How I stopped a lifetime of Brutal Migraines

I used to get migraines about once a quarter. Then monthly, then weekly, and finally daily–three to five days a week.

The migraines didn’t appear one day, go away and come back tomorrow.

They stayed on for three days, four days, five days–non-stop, every hour, every minute.

MY MIGRAINE SOLUTIONS

How I controlled migraines and finally… how I stopped migraines completely at 55 years of age, after a lifetime of misery.

MY MIGRAINE EXPERIENCE

My head felt like every cell in it was crushed in a vice. Not my head in a vice — every space and place in my head was crushed in blinding pain.

I would pack my head in blue ice, take Excedrin, Advil, melatonin, niacin, and arginine to dilate blood vessels, increase blood and oxygen flow, minimize the pain, relax my body, and open the blood pathways. All that did was delay the inevitable.

There was one thing I knew that would always cure the migraine–throwing up.

So why didn’t I just go there right away, and throw up every time and end the migraine faster?

The pain, the literally indescribable pain that happened when the muscles tightened as I heaved–my brain pain screamed and burned and crashed and exploded at unbelievable levels. I hated the throwing-up part like I wanted to die. Even though I knew relief was coming–it wasn’t worth the pain I felt during the vomiting cure.

After 20 years of migraines, I had a CT/CAT Scan to make sure there was no bad guy in my brain causing this.

The technician doing the scan told me the moment he saw the first scans, he said, “This guy has chronic migraines.”

I asked him how he knew and he showed me the scans and told me, “Your brain is inflamed.”

My doctor prescribed Sumatriptan AKA Imatrex. It worked and within about 40 minutes the migraine would go away. It is crazy-expensive per pill and my insurance would only pay for it if I was also taking a drug (I can’t remember the name of) daily as a prophylactic. I don’t like taking any medications on a daily basis. And after five months of taking the prophylactic daily, I was still getting migraines almost every day. So I stopped taking it but kept the prescription so I could also have the Sumatriptan which worked 95% of the time. I could only take it twice in 24 hours–using the dose I had. Sometimes I could barely make it to hour 24 before the next migraine was exploding.

I don’t like taking medications so I would only take Sumatriptan if my migraine got to a 6 out of 10. I used a ten scale and from years of experience knew that if I could maintain the migraine at four or below I might not go full Chornobyl. But once it rose to six I knew where we were headed. It was going to go to ten no matter what. Unless I took Sumatriptan.

After about three years of taking Sumatriptan for these MF Migraines, one morning I took Sumatriptan for a brutal skull crusher, and about 40 minutes later when it should have been effective the migraine was fading but I suddenly had chest pain I’d never felt in my life. And worse, just like in the movies the pain extended to my left shoulder and down my left arm to my elbow. I didn’t tie the pain to the Sumatriptan at all. I just got worried as hell because at 55 I’d never had any heart problems, and I’d had a life of cardio, bicycle racing, aggressive skiing, Army, and lots of physical training. All of that and more was racing through my 55-year-old mind as I laid down and processed what I felt.

Was this real or imagined? The pain in my chest was a sharp, burning, pressure. It wasn’t gas pain and I’d never felt this pain before–even when doing a maximum cardio exercise like pounding up a steep hill on my bicycle for a few miles, trying to increase speed as I climbed. I lay there slowing my breathing thinking about and feeling the pain in my left arm. It was real not imagined.

I did slow, deep breathing and every mental exercise to calm things way down. Like a knucklehead, I didn’t go to the doctor or hospital or even call one.

SIDEBAR: Due to a life of exercise and significant cardio exercise, I’d always had a very low resting heart rate and low blood pressure. When I’ve been in hospitals overnight I’ve set off alarms and caused nurses to come running to my room as I slept because my heart rate was too low! All of that was to tell you about this. Each time I got a migraine my blood pressure was through the roof. I felt intense pressure in my neck and head from the blood pressure. I never knew if the blood pressure was because of the migraines or was causing the migraines. Because of the intense pressure on both sides of my neck each time I presumed my tense neck muscles were constricting the blood flow to the brain causing or contributing to the migraines.

As I lay there calming every system in my brain and body, from three years of experience I knew the Sumatriptan would be kicking in and helping lower the pain and blood pressure. It did and I felt the chest and arm pain subsiding. After about 30 to 40 minutes from the beginning of the pain (which was about 40 minutes after taking it), I felt almost normal with no arm or shoulder pain and very low chest pain (like a 1 or 2 out of ten).

