Is Your Migraine in Your Face?

What I mean is… are migraines part of your genetic facial blueprint? Can you tell just by looking at people whether they are migraine sufferers?

I decided to find out and look up face readers and came across a video about a lady who can tell you your life’s purpose just by looking at your face.

She says that your blueprint is indeed written all over your face and if you knew how to decipher it, your face will reveal to you your life’s purpose. She also claims that face reading will give you an immediate understanding of your client, boss, coworker, friends and family. Her name is Naomi Tickle and has been on CNN, NBC and Good Morning America talking about Personology. It’s a fantastic tool to validate yourself and to understand other people better, she says.

I was intrigued (I love to learn) and the skeptic in me decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. I was also curious to see if she would talk about specific conditions, such as migraines. The lecture was very interesting and for the most part illuminating for me, personally.

She talked about what the size and shape of the head, ears, eyes, nose, and forehead meant in terms of your personality and admitted that she only touched on general characteristics in an hour which if she were to go in details, would be 92.

For example she talks about how people with eyes that are closely set don’t like tardiness, are detail oriented and are a bit intense while those with a wide set eyes are very easy to get along with and more relaxed. Exposed eyelids when your eyes are open means that you are a person that cuts to the chase and will interrupt or get irritated if whoever you are listening to, takes too long to get to the point. While she quickly pointed out that when she worked with one set of clientele for example in prisons, there are no features that are common to ‘criminals’, it is possible to tell if someone is competitive, wants harmony, is unpredictable or if someone had an ear for music.

Here’s the link to the lecture I listened to.

(if the above doesn’t appear as a link, cut and paste in another window).

I found myself wondering if these were the set of features for migraine sufferers?

I browsed through her website (what else would you be doing on a Sunday?) to see if she writes about migraines.

Nothing on migraines but I found out that face reading is indeed a very ancient skill. Aristotle had one of the first known system for understanding faces. Since then the skills have been rediscovered many times during the past 4000 years.

According to Naomi, I have one of those noses that like to get to the bottom of things, so I sent her an email to ask her that very question, not really expecting a reply until possibly sometime next week by one of her staff. To my surprise she answered in less than 20 minutes and here is an extract of what she wrote:

Hello Sile,
There is no feature in the face that indicates some people may suffer from migraines. It may be people with close set eyes focus on situations until they are bigger than life. Plus they find it hard to turn off from the anxiety. The close set eye could indicate you tend to worry more on that side. This would also indicate one of your parents is less tolerant than the other.

I also noticed your teeth slant inwards which indicates someone who keeps their feelings to themselves. This is a habit that is formed when people shut themselves off. Orthodontists have tried to correct this, but until the behavior or thinking pattern has changed then the teeth will stay that way. The latter is a developed trait.

You might observe when people share with you they suffer from migraines, if they have close set eyes. My daughter suffers occasionally from migraines and she has close set eyes and a big worrier. She takes after my husbands side of the family and I believe my sister-in-law who has the same trait also suffers from migraines. One would have to do a study of at least 100-500 people before coming to any conclusion.

Ok, so no conclusive evidence but maybe there is something to Personology. What do you think? How closely set are your eyes, how much of a perfectionist are you, how much do you worry in a week? Please leave a comment below and let’s get a discussion started.

One thing for sure is that I am now a fan of Naomi who has the best customer service of any celebrity/expert I’ve seen so far!

For more information on Naomi Tickle and personology, here’s her website http://www.naomitickle.com

Is Your Medication Giving You Migraines?

When you feel that throbbing pain on one side of your face, the first thing you do is reach for your migraine medication, certainly not natural migraine relief products. After all, you think that migraines medication will get rid of your migraine faster than anything else and you certainly don’t want to waste a day cowering in pain. But if you’re experiencing migraine headaches more often or your migraines are getting steadily worse, your pain relief pills could be to blame.

Taking too many pain medications too often – as little as three times a week or 10 times a month – can put your migraines in a rebound cycle. Your body becomes accustomed to the pain medication being in your system, so when it wears off, you start to get another headache – prompting you to take more medication. Any painkiller can cause rebound headaches, though doctors think that drugs containing caffeine, aspirin and acetaminophen, and ergotamines and triptans carry the most risk.

Migraines on the rebound!

How can you tell if you’re suffering from rebound headaches? Most patients with rebound migraines experience low-grade headaches almost continuously. Many wake up with their head already hurting. Some find that their headaches get worse within a few hours of taking medication.

