Frequent migraine attacks: 4 tips to get you started
Reader question where I was asked by a friend who's daughter is suffering from migraine disease, currently in bed with head pain and nausea. Happens frequently. What can you recommend?
Where to start with this one?
As we are finally starting to recognise, migraine disease is a complex neurological disorder. After years of believing it be a headache, we now know this is the most complex neurological disorder known to man. Affecting 1 in 7 people all over the world and predominantly women. Though this debilitating disease does affect men too.
I remember it being a shock to me to find out from my neurologist that migraine disease is the world’s second most disabling condition a person can live with. Though it made so much sense because I was completely disabled by the illness at the time.
Disability by disease and chronic illness is increasing and this particular disorder is most prevalent and debilitating in a woman in her mid-30’s. This age often aligns with motherhood and peak in career.
I sat with this question overnight before responding and respond with 4 main recommendations.
1. Assess and understand what it is you are looking for in respect of answer.
Ask yourself the question: What do I want? What is it I am looking for?
Often times, people outrightly say to me “I want a quick fix. Just give me a pill”.
It has now been recognised in the medical field that there isn’t one, or at the very least that there isn’t a pill out there to gift you an overnight solution.
Understand that there is a difference between wellness and a quick-fix.
It is well documented that there is little to no interest in the complexities of this illness. Just in case you were wondering why you never seem to get anywhere with the doctors and why no one takes you and your ‘headache’ seriously. (Check out is migraine a really bad headache for more musings on this)
Is the lack of interest because there is no quick fix or magic pill that can be conjured up for such a deeply complex disease? Maybe.
Is the lack of there being a quick fix or magic pill the reason we label an illness “incurable”? There’s likely a lot more to it than this but it does make me wonder.
Does the interest and opinions of others mean you can’t get clear on what you want, identify what it is you’re looking for and clarify what is important to you (specifically, in this case, we’re talking health related goals/desires/needs/wishes)? Only you can sit with that one.
2. What are your belief around your illness, health and wellness? In particular, what do you believe to be true about migraine as a disease?
Along the way, I’ve become fascinated with the beliefs we hold around our wellness and the illness.
There are varying beliefs around the world, amongst neurologists, headache specialists and patients alike.
Some of the most popular include:
i) It’s an incurable disease – I wouldn’t bother making any changes (something I was told personally).
ii) It’s an incurable disease – the best you can hope for is to manage and control it. Diet, lifestyle and stress management factors may help with this.
iii) It’s a long term health condition. You will grow out of it/ it goes after menopause and in later years in life. (Advice that healthcare professionals are now being asked to refrain from saying. My nana is 92 and she still suffers).
iv) It’s an incurable disease – the best-case scenario is remission for some sufferers. You will always have this disease and it could come back at any time.
There is truth in all these statements. Plenty of patients that will fall into each category – millions in fact. Though I’d say less so in the remission category. The impression I get from many chronically ill patients is a feeling that this is only possible for the lucky ones, like there are a chosen few. Or that there are certain parameters that lead to remission, like lots of support, an amazing medical team, the best treatment/medication on the market, supportive partners paying all the bills and so on.
Though I was told otherwise, something inside me didn’t believe that my condition was incurable or that there wasn’t any point in making changes
.My belief system – at the point of complete disability by illness and as if out of nowhere – became “I matter. My health matters”.
In many respects, I felt my way forwards from there. After being told that there was no support available to me and my disabled state at all whatsoever via the NHS healthcare system here in the UK. And receiving the message loud and crystal clear that NOONE was coming to my rescue. No one was going to fix or save me. Which brings me on to what I want to share with you next.
3. RESEARCH.
In the absence of our health care professionals doing it for us and there being plenty of it out there, then the onus is on us.
Migraine disease is not our fault. No part of us has caused this god-awful disease. We do not deserve it. And that includes you. Even if you are telling yourself otherwise.
We are both worthy and deserving (and also capable) of living a life we love and one in which we truly thrive.
However, unless you find a specialist who has independently researched the field of migraine and who has a deep and genuine interest in it, then this is something we can do for ourselves. (There are 64 neurologists/headache specialists in the UK that are migraine specifically trained - there are 10 million sufferers.)
