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Light at the end of the tunnel!

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By richardo

2 min read

I hope the following story brings some relief for fellow migraine sufferers.

I started having migraines in my teens and they continued for the next 30 years disrupting my life usually on a monthly frequency.

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By trying to avoid the triggers I learned over the years, helped me to handle the amount of migraines. However I found no drug could relieve the pain and had to resort to suffering until it finally took its course.

For some reason about 4 years ago the frequency increased to weekly attacks and I had to ask my doctor for help. I was put on a prescription of triptans. These worked for me in the short term and gave relief but unfortunately my migraines increased to occur every few days. Life was becoming a nightmare and I felt as though the drugs had put me in an awful cycle.

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After investigating lots of alternative remedies, changes to my diet and avoiding certain physical exercise and lifestyle things were still no better.

I visited my doctor at the end of my tether and spoke about my worries taking the triptans. My doctor now told me that the frequent use of the drug could cause rebound headaches and we decided that I should try to refrain from them. She also discussed with me an exercise that could help with future migraines. This is the practice of slow deep breathing using the stomach not the chest. My doctor had found it helpful for cluster headaches.

I had always been a shallow breather and never breathed using my stomach. I looked on the internet and found some good sites which had information about deep natural breathing using the stomach.

Well, the good news is it worked for me, I have got into the practice of changing the way I breathe and my migraines have ceased and I have not taken any triptans in the last 6 months.

Talking with friend who is also a migraine sufferer, I explained my good fortune, she has tried it for the last 2 months and her migraines have decreased as well.

I recommend trying the natural deep breathing on a regular basis and I hope it helps you as well.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The Migraine.com team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

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