If you’re experiencing frequent migraines while taking pain medication, your best option is to go cold turkey – stop taking painkillers, and you will break the rebound cycle. Of course, giving up pain medication makes many patients nervous. Migraines are excruciating, and facing them without medication can seem like a terrifying prospect.

However, some all-natural remedies can provide relief without creating the rebound cycle caused by over-the-counter and prescription medications. Lipigesic-M, a migraine pain reliever, uses a unique sublingual delivery method to send its medicinal ingredients into the bloodstream quickly for fast relief. The individually packaged dosages contain migraine-fighting ingredients, including feverfew and ginger. Best of all, none of the ingredients are associated with rebound headaches, so you can relieve your migraine pain without worrying about making your headaches worse.

For more information, visit www.lipigesic.com.

How Eram Finally Got Rid of Her Migraines

I love seeing how people achieve what they thought was impossible, like getting rid of your migraines forever and never having to rely on pills ever again.

I am especially grateful to Eram who shares her story with you below.

ooo000ooo

I had suffered from migraines since childhood, until only few weeks ago. Migraines were like a part of life, a very strong reality for me that I thought I just have to live with all my life. As a kid I used to really get scared when I had to go to a party because it always ended with a strong headache and nausea for me. This was really tough because I always looked forward to any family gatherings but I associated any gathering of people, with bad headaches. Perfumes have been a major trigger of migraine for me which obviously used to be in abundance in any gathering.

My migraines got really worse during teenage. I had to skip school for 2 to 3 days almost every 3 or 4 weeks. That is when my parents started to take me to doctors and we got to know that I have complex migraines. The doctors gave me a lot of pills which lessened the occurrence of migraines but once it attacked it used to last for 2 to 3 days.

As I grew up more triggers came into play. Boredom and stress being the major ones. I used to get really exhausted with boredom and stress and then I would have a migraine. I have been to a lot of different doctors and have taken a zillion pills, some of which had really bad reactions but nothing got rid of the migraines.

During the last four or five years my migraines became worse as my ability to cope with stress lessened. I used to get a headache on a slight hint of tension. This is when I stopped any treatment and started taking pain killers only. However, I got too desperate to get rid of my stress and looked for ways other than medicines.

This is when I came across the Natural migraine relief website. I signed up for the top 10 tips and amazingly they worked. I started making notes of my feelings, conditions and triggers of migraines. I could figure out more triggers and could avoid them. Increasing my water intake really helped and so did yoga and specially the hand mudras. I actually learned more about hand mudras and now use many mudras regularly for various benefits. The blogs also helped. I started using the ice therapy mentioned in one of the blogs and it so quickly vaporized the migraine. I also became aware of my sleeping habits and started taking proper naps. This not only reduced the occurrence of migraine attacks but also made me less stressful and less anxious.

Then I read the book Living Deliberately (which you get once you sign up for Sile’s top tips) and after being inspired by Sile who is an Avatar master, I went for the Avatar training course.

This is what really transformed my life and helped me in actually getting rid of the migraines. I now have only minor headaches that I can get rid of through Avatar tools but I haven’t had a migraine since the course.

Avatar is truly the most powerful self development course. It surely is a guide to one’s own self. I had a chance to journey through my self and see what troubles me, what causes stress and how easily I can choose not to be stressed.

During this 9-day course I had a chance to look at my beliefs that I had constructed. These beliefs were just there operating my life and causing stress and anxiety in my experiences. The Avatar tools helped me to free my attention and once I realized what believes I was operating with, I began to change them.

The tools made it so easy. I learned how I could dis-create my stress, my fears, my judgments of others and myself, my fixed attentions, my lost concentration, every negativity that was stopping me from loving and experiencing and eventually my migraines.

Even the frequency and intensity of the minor headaches that I am left with is decreasing. Being migraine-free is a huge blessing. Also being medicine-free is a huge blessing.

Love
Eram

Sile’s note: I hope to bring you many more stories about people who are migraine-free in the near future. Question is: do you want to read about it or write about it?! What would your life be like without migraines?

PS The next dates for the Avatar courses are:

May 1-9, 2010 – Berg en Dal, Netherlands

June 12-20, 2010 – Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands

July 3-11, 2010 – Orlando, Florida, USA

Ready to Relax Yourself to Perfect Health?

Cutting-edge scientific research now proves what the yogis have always known: deep relaxation can have a profound and beneficial effect on a wide range of medical conditions, not least for anyone suffering from migraines. The following abridged article I found will, hopefully, help anyone who is going through a stressful time if you follow the steps.

