Treatment Thats Well Tolerated
In 2 clinical studies of more than 1700 people with migraine, the most common side effects were:
- Stuffy nose and scratchy throat
- Allergic reactions
Most common side effects were reported by at least 2% of people receiving VYEPTI and at least 2% more common than those on placebo.
Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant or plan to become pregnant.
Low Blood Sugar Headaches
If you deal with diabetes or hypoglycemia, its possible your headaches are due to low glucose or low blood sugar. A drop in blood sugar quickly affects the brain and can lead to unpleasant symptoms, including dizziness, confusion, and headaches.
Solution: Start working on lowering your sugar and refined carbohydrate intake. Learn about cooking and eating to keep your blood sugar in balance.
Learn more about how food can help rebalance your hormones by registering for our free, 8-day exclusive viewing of the Cooking for Balance lectures below:
Apply A Cold Compress
Applying a cold compress to the back of your neck or over the areas you’re experiencing the headache can help reduce inflammation, constrict blood vessels and slow your nerves from firing pain signals.
Cold compresses are excellent for many types of headaches, including migraines, and can provide instant migraine relief at home.
You can make an icepack, soak a washcloth in ice water or throw a bag of frozen vegetables over the area. Be sure to use a towel between your skin and the cold pack and avoid applying for more than 20 minutes at a time. Brain freeze is real.
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What Is The Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body, with branching nerves that go to the heart, lungs, stomach, and many other organs. It primarily serves as a sensory nerve, responsible for reporting information to the brain and transmitting instructions back to the body.
Think of the vagus nerve as the nervous systems super-highway, sending important communication between your brain and many parts of the body and back. It facilitates and communicates with many different systems, operating and influencing things like pain regulation, anxiety, fatigue, heart rate, digestive track activity, and lung function.
How Does Vagus Nerve Stimulation Help Those Suffering From Headache Pain
The vagus nerve plays an important role in regulating pain. When stimulating the vagus nerve, pain signals causing the attacks can be blocked, helping provide fast relief and preventing future attacks before they happen.
Experience more headache-free days without worrying about drug overuse or inconveniences associated with injectable, inhalers, and medications.
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Why Menstrual Migraine Can Be Difficult
Menstrual migraine is one of the most difficult migraine conditions to manage for patients as well as for clinicians. Both require a good diary to understand how relevant it is and how much focus should be put on the hormones. It is often the ongoing small estrogen drops that are targeted but prostaglandin might further sensitize the head so these should also be considered to target.
Using estrogen is not a simple matter and is not always successful. We particularly avoid it in migraine with aura due to the risk of stroke. It requires careful consideration, usually with a headache specialist or a gynecologist with an interest in the area of menstrually related migraine and hormones.
Complementary Menstrual Migraine Treatments
There are many different approaches to help manage menstrual migraine some involve medicinal treatments and others do not. Often it may involve a combination.
Rest assure that it is possible to reduce and in some cases eliminate menstrual migraine. But it may involve working with a specialist and some trial and error.
Complementary approaches for those with menstrual migraine include:
- Dietary changes
- Other natural therapies
Most women with menstrual migraine have a healthy hormonal balance. However, if there is an imbalance of estrogen in relation to progesterone then a healthy diet is the first step . What we eat plays a huge role in our overall health and wellbeing.
Nothing else affects our health more than what we eat.
If you experience migraine attacks then your diet can be important.
We hear all the time from the health community something like eat a varied and well-balanced diet to help prevent disease. Its been said so many times we can become numb to this important advice.
To complicate things, some healthy foods may also act as triggers. Finding out which foods trigger attacks is not always easy.
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Headaches And Women: What Do Hormones Have To Do With It
A bad headache can ruin your workday, strain your relationship with family members and affect your ability to exercise. In the U.S., headaches cause 112 million sick days each year. While one-third of the population gets headaches, women suffer more than men do.
Changes in hormones could be among the reasons women have more headaches than men do.
These hormone-related headache triggers include:
Make Sure Its Not Migraine
If nothing seems to be helping your premenstrual headaches or they become severe, you may be experiencing migraine attacks, not headaches.
Compared to a headache, migraine tends to cause more of a dull, aching pain. Eventually, the pain may start to throb or pulse. This pain often occurs on only one side of your head, but you might have pain on both sides or at your temples.
Usually, migraine attacks cause other symptoms as well, including:
- nausea and vomiting
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Natural Treatments And Lifestyle Adjustments For Menstrual Migraines
Lifestyle treatments are always tricky to study, since they are hard to control and not as well-funded as pharmaceutical medicine.
Magnesium: Thereâs some evidence that magnesium can relieve migraine pain . In a small preliminary trial, participants took magnesium supplements three times per day starting from Day 15 of their cycle until the start of their next period . This treatment helped decrease the participantsâ total pain and also improved their PMS symptoms . In a randomized control trial where participants received either a placebo or a drug containing magnesium, vitamin B2, and coenzyme Q10, the severity of migraines was lower among those taking the drug, though the number of days in which migraines were experienced was not statistically different from the placebo .