Many of the ways I have done my own research over the years (and continue to do so) have been through:
Books
Videos
Articles
Reports
Blogs
My main source has been the incredible Migraine World Summit. You can register for their annual event here to gain free access to expert interviews.
Co-founder Carl Cincinnato declared in the run-up to this year’s event that
“a migraine patient can expect to reduce attacks by 50% through research alone”
This is one hell of a bold yet true statement. Empowering in many ways.
You don’t even need to make any changes, because understanding the spectrum of the condition, what you are living with, the symptoms and challenges in more detail really can make all the difference.
4. Consider making changes.
As we understand from the above, you can reduce attacks by 50% through research alone.
No further action required.
I wonder now if I’d known this would I have stuck to research alone? I sure would’ve been happy to reduce attacks by 50%. That would have given me half my life back.
In my case, I reduced attacks by 75% which led to me breaking the chronic pain cycle in less than a year.
I achieved this through research alongside making changes to:
My environment (internally and externally)
Diet
Lifestyle practices
Reducing stress in all areas of my life and body
My belief system and emotional regulation
When I look back, I started out from a place of belief. I was clear on what I wanted: wellness.
At the time, I was at the very beginning phase of my research. What I knew about the illness I now found myself disabled by was pretty minimal to what I know now.
However, I didn’t need all the answers and next steps. I worked with the information at hand and what I knew to align with wellness. I started making changes from there.
Teeny tiny changes, one at a time. I really imbed each change before moving on the next one. Around 6 months in, I realised that all these changes would lead to big change further down the line. At the time, these were things like:
Migraine is an inflammatory disease
An expectation that there would be a rise in attacks on the back of the launch and accessibility of smart phones (I heard about this from a neurologist in a video several years in to me having an iPhone - my biggest addiction)
Patients with migraine disease are at an increased risk of strokes and heart disease (instead of becoming fearful of this, I asked myself the question: what can I do the minimise the chance of this happening to me?)
My priority in the early days was to reduce inflammation in my body. To me it made sense to reduce the inflammation in my body if I had any hope in hells chance of reducing attacks. At the time I was living with 72 hour pain attacks (lasting over a week each in total) 8 times a month (attacks were overlapping and there was no time for recovery between).
I later moved on to hormones and learnt to rebalance them through reading the book Balance Your Hormones Balance Your Life. Though this took YEARS, I went on to not only break the chronic pain cycle, the chronic fatigue cycle (took 2 years), I was able to function through attack (4 years on) and now live a life with only a few odd days where I experience mild to moderate pain. Attacks that were at one time severe and agonising pain as standard (occasionally excruciating). One attack that would last over a week each taking into account all 4 stages (predrone, aura, pain, postdrone) of attack now last a day or 2 at most. Don’t forget to read is migraine a really bad headache if you want to find out more about the different stages to attack.
As you might be able to tell, my approach has been to play the long game.
The pay offs to which have been big.
I live a life I love and I thrive – not in spite of all I’ve been through and suffered, but because of it.
This is not something that I believe is possible for the lucky ones, the chosen few. This is something I believe is possible for all of us.
There is much to say on this deeply complex yet vastly misunderstood topic. After all I’ve been through and overcome, after how I’ve come to realise I differ from popular opinion and the norm, especially when it comes to my beliefs about what is and isn’t possible for us, I have come to see myself as a visionary.
I fully appreciate that my findings and beliefs do not align or resonate with the majority. But they do come from my own lived experience, from a place where I sat with my beliefs, what I knew to be true, got clear on what it was I wanted, did (and still do) the research, implemented the changes that aligned with what I wanted and PROVED it works.
I’d love to hear back from you.
With all you have read, what questions, thoughts and queries come to mind?
I would appreciate you sharing them in the comments or responding directly if you prefer.
The more conversations we have, the more understanding we gain, the more healing that will happen. What happened to me and has happened to many millions around the world needn’t be the case if this were happening sooner.
As always, thanks for reading Warrior Within, you make a difference just by being here.
Your nana has migraine? ✨🙏