By Anastasia Stephens / Source: The Independent UK

It’s a piece of advice that yogis have given for thousands of years: take a deep breath and relax. Watch the tension melt from your muscles and all your niggling worries vanish. Somehow we all know that relaxation is good for us. Now the hard science has caught up – for a comprehensive scientific study showing that deep relaxation changes our bodies on a genetic level has just been published.

What researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered is that, in long-term practitioners of relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation, far more “disease-fighting genes” were active, compared to those who practised no form of relaxation.

In particular, they found genes that protect from disorders such as pain, infertility, high blood pressure, migraines and even rheumatoid arthritis were switched on. The changes, say the researchers, were induced by what they call “the relaxation effect”, a phenomenon that could be just as powerful as any medical drug but without the side-effects.

“We found that a range of disease-fighting genes were active in the relaxation practitioners that were not active in the control group,” explains Dr Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who led the research.

The good news for the control group with the less-healthy genes is that the research didn’t stop there. The experiment, which showed just how responsive genes are to behaviour, mood and environment, revealed that genes can switch on, just as easily as they switch off.

“Harvard researchers asked the control group to start practising relaxation methods every day,” explains Jake Toby, hypnotherapist at London’s BodyMind Medicine Centre, who teaches clients how to induce the relaxation effect. “After two months, their bodies began to change – the genes that help fight inflammation, kill diseased cells and protect the body from cancer, all began to switch on.”

More encouraging still, the benefits of the relaxation effect were found to increase with regular practice – the more people practised relaxation methods such as meditation or deep breathing, the greater their chances of remaining free of arthritis and joint pain with stronger immunity, healthier hormone levels and lower blood pressure.

Benson believes the research is pivotal because it shows how a person’s state of mind affects the body on a physical and genetic level. It might also explain why relaxation induced by meditation or repetitive mantras is considered to be a powerful remedy in traditions such as Ayurveda in India or Tibetan medicine.

But just how can relaxation have such wide-ranging and powerful effects? Research around the world has described the negative effects of stress on the body. Linked to the release of the stress-hormones adrenalin and cortisol, stress raises the heart rate and blood pressure, weakens immunity and lowers fertility.

By contrast, the state of relaxation is linked to higher levels of feel-good chemicals such as serotonin and to the growth hormone which repairs cells and tissue. Indeed, studies show that relaxation has virtually the opposite effect, lowering heart rate, boosting immunity and enabling the body to thrive.

“On a biological level, stress is linked to fight-flight and danger,” explains Dr Jane Flemming, a London-based GP. “In survival mode, heart rate rises and blood pressure shoots up. Meanwhile muscles, preparing for danger, contract and tighten. And non-essential functions such as immunity and digestion go by the wayside.”

Relaxation, on the other hand, is a state of rest, enjoyment and physical renewal. Free of danger, muscles can relax and food can be digested. The heart can slow and blood circulation flows freely to the body’s tissues, feeding it with nutrients and oxygen. This restful state is good for fertility, as the body is able to conserve the resources it needs to generate new life.

While relaxation techniques can be very different, their biological effects are essentially similar. “When you relax, the parasympathetic nervous system switches on and that is linked to better digestion, memory and immunity, among other things,” explains Jake Toby. “So as long as you relax deeply, you’ll reap a variety of rewards.”

But, he warns, deep relaxation isn’t the sort of switching off you do relaxing with a cup of tea or lounging on the sofa. “What you’re looking for is a state of deep relaxation where tension is released from the body on a physical level and your mind completely switches off,” he says. “The effect won’t be achieved by lounging round in an everyday way, nor can you force yourself to relax. You can only really achieve it by learning a specific technique such as self-hypnosis, guided imagery or meditation.”

The relaxation effect, however, may not be as pronounced on everyone. “Some people are more susceptible to relaxation methods than others,” cautions Joan Borysenko, director of a relaxation programme for outpatients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, US. “Through relaxation, we find that some people experience a little improvement, others a lot. And there are a few whose lives turn around totally.”

The health benefits of deep relaxation

The next time you tune out, switch off and let yourself melt, remind yourself of all the good work the relaxation effect is doing on your body. These are just some of the scientifically proven benefits…

Immunity

Relaxation appears to boost immunity in recovering cancer patients. One study at Ohio State University, in the US, found that progressive muscular relaxation, when practised daily, reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence. In another study at Ohio State, a month of relaxation exercises boosted natural killer cells in elderly people, giving them more resistance to tumours and viruses.

Fertility

A study at the University of Western Australia found that women are more likely to conceive at periods when they’re relaxed rather than stressed. Another study at Trakya University, Turkey, found that stress reduces sperm count and motility, a finding that implies that relaxation may boost fertility in men, too.

