Tell us about your symptoms and treatment experience. Take our survey here.

caret icon Back to all discussions

Gatorade

My youngest son served in the Navy as an aircraft mechanic in Oklahoma City. The summers are very hot there. They drank Gatorade during the hot part of the day to keep hydrated. He noticed that about 30 minutes after drinking Gatorade his Migraine would go away. He switched to the night shift when it wasn't so hot outside and the Gatorade still got rid of his migraines. It worked so well that he hardly had to take Excedrin Migraine medicine anymore. I tried Gatorade and it works for me too.

  1. Hi Laurie,

    First let me take a moment and ask you to please thank your son for his service to our country.

    I'm so thrilled to hear you've both found something to help with your migraines. But I must say I am more excited that your son doesn't take as much Excedrin Migraine. Excedrin Migraine can be a real double edged sword because it can create another condition called medication overuse headache or moh. MOH can occur when we take migraine abortive medications like triptans and ergotamines or pain relieves whether they are over-the-counter or prescription more than two to three day a week. Doing so will leave us in an unending cycle of pain and make migraine more difficult to treat. Let me share some information with you both; https://migraine.com/blog/driving-migraine-trigger/.

    Thanks for sharing and good luck to you both!

    Nancy

    1. I started taking electrolyte supplements and I haven't had a migraine since.

      1. That is great! 😀

    2. It's important for everybody to be aware that these types of supplements can and often do contain MSG and things that can also be major triggers for some patients, some of the time. Gatorade and other drinks like this can be super easy and cheap to get hold of, but don't beat yourself up if they don't work, or may stop working. The fact is, everybody has their own triggers and what works for one may be disaster for another. It may be worth a try, just remember that Migraine triggers are cumulative. This means that they build on one another. Adding a sports drink to your other triggers today may be good, but adding it to your triggers tomorrow may send you over the brink. Just be careful 😀

      ~Ellen

      1. I am a person that isn’t good at drinking water and so I do think that dehydration or under- hydration could be one of the issues causing my migraines which I used to get 3-4 times per month and treated successfully with a 50 mg Sumatriptan tab. As an experiment I started drinking a 12 oz Gatorade with my lunch ever day and it has cut way back on my migraine occurrences. However instead of getting 3-4 relatively shorter duration/intensity migraines per month i find I now get a longer more intense or cluster migraine lasting 2-3 days + 1-2 day hangover period perhaps once every 3-4 months. I need to use a higher amount of Sumatriptan to find relief from these episodes (100-200mg).

        1. Thank you for sharing some of your journey with migraine including your approach to hydration. Good to hear how that has worked for you to curb the frequency of your attacks. Interesting how the intensity and length of your attacks are extending. This would be worth discussing with your doctor if you haven't already done so. Hopefully, a simple shift in your triptan dosage is all you need - but migraine disease can evolve over time (just as we do with aging). These shifts require us to at times change our approach to managing it. Thinking of you- Holly (migraine.com team).

      Please read our rules before posting.