Painkilling drugs may give temporary relief but they do not remove the cause. The patient soon gets addicted to strong drugs which also lose their effectiveness in course of time. The best treatment for migraine is to prevent it.
A lowered energy level, however, is the chief factor which contributes towards migraine. Any successful treatment for this ailment should, therefore, aim at a complete toning up and revitalisation of the whole organism. To achieve this, it will be essential to under-take a thorough cleansing of the system and adopt vitality-building measures.
To begin with, the patient should resort to fasting on orange juice and water for two or three days. The procedure is to take the juice of an orange in a glass of a warm water every two hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Alternatively, juices of vegetables such as carrot, cucumber and celery may be taken. A warm water enema may be taken each day while fasting to cleanse the bowels.
After the short juice fast, the patient may adopt an all-fruit diet for about five days, taking three meals a day of fresh juicy fruits such as apples, pears, grapes, grapefruits , oranges, pineapples, peaches and melons. No other food stuff should be taken during this period, otherwise the value of the whole treatment will be lost.
After the all-fruit diet, the sufferer should follow a well-balanced diet of three basic food groups, namely seeds, nuts and grains, vegetables and fruits. This diet should be supplemented with milk, yogurt, butter-milk, vegetable oils and honey. Further short fasts or periods on the all-fruit diet may be necessary at intervals of a month or two, according to the needs of the case. If constipation is habitual, all steps should be taken towards its eradication.
The foods which should be avoided in future are white flour products, sugar, confectionary, rich cakes, pastries, sweets, refined cereals, flesh foods, rich heavy and greasy foods, tinned or preserved foods, pickles, condiments and sauces. Too much cereals should also be avoided. The patient should eat six small meals rather than a few large ones. Overeating should be avoided.
Niacin especially, has proved helpful in the treatment of migraine. It is, however, necessary that when taking any of the separate B vitamin factors, the entire B-complex should be taken in some form as too much of one factor can throw the other factors into imbalance. This may result in other undesirable problems. IN fact, the entire B-complex range is beneficial in the prevention of migraine.
Drinking lots of water, hot foot baths, fomentations over the stomach and spine, cold compress (40 F to 60 F) to the head and towels wrung out of very hot water and frequently applied to the neck will go a long way in relieving migraine headaches. The patient should also undertake plenty of exercise and walking in fresh air.