Irritable bowel syndrome

When patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome practised a relaxation meditation twice daily, symptoms such as bloating, belching, diarrhoea and constipation improved significantly. The method was so effective that the researchers at the State University of New York at Albany, recommended it as an effective IBS treatment.

Blood pressure

A study at Harvard Medical School found meditation lowered blood pressure by making the body less responsive to stress hormones, in a similar way to blood pressure-lowering medication. Meanwhile, a report in the British Medical Journal found that patients trained to relax had significantly lower blood pressure.

Inflammation

Stress leads to inflammation, a state linked to heart disease, arthritis, migraine, asthma as well as skin conditions such as psoriasis, say researchers at Emory University in the US. Relaxation can play a role in preventing and treating such symptoms by switching off the stress response. In this way, one study at McGill University in Canada found meditation clinically improved symptoms of psoriasis.

Take a deep breath… How to relax deeply

So how can you access relaxation’s healing powers? Harvard researchers found that yoga, meditation and even repetitive prayer and mantras all induced the relaxation effect. “The more regularly these techniques are practised, the more deeply-rooted the benefits will be,” says Jake Toby. Have a go at one or more of the following for 15 minutes once or twice a day.

Body scan

Starting with your head and working down to your arms and feet, notice how you feel in your body. Taking in your head and neck, simply notice if you feel tense, relaxed, calm or anxious. See how much you can spread any sensations of softness and relaxation to areas of your body that feel tense. Once your reach your feet, work back up your body.

Breath focus

Sitting comfortably, become aware of your breath, following the sensation of inhaling from your nose down to your abdomen and out again. As you follow your breath, notice your whole body and let tension go with each exhalation. Whenever you notice your mind wandering, come back to your breath.

Mantra repetition

The relaxation response can be evoked by sitting quietly with eyes closed for 15 minutes twice a day, and mentally repeating a simple word or sound such as ‘Om’.

Guided imagery

Imagine the most wonderfully relaxing light, or being on a walk with on the banks of a river, listening to the water while with a light breeze is blowing away any tension or worries from your body and mind. Make your image as vivid as possible, imagining the texture, colour and any fragrance as the image washes over or through you.

How Graham Got Rid of His Migraines

Every January, I go to Orlando to recharge my batteries – not by going to Disneyland but by attending the Wizard course (www.wizardcourse.com).

It’s so awesome to hang out with over 3,000 Avatar Masters around the world all of whom are interested in taking more personal responsibility for their lives. Exploring my mental blueprint in 2005 was my first step to a fuller life, a life without migraines and I haven’t looked back since.

I met an good friend and kindred spirit I never met. What I mean is that I had never met him in person. I had chatted with him, knew what he looked like, shared migraine stories but we had never spoken to each other. We were facebook friends.

He had told me that like me, he used the Avatar tools to get rid of his migraines. So I asked him if he would write something for my blog viewers who suffer from migraines and who want to get rid of them. He said he didn’t know what or how to write something inspiring. I asked him just to tell his story (and asked and asked and asked until finally..!) here it is:

Dear Sile,

Here’s the piece, you’ve asked me to write… sorry, it’s been a long time coming.  I’m not a writer, really, so I put off  putting pen to paper. Anyway, here it is.  I like the idea of sharing my story on the internet if it means that more people will know that with the right training, they can get control over their migraines. I can still hardly believe it myself when I think about it.

Back to the beginning:

Migraines. The word itself put the fear into the biggest of man. My first contact with it was as a child not understanding it. I think I was about 10 years old. My mother had it and when she did she would tell my father that she would go into her room, lock the door, drew the curtains and we didn’t see her for days. I sat outside the door and listened to her as she sobbed herself to sleep.

I now know that from an early age I started getting migraines even though I didn’t know they were migraines because they were different to what most people complain about. I didn’t actually have the pain and still don’t. I got the numbness, lack of any feeling in my arms, legs and face and my words and speech would start to slow down. It was like my body would shut down. I was paralysed.

My father put it down to growing pains and didn’t give it any attention all these years. I don’t blame him though, as he didn’t know any better.

As an adult, I was afraid of driving long journeys for fear that if I got a migraine mid journey, I would put my family at risk. I’m over 45 now so I’ve had this a long long time. I carried pills with me, had an inhaler and when I felt a migraine coming on, I would have to stop what I was doing, pop some pills and press my head down on the (cold) ground until I felt fine again. Not the sort of thing you want to do in the middle of business meetings or if you are driving. But that was the only thing that helped me cope and feel better.

