Jump to content
The Corroboree
qualia

melatonin for migraines

Recommended Posts

hi,

a friend of mine says he wakes up with severe migraines every few weeks or so, lasting for a few days on end. he's been to doctors etc. who have performed tests i.e. blood pressure, neural scans etc, nothing has shown up. GP's prescribe him opiates as usual, but he says they don't work either. he asked me if i knew and i said i only knew the standards, i.e. Feverfew, White Willow Bark, Butterbur. but then i found a link to melatonin and migraines. i've read here many times melatonin is good for sleep regulation, and he says the migraines occur after he wakes up (i.e. wakes up with them). note he also snores like a mother fucker and i think has sleep apnoea. so is melatonin maybe a decent migraine preventative if the migraine may be linked to sleep? i hear now there may be a tolerance develop, so what would be good to cycle with it? i don't know about sleep apnoea but maybe theres a lack of oxygen to the brain over night? in that case a brain blood oxygenator like ginkgo maybe worth a shot? also i thought acupuncture may help, not sure how. forgive if theres ignorant questions, i haven't researched extensively, but opinions i would gladly take, cheers,,,,

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Does you friend get the 'aura' early warning with their migraines?...probably hard to tell if he is waking up with them :/

This is how I beat mine. Even just ~500mg of paracetamol when I first get the aura will stop them...though I still feel a little off and my head is a little sensitive to sudden movements for a few days after. Miss that small 30 minute window when the aura is there and I am fucked for days.

Sorry can't be any help with the melatonin. Beta Blockers have helped me in the past with that feeling of being beaten upside the head with a cricket bat feeling.

Hope he finds some relief...cunts of things.

Edited by Dale Cooper

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

he doesn't mention an aura, even though i only see him everfew weeks (or months). i'll ask him. forgive me, whats a beta blocker?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It could be related to his sleeping position.

Sleeping on your back instead of your stomach/side can reduce the incidence of migraines.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

forgive me, whats a beta blocker?

 

It is a prescription only blood pressure med. Used for heaps of things these days it seems...everything from heart attack prevention to a cure for stage fright for musicians.

I believe works mainly as a preventative for migraines because it acts on certain nerve responses associated with migraines. It helped me while I was in the middle of a bad one. Relaxed my blood pressure which in-turn helped alleviate the painful throbbing sensation that comes with the headache.

But a no-no if you have asthma or already low blood pressure.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ok, thanks. he has asthma too, so thats that i guess.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No worries. The asthma issue seems to be a complex one, would still be worth talking with his GP about it. I'm erring on the side of caution when giving advice on the internet. :rolleyes:

EDIT: wrong link sorry.

Edited by Dale Cooper

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You can also look into 5htp as a preventative. Caffeine can abort a migraine once you have it and is even better when mixed with aspirin.

Anti depressants can be used to prevent them. Magnesium can be used too. He can also ask the doc for sumitriptan which works really well for many at aborting them. It's related to psilocybin but it won't make you hallucinate. Psilocybin can be used also. He can also ask for cafergot which will abort them.

Topamax is another preventative he could use.

Botox is another but it depends on the type of migraine.

If he takes too many painkillers he could end up getting rebound headaches as well as other problems.

I had some severere bad reactions to some of those drugs but I know others who have used the same as I did without any problems. Either that or they got different side effects. Topamax almost made me hang myself.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

if he doesn't mind a journey then shrooms or LSD might be a good preventative. I prevent mine with shrooms. only need to take a small dose every few months to keep them at bay. Shrooms are even better for cluster headaches, which is actually more what your friend's sound like. The dose needed does not have to cause any tripping effect. It can be split into so many tiny doses that no effect needs to be noticable. eg if the preventative dose is 5g of shrooms every 6 months then he could break this down into 10 x 0.5g lots and take them either over 10 days or over the full 6 months - doesn't seem to make much difference. However, the first time round the full 5g should be taken within a few days to get protection. The micro doses can be spread out as maintenance. I just take mine fresh when in season and that seems to cover me for the year.

If he can't/won't take shrooms or LSD then sumatriptan is the next best option. It is usually routinely prescribed by docs for migraine, so a bit puzzled why his doc hasn't done so already. It presumably works on the same principle as shrooms/lsd, but needs to be taken much more frequently.

check out http://www.clusterbusters.com/

Caffeine is a bit risky by itself. It works real well with ergot in cafergot pills, bu by itself it can either kill the migraine or make it worse. Stress induced migraine are usually made worse, while hormonal migraines are often relieved by caffeine.

My partner also get migraines, but he takes 500mg tryptophan daily before bed and that has kept him pretty much migraine free for years. That whole complex of tryptophan, 5HTP and melatonin can help, although melatonin would be the least effective.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

thanks all for the responses. i'll check it all and relay to him next week when we rendezvous.

keep it coming though, cheers,,,,

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Caffeine by itself works a lot for me but there are also a lot of times when it won't work. I use shrooms to abort mine when caffeine fails although the shrooms don't prevent mine, only abort. They're the best thing I've found so far. If it wasn't for them I would have killed myself because I was sick of living in pain. The doctors weren't much help either. They wouldn't give me a referral to a neurologist or a pain clinic (I had to get a psychologist to help me organise that), told me nothing more could be done or thought I was some doctor shopping junkie. Then they had the nerve to criticise me for using shrooms whilst giving me various drugs that gave me suicidal thoughts, severe cardiac problems, low sex drive, fatigue, blurred vision, dry mouth, weight gain etc. WTF?!?!?!