The migraine hung around though. It stayed at about level four which told me it could climb back up. It did. 23 hours later it was at level 8 and I took a second Sumatriptan. This time, when about 40 minutes passed and I felt strong chest pain and I felt the pain extend to my left shoulder and arm. This time my brain connected the dots. I realized that both times I had the chest, shoulder and arm pain it started at the exact moment when the Sumatriptan normally had kicked in (from three years of experience taking it). And this time the pain triggered enough fear that my brain said, Let’s get our ass to the hospital–this is legit.

I let my wife know what was happening, what had happened yesterday, and I drove to the hospital. Long story short, from tests they decided to keep me overnight, and I was given IV treatments for my heart and migraine. The next day I was to start seeing a cardiologist and get all the tests. I did and I am.

When I got home I threw out the remaining Sumatriptan and decided I needed to finally be serious about solving my migraines with my diet and behavior (exercise, rest, sleep, meditation, positive thinking, etc). I don’t know and cannot say if Sumatriptan caused this heart pain. I’m not a scientist or a medical professional. For me, it was an obvious correlation. And a cardiologist, as well as an emergency room doctor (from two different medical practices), told me, “Sumatriptan has been known to cause heart pain.” You can find many references to this online. Some are on the bottom of this page.

No more Sumatriptan for me–even though it relieved migraines for three years. I hope it didn’t damage my heart.

How I alleviated low-level migraines and the uncomfortable high blood pressure

Before the heart incident, I never thought I’d have one. But I did have brutal chronic migraines. After a while, I discovered that if I could keep things calm I could control the migraines that didn’t get above a level four out of ten. Level four was moderately painful and significantly uncomfortable, so much so that I could not focus on any mental task. At and below this level I would do the following things to manage the migraine and try to keep it from escalating.

  • Unplug from everything
  • Take vitamin B Complex
  • Take minimal amounts of melatonin, arginine, niacin, and aspirin
  • Drink plenty of clean water
  • Put in sound-suppressing earplugs
  • (sometimes listen to meditative music)
  • Lay down in a dark room
  • Pack my head in blue ice
  • Lay in cold, dark, silence and try to sleep

When this worked I could wake up and be at or below level four.

When this didn’t work it was my only method to continuously control the pain until I was throwing up. Typically the vomiting lasted about an hour. Sometimes more or less. But it was never just one time throwing up. It was always multiple times, and then dry heaving vomiting several times before my brain said, “Okay. Got all the poisons out. I’ll cool it for a while now.”

And just for fun, my body always flicked some switch where I had to alternate between throwing up in the bathtub and running to the toilet to sit and evacuate my bowels because there was no stopping it. My body was clearly trying to get some bug out of me–or thought it was. Back and forth I’d go until I had nothing left inside of me.

And every time I got there after 10, 12, 20 hours of level eight, nine, and ten migraines I kept asking myself why didn’t I just force myself to throw up in the beginning and avoid the hours of mid-level pain growing to its peak? And every time I thought about it I knew I was pushing the maximum throwing-up pain away to delay it and hopefully not experience it because it was way, way, way worse than a level ten migraine.

How I stopped migraines completely

Because of the heart incident, I decided to go all in controlling everything that goes into my body.

FACTS: Food fuels your body and mind. Bad “food” poisons your body and mind. Only eat FOOD.

I decided to only consume things that fuel my body and help it in every way possible and never hurt it.

I researched foods that cause inflammation and discovered we’re not supposed to eat anything.

Depending on which website I read, everything causes inflammation. We can thank the Food Industrial Complex for ruining everything that used to be food.

I did a massive diet flip to test if I could stop migraines.

  • I stopped eating dairy 100%
  • I stopped eating meat 100%
  • I stopped eating gluten 100%
  • I stopped all sugars 100%
  • I stopped alcohol 100%
  • I stopped nuts and seeds 100%
  • I cut way back on salt
  • I ate 100% organic
  • I ate vegetables
  • It sucked!

After about two months I realized I’d never had a migraine since the heart incident. I experienced two or three, level-two headaches–but they were not level-two migraines. It was completely different. The pain was so soft it was pleasurable compared to a migraine. I literally smiled when I felt these! The pain was so light it was laughable.