Until…

This time last year, I  did an Avatar course (www.avatarepc.com) which is all about looking at your own belief system and how you feel about the world we live in and how we can shape our future the way we want.  I loved it and continued to do the Masters course in the summer in Germany. Well, in the middle of the course, I had a migraine and as everyone knows too well, the panic started to set in which always made the problem worse. I wanted to leave course immediately. One of the trainers, John, came over to me gave me a specific exercise to do which was about deliberately directing my attention in a specific way. I did it for 20 minutes and the numbness vanished and it was ok for me to carry on the day. That was my first and fastest experience of getting on top of my migraines. In the last year I just did this exercise when I felt a migraine setting in and I’d get better faster and faster. Just knowing this makes me much more relaxed. And I know I am getting more and more in control of it.

I would never have believed it if you just explained it to me. I had to try it myself and it worked and was one of the best tools I’ve learned (and not just for migraines because I don’t think about them too much anymore)!

Lots of love,

Graham

PS I’ve thrown away my inhaler but still keep my pills in my bag, just in case. But before you ask, I haven’t taken a pill in a year.

ooo—000—ooo

I find Graham’s story very inspiring and insightful and I hope that you do too.  If you liked the post please leave a comment below. If you’ve gotten rid of your migraines without medicine, please leave a comment to share how you did it so that you can inspire others to do so too.

Massage Oils Reduce Migraine Pain

If you feel a migraine coming on but you don’t want to swallow a whole load of expensive chemicals in your body, massage oils may be a natural alternative for providing quick relief. I’m grateful to Errilyn who shared this information with me and I hope that it helps you too.

Hi Sile

Hope you are well, just thought I’d pass on to you that I use massage oils on my neck when I have a headache whether it’s just a headache or one that is heading migraine way…

I use to use a blend of oils with Lavender & Rosemary which calmed it down a little however I ran out over a week ago & looked everywhere & couldn’t find any so grabbed some oils & made some up.

In the meantime Hubby went to a New Age Holistic store & found some it is based on Sweet Almond oil, apricot kernel oil, ylang ylang, Patchouli, sweet orange, Lavender, Sandalwood & Jasmine, at first I wasn’t sure about the mix But the first time used it within 15mins the headache had eased & within 1/2 it was gone, have used it a total of 4 times in the past week each time with the same results.

I was on medication (sandomigran) which I took 2 times a day however one of the side effects was rapid weight gain & after putting on 2 stone decided to ditch the medication ( gets very expensive when having to keep buying clothes etc in larger sizes all the time not to mention the health aspects).

Am much happier just using the oils & if I get a migraine so be it…
take care
xo Errilyn

If you enjoyed the post, or know of other massage oils that might benefit migraine sufferers, please leave a comment here below.

I Need Migraine Case Studies – Will You Help?

Over the past few months, I have been writing and mulling over my book, Natural Migraine Relief – Killing Your Pain Without Painkillers and to finish it, I really need your help.

I want this book to touch and help as many people as possible and I need a few more perspectives. I would like to have a few case studies about different migraine sufferers’ experience and find out what has and hasn’t worked for them. In return I will give you an ecopy absolutely free or a hard copy for free, if you pay shipping and handling – once it is finished.

Before answering the questions, I need to know if any of the Ten Top Tips have helped you (mentally and physically) become stronger and in a better position to tackle your migraines. Describe the state of your health now.

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so now  (there are a few hidden gems in there – http://naturalmigrainereliefnow.com) After reading and following the tips, I’d be grateful if you could let me know.

Please answer the 12 questions in the comments box below: (see website http://naturalmigrainereliefnow.com in case you are reading this anywhere else) .

1. Describe your migraine in detail (when did it first strike you and now, when does it happen? What happens to you? How long does it last? What do you do to cope?)

2. What do you think is/are the cause(s) of your migraines?

3. What alternative methods have you tried? What happened?

4. How often are you (mentally) stressed? What happens to your body?

5. What (events, foods, things, other)/who causes you stress?

6. How do you deal with this stress?

7. What do you believe about yourself and your migraines? (please list your most common beliefs about them)

8. Do you believe you can get rid of your migraines completely? If not, why not?

9. What would it be worth to you to get rid of your migraines?

10. Can you imagine how your life would be without migraines?

11. Can you describe how you would feel what you would do and what your day would now be like?

12. Would you be willing to try something you haven’t tried before?

Please answer every question in the comment box below.

Thanks  to everyone in advance who will take the time to answer these questions! Now I need to get back to writing.

Namaste!

How Can Yoga Help Manage Migraines?