Your mate might be lucky enough to find something with less side effects but everyone needs to find what works best for them.

I know a lady from Norway who uses shrooms to abort her cluster headaches but she's also found that rivea corymbosa seeds work too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

note he also snores like a mother fucker and i think has sleep apnoea.

i would seek a doctor right away about the sleep apnoea. realy tell your friend.

the only time i have had migrains, was when i occasional took benzos.

for me, melatonin seemed to be able to stabilise my mood, just by a tiny margin.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

mirtazapine will help on both fronts: the apnea and the migraines. Due to 5ht3 antagonism.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As Torsten said above.shrooms can be a positive treatment for this ailment.

I've found about .5g fresh lasts me about 12months (zero headaches).

Well worth trying.

ed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ive used alcohol in the past to stave one off in the aural stage.

Caffeine works once the pain from vasodilation starts, but the timing is important as earlier in the migraine process there is excessive calcium channel activation and the spreading depression of excessive vasoconstriction that they believe causes the whole scenario. Perhaps the strange vasoconstriction causes the release of vasoactive proinflammatory peptides like calcitonin gene related peptide, substance P etc, who all cause excessive vasodilation and pain through nitric oxide release.

The weird thing is with my migraines I can actually feel the blood vessels fluctuating and rippling weirdly.

Beta blockers would work by reducing sympathetic nervous system activity - there effects on blood pressure are mediated by beta 1 receptors but they should help by slowing down the overactivity that causes the migraine as well.

Melatonin also works on the sympathetic system directly. I can be used for tachycardia as well, so it would potentially help at the aural stage.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Caffeine and asprin upon first symptoms (i.e aura) definitely seems to be the most effective for me. Hell even asprin half way through a migraine works better for me than paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Metoclobramide is an essential in my house for the nausea and vomiting.

I'd imagine 5-htp would definitely be a good option to test out.

I've tried sumatriptan with no luck.

I've tried a low dose of acid once and that didn't really seem to do much either for me.

Panadine fortes and tramadol don't help with the pain at all, though sometimes a 550mg CWE takes the pulsing down a notch. Ditto with a shot of morph but you gotta toss up whether the bounce back headache is worth it.

An SSRI I was taking + Sumatriptan + Tramadol was a stupid move. I was too sick to do my research properly and just took the advice of the dumbass GP... mild case of serotonin syndrome. Thus be careful if sumatriptan is taken with 5-htp as the same thing can happen.

Edited by -=IndigoSunrise=-

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is the most useful information regarding migraines I've come across. I'm not afflicted personally, but my girlfriend has frequent, often debilitating episodes and has had for many years, and we've been trying various strategies with varying degrees of success for a while. Regular, intense exercise and constant attention to diet have proved most effective for her so far, across the board - her episodes are sparked by stress, hormones and heat, as well as occurring randomly. When she's exercising a lot and eating well she has knocked them back to 1 - 2 a month, but she has slipped off this approach recently due to some personal upheaval and they're back at a rate of 1-3 a week.

The intensity varies yet always requires some form of medicating. Through experimentation she has found that, for all but the worst of the migraines, a little bit of pot is extremely effective and gives her at least an equal amount of relief as Mersyndol Night Strength, which is the only other thing she finds effective, having tried sumaptriptan and a host of other pharmaceuticals without success. The massive benefit with the herb is that, as opposed to being in a lessened amount pain yet still essentially immobile, a few seconds after smoking she is able to smile, sigh in relief and go about her evening, to the extent of engaging in talking, eating and other social activity. She generally requires a top-up every 60 - 90 minutes or so, otherwise there's nothing else to it. It is limited in its application, for obvious reasons, and she often works through her migraines meaning a still partial reliance on the tablets, yet it is now an indispensable part of the treatment regime.

The limited application is the reason I visited tonight, and I had intended to start a thread enquiring as to people's experience in treating migraine in the hope of gleaning something practical. It was only as I was logging in that I was overcome by the realisation that there would not doubt be at least one thread containing the information I was after and, as always, you guys have, as a community, far surpassed my expectations, jaded and cynical as they sometimes are as I wander through this strange, confusing place. I've been a sometime observer of the forums for a little while now, though never posted, and I no doubt know many of you by sight through a number of inspiring and enlightening EGA's, and I just wanted to say thank-you for your creation, through your collaboration, of an ever-welcoming and erudite community with whom I feel a remarkable and unexpectedly touching kindred.

Thanks, Torsten, for explaining the approach with shrooms. My partner is slowly gaining some knowledge of, and confidence with, this approach and although I have made some tentative inroads into assisting her in testing her response to shrooms, having read about some of the research into cluster headaches, I felt rather uncertain as to dose and frequency and had come to something of a standstill. It's promising to hear the efficacy reinforced by others as well, as the prophylactic effect would be an invaluable and very welcome relief.

Once again, many, many thanks all, and I hope to be around a great deal more as we continue to wind into whatever it is we're winding into on this planet. I'm kinda hoping it's something with wings, this time...

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Incidentally, I feel intuitively a certain simple elegance in the treatment of neurological conditions like migraine and cluster-headache with mind-manifesting plants. It's amazing how that whole 'let food be your medicine' thing is still so accurate, despite zero marketing budget and no cold-calling from third-world countries over dinner-time. I also feel as though I've started using too many hyphens.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×