What Do Hormonal Headaches Feel Like
Hormonal headaches are hard to miss. They may last for as long as 72 hours. The symptoms of a hormonal headache or migraine can include:
- Throbbing pain on one side of the head
- Nausea and vomiting
- Light, smell, and sound sensitivity
Additionally, you can have such symptoms as:
- Sweating and chills
- Bigger appetite or a loss of it
- Cravings for certain food like chocolate
- Problems with coordination
Tension headaches may produce similar symptoms. However, they are also associated with a feeling of a tight band around your head while migraines feel more like throbbing and pounding.
To check if the headaches you are getting are related to hormones, you can consider keeping a symptom diary for several months. If you discover a link, this diary can help you find the point of the cycle when you start getting headaches. This information can be helpful when setting up treatment.
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Types Of Menstrual Migraines
There are two sub-types of menstrual migraines: pure menstrual migraines and menstrual-related migraines, with the latter being more common than the former.
Symptoms of a pure menstrual migraine include:
- A migraine headache without aura that occurs exclusively during the one or two days before or after the onset of your period and occurs in more than 60% of your cycles
Symptoms of menstrual-related migraines include:
- A migraine without aura that occurs one to two days before or after the onset of your period and occurs in more than 60% of your cycles
- Migraines with or without aura that also occur at other times in your cycle
What Can I Do To Help Relieve The Symptoms Of A Menstrual Migraine
Do your best to figure out what makes your hormone headaches better or worse. For example, if light causes pain and you feel overheated, stay in a cool, dark room. Additional tips include:
- Keep your blood sugar levels up by eating small, frequent snacks. Never miss a meal.
- Learn relaxation techniques.
- Avoid too little or too much sleep, and keep a regular sleep pattern.
- Change your diet, if needed.
- Avoid stress when you can, and learn how to manage it when you cant.
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Wearable Pain Relief Device May Treat Menstrual Migraines
Angela Underwoods extensive local, state, and federal healthcare and environmental news coverage includes 911 first-responder compensation policy to the Ciba-Geigy water contamination case in Toms River, NJ. Her additional health-related coverage includes death and dying, skin care, and autism spectrum disorder.
Nerivio
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Can Estrogen Levels Cause Headaches
Estrogen dominance is the most common cause of hormonal headaches. This can occur when there is an excess amount of estrogen in your system either because you are making too much, not eliminating it effectively, or are being over exposed to xenoestrogens.
It can also happen if you’re not ovulating or not making sufficient progesterone.
Estrogen dominance is referred to as estrogen excess in medicine and is a diagnosable condition. Sometimes doctors will say they do not believe in estrogen dominance, but this is often because they are not testing correctly or familiar with the diagnosis .
But other hormones can also cause headaches, like your adrenals and thyroid, as well as nutrient deficiencies such as magnesium.
Working with a hormone expert can help you identify the source of your headaches and support you in relieving them for good.
Finding your root cause is important to understand if something bigger is at play.
Ok, so finding the root cause is important and sure Ibuprofen and Tylenol are bad, but when theres pain, whats a girl to do?
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What Vitamin Deficiencies Cause Headaches
Hormonal headaches arent always severe. However, they may be worsened by vitamin deficiencies. The combination of an estrogen level drop and a vitamin deficiency causes serious pain that lasts for days.
- Vitamin D Vitamin D deficiency is one of the most common issues people face, especially if they live without regular exposure to sunlight. In fact, more than 42% of Americans suffer from this deficiency. The lack of sufficient levels of vitamin D can cause headaches and other unpleasant symptoms.
- Magnesium Research found a correlation between magnesium deficiency and headaches. The causes of this deficiency vary. Some people may not get enough magnesium from food while others lose it due to medical conditions. Besides headaches, a magnesium deficiency could cause muscle cramps, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, asthma, and more.
- Vitamin B2 This vitamin helps your cells function properly. The deficiency could lead to headaches, migraines, reproductive problems, stomatitis, sore throat, hair loss, and more. According to research, high doses of riboflavin can prevent headaches.
Another important deficiency that could lead to headaches isnt related to vitamins. Its an H2O deficiency. Dehydration is a common problem, which busy women often overlook. Meanwhile, the lack of water could lead to severe headaches. If you are too busy to remember drinking water, consider setting up reminders on your smartphone or laptop.
Can Birth Control Pills Prevent Menstrual Migraines
Menstrual migraines are those that occur in the days before or after your period. While scientists are not completely sure why there is an association between migraines and menstruation, there is strong evidence that fluctuating levels of estrogen, a hormone that regulates the menstrual cycle, are involved. For this reason, birth control pills, which prevent these hormonal fluctuations, are often prescribed to prevent menstrual migraines.
