Migraine

Can anyone give me some rule of thumb for when you should start using preventatives? Somewhere along the way, I ssem to recall that if you're using your abortive more than 2-3 times a week, you should be on a preventative. The only preventative I'm on now is the Magnesium and the Alpha Lipoic Acid.

The 2-3 times a week has held true for me in the past, but I'm only working on once so far this entire month! When I see the neuro, I'd like to be able to talk with him intelligently about when I feel we should consider preventatives.
Lynn

If you are getting more then 3-4 migraines a month then you are a candidate for preventive medications.

Lynn,

Hi there!

What Eileen said.

Seriously, I have asked this question of multiple experts in the field to try to come to some kind of consensus. Here's what I've learned to be the best answer:

Consider preventives if...

• You have three or more Migraines a month OR
  
• You have one or more very severe and/or debilitating Migraines a month.

It appears that maybe you would prefer dietary supplements to prescription drug preventives? Did you see the new article I put up on CoQ10 for prevention? If not, there's a link in the New Content folder.

Hope this helps!

Hey there littlebit,

Be sure to read up on all the preventative choices too before your visit so you'll be sharp and johnny-on-the-spot: Migraine Preventive Medications - Too Many Options To Give Up!

On the aikido subject: are you in day class? My daughter is the red-headed red belt in the night classes. She was a Secret Agent (chaperon) at the Night of the Ninja the other night.

She swears that aikido reduces the number of migraine attacks that she gets. I don't know how she trains with a migraine but it helps her. All I want when I've got an attack is to to be entombed in a coffin, totally still, with absolutely no sensory input whatsoever. If I had to train when an attack was coming on, I'd toss cookies and everything else in my digestive track.

I can't believe it! Your daughter thinks my son is adorable-ask her about Walker. My husband is a green belt in Aikido. I take karate and survived my blue belt test last week with a monster migraine. I don't yet know how I made it through with out being sick. I only had vision in 1 eye and was REALLY nauseous, but I made it.

I swear by karate too. I missed a month in Feb. due to work issues and it made a HUGE difference. My doc says he wishes I had karate 5 nights a week to help with stress. After getting back into classes, she and my doc are right-exercise makes a HUGE difference.

The new neuro I'm going to see in Sept. is Dr. Brockington. DH talked to him last week at Aikido and he said he'd be happy to see me. I trust him already just because of the caliber of people that are associated with the DoJo. People who aren't the same caliber generally don't stick around up there too long.

Thanks for letting me know who you are! DH and I have been trying to figure it out since your last post. Thanks for all of the help and advise too! I'm still trying to get a handle on migraines and not having a good doc just complicates things right now.
Lynn