5 ms·

Growing up, I had multiple friends die from brain aneurysms. Those start with a bad headache. That has lead to me avoiding all medicines every time I get a hea

Growing up, I had multiple friends die from brain aneurysms. Those start with a bad headache. That has lead to me avoiding all medicines every time I get a headache (yes, I understand correlation is not causation). My primary route to solve any headache is hydration. Adding electrolytes is also important because too much water without them can also give you a headache. My experience has also lead me to focus on consuming the healthiest diet I can find (currently intermittent fasting + keto with intermittent-vegan weeks, mostly organic, with all nutrients from food sources). On the other hand, my mother, who could convince the majority she's healthy based on her weight and latest diet buzzwords, has had migraines for the past 30 years, maybe longer — even landing her in the hospital on many occasions. A migraine is your body telling you something is wrong with your most valuable asset. Are you sure you want to sweep this problem under the rug? There is a documentary on Amazon called "Fat". It illustrates how many children with epilepsy were harmed by the combination of 1. lack of understanding food and 2. pharmaceuticals with side effects that render them permanently disabled. Good luck with your search for health and wellbeing.

BiteCode_dev 7y ago
Indeed. Migraines for 30 years. Painkillers allows you to keep up with whatever wrong you are doing. So if you have migraines, it is not normal. It is not incurable either. Use pain killers when you must, but keep looking for a solution. The solution can be different for everybody. Start with diet, it's a very common cause for it. Don't limit yourself to what you think is right. Try things, even weird ones. Took me 3 decades of trials and errors to not need pain killers.
- fgonzag 7y ago
  If pain killers worked for your migraines, they were extremely mild migraine. OTC pain killers (and even prescribed pain killers) don't really do anything for the 3 people I know that get migraines. These people have to lay down under their sheets to block all sun light, they can not do absolutely anything at all during the episode but block sunlight and hope whatever medicine sort of worked last time will work this time. Preaching and generalizing from your mild case helps no one.
- DailyHN 7y ago
  Thanks for sharing about it taking thirty years. I can only imagine that it becomes so much harder of a problem to solve when the symptoms are as severe as a migraine. Unfortunately, I don't think people understand how long it takes to get a grasp on everything we ingest. Someone in a sibling comment mentioned giving up after just a few months of "logging" their diet. It took me years to narrow down an allergy/sensitivity to tannins. And it also took years to recognize the full extent of sugars' effect on my body.
drngdds 7y ago
Tbh I would rather have to take painkillers sometimes than do keto intermittent fasting every day with organic vegan weeks. Besides, you might be confusing correlation with causation a bit? My sister and mother probably eat healthier than I do and still get disabling migraines sometimes. My diet is "basically whatever, just no animal parts and not too much junk food" and I've never gotten one.
- DailyHN 7y ago
  > Tbh I would rather have to take painkillers sometimes than do keto intermittent fasting every day with organic vegan weeks. Lucky for you it seems you haven't been exposed to pain killer addiction and death. But, not as lucky since you don't have someone that can create delicious meals from any ingredients (it's possible, see the TV show "Chopped"). > probably eats healthier This would be much easier to answer if you spent 1% of the time you spend eating on learning about what it is that's going into your body.
Ralfp 7y ago
> A migraine is your body telling you something is wrong with your most valuable asset. > Are you sure you want to sweep this problem under the rug? > Good luck with your search for health and wellbeing. Not saying you are quack, these days reading things like this sets off an alarm for me. I've learned all too-well by my years of dealings with "health-conscious self-help" community that a lot of it is just step away from medical quackery. I suspect the reason for this is D-K effect in people who think that by reading up things in internet they can somehow out-do existing research in the field. I know a person with masters degree in CS who managed to convince himself through the reading of wikipedia and "self-help" books that he was feeling bad due to levels of acidy in his body, condition which he "keeps under control" by drinking bottle of vinegar a day. That was weird, but nothing bad (I believe?), but over few months he became extremely preachy about modern medicine is a scam developed to sell people pills, and it's all solvable by diet and healthy living. We don't know what causes migraines, and the subject is very hard to research because no there are no apparent differences in anatomy and bio-chemistry between people who suffer migraines and those who don't, and you would need to run tests on sufferer during migraine as it leaves no trace in the body few hours after it ends. There been many leads that turned out as flukes over the years. Maybe it's something with hormones? Nope. Maybe its blood circulation in the brain? Nope. Pressure on blood vessels in the neck? Nope. Latest discovery is different levels of calcium in brain-spinal fluid in those that suffer migraines and those who don't... so naturally migrainers on Facebookgroups are now all the rage about removing salt from your diet (oh, but this from the top of the mountain salt ten times the price is good for you!).
- DailyHN 7y ago
  I think your stretching/twisting what I said quite a bit.
dgacmu 7y ago
I don't think you understand either the specificity or how debilitating a migraine can be. For example, mine (and those of many others) are preceded by a very clearly identifiable visual disturbances, called a migraine 'aura'. I get headaches once in a while too, but it's very easy to tell the difference. and trust me, nobody with migraines wants to sweep them under the rug, and painkillers really don't touch them. The problem for migraines today is that anything stronger than caffeine starts to come with potentially nasty side effects. Imitrex is the first option people usually go to - for myself, I decided not to do that. Almost everyone with migraines will be advised by their doctor to try to identify triggers, dietary or environmental. But it's tricky. I kept a food log for months to absolutely no avail. At some point after about 20 years of migraines, I finally figured out that looking at a really bright light (think sunlight reflection off of polished metal) would pretty reliably trigger a migraine. The existence of medications that reduced the severity of symptoms in no way stopped me or many others from trying to identify causes.
brokensegue 7y ago
A migraine is not your body telling you something is wrong. Sometimes they just happen. Not all migraines are triggered. Even when they are triggered the brain is mistaken that something is wrong. Please don't spread misinformation.
- DailyHN 7y ago
  > Even when they are triggered the brain is mistaken that something is wrong. Seems like pain is an indicator that something is wrong to me.
  - brokensegue 7y ago
    nope. the brain can be broken or mistaken and just generate pain for no reason. ignoring/surpressing that pain is fine.