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Medicines That Prevent Menstrual Migraine
Talk to your doctor about whether these medications might help you stop your headaches before they start.
If your periods don’t come on schedule or you also get migraine headaches at other times in your menstrual cycle, you can take preventive medicine every day. Drugs that prevent migraine headaches include:
- Some types of antidepressants
- Some types of antiseizure medicines
- Blood pressure medicines such as beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers
- CGRP inhibitors, these are a new class of preventive medicine
Devices which may be used for treatment or prevention include:.
- Cefaly, a small headband device that sends electrical pulses through the forehead to stimulate a nerve linked with migraines
- Spring TMS or eNeura sTM, a device for people who have an aura before migraine headaches. You hold it at the back of your head at the first sign of a headache, and it gives off a magnetic pulse that stimulates part of the brain.
- Noninvasive vagus nerve stimulator gammaCore is a hand-held portable device placed over the vagus nerve in the neck. It releases a mild electrical stimulation to the nerve’s fibers to relieve pain.
How Vyepti Is Given
VYEPTI is given as an intravenous infusion by a healthcare provider. Here are some tips on what you can expect before, during, and after your VYEPTI infusion.
Tips for your VYEPTI infusion
Click on Before, During, and After below to see what you may expect with treatment.
Get ready for your infusion
- Drink plenty of water leading up to your appointment so that you are well hydrated
- Wear comfortable clothing. Make sure long sleeves can be rolled up over your elbow
- Bring an extra layer in case the infusion location is chilly
Have what you need and know where youre going
- As with most appointments with a healthcare provider, bring needed paperwork with you, such as a list of all medications you are taking
- Have the address of the infusion location handy, as it may be different from where you go to see your healthcare provider
Get personalized support
Given by a healthcare provider
- A nurse or other healthcare provider will start your infusion and be available to answer any questions you may have.
- VYEPTI 100 mg is the recommended dose, but your healthcare provider may decide that you could benefit from a 300 mg dose.
Infusion time
The infusion will take about 30 minutes, but your total appointment time may vary.
Sit back and relax
Use this time to read, use your phone to check emails, connect with others on social media, or just relax.
Make your next appointment
Return to your daily activities
Lealani, real VYEPTI patient
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Pay Attention To The Weather
Changes in the weather can impact your migraine patterns. High humidity and hot temperatures can stimulate headaches, as well as rainy days. If the weather becomes uncomfortable for you, you may need to step inside and take a break from the outdoors. Of course, you cant always avoid going outside, but you can minimize your time spent in certain headache-inducing weather.
How Your Hormones Are Linked To Migraine
Your hormones regulate your menstrual cycles and almost everything elsein the body skin, hair, heart and the brain.
For example theycontrol: emotions and moods, childhood growth, digestion, energy,sleep, appetite, sugar and fat metabolism, hair growth, salt and waterbalance, bone hardness, libido, kidney function, blood pressure, theimmune system, wound healing, blood cell production and the list goeson and on.
Dr. Jones says his method of balancing the ratio of progesteroneand estrogen’s has an 80% success rate of either the hormonal migrainesdisappearing all together or having a significant reduction. Thatspretty amazing.
If I werent on the hormone creams when I got his book I would have tried the tablets. Healso states that creams just dont work. His book is very thorough so ifyou dont live in the United States you can still try his method.
Your hormones are important to every cell in your body. Your brain cells are no exception!
~ Me
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Hormones You Win Again
Being female, youre on a hormonal roller-coaster ride most of your life. The ups can be thrilling, , but the downs can cause imbalance to the chemicals and systems of the brain, resulting in headache.
The estrogen/progesterone balance plays a pivotal role in whether you regularly experience hormonal-related headaches. Many women are prone to getting headaches just before they start their periods a time when estrogen levels take a dive. And if youre one of thousands of women who experience menstrual migraines severely painful headaches that occur usually before or during menstruation you probably dont need me to reiterate just how disruptive and excruciating they are.
What do you normally do when a headache strikes?
The conventional remedy is usually a strong dose of acetaminophen, ibuprofen or aspirin, the ingredients found in over-the-counter painkillers. And while theres nothing harmful about these pills , there are natural ways to rebalance your hormones to avoid needing headache medicine in the first place.
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Treatment Options For Menstrual Migraine
There are several treatment options depending on the regularity of your menstrual cycle, whether or not you have painful or heavy periods, menopausal symptoms or if you also need contraception.
If you have regular periods your doctor may suggest taking medication for a few days around the time of menstruation .
There are different options available and your doctor should suggest the option that suits you. It could include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as naproxen or mefenamic acid, oestrogen supplements or triptans.
- Frovatriptan tablet
- Zolmitriptan tablet
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