Migraine Prevention and Cure - stress, work, and relaxing properly

If you've ever had a persistent headache, lasting for more than a few hours - even days, a headache which throbs painfully and makes you want to vomit, then chances are you have suffered a migraine. 

No, I am not attempting a Jedi mind trick!

This article covers some useful background info about migraines - migraine headaches in particular, as that is usually the most noticable symptom. We will also look at a few common causes that I have experienced with some regularity, and treatments of migraine headaches that I have found to reliably work.

Right off the bat, the unfortunate news is that if you suffer from migraine headaches you can't always eliminate them completely. The good news is that you can reduce their frequency and their impact on your life with a bit of practise.

What are migraines?
Migraines are a neurological disorder, which sounds rather scary. They are usually known for their intense and persistent headache pain which leads to nausea and sometimes vomiting. Personally, I'm not certain whether the nausea is a symptom of the migraine or if it is a secondary symptom of the throbbing pain from the headache.

One factor which is used to clearly distinguish migraines from regular headaches is the chronic nature of migraines. If you regularly suffer the symptoms over a longer period of time (months and years) then it is pretty certain that you are a migraine sufferer and not just a hypochondriac.

The complete list of common symptoms of migraine sufferers: 
- 5 or more suffered in the past (not just a once off)
- headache lasts from 4 hours up to 3 days
- usually affects half of the head (and shifts sides - always on the same side may be an indicator of a brain tumor!)
- pulsating pain
- nausea
- light and/or sound sensitivity
- a sort of narrowing of your field of view

I usually experience all of the above symptoms during the final (most intense) week or two of each school term.

Common causes
In reality, the causes are not fully known or understood. There seems to be a genetic component, as migraines occur more frequently in the same families, but this is not always the cause as even identical twins do not always both suffer from migraines. This leads most authorities to believe that there are both genetic and environmental causes/triggers to migraines.

Females are more susceptible according to the statistics, though I suspect the gap between men and women is less as men are usually more "afraid" to go and see the doctor. Whatever the cause, it's the triggers and risk factors which you should be worried about, because you can do something about them.

Migraine Triggers
- Mental stress or fatigue
- Lack of regular sleep
- Poor diet, e.g. too much sugar or alcohol
- Irregular eating, e.g. fasting
- Poor exercise habits
- Significant hormonal changes

It is important to note that, while you may be able to reduce the frequency of your migraines by reducing these triggers, there is no guarantee that you will eliminate them all together.  That's where the next section comes in but, until medical science provides a reliable cure, you should try to make your life less busy and more focused on a short list of things which are really important to you.  Live relaxed and healthy, then watch your migraines depart.

WARNING: This image may trigger a migraine!

How to stop a migraine in its tracks!
The following is a list of things which have really helped me to cut a migraine off once it has started:
- Ensure you are hydrated with a glass of water
- Get away from work and into a comfortable (home) environment
- Stay off your computing devices
- Turn off the lights and put on some favourite rhythmical music which you are very familiar with
- Lie down, close your eyes, and place a hot wheat pack on your face
- Go to sleep if you can, otherwise lose yourself in the music
- Place a small heater on your bare feet while you fall asleep
- If you must use a painkiller, stick with the recommended dose of paracetamol (NSAIDs are bad!)

Basically, the best way to fix your migraine is to deal with the triggers, get comfortable, and then ride it out.  If you can get comfortable enough to fall asleep for a solid chunk of time, the headache usually passes.

After a migraine it's also a great idea to have a few very low intensity days to help recover and to learn that you didn't really need to put yourself under as much stress, live with more fatigue or less sleep, etc.  Use your migraines to help you develop more sustainable routines and habits in your life as that is always a good trend to aim for.

