[quote]The migraine medicine I use is not available over the counter in NZ, but is in Taipei.
[/quote]
Brian, what’s it called?
[quote]Quote:
The migraine medicine I use is not available over the counter in NZ, but is in Taipei.
Brian, what’s it called?[/quote]
Celebrex - an anti-inflammatory.
Brian
[quote=“Bu Lai En”][quote]Quote:
The migraine medicine I use is not available over the counter in NZ, but is in Taipei.
Brian, what’s it called?[/quote]
Celebrex - an anti-inflammatory.
Brian[/quote]
Just did a google on it and was disappointed to see the warnings about kidney and liver damage, tarry stools, internal bleeding, etc.
Those kinds of warnings freak me out. 
Aren’t there any migraine medications that are a bit safer? I’d prefer to just suffer the damn migraine than screw my kidneys up.
Hope somebody can help with this.
I suppose you’ve heard the standard stuff about avoiding coffee, chocolate and red wine?
I’ve had migraines for over fifteen years and there was a time when I was getting them every Saturday!
Drugs specifically for migraines didn’t help me. Instead, whenever I feel one coming on (you can tell, right?) I take a couple of Panadol or Tylenol and curl up in bed in a dark room. A couple of hours and I’m feeling great.
I didn’t know about those side effects for Celebrex. I trust the doctor who originally proscribed them to me. I’m guessing that these are not ‘usual side effects’, but ‘extreme reaction in tiny percentage of cases’ sort fo thing. You get that with all drugs. Celebrex worked wonders for me. I used to find Panadol/Asprin the best thing - it would take the nausea away a bit and ease the pain a little, but I was still out of action for 3-5 hours. The celebrex just stopped the migraine before the pain even started (if taken when I got the visual symptoms, which for me are about 1/2 hour before the headache). I’ve taken it for 5-6 years now, and am beginning to get a bit ‘immune’ to it. Now it only stops about 50% of headaches, but of the remainder, 90% of the time, the pain is not too bad (no nausea) and I can just keep working. This is much much better than it used to be back in NZ where I’d have to take 1/2 a day off work if I got a migraine in working hours, which was once or twice a week.
Brian
[quote]if I got a migraine in working hours, which was once or twice a week.
[/quote]
Bloody hell! I get them about once a month or so (haven’t had one for three, touch wood). Once or twice a week! You poor bastard!
[quote]Once or twice a week! You poor bastard!
[/quote]
Doh! I meant month. In working hours once or twice a month. I used to average once a week, but that wasn’t evenly spread out. I remember in London getting 6 migraines 6 days in a row once. Now I probably average 2-3 a month, but I can go a while without and then get maybe two a week for a while.
My workmate also gets migraines, and we agree that (for us - there may be other triggers for other people) changes in air pressure are the most important trigger.
I’ve always thought that migraines should be one of those things that Chinese medicine should be good for, so am very interested in hearing form anyone who has had success with this.
(Maybe the moderator can split off this migraine stuff into a separate thread?)
Brian
A [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/acupuncture-chinese-meds-for-migraines/3726/2 thread[/url] in the Open Forum.
If you can find a PDR (Physician’s Desk Reference) in English around here – or get someone back home to scan and email the relevant pages – you can find out what the percentages are.
There is also a standard nursing reference (can’t remember the name), but it’s not as detailed. The PDR goes into interactions and percentages of side effects quite thoroughly.
Sandman - take a look here
Works wonders for me (even though you feel pretty stupid!) 
ummm, I just use a sleeping mask (or one of those gel masks you put in the fridge) and a couple of ice packs. US$73???
I used to get migraines in almost every exam that I sat. That wasn’t any fun. They went away when I reached about 19 years old. Never had one since. I was on pretty heavy medication at the time though and the dark room still worked the best.
I had to take ritalin as a child. I got migraines every day. Haven’t had one since I started smoking pot.
I used to get migraines once or twice a week; I rarely get them now. This is how I learned to get rid of mine (after I stopped taking the medication my doctor gave me because of the side effects.)
Take gravol and the heaviest duty pain killer you can get (ie., if you can get codeine, use it; if not, ibuprofen is OK; aspirin isn’t strong enough.)
Drink something with caffeine in it, and eat some meat - a hamburger patty is good. Then go to bed in a dark, quiet room - the gravol will make you sleep.
This almost never fails for me - I’ll wake up a few hours later without a migraine.
