5 Tips for Instant Migraine Relief at home

Understanding Migraine

Those who have experienced migraine in their lives know that it is not an ordinary headache. And before knowing the 5 tips for instant migraine relief, we should understand migraine, its symptoms and causes properly. A migraine can cause severe pain and/or a pulsing sensation, mostly on one side of the head only.

Symptoms of migraine, also known as aura, occur before or during the pain. These symptoms could be blind spots, extreme sensitivity to light and sound, numbness or tingling on either side of the face or leg or arm or vomiting. The most common reason you are suffering from migraines could be your family history. Women are more likely to have migraines than men. Migraines are totally different from other headaches.

Symptoms of Migraines

Symptoms of migraine can vary from person to person. There could be several phases that one can experience during migraine. You can feel muscle tension, fatigues, an instant change in mood, etc. These could be a warning before migraine. A person can feel visual auras like developing blind spots, seeing geometrical patterns, flashlights and losing vision on one side.

Next is the pain which mostly occurs on one side of the head, but sometimes it can occur on both side. The pain generally goes away with sleep. Even after the pain goes away, one can face fatigue, incapability to eat and concentrate.

Causes of Migraines

The cause of migraines is not yet recognized. But it is supposed that there are some triggers that cause migraines. Some people are more sensitive to the triggers due to genetic reasons.

1. When a person is stressed, anxious, depressed, excited or shocked, it can trigger a migraine.
2. Low blood sugar and jet lag also lead to a migraine.
3. Due to change in hormones during menstruation, women may experience migraine symptoms.
4. Diet always plays an important role in anything and everything that happens to our body. Excess consumption of alcohol and caffeine also acts as a trigger. Also, irregular eating habits and dehydration may also contribute to a migraine.
5. Tiredness, insufficient sleep, exertion due to continuous work is also considered as potential triggers to set off a migraine.

Migraine Attack

If not treated, migraines generally last from 3 to 72 hours. If the problem is genetic, it may strike several times a month. You may experience nausea and vomiting, blurred vision, lightheadedness- sometimes followed by fainting, during a migraine.

A migraine is diagnosed on the bases of clinical history and reported symptoms. The most familiar categories of migraines are those with aura and those without aura. We suggest you keep a diary recording the details when you get migraines, like for how long they last, what you ate the whole day before the attack, how long you slept the night before and the place you were and what you were doing when the migraine attack started. This will not only help you get to the source of your migraine but you can also try to avoid the situation that triggered the attack.

The tips we will suggest here are some very old remedies that we have chosen according to their effectiveness. They also help you to avoid medicines that may have side effects; still, if you are a chronic migraine sufferer, we suggest you see a doctor.

5 Tips for Instant Migraine Relief

1. Retreat to a Dark Quiet Place

If the source of your migraine is sensory stimuli, like bright light or loud music or sound, try to move to a dark place. Lying down in some dark, cool and quiet place will help your mind to calm down immediately. By controlling your environment like this, may be the most helpful step you can take promptly to reduce a migraine headache. You can stay in the dark room for as long as you like or until your pain ends. If you are out somewhere and can’t find a dark place then try to wear sunglasses. This will make the light soft for your eyes. This would not work as much as staying in dark but still give you a bit relief.

2. Use Hot or Cold Pack

To help ease headaches, both cold and hot pack can be applied, but mostly everyone who gets migraine prefers cold pack. It can be more effective when used with other therapies. Apply the pack for 10 minutes and then take a rest of 10 minutes, then reapply and continue the pattern until your migraine goes away. However, cold temperature can be a trigger too, so if you feel that the pain is increasing after 10 minutes, stop the treatment immediately.

3. Take Herbal/Calming Tea

Lavender, Ginger, peppermint and cayenne pepper are some of the spices that are proved to be helpful in migraines. Make tea with these herbs and you may find relief in your migraine. These herbs are thought to soothe your body and reduce physical tension. Lavender is generally known for its herbal properties that reduce anxiety, stress, and migraines triggered by stress. Ginger, peppermint, and cayenne pepper have natural pain-reducing properties. You can even take the herbs separately but if you take these together, it would calm the pain more effectively.

Make the herbal tea by steeping 1 inch of fresh ginger, 1 tsp of dried peppermint and a pinch of cayenne pepper in 2 cups of boiling water for 15 minutes.

4. Essential Oils to the rescue

Lavender essential oil is an anxiolytic drug, a mood stabilizer, a soothing and a wound healing accelerator. You can use it to treat your migraine. Using a diffuser is the best way to use the lavender oil. When you inhale the oil, it acts very quickly and gives you a rapid relief. If you don’t have a diffuser, just apply it to your temples and wrists. If you can get a massage, even better. The oil will be absorbed into your bloodstream and hence reduce the pain. Or you can even put a few drops in warm water and take a bath which will help improve blood flow and reduce your migraine. Just like with lavender oil, you can also use peppermint oil in a diffuser and inhale it, or apply it to your wrists and temples. Just smelling the oil can do wonders.

5. Get A Shot Of Caffeine

Though caffeine is a known migraine trigger, but for some people, a little amount of caffeinated drink can ease a migraine. The reason for this may be that caffeine can narrow your blood vessels and counter the dilation of blood vessels which leads to the severe pain of migraines. Just make sure that it is not your trigger.

Conclusion

The most important thing is to understand the causes and symptoms of migraine you have have, as everyone may have different symptoms and triggers that can cause a migraine attack. First, understand them and then try to take steps to prevent migraine at first place. You can try all remedies and stick to the one or two which works better for you. Still have some queries? Ask us below, and we will try to help you out. Do you have any other tips for instant migraine relief? then please do share with us.