5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) - a precursor to the amino acid serotonin - is another supplement those suffering from chronic migraines may

want to consider as a preventive strategy for future headaches. In one prospective long-term placebo-controlled study, Italian researchers found that 5-HTP can actually modify the abnormalities in the central nervous system that make some people prone to migraines. In an earlier study, 40 people with recurrent migraines received either 200 mg. of 5-HTP a day or methysergide (a drug used to prevent migraines) for 40 days. Both compounds reduced the frequency of migraines by about 50 percent.

The most recent advance in preventing migraines naturally comes out of Philadelphia's Jefferson Headache Center. During the three-month study, 32 patients with episodic migraines were given a daily dose (150 mg.) of Coenzyme-Q10. Yep, the same Co-Q10 that I've told you about for boosting cardiovascular health. At the end of the study period, the researchers reported a significant reduction in the number of days that each patient continued to suffer from migraines - from an average of 7.34 days at the beginning of the study to just under three days after treatment with Co-Q10. Better yet, the study found that Co-Q10 reduced the frequency of the debilitating headaches by more than 50 percent among two-thirds of the participants who completed the study. The authors of the study theorize that Co-Q10 works because it targets cellular mitochonrial disorders. Although this research is preliminary and placebo-controlled trials still need to be done, this is great news for the 28 million Americans who suffer from migraines.

One Last Thing ...

Acupuncture may also prevent migraines, say researchers from the Woman's Headache Center in Torino, Italy. In the four-month study, which appeared in the journal Headache, 80 women were treated with acupuncture and another 80 women took Sibelium. The women who used acupuncture not only experienced fewer migraines than those who took the drug, they reported that the treatment reduced their pain and the need to take medication.

This Just In ...

Maybe Little Miss Muffet was on to something. New research suggests that whey, the liquid byproduct from cheese, may help prevent prostate cancer. When Ohio State University food scientists recently treated human prostate cells with whey protein, cellular levels of the antioxidant glutathione increased up to 64 percent. Since cancer researchers believe that oxidative stress plays a major role in the development of prostate cancer, the increase in glutathione may have a protective effect. Although whey protein supplements have made a name for themselves with body builders, if you don’t need the extra protein in your diet, you might want to forgo the whey in favor of glutathione supplements. You can also boost glutathione levels by taking a combination of supplemental DHEA, L-cysteine and L-methionine. Studies suggest that this may be a better way of raising glutathione levels than taking glutathione itself.

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References:

Ernst E, et al. "The efficacy and safety of feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium L.): an update of a systematic review." Public Health Nutr 2000 Dec;3(4A):509-14.

Murphy JJ; et al. "Randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of feverfew in migraine prevention." Lancet 1988 Jul 23;2(8604):189-92.

Nicolodi M, et al. "L-5-hydroxytryptophan can prevent nociceptive disorders in man." Adv Exp Med Biol 1999;467:177-82.

Rozen TD, et al. "Open label trial of coenzyme Q10 as a migraine preventive." Cephalalgia 2002 Mar;22(2):137-41.