BiteCode_dev 7y ago

Indeed. Migraines for 30 years. Painkillers allows you to keep up with whatever wrong you are doing. So if you have migraines, it is not normal. It is not incurable either. Use pain killers when you must, but keep looking for a solution. The solution can be different for everybody. Start with diet, it's a very common cause for it. Don't limit yourself to what you think is right. Try things, even weird ones. Took me 3 decades of trials and errors to not need pain killers.

fgonzag 7y ago
If pain killers worked for your migraines, they were extremely mild migraine. OTC pain killers (and even prescribed pain killers) don't really do anything for the 3 people I know that get migraines. These people have to lay down under their sheets to block all sun light, they can not do absolutely anything at all during the episode but block sunlight and hope whatever medicine sort of worked last time will work this time. Preaching and generalizing from your mild case helps no one.
DailyHN 7y ago
Thanks for sharing about it taking thirty years. I can only imagine that it becomes so much harder of a problem to solve when the symptoms are as severe as a migraine. Unfortunately, I don't think people understand how long it takes to get a grasp on everything we ingest. Someone in a sibling comment mentioned giving up after just a few months of "logging" their diet. It took me years to narrow down an allergy/sensitivity to tannins. And it also took years to recognize the full extent of sugars' effect on my body.

drngdds 7y ago

Tbh I would rather have to take painkillers sometimes than do keto intermittent fasting every day with organic vegan weeks. Besides, you might be confusing correlation with causation a bit? My sister and mother probably eat healthier than I do and still get disabling migraines sometimes. My diet is "basically whatever, just no animal parts and not too much junk food" and I've never gotten one.

DailyHN 7y ago
> Tbh I would rather have to take painkillers sometimes than do keto intermittent fasting every day with organic vegan weeks. Lucky for you it seems you haven't been exposed to pain killer addiction and death. But, not as lucky since you don't have someone that can create delicious meals from any ingredients (it's possible, see the TV show "Chopped"). > probably eats healthier This would be much easier to answer if you spent 1% of the time you spend eating on learning about what it is that's going into your body.

Ralfp 7y ago

> A migraine is your body telling you something is wrong with your most valuable asset. > Are you sure you want to sweep this problem under the rug? > Good luck with your search for health and wellbeing. Not saying you are quack, these days reading things like this sets off an alarm for me. I've learned all too-well by my years of dealings with "health-conscious self-help" community that a lot of it is just step away from medical quackery. I suspect the reason for this is D-K effect in people who think that by reading up things in internet they can somehow out-do existing research in the field. I know a person with masters degree in CS who managed to convince himself through the reading of wikipedia and "self-help" books that he was feeling bad due to levels of acidy in his body, condition which he "keeps under control" by drinking bottle of vinegar a day. That was weird, but nothing bad (I believe?), but over few months he became extremely preachy about modern medicine is a scam developed to sell people pills, and it's all solvable by diet and healthy living. We don't know what causes migraines, and the subject is very hard to research because no there are no apparent differences in anatomy and bio-chemistry between people who suffer migraines and those who don't, and you would need to run tests on sufferer during migraine as it leaves no trace in the body few hours after it ends. There been many leads that turned out as flukes over the years. Maybe it's something with hormones? Nope. Maybe its blood circulation in the brain? Nope. Pressure on blood vessels in the neck? Nope. Latest discovery is different levels of calcium in brain-spinal fluid in those that suffer migraines and those who don't... so naturally migrainers on Facebookgroups are now all the rage about removing salt from your diet (oh, but this from the top of the mountain salt ten times the price is good for you!).

DailyHN 7y ago
I think your stretching/twisting what I said quite a bit.

dgacmu 7y ago

I don't think you understand either the specificity or how debilitating a migraine can be. For example, mine (and those of many others) are preceded by a very clearly identifiable visual disturbances, called a migraine 'aura'. I get headaches once in a while too, but it's very easy to tell the difference. and trust me, nobody with migraines wants to sweep them under the rug, and painkillers really don't touch them. The problem for migraines today is that anything stronger than caffeine starts to come with potentially nasty side effects. Imitrex is the first option people usually go to - for myself, I decided not to do that. Almost everyone with migraines will be advised by their doctor to try to identify triggers, dietary or environmental. But it's tricky. I kept a food log for months to absolutely no avail. At some point after about 20 years of migraines, I finally figured out that looking at a really bright light (think sunlight reflection off of polished metal) would pretty reliably trigger a migraine. The existence of medications that reduced the severity of symptoms in no way stopped me or many others from trying to identify causes.

brokensegue 7y ago

A migraine is not your body telling you something is wrong. Sometimes they just happen. Not all migraines are triggered. Even when they are triggered the brain is mistaken that something is wrong. Please don't spread misinformation.

DailyHN 7y ago
> Even when they are triggered the brain is mistaken that something is wrong. Seems like pain is an indicator that something is wrong to me.
- brokensegue 7y ago
  nope. the brain can be broken or mistaken and just generate pain for no reason. ignoring/surpressing that pain is fine.