What is Yoga? Yoga is an ancient Hindu discipline aimed aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility. This is achieved through a system of exercises practiced as part of this discipline to promote control of the body and mind.

The actual word is Hindi for Union between mind and body.  Its wisdom is as relevant today in understanding the human condition as it was over five thousand years ago. Perhaps even more so as the 21st century being is subjected to more stimuli in one year than our early ancestors had in all of their lifetime.

Yoga can be practiced by anyone regardless of age or fitness levels because there are so many practices to choose from or adapt to suit the individual. Yoga self awareness practices help us to identify our “trigger” habits to enable us to disarm them. Yoga teaches us to live in the present moment, an ability that promotes healing at all levels or our being.

I believe that stress is an important (and not fully discussed) trigger for migraine headaches. Whether you believe stress is unavoidable or not, it may help you to know that how it is managed can defuse the trigger – yoga stretches, breath work, meditation and relaxation all help us to manage stress. Yoga will help you develop an emotional suit of armour against all kinds of stress.

Yoga breathing practices will help sufferers manage, relieve and reduce pain. Poor posture produces chronic muscular tension, particularly in the upper back, shoulders and neck. Chronic neck tension often causes headaches. Regular practice of yoga relieves neck tension. An experienced yoga teacher will show you how to adjust and realign your posture to avoid neck tension.

Can yoga cure or prevent migraine headaches, and if so, what postures are recommended? If you have had a recent migraine headache or feel the start of a new one, yoga instructors will recommend a restorative practice.

Establish a regular home practice where you are in charge of determining your level of effort from day to day, and find an experienced teacher to guide you when difficulties arise. This will lead you on the road to better health, especially when it comes to coping with a health condition such as migraines.

Preventative Pose–Wide-Legged Forward Bend
Stand with your feet one leg length apart. Bend forward at the hip and place the palms of your hands on the floor. Rest the top of your head on the floor and relax into the pose. If you are unable to reach the floor, you can rest your head on a chair or bend your knees to assist the stretch. Hold the pose for 10 to 20 seconds.

Preventative Pose–Downward-facing Dog
Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly beneath your shoulders. Lift your hips toward the ceiling so that your body forms an inverted V. Press both heels and the palms of your hands into the floor. Hold the pose for 10 to 20 seconds, then release back to your hands and knees. Repeat if desired.

Preventative Pose–Extended Puppy Pose
Start on your hands and knees and extend your arms forward and lower your forehead to the floor. Your hips should be in the air, and there should be a slight arch in your back. Hold the pose for 10 to 20 seconds, then release back to your hands and knees. Repeat if desired.

Restorative Pose–Legs Up the Wall Pose
Lie on your side, approximately 5 inches from a wall, with your hips facing the wall. Turn over onto your back and extend your legs up the wall. You should be able to relax and have your legs remain upright without any effort. If not, then adjust your position until your legs stay in place on their own. If needed, support the neck with a pillow or stack two folded blankets under your lower back. Rest your arms at your sides or on your belly. Cover your eyes with a cool compress or an eye pillow. Relax into the pose for up to 10 minutes. To release, roll onto your side and sit up.

Restorative Pose–Reclining Bound Angle
Sit with your legs extended and bring the soles of your feet together, making a diamond shape with your legs. Support the knees with pillows if the stretch is too intense. Lie back and rest your hands on your belly. Cover your eyes with a cool compress or an eye pillow. If needed, support the neck and lower back with pillows. Relax into the pose for up to 10 minutes.

Restorative Pose–Corpse Pose
Lie on your back with your legs extended and your arms relaxed at your sides. If needed, support the lower back and neck with pillows. Cover your eyes with a cool compress or an eye pillow. Relax into the pose for up to 10 minutes.
Practicing Yoga With a Migraine: When experiencing a migraine headache, certain forms of yogasanas and in particular Pranayama are helpful postures in relieving the pain. It is important to practice yoga in a calm and composed environment with dim lights. Always remember to conclude your yoga session with shavasana with the help of an eye pillow or a small piece of clean (preferably cold) cloth over the eyes. Before you initiate the corpse pose, get started on the Dirga Pranayama which involves Oslo and deep breathing technique that arises from the stomach and the chest. It is important that you understand and examined the reasons for recurrent headaches or migraines.  Yoga can help to deal and control headaches related to migraines or cluster headaches. A number of yogasanas help to release the tension and the stress in the neck and shoulders, while encouraging blood circulation to their head and stimulating the nervous system. This can help in relieving headaches. In a majority of cases, headaches are the result of mental trauma such as depression and acute stress. Due to major imbalances, the brain is deprived of oxygen and the requisite amount of blood. Due to the lack of oxygen and blood in the head, the muscles then to contract and the consequent results take place in the form of a headache.
Deep breathing techniques as well as mental relaxation are known to be effective steps in curbing the occurrence of migraine headaches. Important yogasanas for relieving headache are the easy yoga posture, the downward facing dog position, the Cobra pose, the seated forward bend, the knee press, the reclining posture etc. One of the most easiest and common practices of yogasanas is the easy yoga posture which helps in straightening the spine, regulating the metabolic rate and keeping the mindset is. The shoulder stretch as well as the spinal twist are other forms of yogasanas and are important in containing headaches and relieving them. Other useful poses include the cow and cat position, the bridge pose, the reclining twist, the child’s pose, the corpse position and the pose that involves the movement of the legs up the wall. All these yogasanas are simple and safe and can be done during the day; especially in the mornings on an empty stomach. The daily practice of the above-mentioned yogasanas will greatly help in reducing the occurrence of headaches and neck pain.

