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 a curious remedyModerators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> General Yoga | Message format |
flipcat |
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Hello gang! I had a curious yoga experience the other day and I thought I would share it with you. I had a migraine headache brewing behind my right eye for a couple of days. Being the stubborn person that I am, I paid it no mind and went about my busy days pretending that it was not there. Eventually, it turned into a rhinocerous spearing me through the eye without mercy. I thought perhaps my head might very seriously explode! The migraine was managable for the first two days, and then completely beyond reason the third day and tapered down a little to medium by day four. That evening, I told my spouse that against my better judgement, I was going to try to do yoga anyway (the thought of blood pressure and heart rate change through asanas seemed like the worst possible idea for a vascular migraine). He looked at me like I had 3 heads and off I went. Surprisingly, within the first 10 minutes of my practice, my headache was completely gone (a feat that had not been accomplished by perscription and non-perscription migraine medicine in 3 days).  I don't know what about the practice erradicated my headache and I certainly do NOT advocate this to anybody else who may suffer from migraine, but it was certainly quite a pleasant surprise to me. Amy | |||
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| Bay Guy |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 2479    Location: A Blue State | |||
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| Thushara |
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442   | Wow Amy, that's great! I am a "migraineur" as they call us in the literature so I'm very familiar with the effects of yoga on headaches. Generally speaking, the practice itself has reduced the frequency of my headaches, although when I do get them, the intensity is actually worse now. I have used various practices during migraine attacks with varying degrees of success. Carefully done twists can be wonderful for helping let go of tightness or sticking places, seated forward bends on a high support like a chair can be calming and reassuring. One of the greatest things is the idea of wrapping the head in a tensor (ace) bandage. One time in particular I tried it even though it was the last thing I felt like doing and it settled my eyes, which had been darting around madly as if trying to jump out of my head to escape the pain! Here's a description of how to do it with a few other tips that (Bruce posted this awhile back): For migraines, Marian Garfinkel, Ed.D., MCP-Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, and senior Iyengar yoga instructor, offers this: "Here’s a modified yoga intervention that anyone can do. When one feels the headache coming on, close your eyes. Starting at the back of the head, wrap an Ace bandage around your forehead, across the temples and eyebrows. The bandage should bring the forehead skin down and back over the temples, toward the hairline. This quiets the eyes and lessens eye pressure. Move your eyeballs away from the eyelids, so that they drop back and down in their sockets. Keep the bandage on for at least 10 minutes. If you feel a migraine coming on at work, for example, and are seated at a desk, rest your forehead on a thick book or other hard surface. Putting the head down softens the skin at the back of the neck. There should be a straight line between the back of the neck and the shoulders. Bend your arms and support elbows on the desk. Inhale and exhale softly and quietly through your nose, with the emphasis on exhalation. Take care not to hold your breath. Keep shoulders down, with shoulder blades spreading and moving down and away from each other. Relax the tongue and the throat. Hold for five minutes." One thing I have noticed with longer migraines is that, after a few days, almost any treatment can be the magical solution that finally gets rid of it, although I can rarely predict which one it will be. Sometimes the right asana or pranayama practice will do it, sometimes some ibuprofen or whatever. The body just has to be ready to stop hurting. There are people who say migraines are like colds and will go away on their own without medication. I say they can experiment on their own with that, but unless they are willing to take on the 3 day h%llfest in my head on my behalf, I am going to keep working with my friendly pharmacist  I hope you NEVER have to experience that pain again but am so glad your practice helped get rid of it! | ||
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| kulkarnn |
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| flipcat |
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| So much to discuss! Bay Guy (yes, I resisted the temptation to butcher your screen name as well), |What poses were you doing during the first 10 minutes of your practice? Did you do it at home or elsewhere| I started off with some pranayama for about 5 minutes and then straight into the liion's mouth with some sun salutations and some standing balances. (These forced me to focus my gaze and attention rather than allow my eyeball to pop out onto the floor...there should be a new migraine countering eyeball banhda). This was in the privacy of my home in the event that the attempt left me writhing and screaming in pain (not to mention, driving with migraine is a really BAD idea).  Tourist, That was VERY USEFUL information indeed! I will certainly try this and keep everyone posted. I have the conundrum with these headaches that the medicine (Imitrex) perscribed to me makes me feel like I am going to have a stroke. And sometimes it does not get rid of the headache so then I feel like I have a knife in my eye and am having a stroke! This makes me hesitant to take the medicine until I am 100% sure there is no other way out of the headache (which is when the doctors say is too late for the medicine to work). | I say they can experiment on their own with that, but unless they are willing to take on the 3 day h%llfest in my head on my behalf, I am going to keep working with my friendly pharmacist } I second that opinion!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also think you are right about when your body is ready to get rid of the pain. I think perhaps that may have been the case. Perhaps something about my practice allowed my body to get rid of the tension or balance itself out. and Neel, let's see if I can answer your questions at least from my experience. |Do any of the above or other migrainers have migraine incidences which arrise during their monthlymensturation cycles?