Further links for your research/interest:
Migraines on Wikipedia
Berkeley University article
Migraine Support NZ

What is the Energy Source? (Magnetism, Gravity, and Other “Forces”)

Do magnets ever run out?  Why do we stay on the Earth instead of flying off?  What causes opposites to attract?  At the end of the day, Science only really answers these questions in terms of the mechanisms that describe how they operate.  We still don’t know where all the energy comes from for these fields to exert a force on particular objects.

Take a magnet for example.  You stick it on your fridge and it stays there pretty much for ever.  No battery is required to make it happen, and it never seems to run down.  Surely it takes a lot of energy to hold the magnet there over the years that it is stuck in place.  It’s one thing to say that objects are attracted via magnetism and its actually a reduction in or absence of potential energy that is causing it to stick, so we don’t actually need energy; but there is still a force being transferred, so why does it happen, and why doesn’t that force affect other things like stainless steel?

Field theory was very popular as a way of explaining interactions between different types of particles.  As well as the obvious magnetism, electro-static, and gravitational effects, there were atomic and sub-atomic effects in action to hold atoms together with each other and to hold them together in themselves.  Mysterious “fields” became the way that these magical interactions became explainable.  No longer was that piece of metal able to make the other move without touching it, it was making contact via a field!  While this proved to be useful, it was a neat way of removing the magic of the interaction, and we would do well to remember that it is not sufficiently explained to satisfy anyone who is really curious.

In fact, nothing is really explained properly to satisfy the person who continually looks for the reason why.  Science can continue to explain how things happen and identify patterns in the universe, but when it gets right down to it, there is no way to completely explain why at the most fundamental level.  Not even the discovery of the Higgs boson (if it actually occurs) will do this.  It will merely shift the level of questioning deeper still.

To my mind, the only way that we can have anything happening in the natural, is for it to have a supernatural origin.  When it comes right down to the limits of the universe, both small and large, there has to be something beyond that making it all happen, otherwise we have things occurring without a cause, and that does not seem reasonable in a system where we see that everything requires a cause.  To find any un-caused cause, you have to look beyond this universe where cause is required.  Whatever you find, it must, by definition, be beyond the natural.

Are YOU a Rebel with a Cause?

I’m a rebel with a number of causes, but the one I want to mention today is our conformance to “The System”.  There are any number of things we do in our daily lives that are pointless.  We do them because everybody else does them, or because someone with a big stick will hit us if we don’t do them.  Some people notice that they are doing pointless things in their lives and it begins to eat away at them, building stress at having to comply, growing their sense of gloom or depression at the lack of living a worthwhile life, or causing bouts of anger and frustration at being unable to work out just what is wrong.

Consider health and safety compliance codes.  All electrical equipment in schools must be tested and tagged annually so see whether it is safe to be plugged in and used by the kiddies and teachers.  This assumes a number of things that demean and devalue the worth of people.  It assumes that people can’t see damaged cables or equipment for themselves, it assumes that they might just use something anyway, it takes away their ability to choose how they spend their time and money in making this a compulsory activity, it devalues the work of others who have put other safety features in the system (such as circuit breakers).

Other such systems that are totally arbitrary are:
The speed limit, having to get a marriage certificate, being forced to get a building inspector in, following curriculum when teaching, assessing using NCEA assessments, tucking your shirt in or wearing a tie, having to wear matching clothes, being allowed to ask only certain questions in class, or being able to discuss only certain topics in certain company, having to learn particular subjects in school.  The list goes on.

Some of these things are good systems, but the point is that you need to know the purpose of them to get the most out of them, to follow them properly, and to feel like it is worthwhile in doing so.  Also, how can there be any change if you do not know the purpose in order to discuss whether that is a worthy purpose?  Even if they are good systems, if you, personally, don’t know the purpose and don’t buy into that purpose, then you will feel like you are being dragged into something you didn’t agree to.

So, the secret to being a rebel with a cause is to know what is right and just, and then to compare that idea of justice with the purpose of a system to see if that system is just.  From there, if it is not a just system, you can take up the cause!