Cannabis Sativa / Migraines

My friend has had intense migranes for 20-25 years nearly everyday for that time. He's had an MRI and doctors are puzzled as to why he has such a chronic condition. He's used conventional aids like coffee (caffeine), headache medications (excredrin) to no real effect. The relief was very temporal and then it was back to immense pain (crippling at times, on all 4's crawling around the house). He's gotten to the point where he is now on a vaporiser which administers intense analgesics in vapor form a few times daily (I believe opiates)...He's a very 'conservative' fellow and didn't even think to try that 'one last option' as far as real relief..I was able to find him some exceptional cannabis and it was the only true relief he's felt in 20 some odd years of burdening headaches. I wanted to share this testimonial, as our culture acts as if synthetics are always the answer. They're not. Plants and their bio-available constiuents we're tailor-made to provide us promising (and pleasing) outcomes. Again, it's been the only key he's discovered for relief in over 20+ years! Peace to all -

Hello and Good Day Livingwind,
I am moved to reply to your post since I am a PC designer and acupuncturist with the somewhat similar issue of only occasional migraines.
Some migraine suffers have this issue because of food sensitivities, too much alcohol which could be just 1-2 drinks.
I have found that my migraines occur most often when I do not have enough daily water intake combined with low blood sugar between meals or combined with a beer or other single drink at the end of the day.
You may have looked at this already but if not be sure to have your friend keeps regular on meals, meaning eat at first sign of hunger pangs: moderate portions of protein and complex carbs and lots of veggies at every meal and 8-10 8 oz glasses of pure, room temp water per day. But only 1 cup with any meal... no ice.
Snacks are good.  AVOID the 4 whites: sugar, flour, soy (and any hydrogenated) oil, and milk. If you like milk I recommend goat milk and nut milks and read "Don't Drink Your Milk" http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Drink-Your-Milk-Frightening/dp/0945383347...

try this and see how it goes...  if doesn't help might need a detox diet or elimination diet to figure out food sensitivities... HA tend to be a symptom of detoxification from something combined with low water and blood sugar... after the drs rule out everything else try elimination diet to find food sensitivities and then eliminate those items from diet...
good luck and let us know how it works out... Turtle

I second the idea of dehydration as a factor that can push one towards migraines. My experience is with cluster headaches, a neurovascular headache that is similar to migraine in terms of therapies that work, although the symptoms are rather different. Some people benefit from the W3 treatment - Water, Water, Water ... for an average person, that might involve one 8 or 12 ounce glass of water every hour on the hour for 8 - 10 hours a day. 

Kudzu root is another alternative to consider. Kudzu has a unique isoflavone that tweaks the serotonin in a rather specific way, blocking the 5HT-2C receptors. It has been used for headaches in Chinese medicine, and a few years back, was the topic of interest on a cluster headache message board ... I posted the research, a regular poster from Arizona tried it, and after being chronic (daily cluster headaches for over a year) she went into remission. There was a thread where people reported their results, and roughly 70% of the people who posted (most of whom had long standing issues and had tried everything) reported good or excellent results. Needs to be taken regularly, as it is a temporary shield ... people were taking 2 or 3 doses a day, and if they skipped a dose or two, the symptoms returned.  So not a miracle cure by any means, but if it provides relief, that can be valuable to people who are really suffering.

Oxygen is another treatment that helps most clusterheads - not the trickle one gets from a nose clip, but a high flow stream of 100% oxygen (12-15 liters per minute) from a non-rebreathing mask. This has been validated as a prescription treatment for cluster headaches, and the reports are that spouses with migraines have also found benefit from it.

A third option worth considering is curcumin, from turmeric.

If someone is on another medicine, need to consider interactions. For example, if they take triptans (imitrex, etc) then anything that affects serotonin could cause problems like serotonin syndrome - even if the second medicine is 'natural', the combination is not.

My migraines sorted themselves out, but for over thirty years I've suffered debilitating pain for days at a time with endometriosis.  The sort of pain that puts you in bed and reduces you to tears.  For most of that thirty years I resorted to synthetic pain killers, but a couple of years ago I found that if I took more than one I'd start passing white poop.  In other words, the pain killers were knocking my liver out.  Given a choice of excrucitating pain which would be only slightly diminished by the pain killers, or watching my liver fail, I opted for the pain, partly because by that time I'd started having hot flashes and was under the fond belief that menopause was imminent. 

When the couple of days of agony starts happening every two weeks, it gets to be a constant fear.  After a lifetime of being opposed to anything 'druggy' (except the synthetics...) I finally bought myself a copy of  the Marijuana Medical Handbook to try to find some unbiased information.  It was really useful, and I think if the book's arrival hadn't coincides with a marked reduction in pain levels I'd be busy germinating my first cannibis right now. 

taken me a while to get to a comp-uter that will allow me to reply to this, so :p to tech issues

in cannabis it is not hte THC that does all the healing, as with nearly every plant there is more than just one active chemical that makes it useful
there are more chemicals such as CBD and CBA etc etc but the real healing power comes in the terpenes to be found i nthe plant, beyond sativa/indica and ruderalis there are tons of different strains bred for concentration of certain terpenes, especially in the medical marijuana community, terpenes are responsible for the smell and flavor of the cannabis as well
in general sativas give mroe of a heady high and would therefore be most suited for migraines if you didn't already know that, whereas indicas are more of a body high and suitable for back pains and joint problems etc ruderalis is russian hemp that has been bred to qutoflower, or change from vegetative cycle to flowering cycle based on hours of day rather than the amount of time its been growing, im not sure what these have more use for medicinally as its very vagualy considered a different phenotype(if thats the word lol) than sativas and indicas
these terpenes, however concentrated are not only found in cannabis and can be found in various foods we are already familiar with
obviusly your friend finds that cannabis helps with his migranes though i would recommend looking into the specific strain he finds helps the most and looking closer to find what terpenes are the most concentrated in that strain, then looking for foods with the same terpenes and increasing these food's presence in your friends diet, that may help out quite a bit as well
hope that helps somewhat, good luck to your friend with the migranes

I know several migraine sufferers who claim that they helped their problems by quitting eating leafy greens.

Here is a video on juicing the raw cannabis leaves for some incredible healing. They contain non-psychoactive cannabinoids, (THC only when burned/heated), which are miracle workers. The plants themselves, while growing, are incredible at cleaning the air, as much as fully-grown trees.

^ nic video, though i have definately seen pychoactive components used extensively for medicine, i had not even heard of the raw leaf method, so thanks for sharing, that is potentially very useful information for mmj patients...

Suzy Bean wrote:Here is a video on juicing the raw cannabis leaves for some incredible healing. They contain non-psychoactive cannabinoids, (THC only when burned/heated), which are miracle workers. The plants themselves, while growing, are incredible at cleaning the air, as much as fully-grown trees.

I've had cannabis tea, juice, and of course smoked it.

It's considered by many botanists to be the "Queen of all plants" for a reason.

Let us embrace it's benefits and continue to plant it bountifully in the future.

Thanks for the link!

Peace -

Migraines are such a weird / individual thing.

I tried cannabis while having a migraine and in the pre-migraine stages and it only intensified the pain...

I'm glad it helped George's friend though.

Wow really? Yes we all differ certainly. You can go strain specific and find relief. As stated above,more cbd and terepenes. Sativa for headaches. I wish you the best -

I'm locking this thread as all discussion of cannabis is now confined to the cider press.

If anyone with the requisite number of apples wishes to continue the discussion there, please feel free.