Meditative Poses Deep breathing and meditation can help relieve migraine pain. Sukhasana is a standard meditative pose designed for relaxation. Individuals sit cross-legged on the ground with their hands on their knees and backs straight. With the eyes closed, slow, deep breaths are taken. This pose helps straighten the spine, open the hips, relieve fatigue and slow breathing, heart rate and metabolism. It also has a calming effect on the nerves and allows the user to keep her mind still and find inner tranquility.

Stretching Poses Because migraines can be caused by stress, it is important to relieve stress daily. Stress is often carried in our upper back, shoulders and neck. Yoga shoulder stretches can alleviate any tension in the upper body. A basic premise in yoga is the benefit of lengthening the entire body and muscles. A long, lean body is thought to function better. When the body is compressed, our organs and systems can suffer because they are not allowed to function properly. Stretching poses also relieve tension from the ribs and core, allowing you to breathe easier. Basic shoulder stretches are done by sitting on the floor, with a straight back and calves tucked under the upper legs. Holding a towel with both hands, individuals bring the arms straight out in front of the chest, then overhead and behind the neck in one sweeping motion. The idea is to make a half-circle around your head and release tension in the shoulder area.

Inversion Poses According to The Daily Headache website, “If you have a migraine or headache at the time of your practice, never do an inversion, which is any posture that raises your heart above your head. Blood rushing to your head during a headache or migraine will make it worse. For some people, doing inversions at all can trigger a headache.”

What types of yoga is best for me? There are many types of yoga that can help migraine sufferers. Hatha yoga practice can help reduce the frequency and intensity of migraine headaches. One contemporary theory of how migraines occur states that the arteries that feed the brain narrow temporarily due to a variety of factors, stress and muscular tension being two common ones. For a migraine sufferer, there is then a sudden shift in the blood vessels and they abruptly dilate, increasing the blood flow to the head. This sudden shift results in the intense pain of the migraine episode.

If you can somehow keep your body’s nervous system more relaxed from day to day, the initial narrowing of the blood vessels that predisposes someone to a migraine might be eliminated and the chance of the migraine minimized. A yoga practice can be of any intensity that you desire, as long as there is a conscious effort to keep it steady and even, and as long as you spend time gradually increasing the activity and then gradually cooling down through the course of a given practice.

Finding the yoga practice that suits you is an exercise in itself of trial and error.  I like an intense workout that brings 100% of oxygen to my body and found my ideal workout with Bikram Yoga.  www.bikramyoga.it

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Oranges Can Cause Magnesium Deficiency… and Migraines

The next post is brought to you thanks to Amber Stephenson  who is a member of my facebook page aptly called Natural Migraine Relief. She found the part about oranges causing magnesium deficiency in some migraine sufferers, interesting. I have to say I was intrigued as well.

Here is the article:

The idea that oranges are considered a possible trigger for migraine has surprised many of us, as orange juice is usually considered to be beneficial in our diet.

Not if you are sensitive to citrus. The citrus group of foods is a known allergen, including fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit. Additionally, a lot of commercial orange juice is squeezed with the rind on, subsequently bruising it and releasing synephrine, a vasoconstrictor.

There have been links between migraine headaches and synephrine as well as related vasoconstrictors, so it makes sense that this could be a trigger. Many patients found that freshly squeezed orange juice made at home had no adverse effect.

A 2004 study found that: “In migraine patients, plasma levels of octopamine and synephrine were higher compared with controls, although in migraine with aura, the difference was not significant”.(1)

Synephrine is a stimulant that raises blood pressure, which can also cause migraines. The theory being that migraine sufferers with a citrus allergy can gain relief from a low dosage of daily blood pressure medication.

