As I sit here nursing what I believe to be trochanteric bursitis with an associated gluteal strain and nerve involvement, I realize just how much I know and can share about pain management. One of the biggest complaints I get regularly from patients is migraines. For most people suffering from migraines, they are debilitating; usually causing them to have to leave work, take days off or miss other important events. I am lucky enough to have never felt the true pain of a migraine, but through experimenting with different remedies with patients, I can offer personally researched methods on how to cope with your own. They all vary between individuals and you may respond better to one rather than others, none at all or love all of them! Either way, they are not harmful to try and will hopefully ease your pain.
1. Hot bath with a cold compress on your head and extremities. The point here is to dilate blood vessels in the body to draw the blood away from your head and into the body, thus relieving pain in the head.
2. Omega-3's have anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation may be a contributing factor in migraines. I recommend fish oil supplements to every patient, not just those with migraines. They help protect the heart and brain, increase HDL/good cholesterol levels, lubricate joints and the list goes on. So even if they don't help provide relief from headaches, they have so many other benefits for the body, they are worth taking anyways! I recommend between 1-3 grams. Start low and work your way up, and always take with food.
3. Chiropractic care and regular adjustments help restore alignment, ease muscle tension and imbalances and keep communication between the brain and body functioning optimally.
4. Feverfew, a plant that helps control blood vessel dilation in the head. Aim for 100-150 mg a day. This is to be taken before a migraine, it will not have much effect once a migraine is already underway.
5. Check magnesium levels. Research shows that migraine sufferers may be deficient in magnesium. 200 mg a day is recommended.
Lastly, try and put a finger on any triggers causing your migraines. Keep a food and activity journal, writing down everything you eat and do in a day, when you get a headache, when it comes on, how severe, if an aura is present, etc and try to make connections. Some people are able to avoid migraines simply by avoiding certain foods.
Hopefully this information comes in handy. Let me know if you try any, if they work or not or if there are others that work for you that you would like to share!
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Stretching after a workout brings me to the topic of foam rolling. Not everyone does it, but everyone really should! It is a great way to lengthen, loosen and massage muscles. Just like stretching post-exercise, I always roll my quads, hamstrings, glutes, IT bands and calves. It really helps to get any knots or adhesions that have formed eliminated. I also like to do extensions with the foam roller, lying with the foam roller perpendicular to my upper back and rolling it up and down my spine. I also align it vertically with my spine and lay with my head hanging off of one end and arms splayed out to the sides. These last two really help to open up the shoulders and help with posture. When muscles are overly tight, they do not function properly which could affect gait, muscle mechanics, posture, etc. Getting these muscles as close to normal as possible will help prevent future injury.
I would then do this stretch rolling the foam roller along the backs of my thighs, glutes, on my side lateral legs/IT Bands from knee to hip, and face down on my quads, slowly rolling my body along the roller. The slower you go, the more benefit, albeit more painful too! The picture shown here is for the calves, rolling the roller from knees to ankles.
