There is no universal migraine treatment today that cures the disease. However, different migrain treatment methods help migraineurs improve the quality of their life and help make migraine attacks less severe and durable. Sometimes, treating and removing one of the conditions that triggers migraine relieves or even prevents migraine attacks.
Medications specifically designed to treat migraines are effectively used today. As a rule, they successfully abort migraine attacks allowing patients to return to their normal life or relieve pain allowing to fall asleep. Medications used in migrain treatment fall into two major groups:
- Pain-relieving drugs. These medications are taken once the migraine attack has set in, with or without aura. They relieve pain and other migraine symptoms. This type of migraine treatment is also called abortive or acute. It is the most effective if the medication is taken at the beginning of the attack and the patient is put into a dark quiet place. Rizatriptan (brand name Maxalt) is effective in the treatment of symptoms of severe migraine attacks.
- Preventive migraine drugs are taken on a regular basis, to reduce the severity or frequency of migraines. These are mostly the drugs used to treat diseases cardiovascular diseases, depressions, anti-epilepsy drugs. The latest researches revealed the connection between migraine attacks and the levels of serotonin in the brain which can be balanced with the help of antidepressants.
The right diet is regarded as preventive treatment of migraine. Certain foods, such as cheese, red wine, chocolate, caffeine and citrus fruits are considered to be the triggers of migraine headaches. Excluding these foods from the diet can produce very good results. Recent studies have shown that including in your diet fish oils and B vitamins is is effective as a part of preventive migrane treatment.