Citrus fruits also cause magnesium deficiency in some patients, and magnesium deficiency has been linked to migraine without aura. In a study where thirty migraine patients were treated with magnesium versus ten treated with placebo, the number of patients experiencing relief was so high that the possibility of the test results being coincidental was less than a 1 in 1000 chance.(2) The magnesium was administered as a magnesium citrate supplement, 600mg per day, orally. Patients were assessed by computerized tomography before and after the three month treatment period.

Citrus fruits also contain histamine, another suspect in food related allergies. A study at Texas Tech in El Paso TX found a correlation between high histamine levels and migraine attacks in susceptible persons.

An unhappy relationship between hypoglycemia and migraine can be heightened by drinking of orange juice, lemonade or other citrus juice in an attempt to raise the blood sugar – the orange juice can actually increase the migraine pain and the blood sugar level is blamed instead. This justifies the importance of maintaining a food diary and testing for food allergies.(3)

One woman related how she had taken migraine medication daily for years, washing it down with an 8 oz glass of orange juice each morning. Finally, when her sons were diagnosed, it became apparent that by giving them juice daily, she had simply been stimulating the cycle of migraines. Incidentally, orange flavored drinks such as Tang and Sunny D also contain migraine triggering substances similar to the natural fruits, so if citrus is a problem for you, avoid them as well!

Elimination of citrus is much simpler than many other migraine trigger foods, and is relatively easy to live without. For people suffering severe food intolerance migraines, living without orange juice, lemonade and key lime pie was a minor exclusion from their diet.

Sources:

(1) pubmed15159465.do, Cure Hunter, 05/25/2004
(2) Magnesium Research, Jun 2008;21(2):101-8. PMID: 18705538, by Koseoglu E, Talaslioglu A, Gonul AS, Kula M. Erciyes University, Medicine Faculty, Neurology Department, Kayseri, Turkey
(3) Leira R, Rodriguez R, Revista de Neurologia 1996 May;24(129):534-8

Research by Grace-Alexander

When I used to have migraines, bananas would give me migraines and I thought it was the excess potassium but I couldn’t find any back up in science.

I was allergic to a number of foods (any kind of cheese except cottage cheese, coffee, chocolate, tuna fish, grapes, not gluten or wheat though etc) Since I got completely rid of my migraines, I also got rid of my food allergies and thankfully now can eat anything.

I believe that you can too.

Amber told me she’s researching all types of foods that trigger migraines and that don’t and that she’s really starting to go head over heels into Migraine Research which is GREAT because there is a lot of information on the web and I would love all the natural solutions, remedies and treatments be listed on one website (err.. this one!) for your benefit.

So thank you again Amber  for sharing this with everyone.

My First Testimonial for Natural Migraine Relief!

I’ve been blogging for about five months posting articles and videos I find on the web that give an alternative and natural choices to migraine sufferers, for long term relief instead of recommending narcotics which only give temporary relief.

Why do I do it? Because I used to suffer from migraines for over 15 years. I know just how bad the pain is when it hits and how debilitating it is.

Anyway, by 2005, I had had enough of my life as it was – even when I was well the fear of a potential attack would always be lurking in my thoughts. So although my body was a wreck from my migraine attacks and the narcotics I took, I wanted a way out: a healthy way out. I decided I was going to get rid of migraines (though I had no clue how I was going to do that). It didn’t matter because but I’d always found that when I set my mind on achieving a goal, unexpected opportunities present themselves to me and it was up to me to recognise and act upon them.

I changed my lifestyle to include healthier habits and started to introspect to weed out what ‘virus programs’ I had in my system. I took a consciousness training (www.avatarepc.com) which gave me the tools to zap those virus programs and start regaining control of my life.

I got rid of my migraines and I want others to help other migraine sufferers to do the same. I know that it IS possible to manage, prevent and completely get rid of migraines. It is possible to even start eating foods that previously triggered an attack. It is possible to live a migraine-free life!

My goal is to help 1 million migraine sufferers get rid of their migraines completely in 10 years.

Today, I got my first testimonial from Danielle and I am so very proud.

Dear Sile

Because of you and your pages and support I have gotten off the narcotics. I just got thru a really rough detox time but I know it is worth it! It was really hard, especially difficult because with the withdrawal I knew the repair was so close by. I know my decision was the right one, what is the point to medicate your way out of living? You really helped me see this, thank you.

Thank you!

Danielle

PS I cancelled the appointment!

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