Each year, more than 150 million Americans (close to half of the US population) are going to deal with severe, debilitating, and downright devastating headaches – many of them of the migraine persuasion.
The overwhelming majority of folks are going to reach instantly for in over-the-counter or prescription grade medication promising to provide them with instant relief. But a lot of folks are waking up to the fact that these chemical concoctions have a significant and serious trade-off that you must make every single time you take them, and that you are always at the mercy of these chemicals and any side effects that they may cause along the way.
Nearly $1 billion each year are spent on migraine medications by the US population, and this number continues to grow on an annual basis thanks to the enormous amount of stress and pressure all of us are living on a day to day basis. And while many of the popular OTC and prescription drugs have proven to be effective at producing nearly instant results – albeit on a temporary basis – ALL of them involve significant side effects that can be potentially dangerous and even deadly.
Thankfully though, with just a little bit of research (and the help of the inside information in this quick guide) you’re going to be able to eliminate migraine headaches from your life once and for all without ever having to shake open one of those little pill bottles and crossing your fingers that your headache goes away and the side effects don’t kick in.
Each one of the seven quick home remedies to treat migraines that we outline below have been proven to be wonderfully effective at destroying the root source of migraines altogether while also providing you with instant (or nearly instant) relief at the exact same time.
Why aren’t they as popular as some of those chemical concoctions if they are so incredibly effective?
Well, a lot of it has to do with the fact that it’s difficult to patent and trademark these home remedies, and drug companies can’t make money off things you’re able to pull together all on your own. If there’s no money in it, companies are going to tell you that you’re wasting your time while pushing pills on you left and right.
The next time that you find yourself struggling with a migraine headache, though, try out any of these seven quick home remedies to relieve the pain, eliminating the headache, and stop these kinds of migraines from happening in the future.
Let’s dive right in!
The Next Time You Feel a Migraine Setting In, Pump Some Iron or Pound the Pavement
Even though medical researchers still aren’t quite sure of exactly what causes migraines in the first place, they have begun to understand the physiological changes that occur when migraines strike.
Migraines transform the way that the brain and nerve cells in your brain work, creating over stimulation that causes a tremendous amount of inflammation and swelling in your neck and brain. This inflammation and swelling increase pressure dramatically, and when that pressure rises you’re going to start to feel the pain really.
Thankfully, though, one of the easiest ways to minimize the negative impact of a migraine almost immediately is to relieve that pressure and pump your body full of dopamine and serotonin – two incredibly potent hormones that your body naturally produces during exercise.
Yes, you’re reading that correctly. The next time that you get a migraine and feel like your old is closing in on you, you want to push through the pain, pop out some push-ups, or go for a quick run. It’s the fastest way to slam the brakes on that migraine completely and provide yourself with the immediate relief you’re after.
Regular exercise (40 minutes a day, at least three times a week) – even moderate exercise – is plenty enough to trigger the endorphins you need to act as a buffer zone against migraines in the future. It doesn’t get much better than that, especially since you evil to enjoy a lot of other health boosting benefits as well.
Get Some Yogurt, Eggs, or Brussels Sprouts Into Your Body ASAP
Vitamin B2 (sometimes called riboflavin) is an incredibly important vitamin in the human body and one that you are going to want to make sure is flooded throughout your central nervous system on a routine basis.
In a recent clinical trial, 59% of individuals that consumed at least 400 mg of vitamin B2 every single day for three months noticed a dramatic decrease in migraine frequency, with many of these individuals reporting that they had absolutely no migraines whatsoever after ingesting this much be two on a routine basis.
Working to reduce the amount of inflammation in your body significantly (most specifically along your central nervous system and in your neck and brain), vitamin B2 stops the migraines from starting in the first place.
Eat a little bit of yogurt every day and supplement with eggs, asparagus, brussels sprouts, and spinach, and you’ll be able to avoid getting migraine headaches altogether.
Seafood Once a Week Keeps Migraines at Bay as Well
Study after study proves that eating seafood at least once a week is incredibly beneficial for your overall health and well-being, and a lot of that is linked to the magnesium that you get with these kinds of food choices.
It turns out that the overwhelming majority of adults (some researchers believe 75% of adults in the US alone) are incredibly deficient in magnesium, and that causes a cascade of serious issues in the body and the brain.
Because magnesium relaxes your nerves, relaxes your muscles, and creates a more streamlined neural network, having plenty of magnesium in your diet is going to keep you refreshed, healthy, sharp, and able to fight back against migraines.
