<p>Which is the migraine medication that makes you really skinny? I need to take that. There is a woman at work who takes it who is pretty much a walking skeleton. I figure with my age and non-existent thyroid, the migraine medication would make me about perfect.</p>
<p>Has anyone found anything that will make a migraine go away once it’s started? Even if I have prescription painkillers around the house, they just dull the pain for a few hours, then it comes back.</p>
<p>I don’t know about getting skinny, but Botox was just approved for treatment of migraines–
<a href=“Botox Wins F.D.A. Approval as Migraine Treatment - The New York Times”>Botox Wins F.D.A. Approval as Migraine Treatment - The New York Times;
<p>I do think they are starting at the base of my skull but, apart from the origin it seems to vary. Sometimes it’s throbbing behind my right eye or the right side of my head – like a migraine – but the other day it seemed to be more in my sinus and then last night it was the top and front of my head. Also, and this is new and weird, I get shivers going up through my skull - starting from the base and working up, feels kind of like a Braxton-Hicks contraction in my head. I saw the chiropractor today (who said the shiver thing is not uncommon) and he tried to persuade me to go on a dairy-free diet, cutting out all dairy as well as sodium cassenaite (sp?) which is in a lot of breads. He thinks that will cure me, but he seems to think that this will cure almost anything and that dairy is the cause of a lot of illnesses. I’m not really convinced that dairy is my problem since I’ve had such an increase in headaches, but no increase in dairy.</p>
<p>Yes, I was at Costco once and noticed that Excedrin and Excedrin Migraine are exactly the same. I felt so deceived! I can just see the folks at Excedrin sitting around and one of them says, “I know, let’s repackage the exact same product with a different name. They’ll never notice!”</p>
<p>Debski, I’m concerned that the headaches are worsening since I started seeing a chiropractor. He’s been extremely gentle with no “adjustments” where he tries to crack my neck, and my neck is improving some but the trade-off is problematic. Excedrin does work for me, but if I take it anytime after early afternoon, I don’t sleep at all that night – and the headaches don’t start until late in the day. So I slept some last night and then took it this morning but I really suffered for 14 hours first.</p>
<p>I’ve found, as I have gotten older, that I have more food sensitivities than I used to. They seem to have crept up on me slowly, causing symptoms I would never have attributed to food if I hadn’t finally tried eliminating certain things from my diet.</p>
<p>I’d recommend at least trying the dairy free diet.</p>
<p>Yes, if you truly have migraine, having a botox injection will help. No more pills while looking younger as well.</p>
<p>However, if your neck/head pain is musculoskeletal, or if you have spinal stenosis issues (having an MRI helps here), then it is altogether different.
I am taking ibuprofen to take the edge off, and if it doesn’t help, I take 250mg of hydrocordone. But that makes me sleepy so I only take it in the evening.
5 months ago, I even had an epidural steroid injection. After two injections, I was pain free for 4 months and now I just made another appointment to see my physiatrist because I am having another flareup.</p>
<p>I’m going to agree with giving the chiro a holiday until you see the neuro. I did find the constant manipulation more of a problem (and I do have a very reputable chiro). Excedrine never helped me. Check the price though. I do remember them being the same formulation, but the one marked ‘migraine’ being more expensive. I felt robbed! I did find relief with the swap of advil/tylonol but the frequency of both was too much on my liver…bad…there are warnings for a reason 
That’s when you see a specialist. We’d take our kids, right? We just wait too long for ourselves.</p>
<p>I do take an anti-seizure every day as a preventative. It is not the super-skinny one you may be referring to which I believe is Tomomax, commonly known as dompomax due to the side effect of cognitive impairment. This is no joke and happens a lot. Once the cycle of the triggers/rebound is broken the headaches should be less frequent and more manageable.</p>
<p>Sadly, Botox was approved for certain types of migraines…I think insurance is shoddy at best.</p>
<p>You mentioned that you do have allergies than don’t dismiss this as a trigger. I cannot eat chocolate or aged cheese without getting a migraine and I love both…oh well. I really believe that many types of illnesses can be avoided by homeopathic type of action and making some changes in our environment. My headaches were miserable and as soon as I started to clean my own house with a mask they really lessoned. I know immediately if my house is not in tip top shape by my migraine frequency.</p>
<p>My allergies are the hay fever types as well as allergies to certain medications. My nasal passages are bad according to the doctor. I have no known food allergies although I avoid red wine because it can make me headachy. I don’t often eat aged cheese. I do like dark chocolate though. I’m definitely tracking my diet for the foreseeable future though. I’m seeing my internist on Friday and will ask him if he thinks I should see a neurologist.</p>
<p>H has dealt with migraines for most of his adult life. Imitrix is the only thing that works for him. He now takes one pill when he feels the aura of possible migraine coming on.
