Herbs for migraines

I ran out of my wood betony tincture, that I used daily,and my migraines came back... I ordered more, but meanwhile had to search what I can get before it comes. First thing was magnesium, and I had two bottles -magnesium glycinate and magnesium malate. I took 600mg in one sitting the first night and it worked, but gave me a very rumbly tummy. I will take that over migraine anytime. Anyway,I tried to spread it out into 3 doses,and that didn't work. It seems that many people are deficient in magnesium, and possibly people who get migraines more so. Then to two -and that worked. I did eat fresh feverfew leaf almost daily,but that alone doesn't help.
When I had wood betony, I would take one droperful 1-3 times a day,and if headache would start building - 2 droperful.
During my search I found many other herbs, that people say are effective, one source said to mix 3 tinctures in equal amounts: wood betony, black cohosh, and jamaican dogwood. I might make this mix since I will have soon first two,and I am making my own jamaican dogwood tincture right now.
Other useful herbs are Pulsatilla, California poppy, Scullcap, Lemon Balm, Chanca Piedra, catnip, red clover, and ginger. Also vit. B2 seems to help some people. And of course there is butterbur, but there seems to be toxicity problem with longer use.
Please share, if you had something that helped you.

Windscreen eo on the temples or feet helps when one is starting.

R Scott wrote:Windscreen eo on the temples or feet helps when one is starting.

Windscreen essential oil? What is that?

That is a stupid spell checker on my phone. And a stupid user for not proofreading it again.

WINTERGREEN essential oil.

Oh, I see. Did ithelp you or someone you know?

Found out aboutone more pain herb -wild lettuce. The website had it in half with wood betony tincture for migraines. Hmm,maybe I should add that too to the other three herb tincture?

This is not an herb, but it's not a drug either. I work with a lot of migraine patients:

http://www.cefaly.us/


You need a prescription, so find a helpful doctor or optometrist...


If I recall, 70% had a big recudtion in frequency. It does not change the severity.


best of luck!

optometrist troy


This is not medical advice. Do your own due diligence research.

Joy Oasis wrote:Oh, I see. Did ithelp you or someone you know?

Both.

I don't get migraines anymore since I fixed my gut bacteria balance and diet.

Yes, gut is a problematic thing for me, although not as bad as long as I stay close to LOW FODMAPS diet. I don't eat gluten for several years already. I had a nasty stomach flu a bit over a year ago, and had problems for months after. But that said,I had migraines or at least headaches since childhood (I found first mention in my medical records at the age two.) Not all the time,but once or twice a month,sometimes several days in a row.
How did you fixed the balance and what kind of diet do you eat?

The right diet will put issues in remission by eliminating their preferred food, but will not eliminate THEM because the body doesn't have what it needs to directly attack them. Fungus cell walls are chiton and the body can't digest it. Other critters use biofilm or cysts bodies to hide.

You need to weaken the bad stuff and give your body the tools to attack it at the same time.

You can PM me if you want specific products I used, but the general process:

1. Diet to eliminate all additives, sugar, and inflammatory triggers for you. This is starving the beast. Doesn't kill it, but limits the ability to fight back.
2. Deal with H Pylori. It is the precursor of ulcers and reflux issues, but more importantly it will derail most attempts to fix lower gut health. Fix is simple, a month of 100,000 heat unit cayenne pills. That seems counter intuitive, but the body was already trying to burn it out which gave you the reflux or ulcer, so you are just supercharging your fighting ability.
3. Deal with parasites. Several different parasite cleanse protocols, pick a good one and see it through.
4. Deal with fungus. Eating yogurt is not enough, the most potent probiotic is not enough. They will load you with good bacteria, but still don't give you the tools to fight the bad ones. You need to add the right enzymes to digest biofilms and chiton. You need to make sure you have the right minerals and vitamins as well so your bodies can actually work. And something to help reduce your existing inflammation makes all this work faster and get into the cartilage and interstitual fluid where these bugs like to hide because the immune system usually doesn't get to very well.
5. Don't quit. You may get die off symptoms at some point and think you are going to die, you may feel great after a couple weeks and think you are cured for life. Keep going long after you think it is done, the bugs are relentless. If the die off symptoms are bad, slow down but DON'T STOP.

0. Reduce stress. None of this works if you are too stressed. What is too much? IT DEPENDS, so remove as much as you can.

Parasites and fungus have a lot more control over mood and health than most realize. Those unstoppable sugar cravings? Yeah, that really is your gut talking--but not you! Voices in your head? Science is starting to realize where they are coming from. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/gut-bacteria-on-the-brain/395918/?utm_content=buffercd074&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

fewerfew - usually used against headaches dead easy to grow.