By getting anywhere between 200 mg and 600 mg (or more) of magnesium into your diet, a handful of times each week – or in one big lump sum with an almost all seafood meal once a week – you’ll be to prevent migraines and relieve the pressure that they cause should they manifest.
Rub Your Temples with Thyme and Rosemary Infused Oils
No, this isn’t a Seinfeld reference (though Costanza once did try to proposition a woman to cover his bald head in oil – albeit for entirely different reasons altogether) but instead a legitimate solution for stopping migraines dead in their tracks and alleviating all the pressure in the that they are causing you.
This is an easy solution to get behind and one that you can make all on your own.
Gather fresh versions of these two herbs, rubbed them chunky against one another to activate they are oils, and then allow them to soak in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil overnight or even longer. Use this substance (just a couple of drops will do you well) whenever you start to feel a migraine coming on by rubbing the oil gently into your temples for about five minutes or so.
The oils release an ingredient known as carvacrol, a 100% all-natural substance that works just the same way that ibuprofen does without any of the negative side effects that this pharmaceutical brings to the table.
Soak Your Feet in Peppermint and Lavender
At first blush, you’re going to have a real tough time understanding how soaking your feet in height water infused with a few drops of peppermint and lavender oil can help you produce anti-migraine results – after all, your feet are just about as far away from your head as you can get on the human body and are anything but interconnected.
Or so it seems.
By soaking your feet in as hot of water as you can stand and then add a little bit of salt come a little bit of peppermint, and a little bit of lavender you are going to be to create a foot bath that dramatically lowers the amount of pressure that you’re dealing with in your head by causing blood to flow more rapidly to your lower extremities.
By pulling blood from your head down to your feet you’re able to blow off steam (figuratively, of course) in your brain, dramatically reducing the pain and pressure that you’re feeling from a migraine. The peppermint and lavender are going to act as soothing agents, relaxing you and helping you unwind along the way.
Use a Good Old-Fashioned Cold Compress on the Back of Your Neck and Noggin
Reducing inflammation is the name of the game when it comes time to treat a migraine situation effectively.
While all of the different solutions we mentioned above are going to do wonders to reduce the amount of inflammation that you’re dealing with when a migraine kicks in, the traditional approach for reducing inflammation anywhere in the body – applying ice in the form of a cold compress or an ice pack – is going to work wonders and will begin settling down that inflammation almost instantly.
All you have to do is pop a fresh icepack out of the freezer or create your own with a plastic bag and some ice cubes. Wrap the entire icepack in a towel to prevent cold burns on your skin, and then apply the entire set up to the back of your neck and your noggin to begin reducing inflammation instantaneously.
Apply the icepack for anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes at a time before taking a break for five minutes, reapplying again for a 10 to 15-minute stretch as necessary to eliminate inflammation and to improve circulation.
Spicy Foods Can Settle You Down, Too
Believe it or not, eating spicy foods – if you’re into that kind of thing – can calm a migraine down in a hurry, so much so that you might not ever find yourself reaching for a bottle of ibuprofen ever again in the future.
The overwhelming majority of spicy foods out there take advantage of cayenne pepper or cayenne pepper flakes (or something similar), and it’s the capsaicin in the spicy foods that works as a natural painkiller.
Stimulating circulation, improving blood flow, and boosting your body’s ability to fight back against a migraine naturally, this approach (chowing down on spicy foods) can settle down your migraine in about 15 minutes.
If you really want to jack up the effectiveness of spicy foods in their battle against migraines, add a little bit of lemon juice to your food and watch as this touch of acid supercharges your results. It really doesn’t get much better than this, especially if you’re a big fan of spicy food already!
Closing Thoughts
At the end of the day, there are plenty of different approaches that are going to help you produce game-changing results when it comes to all naturally curing the migraines that you’re dealing with.
Some of them are going to work better than others (depending upon your own unique biochemistry), so make sure that you try out as many of these seven quick home remedies for treating migraines that we mentioned above as you can to find the ones that are most effective for you.
Of course, you’ll want to make sure that you have some ibuprofen on hand in case these migraines are incredibly severe and you need to supplement the effectiveness of these approaches. It’s also not a bad idea to talk to a doctor if you’re dealing with constant, chronic, or incredibly debilitating migraines (the kind that can mess with your vision or even cause you to pass out), as they may be signs of a much more serious – and possibly even potentially deadly – underlying condition.
Armed with the inside information above and just a little bit of good old-fashioned common sense you shouldn’t have anything to worry about when it comes time to kick migraines to the curb once and for all.
