My migraine patients tell me all the time that they wait to treat their migraines. When I ask why, they explain that they wait to see if it’s going to be a “bad” one. Understandably, they don’t want to take medications if they don’t have to. When I then ask how often their migraine doesn’t become a “bad one,” the answer, after a sheepish chuckle, is usually “rarely.”
So why is it a problem to wait to treat your headaches? Because there is good evidence that the longer you wait, the less likely you are to successfully treat your headache. In fact, the likelihood of you getting rid of your headache 1 hour after onset drops by 50%, compared to if you treated it right away. Picture a migraine like a spreading fire; it is easy to put out a small flame, but much harder to douse a forest fire. So, by waiting to treat your migraine, migraine sufferers are often left disabled by their migraine and taking medications anyway, with little benefit. Furthermore, migraine pain begets pain; the longer migraines last, the more frequently they occur. So a good abortive strategy is also a good preventative strategy.
So, my advice is: don’t wait; treat early. Your brain will thank you.
But what do you treat with? Well, there are many options out there ranging from NSAIDs to triptans and CGRP inhibitors, and it is best to speak to your headache specialist.
An important part of the solution is to prevent the migraines in the first place. I always start by recommending natural supplements to my patients for this purpose, and I’ve combined all the safe, evidence-based natural supplements into one convenient capsule called MigraineMD.
-Neurologist and Co-Founder of NeuroNaturals