Second feverfew. It's easy to grow and the bees love it. I make tinctures from it.

Also, please be cautious with wintergreen. It is a very very strong EO and if it gets in your eyes, you are going to be in incredible amounts of pain.

I won't use wintergreen myself since I can't stand the smell of it, but I keep that in mind for other people. Feverfew alone is not very effective for me. Maybe because it takes sometimes months or a year to stop migraines and has to be taken daily, and i am not so great about taking it daily. Tincture is not effective for anyone though how much I read, it has to be a fresh leaf a day. Just be ready -taste is quite awful.

Update about magnesium - I tried take it two times a day (300 mg or so in each time), and it worked and my tummy is fine. I take it with lunch and before bed. Basically our ratio calcium to magnesium would be best one to one. Tums has ration 300 to 1...I usually do not like to take supplements daily (except for herbs, but they are more like food), but magnesium seems to be very helpful, so I intend taking it daily. At least for a while.

My husband cut out several foods after he was diagnosed with diabetes, and his migraines have all but disappeared. He used to only get them about 3 times a year, but they lasted several days and he would have to just stay in bed with the curtains closed until they ceased. The foods he has cut out: all grains, sugar and most fruit (he eats fruit maybe a couple times a month), all vegetable oils, all legumes/pulses. He also avoids starchy vegetables like potatoes, yams, and sweet corn.

He cut out those foods in order to deal with his high blood sugar--which has now been normal for the past few years without needing medication. He says he has had a couple migraines in those few years (no more than one per year), but has been able to function and even go to work during them. He also had a few more noticeable health improvements, such as a big reduction in the severity of his asthma. We never imagined the foods he was eating were making him sick. And we're still not certain which of the above foods were causing them (we suspect the grains, but we can't say for sure), just that eliminating them has had huge benefits.

If you don't suffer from asthma then Meadowsweet, Filipendula ulmaria, is a natural aspirin, and easy to grow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipendula_ulmaria

Good luck

Pete

I actually do not eat gluten for several years already and very rarely eat other grains as well. Aspirin never helped me with migraine at all, but meadowsweet might have different compounds too. But so far -no headaches with magnesium use, so it seems, that the main cause then for me was magnesium deficiency. Maybe that's why if I wouldn't eat the whole day, I would get bad one. I always thought it was detox, but now I think it was magnesium levels.

Joy Oasis wrote:I actually do not eat gluten for several years already and very rarely eat other grains as well. Aspirin never helped me with migraine at all, but meadowsweet might have different compounds too. But so far -no headaches with magnesium use, so it seems, that the main cause then for me was magnesium deficiency. Maybe that's why if I wouldn't eat the whole day, I would get bad one. I always thought it was detox, but now I think it was magnesium levels.

Sounds like you have nailed it. As a ceoliac I find a gluten free diet much healthier than a gluten diet, especially if you avoid the 'Guten free' processed food and actually make your own.

Best of luck

Pete

Gluten free diet can be healthy and can be not, like you said, if people eat processed gluten free stuff, it wouldn't be healthy. Grains, seeds and nuts actually have high amounts of natural phytic acid, which binds up lots of minerals, so even though they have lots of them themselves, they are pretty much unavailable to us and as such, pretty much just close to empty calories. Phytic acid can be reduced by sprouting, fermenting and soaking, but not by much. So it is not easy to find what to eat that would be truly healthy...Vegetables, greens, fruits, and some grass fed meat, eggs and dairy(raw) seems to be the best diet.

I'm sure you must know about caffeine, but I thought I'd mention it.

Skullcap with kava kava has helped me in the past.

I've been staving off my migraines with daily magnesium too, I take a liquid ionic magnesium, it tastes HORRIBLE but gives me zero tummy trouble and I find myself sometimes craving it.

Matu Collins wrote:

I've been staving off my migraines with daily magnesium too, I take a liquid ionic magnesium, it tastes HORRIBLE but gives me zero tummy trouble and I find myself sometimes craving it.

Cool, so it helps you too. How many mg a day you are taking? Taste is not great, but I think I will use it more because we need so many pills to get 600 mg, and I think I rather have a bit of bitter stuff than lots of hard to swallow stuff. If you put it in some juice, it tastes fine. I put some in my green smoothie, and taste was fine. Do you know, that chickweed and stinging nettle has amazing amounts of magnesium - like 600-700 mg per 100 grams. I can't use stinging nettle in larger amounts as I get eczema from that, but I will try to juice some chickweed. Unfortunately more usual foods tend to have pretty small amounts.