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Alternative treatments

Hi. I'm new here and was wondering if anyone had any insight. I'm 43 and have been suffering from migraines with aura since I was 17. About 10 years ago, I tried a beta-blocker and had a bit of success with it. After about 4 months, I had to come off because of extremely low blood pressure.
My migraines, normally, come once a month around the time of my period. This is my only trigger that I can't avoid! After my typical firework floaters and hollow hearing, the pain was lasting about 3 days, with nausea and vomiting. My "hangover" would normally last 2 days and includes extreme fatigue and major brain fog. That's frustrating. My brain knows what it wants my mouth to say, but my mouth spouts gibberish out. I found I was taking an extreme amount of ibuprofen to constantly try and chase the attack away, which never works, OTCs do not work at all, but it's that hope that maybe just once, they will.
After becoming very frustrated with the constant interruption in my life, I went to a headache clinic and saw a neurologist this past January. Along with a diagnosis of, of course, migraine with aura, she also diagnosed me with Rebound Syndorm (who would have thunk that one could become addicted to ibuprofen). She prescribed me prednisone (a course of 80mg tapered down to 20) to help with withdrawal symptoms. For the actual attacks, she prescribed 500mgs of magnesium, 50 mgs of Pamalor and, for break through migraines, Maxalt.
Starting in February, I began having migraines for 5 days straight. I chalked it up to coming off of the prednisone and the Pamalor not working to its full potential. But, every month since, it has been 5 days worth of, varying, degrees of pain, migraines. They are now coming every 20-25 days, which means that I have a migraine at least half of the time, anymore.
The side effects of the Pamalor have become hard to deal with. Being lazy, tired and having no motivation doesn't sit well with a 5 year old.
At my follow up visit, the neurologist suggested upping the Pamalor to 75 mgs at which I expressed great concern about side effects and the fact that it has made my migraine attacks so much worse. She then suggested an anti seizure med, but explained that the side effects are more extreme. She "totally shut the door" on a beta blocker since my blood pressure is that of a zombie. I told her if my reluctance to try more pharmaceuticals and asked about a more natural route, which she is against.
So, after all of my above rambling (it's nice to be able to ramble to someone who may understand!), my daughter began researching natural preventatives and I found a lot of interesting info.
I am weaning myself off of the Pamalor, as we speak, after one of the worst migraines ever this past weekend.
I will continue with the magnesium and was thinking of adding 150mgs of CoQ10, 400 mgs of riboflavin (B2), and after I am off of the Pamalor totally, Feverfew. I spoke with both my pharmacist and with a nurse I know who preferred a more natural approach for herself.
I have read that there is some success in prevention with this cocktail and I was wondering if anyone had any advice, tips or suggestions or if anyone has tried these with either success or failure. Thanks!

  1. I have been taking 400mg of Magnesium and 100-200mg of B2 for years now. It didn't reduce my number of migraines, but it definitely reduced the severity significantly (no more days in a dark room!). I've also found that 5-HTP or Gingko help if I'm feeling early symptoms. OTCs do nothing. I've tried feverfew & butterbur, with no luck. Topamax made the migraines less severe, but no less frequent. Sumatriptan + 2 Aleve will make the headaches go away for me, though rebounds are common.

    It seems like it's different for everyone. All you can do is keep trying the different things until you find what works best. If you try multiple at once, you won't know which one was the one that helped.

    There is good info here on possible alternatives:

    https://migraine.com/blog/migraine-management-essential-4-preventive-treatment/

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