Certain migraine medications may be more effective than ibuprofen

This is a very important article. Millions of people in this country suffer from migraines and they should know about this. They deserve relief from that intense pain. I hope they see this story. When I was having a particularly bad set of migraines in my life I took Imitrex and it helped me. This is why sharing information is so important. People's lives could really be changed by this information and maybe they will have a better quality of life

www.medicalnewstoday.com...

originally posted by: ForestSpirit12
This is a very important article. Millions of people in this country suffer from migraines and they should know about this. They deserve relief from that intense pain. I hope they see this story. When I was having a particularly bad set of migraines in my life I took Imitrex and it helped me. This is why sharing information is so important. People's lives could really be changed by this information and maybe they will have a better quality of life

www.medicalnewstoday.com...

Also crazy side effects, but yeah it would be worth it if it actually resolves the pain. I know how awful migraines can get. Sadly though, A lot of times these drugs will make migraines worse and/or more frequent.

I dealt with constant daily migraines for a year before I couldn't take it anymore and finally went to the doctor.

The new drug she prescribed didn't do a damn thing.

They've eased up but I still get severe headaches and the only thing that seems to help is getting up and working on something else or else medicinal Marijuana bur I can't afford the card and don't have the finances to afford the dispensary.

Actually, the reverse can also be true.

I get migraine with aura. That means I have visual disturbances before the headache really takes hold and the pain starts.

I used to use Cafergot and it worked well until it was taken off the market.
After that I tried a few drugs that did cause stomach upset, but did not help with the actual headache.
After taking the allowed dose, I was told to go to the ER if the pain was still there.

I tried something like Excedrin Migraine and that did the trick.
I no longer take prescription meds for the migraines, just 2 ALEVE GELCAPS at the onset of the visual distrubances.

a reply to: ForestSpirit12

As a "classic migrane" sufferer had anyone even suggested ibuprofen to me despite the pain & loss of vision I'd still have come out swinging. If you get legitimate 4 star migranes of the incapacitateing kind you already lost hope years ago for any relief.God love the Doc who put me on Maxalt!! Total lifesaver.

The worst thing is finding the correct drug for you, you have to try all of them. There is no one size fits all.
From experience & charting food intake looking for triggers I can say most of the "trigger foods" aren't. Least not for me.
I'm overjoyed Imitrex worked for you!!

a reply to: ForestSpirit12

So I used to get headaches back in the day. The 2 medications that would kick the headache were BC powder or if it was really bad Excedrin Migraine.

However I don't get headaches regularly anymore. I think that since I've eliminated things like Soda, Coffee, vegetable oil, food and drink with food dyes from my diet have helped. Also, I drink at least 20oz - 40oz of water daily.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe
It's the caffine in Excedrin that does the trick.
The visual aura gives me about 15 Min to take something to head it off. Using only Peripheral vision, loss of motor skills,
the sensitivity to all "smells", plus light sensitivity and random puking due to nausea absolutely sucks.
Having to go thru multiple Doctors to finally find one with a real solution is a "saga" unto itself.

Happy for you off the shelf meds work!

a reply to: ForestSpirit12

Are you promoting medications in ATS?

I took the drug migrin, yep an older drug commonly used back in the 70s and 80s for migraines, it gave hallucinations.

The new drugs been use today are worst than the older ones, yep pharma is no longer in the business of making sure their crap no only help people but that is safe.

Because they only want darn profits.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I had them bad too, the aura, the light sensitivity, nausea and vomiting, it will last me for over a week at a time, thank god, all that went away when I was in my 30s, the migraines just disappeared.

Now I get a sinus headache once in a while.

a reply to: marg6043

I'm not promoting anything. im sharing a story and telling my experience. each person needs to do what's best for them. I was in debilitating pain and that medication made the migraine go away. that time in my life was a very scary experience and I hope it never happens again. I was getting migraines every day for weeks and it was really bad.

saw a commercial this weekend for one of these drugs. The list of side effects that they're required to announce was very short and very mild compared to most Rx drug commercials

a reply to: Raptured

The list of side effects given by the pharma does not compare with the reviews of users, its much worst, much, much worse.

I love reading actual users of the medications posting their own experiences.

a reply to: ForestSpirit12

I want to thank everyone in this thread for sharing their experiences. I read all of your comments and I like to see what helped each person. also i want to let you know that I value your suggestions and will seriously consider using some of them (some I have already used before like the aspirin/caffeine pills)

i do not suffer from migraines, but i have known people who do.it scares me actually, it seems there is nothing you can do for them. is there no knowledge of what causes this?

a reply to: stilhuman

there is some knowledge and research still being done right now. but the brain is a very complicated thing. any neurologist would tell you that. and there could be different causes for migraines as well. the same solution will not work for everyone. they understand that some things like caffeine/aspirin can help so there is some understanding of the mechanism behind what is causing migraines, but like I said the brain is very complex and filled with many different neurotransmitters. serotonin is just one of them.

a reply to: ForestSpirit12

from what i have seen, and read it appears that light is causing much of this. people hide in closets, wear dark glasses. the eyes are possibly not filtering correctly...just a thought

a reply to: stilhuman

My migraines got worst when I was in college, light was one of the main problems, you can barely open your eyes to see.

a reply to: marg6043

its amazing how pharma only delves into trying to stop the pain without ever seeking the source. i hope someone is studying the eyes. i think this is where it all originates. the eyes not filtering light properly. again, just a thought

way back, medicine tried to cure the source of maladies, and were successful a lot of the time. when big pharma came to power they were not troubled with cures, they were just about treating the symptoms. no money in curing people, but treating the symptoms kept the money flowing, and people coming back. sad to say that over the years nothing has changed.

a reply to: stilhuman

For some people there's an explanation. For most of us there's not. I've had doctors try to blame sinuses, then that was abandoned when I got the aura almost as soon as my ass hit the stairs once when I slipped on ice. That one lasted 2 days and I couldn't feel my hands. So they looked into the possibility of old concussions I'd had having something to do with it, telling me I should change my posture and sleeping position. That was also abandoned when certain lights at night started causing them. Now I have to wear those yellow tinted night glasses to avoid one starting up.

Now that I've gotten older they're mostly around the seasonal changes but still happen occasionally in between. I've been on sumatriptan for a few years now and as long as I can get one of those in me during the early part of the aura before the nausea sets in I'm alright in about 30 minutes but if I'm late it's 12-18 hours of hot cold hot cold, sweating the entire time, vomiting until there's nothing left to vomit them hours of dry heaving, numbness in random places, light/sound/smell hypersensitivity, and a few other various symptoms.

To be honest, I don't think they really know how the medications work. Excedrin migraine for example. It's literally the same formulation as plain old Excedrin. That works for headaches because it's a vasodilator. Then sumatriptan... It's the ONLY thing that stops my migraines and yet it's a vasoconstrictor. Doctors will still tell you to take Excedrin after taking the imitrex though.