Many of us confuse such painful manifestations as migraines and headaches. However, these are completely different concepts. Migraines and headaches have different causes, triggers, and courses. The confusion arises because a migraine often begins with a headache. During a migraine, there is intense pain either in the temple area or at the back of the head. This pain intensifies and gradually affects half of the head. For right-handed people, the left side will hurt, and for left-handed people, the right side. Usually, a migraine lasts for three to four days.
In addition to headaches, migraines are also characterized by gradually increasing fatigue, sensitivity to loud sounds and light, flickering before the eyes, nausea, balance disturbances, paleness, or redness. The main cause of migraines is a disruption of blood supply to the brain, caused by the narrowing of blood vessels, reduced intracranial pressure, which leads to a lack of oxygen and pain that increases when the vessels begin to dilate.
Migraine triggers can include allergies, hormonal imbalances, nervous and psychological causes, alcohol, caffeine, excessive consumption of sweets, and stress. To successfully treat migraines, it is necessary to determine the exact cause, which can be challenging. Therefore, conventional medicine focuses on alleviating migraine symptoms, albeit successfully. Folk medicine offers various ways to relieve headaches.
Folk Remedies for Migraine Treatment
- It is advisable not to take headache pills too often, as over time, the body may become accustomed to them, and increasing the dose can have adverse effects on the kidneys and cause poisoning.
- Avoid factors that exacerbate headaches during a migraine: bright light, noise, stuffiness.
- Drink black coffee with lemon, which often helps alleviate the pain.
- Apply a cold or warm compress, depending on which is more effective for you. Try different methods: ice compresses, massaging the temples and back of the head with ice cubes, rinsing the feet and face. Warm baths and mustard foot baths can lower blood pressure, so they can be used if you have high blood pressure.
- Try compresses on the painful areas with crushed cabbage or grape leaves, or with ground cumin seeds boiled into a paste. You can also use horseradish or onion compresses on the forehead, or cold compresses on the forehead with healing clay.
- Herbal teas containing cowslip, valerian, yarrow, a mixture of meadowsweet, or tea with linden blossom, St. John’s wort, peppermint, and sage—drink 3-4 cups a day.
- Apply essential oils to the temples, forehead, and neck. Lavender, rosemary, and peppermint oils work best. You can also put a few drops on your pillow at night if you tolerate scents well.
- If you are prone to migraines, avoid alcohol and nicotine, which can intensify the severity of attacks.
- A head massage from the forehead to the back of the head, performed with both hands, is recommended.
- Place a piece of gauze soaked in beet or onion juice in the ear, and a cloth with sauerkraut behind the ears and on the temples. Wrap your head with a towel.
- If a migraine starts, determine which nostril is breathing better. If the pain is on the same side of the head as the nostril that is breathing better, close that nostril with a finger and breathe through the other one until the pain subsides.
- At the onset of an attack, put an enamel pot on the stove and fill it with equal parts water and apple cider vinegar. The vinegar must be real apple cider vinegar; otherwise, it won’t work. Once the mixture boils, reduce the heat and lean over the pot. Inhale the steam, but be careful not to burn yourself. Continue until relief comes.
- Lavender tea for migraines. Prepare by pouring boiling water over lavender flowers and letting it steep like regular tea. Drink this tea in small sips at night, every other day.
You can add a little mint or lemon balm to the lavender tea. This tea soothes pain and nerves, providing a sound and peaceful sleep.
Treatment of Chronic Migraines with Folk Remedies
- Break a fresh egg into a glass, then fill it to the top with boiling milk, stirring quickly. Drink it. Do this for 10 days.
- Daily apply iodine to the temple area.
- Take 1 tablespoon of trifoliate leaves and pour a glass of boiling water over them. Let it steep for 2 hours, then strain. Drink half a glass twice a day, half an hour before meals, for a week. Do this once a month for a year.
- Every day, half an hour before meals, drink a mixture of boiled water with baking soda. The ratio is half a teaspoon of soda per glass of water. On the first day, drink 1 glass before lunch. On the second day, drink 2 glasses (one before lunch and one before dinner), gradually increasing to 7 glasses per day, then decreasing back to 1 glass. This concludes the course.
As you can see, there are many folk remedies for treating migraines, but not all of them will be equally effective.