For him, the aura is a certain feeling around in his left eye and left side of head. When he takes the pill before the migraine sets in, the pill really helps to keep it at bay. If he waits to take the pill until the migraine is full force, the Imitrix still works but it takes a little while for it to kick in.</p>
<p>Stay away from food triggers such as bacon, chocolate, hot dogs, some hard aged cheeses, etc.</p>
<p>
Missypie, that med is called Topamax. It was originally formulated as an anti-seizure med, I believe. You have to very carefully titrate the dosage up and NOT stop taking it suddenly. I took to for about a year and it did help prevent the headaches. I also did loose weight, though that could have been because it was just a really rough time for me. I stopped taking it because i absolutely could NOT think clearly (even though I was on a really low dosage). This really frightened me, so I took myself off the drug. </p>
<p>now there are some weeks (like this one) that i wake up every single day at around 3:30 or 4 with an awful headache. I cannot lie back down with it. So I take 2 excedrin migraine tabs plus 2 pseudo-ephedrines. I can only do that once per day, though, and if I develop a headache later in the day, I cannot take this and get any sleep. It’s getting pretty old…</p>
<p>^church, the same thing happened to my husband when he was prescribed an anti-seizure medication as a preventive for migraines. He felt as if he was going crazy when he took the anti-seizure medication. He called the doctor and told him he was never going to take that stuff again. Now, he just uses Imitrix as needed.</p>
<p>H was having bad stress headaches so Dr. prescribed Imitrex. We filled the prescription but fortunately he has not had to take any. Even the generic was expensive but found the best deal at Costco.com pharmacy. It looks like there is now a generic available on the nasal spray.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.costco.com/Pharmacy/DrugInfo.aspx?p=1&SearchTerm=s&Drug=SUMATRIPTAN]DrugInfo[/url”>http://www.costco.com/Pharmacy/DrugInfo.aspx?p=1&SearchTerm=s&Drug=SUMATRIPTAN]DrugInfo[/url</a>]</p>
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<p>I finally talked a friend, who was having bad migraines, into seeing a neurologist. The first thing the neurologist told her was to stop taking the daily OTC pain meds. She said it will cause a rebound effect very quickly. My friend now takes Imitrex for her headaches as needed - she gets them much less frequently.</p>
<p>A good neurologist can be a great help. Plus, you need to rule out other possible causes since this sounds like it is getting worse. My friend also tried a chiropractor and it didn’t help. Not dissing chiropractors but I would see a neurologist as your first line of treatment.</p>
<p>I used to get migraines at least once per month, I think they were partly hormonal. While I was pregnant I developed high blood pressure, so I was on a beta-blocker for a few months after I delivered. No headaches while I was on it. When I went off the beta-blocker the headaches came back. A year later I went back onto a low dose of the beta blocker, and the headaches stopped.</p>
<p>20 years later, I am still on a low-dose beta-blocker and have virtually no side effects from it. I also don’t have migraines. </p>
<p>My beta-blocker, Atenelol, is a generic that has been around for decades. Very minimal side effects, long term effectiveness and safety has been demonstrated, and it’s cheap (Think less than $10 for a month supply… that’s not the co-pay, that’s the full price). If your headaches truly are migraines, you might ask your doctor about it.</p>
<p>OTOH, my brother gets cluster headaches. He will be headache free for 1 - 2 years, then will go thru a period of 6 weeks - 3 months where he gets EXCRUCIATING headaches almost daily. The treatment for them is different than for migraines, so be aware that all severe headaches are not migraines.</p>
<p>We in my family get headaches from eating onions. For what it’s worth for you. Diet diet diet. Now I notice I get a vague headachy feeling just smelling onions.</p>
<p>How old are you?</p>
<p>I ask because I have known several women whose migraines became much worse a few years before menopause – it seems to have something to do with hormonal shifts.</p>
<p>I mentioned this book [Trigger</a> Point Therapy Workbook; Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief](<a href=“http://www.triggerpointbook.com/]Trigger”>http://www.triggerpointbook.com/) in the frozen shoulder thread (and learned about it in another thread here on CC!), but I’m bringing it up again because it has self massage techniques for dealing with headaches. I tried the massage on my S and on a friend who has chronic migraines and they say it definitely helped them. I am a pretty skeptical person but was surprised at how helpful self massage was in alleviating all kinds of pain, especially with headaches that are associated with neck pain. These tend to be caused by tension in the muscles rather than other causes like food. Anyway, it’s worth a try – it might not help but there are definitely no side effects! You can also google “trigger points” for other helpful sites.</p>
<p>I agree about seeing a neurologist. My daughter was plagued with headaches every day for months, getting worse with bright light and loud noise, etc. He took a very thorough history and figured out it was a rare drug reaction that had inflamed her optic nerve. Her MRI was OK, but we saw a special eye doc who confirmed the optic nerve inflammation. She had been off the drug (a mild antibiotic given for acne) but it took several months to clear out of her system. </p>
<p>We tried an OTC herbal med with feverfew while the headaches continued. Regular OTC painkillers hadn’t helped. The feverfew helped a little, but she just needed her liver to clear out the old drug.</p>
<p>mousegray, I just bought the trigger point therapy book from Amazon. Hope it will help me also.</p>