| Sometimes, monthly hormonal fluctuations are often a trigger for migraine (as are many other things like stress, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, salt, insomnia, and air travel...). |Do any of the above or other migrainers have found the Root Cause of their migraine?| Like any medical condition that is problematic enough to the sufferer, it is wise to keep a headache journal. All of the above have triggered migraines for me. Sometimes I get them and absolutely cannot identify the trigger. Some people can identify one or two specific triggers and just stay away from those and they are fine, but I think more often than not, people are prone to get the headache and there are just a number of triggers that can open the flood gate. There are different types of migraine too. Mine are vascular (brain gets too much blood). I am not well versed on the other types but maybe there are some experts on the boards. Quiet, dark, sleep, and time are really the best medicine (although it is hard to sleep when someone has your voodoo doll and is poking you in the eye). Thanks for all of your thoughts on this. | |||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442 | Amy - I take Imitrex as well and I seem to only respond to the injectable type so on top of feeling like I want to be doing this , I have to stick a needle in my own leg It does seem to work for me without too much in the way of side effects but it is indeed apowerful drug and I don't take it lightly. For those not in-the-know, it also costs $20 - 30 per dose I'd say I use it about once a year. Neel - I don't think my headaches are directly hormonal but there may be a component. Over the years I have found that tightness in my neck and shoulders is a big contributing factor but even that is not straightforward. Part of what happens with me when my neck is tight is I get sinus pressure and a serious sinus headache can "turn toxic" in a matter of minutes and just goes right over the edge into a migraine. Something that I learned from Yoga Journal (of all places) is that sleep disruption can bring on a migraine. Of course, I have been working with this for years (35 or so) and I knew that. I keep very regular hours and am careful not to become overtired, get extra rest when I do stay up late etc. But I didn't think about things like jet lag, probably because I don't travel much, so when I went from the West coast of Canada to England in 2003 I was not at all prepared for the Mother of All Migraines to hit when we were visitng some little village near Shakespeare's birthplace. On a Sunday. Argh!!! The only good thing about that is that all their prescriptions are on the health plan for 6 pounds 30 p or something riduculously cheap so I got 2 injectors for really cheap. Plus the hospital was like something out of an episode of All Creature Great and Small. Very quaint! Anyway, I do think I am closer to understanding the root cause of my headaches but am not 100% sure yet. I am using the neti pot for sinuses when desparate and have some muscle relaxers now which have worked to get the tension to let go enough for other things to work (I bless whoever discoverd codeine!) And I do shoulderstand and halasana to keep my neck long and get massage and other bodywork to help out where I can't reach myself yet. Tell us about your own findings Neel! | ||
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| Bay Guy |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 2479 Location: A Blue State | flipcat - 2004-12-17 11:54 AM Bay Guy (yes, I resisted the temptation to butcher your screen name as well), |What poses were you doing during the first 10 minutes of your practice? Did you do it at home or elsewhere| I started off with some pranayama for about 5 minutes and then straight into the liion's mouth with some sun salutations and some standing balances. (These forced me to focus my gaze and attention rather than allow my eyeball to pop out onto the floor...there should be a new migraine countering eyeball banhda). This was in the privacy of my home in the event that the attempt left me writhing and screaming in pain (not to mention, driving with migraine is a really BAD idea). . That's really interesting. I would not have expected you to mention these asanas, but something like forward bending or inversions. I don't get migraines, but I'm going to file this information in case it's ever needed in the future. | ||
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| kulkarnn |
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442 | Neel, thanks for your wishes As I said, the regularity of sleep seems to be the key - enough hours of sleep but also keeping them at about the same time every night is important. When I was younger and staying up late to party, I thought I should sleep in late and would often then get a really horrible headache the next day (ok, some of them were alcohol induced back then...). What I discovered was that if I slept in an hour or so, I was fine, but any longer than that was a bad idea. So now I try to sleep 10:00 pm - 6:30 am most of the time. If we are out late, I will sleep until I wake up, usually not much later than 8:30, and absolutely resist the thought of going back to sleep then. Now, part of this is related to eating! Migraines are so complicated... One thing I figured out a long time ago was that keeping a stable blood sugar level really affects headaches. If I go too long without eating and get into the shakey, scary low blood sugar place I can very easily get a headache that may or may not (but most often did) turn into a migraine. So if one sleeps 3 or 4 hours longer, past the usual time for breakfast - boom - headache city. I also tend to have lowish blood pressure and I have read a theory that lying down for a long time (sleeping more hours that usual) might signal changes in the body blood pressure-wise that would induce a headache. Sudden increase of blood flow overloading "stretchy" blood vessels maybe creates vascular headaches, which most migraines are. Vascular headaches also tend to ease off or dissappear in women aftrer menopause - which is exactly when the level of estrogen decreases, making women more prone to "hardening" arteries. Arteries become more rigid, so they can't do the rapid expansion that causes migraines and there we are, back to hormones!  One does have to become one's own doctor for things like migraines because the western medical establishment really does not know much about how to treat them. One of my most important doctor visits was when I was in my early twenties and went to a neurologist who specialised in treating migraines. He really didn't do much to help me in terms of treatment but he said very clearly and firmly several times. "You are NOT crazy. This is real pain and you need to treat it. Don't let anyone tell you it is psycho-somatic." The sense of relief that gave me was amazing at the time and is still with me today. | ||
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