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Is My Headache a Migraine?
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Migraines - Wikipedia facts. Migraines - Symptoms.
Best treatment - prevention.
Preventive (also called prophylactic) treatment of migraines can be an important component of migraine management. Such treatments can take many forms, including everything from taking certain drugs or nutritional supplements, acupuncture to lifestyle alterations such as increased exercise and avoidance of migraine triggers.
The goals of preventive acupuncture and nutritional supplements therapy are to reduce the frequency, painfulness, and/or duration of migraines, and to increase the effectiveness of abortive therapy. Another reason to pursue these goals is to avoid medication overuse headache (MOH), otherwise known as rebound headache, which is a common problem among migraneurs. This is believed to occur in part due to overuse of pain medications, and can result in chronic daily headache.
Many of the preventive treatments described below are quite effective: Even with a placebo (sham treatment), one-quarter of patients find that their migraine frequency is reduced by half or more, and actual treatments often far exceed this figure.
Maintaining a headache calendar is useful for patients who need to be on preventative medications.
Trigger avoidance General dietary restriction has not been demonstrated to be an effective approach to treating migraine. However, eliminating particular foods that are known to trigger migraines in an individual may possibly be effective.
Gluten-Free Diet Some individuals have a condition called celiac disease (or "gluten intolerance") that results in the body incorrectly processing gluten. Studies have suggested that 4% of migraine sufferers have celiac disease, and for those who do, decreasing gluten intake may significantly reduce migraine frequency.
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