Have you tried sumatriptan (Imitrex) or any of the other (triptan) medications designed specifically for migraines? Here’s a list of the side-effects of sumatriptan: rxlist.com/cgi/generic/sumitr_ad.htm
Also see this abstract: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer … s=15012668
and nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/migraine.html
This one might be particularly relevant: achenet.org/women/menopause/
The migraine caps or the heavy painkillers and crawl up in a ball cures don’t really let you keep working or doing whatever it is you were doing though do they. What pissed me off so much about migraines was having to stop whatever I was doing and lose half a day. I need something that will stop them on the spot, or even better stop them ever happening again. The celebrex usually stops them on the spot, so it’s not bad.
I’ve tried the stuff Jeff mentioned (I think it was that). There’s also a drug that is basically an anti-depressant, but you take it in much much lower doeses daily. Did nothing for me. Ergot-based drugs are another popular treatment, but againt hey didn’t work for me. Beta-blockers are probably the most successful class of drugs vs migraines, but as an asthmatic I can’t take these.
Feverfew is a herb that is supposed to help a lot of people, and available in pill form. My open-minded GP put me on it, but again nothing. A really good neck/shoulder massage from someoe who knows what they’re doing can help a lot and similarly some people have success apllying a cream to their neck and shoulders area (does nothing for me).
If you can identify a trigger you may me lucky too. Keep a carful note of everything you eat and drink for months, and note migraines, then try cutting out foods or classes of foods. Stress is also a major trigger in some people, but not all. I had a really hard time convincing a specialist that stress ahd nothing to do with my migraines. She seemed to think that I was trying to tell her that my life was stress-free. I was meerely saying that I’d had migraines all my life - under complettely different lifestyles, and could get migraines in any circumstances irrespective of stress levels. Unfortunately for me, I figure my trigger is more to do with the weather.
Toesave says pot stopped his migraines. Well it didn’t help me, although I never had a migraines while stoned (or drunk or tripping), but staying high seems a bit of a tough way of controlling the migraines. A few women have told me their migraines stopped when they went on the pill.
I really hope someday medical researchers will figure out what migraines are all about. Fromt he research I’ve done and what specialists have told me, it seems that the symptoms of a migraine are causes by the swelling of certain arteries (may not be arteries - something) in the brain. This can be ‘triggered’, but not actually caused by several factors (such as stress or certain foods). However they don’t know what actually causes it, so treatment is just by guesswork, trial and error. This makes me think that migraine is the sort of thing that you might get good results with by trying TCM, alternative medicine or complementary therapy.
Brian
Whilst I agree with you that migraine caps do not prevent the problem, just help to overcome it, I am personally always loathe to resort to prescription drugs. I find that, because I have not taken any most of my life, when I do use them they tend to have side affects that outway any benefits.
This is very difficult in Taiwan because as soon as you go a see the doctor at the local clinic you end up with about 7 pills to take three times a day!
I’ll just soldier on - grin and bear it, stiff upper lip and all that. But I do find the migraine cap certainly cuts down on the time it takes to get back on with your life. 
Is there any truth in the old wife’s tale that washing your hair and let it dry in the air ( or A/C in Taiwan) causes or worsens migraines and headaches
I had a weird headache a couple of years ago here in Taiwan. It would come and go. Went to the doctor here and he said that I should dry my hair with the hairdryer.
Did this and headache never came back
My mother used tell me the same thing
Migraines suck. I used to get them when I was a teenager. Nothing would quell them but a cold damp cloth and a dark room
I’ve had migranes all my life and still have them regularly, apparently a number of “triggers” start mine: the most frequent ones are changes in air-pressure (strangely enough mostly the change from high- to low-pressure systems, not the other way 'round, something I’ll never understand …) and neck-related strains and stresses due to either extended desk-times (read: computer work) or wrong sleeping positions (the deeper my sleep, the worse …). I’ve taken loads of painkillers and combinations over the years (nausea pills + aspirin + panadol + vit C etc.) which seemed to work for some time and then stopped working, but have recently discovered the most effective and as yet most sustainable treatment for me: starting when I suffered a stiff neck, and because I’ve become worried over the regular use of these drugs, I’ve been using menthol spray, the stuff meant for muscle cramps etc., on the neck and even directly on the scalp. Doesn’t always work, but very often, and can be repeated at will, although it burns quite a bit in the beginning (ah, the pain!) … best of all: if it works, it works more or less instantly and allows you to keep doing what you’re doing … Xpet.