COULD THIS BE A CURE?
Having suffered migraine attacks for over fifty years, since the age of twenty, these disappearing whilst pregnant but returning with more frequency and more severity three day attacks out of every week after giving birth, I have been there, done that, tried that and suffered that. And, yes, I have been to the Princess Margaret Migraine Clinic in London, Addenbrooke's Pain Clinic, seen specialists both on the NHS and privately, been in therapy (were my attacks psychosomatic?) and taken all medications offered, ranging from 150 pain killers a month (for years), through to anti-convulsants, only partly relieving disabling symptoms by a combination of triptans and Paramax (to keep my stomach working). Alongside migraine, I have bipolar 2, mostly manifesting itself in depression for which I take atypical antipsychotics and antidepressants. To complicate life a little more my husband has Asperger's and our three, now adult children, have variations on bipolar and Asperger's. Life is not simple! However, since watching video clips presented by the Migraine Summit I decided to try something I hadn't heard of in terms of alleviation of migraine symptoms and attacks ... vitamin B2, 400mg daily. Much to my surprise, over the past month, my attacks have become much less severe and less frequent. The presentation of attacks now manifests itself in the usual stomach stopping working, nausea and depression, for which I take Paramax, whilst waiting to see if the usual "knife behind my right eye, nausea and prostration" symptoms takes over. Strangely this progression has become much less and the attacks I have now are easily managed by taking 50mg sumatriptan, alongside the Paramax. I now find myself in a state of disbelief ... could this be a placebo effect which has never resulted over the past 50 years? However, my daughter (43) who also suffers from migraine, is finding the same thing ... she hasn't had an attack for the past three weeks! To those of you out there suffering this truly disabling illness/disease ... perhaps it's worth trying B2? Whatever else my heart goes out to you all, not only for your suffering, but also in this often held belief that migraine is "just a headache".
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