Quote:
Originally Posted by PsYcNeT
Not a catch-all by any means, but Calgary's altitude contributes to exacerbating sinus headaches and mistaking them for migraines.
There is a significant amount of relief to be found with simple OTC anti-histamines (Reactine, Claratin, etc.) if you tend to feel it most during pressure/weather swings.
I would always try those out before moving to something more drastic.
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Interesting about the anti-histamines.
Due to crossovers from a different situation, I discovered amphetamines do something where either I am numb to the pain, or it resolves the pain of migraines related to weather. This is significant because taking 1-2 extra strength advil or Tylenol doesn't work at all for me to deal with migraines.
Prior to accidentally discovering amphetamines help the migraines, I found doing hot yoga regularly helped significantly. Physio on the other hand, not so much. I'm guessing this was due to my migraines in part being caused by stiff muscles in my neck and shoulders aggravating my migraines. Physio didn't work for me because my entire "system" was off. A neck/shoulder massage doesn't help if the reason they're stiff in the first place is to overcompensate for some other bad posture elsewhere in my body. Within hours of leaving physio/massage, I'm back to square one.
I also bought a memory foam neck pillow for sleep and casual usage at home. My neck posture while watching tv, playing games, computer etc. was pretty bad. The memory foam pillow helps to keep my neck in a better position to reduce stiff neck and shoulder muscles. I think I paid $20 on Amazon. Prior to that I think I spent something like $200-300 on experimenting with different types of pillows. Weirdly enough, I find a neck pillow or magic bag work best. This may mean that a bed or pillow is not helping the migraine situation. IMO, it's worth looking into.
Others
- Fresh air helps
- Going for a walk helps (Mostly I assume because you stop staring at bright screens)
- Reduction of alcohol and caffeine is hit or miss for me.
- Hydration helps a lot. Increasing my water intake from about 1-2L a day at work to around 3-4L a day did help reduce (but not eliminate) migraines. It also helped with recovery from physical activities and preventing issues when playing said physical activities.
My migraines aren't gone though, and it's not like it's a healthy thing to try and get amphetamines to deal with them. The anti-histamine thing is interesting, but I don't know if I'd want to be taking those regularly either. However, I might give it a try for the horribad migraines as it's at least relief when other OTC medication is completely useless in helping.
Good luck to everyone who has migraines. They suck.
