Migraine headache treatments are many and what works well for one person may have no affect on another. In this article we cover conventional and alternative migraine headache treatments.

There are more than 28 million people in the U.S. searching for effective migraine headache treatments and most of them women.

Migraine seems to occur more frequently between the ages of 10 to 30 and the symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, irritability and photophobia.

Migraine headache treatments from conventional medicine focus on reducing vascular inflammation using NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and calcium channel and beta blockers that are used to treat blood pressure. While they may be effective in some cases, these blockers have also been proven to increase the risk of cardiovascular heart disease; while NSAIDs have been proven to increase the risk of gastrointestinal damage.

Alternative migraine headache treatments focus on the cause being the result of a food allergy causing constriction of the arteries in the brain and dilating the muscular scalp arteries.

The best place to start is to determine the foods you are allergic to. Keep a diary of the food you eat and take you pulse at 15, 30 and 60 minutes after eating a particular food. If your pulse rises 10 or more beats per minute above your normal resting pulse, then you have an allergy. The most common allergies are to wheat, dairy and soy.

Also keep a section in the diary for recording the onset of migraines note down any possible 'triggers' that may have caused it to start and compare the onset of the migraine to the food you have recently eaten (in my case it was flour).

Migraine headache treatments include avoiding the offending foods, rotating the foods you are not allergic to (this can prevent future allergies from developing), digestive enzymes and a baseline nutritional supplement program including all 90 essential nutrients.

Other migraine headache treatments include essential oils Helichrysium, clove, rosemary, basil, peppermint, melissa, lavender, ylang ylang, German chamomile, Eucalyptus radiata, and marjoram. These may be inhaled, massaged into the scalp, applied as a rub or added to a bath.

Acupuncture, acupressure and massage are also excellent for pain relief.

Recommended Supplements

1. Digestive enzymes to help deal with the food allergy.

2. All 90 essential nutrients.

3. Essential oil blend containing a blend of the oils for pain relief.

Paul Newland

Paul Newland is a health and nutrition consultant, trainer, martial arts instructor, commercial helicopter pilot and author.