Slowly I began adding things back into my diet and the migraines returned at lower levels. A few times I was unable to focus and work. But they never went full Chornobyl.

Finally, after several long tests, I discovered that my life-long love affair with butter, milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheeses, etc was the culprit causing the inflammation that caused the migraines. N.B. I’d even tried organic-only, and lactose-free milk products for a long time but that didn’t help.

Stopping all milk-related products stopped my lifelong migraines. I wish I would have discovered this 40 years ago. THIS SUCKS because I LOVE dairy products,

SIDEBAR: I had all the heart tests I could have–some were scary and have a percentage of people who die from the tests. My heart is healthy, there are no known holes or thin spots in the walls, and I don’t have any clogged arteries. I want to keep it that way.

Balance digital blood pressure machine

Now what?

We bought a Balance digital blood pressure machine that quickly and easily connects to a Balance app on my phone. I take one, two, or three blood pressure measurements daily. And due to my diet change and moderate exercise, my average blood pressure and heart rate are low again, and getting healthier.

N.B. These things made migraines worse

I love, love, love jalapenos. Fresh, pickled, grilled, in salsa, in tacos, burritos, guacamole, hamburgers, pizza, or just eating them. They’re awesome. But when I got a migraine, or even feel one–OMFG! They pushed me right to L10 Level 10 full Chornobyl.

Alcoholic drinks. Like almost anyone who enjoys this gift of life, I enjoy adult beverages. And so does Migraine. Alcohol sends me there faster.

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to go fishing with your grandpa and stuff your mouth with roasted, salted sunflower seeds and fish and spit sunflower seed shells all day–you know good times. But I discovered that my lifelong love of sunflower seeds also triggered migraines to go to the max–due to the insanely massive salt intake.

Sugars. I eat a low-sugar diet for health anyway. Sugar feeds migraines.

Lack of restful sleep causes and feeds migraines.

References

Here are a few resources I looked up after writing this article. Mrmigraine.com and these references are not affiliated.

Abstract
I report a 35-year-old woman with occult coronary artery disease who experienced cardiac arrest within minutes after receiving a first-time dose of subcutaneous sumatriptan for migraine. The patient was resuscitated, and subsequent serial cardiac enzymes indicated myocardial infarction. Because sumatriptan can cause coronary artery vasospasm, patients with significant risk factors for coronary artery disease should be carefully evaluated for cardiovascular disease prior to the use of sumatriptan.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7783891/

A Lehigh Valley man thought he had found a “miracle” cure for his migraine headaches this spring in an injectable drug called Imitrex. The medicine, he said, took away the debilitating pain within 20 minutes, without leaving him drowsy. But 1-1/2 hours after taking the drug on the 11th day of what he called a cluster of migraines, the man had a heart attack.

https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1994-11-30-3003490-story.html

This medicine may cause problems if you have heart disease. This medicine may increase your risk of having abnormal heart rhythm, heart attack, angina, or stroke… Call your doctor right away if you have any symptoms of a heart problem, such as chest pain or discomfort, an uneven heartbeat, nausea or vomiting, pain or discomfort in the shoulders, arms, jaw, back, or neck, shortness of breath, or sweating… if you have chest discomfort, jaw or neck tightness after using this medicine.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/sumatriptan-oral-route/precautions/drg-20074356

Heart problems: Sumatriptan works by constricting blood vessels, so it may not be suitable for people with heart conditions. Sumatriptan can worsen coronary artery disease (ischemia) or provoke a heart attack (myocardial infarction) or Printzmetal’s angina (coronary artery vasospasm). It can also cause irregular heart rhythms.

https://ro.co/health-guide/sumatriptan-imitrex-warnings/

Triptans Can Pose Heart Concerns
About 30 million Americans get migraine headaches, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. Triptans effectively and quickly relieve headache pain, sensitivity to light and noise, and nausea and vomiting associated with migraines. They are especially helpful for people with moderate to severe headaches that interfere with their ability to perform daily tasks. Triptans narrow (constrict) blood vessels in the brain. For most people, these drugs are well-tolerated and safe. But triptans also temporarily narrow blood vessels leading to the heart — by 10% to 20%, Tepper tells WebMD. That can make them dangerous for people who already have heart disease, he says.

https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/news/20110930/heart-concerns-with-migraine-drugs