Migraine headaches mean different things to different people. For some, they are full-blown, excruciating headaches heralded by visual disturbances, nausea, and other symptoms. For others, they are simply 30-minutes of bothersome visual disturbances. Both groups, however, would like a cure. Cures seem difficult to find, but laser for migraine headaches may help.

Laser for Migraine Headaches

Cold laser for migraine headaches has been approved by the FDA, and has been found effective in reducing and even eliminating symptoms.

According to the North American Association of Laser Therapy (NAALT), cold laser has a success rate of more than 80 percent with multiple ailments. It may reduce the pain and symptoms associated with your migraine headaches. Dr. V. Verma, member of NAALT, says that “cold laser therapy has become the leader in headache pain relief and is supported by the research”.

Cold laser is a cutting edge technology that has the advantages of being painless, sterile, and non-invasive. Unlike prescription medications, laser for migraine headaches has no undesirable side effects.

Laser for Migraine Headaches Not New in Europe

Laser for migraine headaches has been used for more than 25 years in Europe. Finding it effective for other complaints that involved pressure, inflammation, and pain, physicians began using it for migraine.

During a laser for migraine headache treatment, your health care provider will pass a high wavelength light (laser) through the painful area. This laser causes an increase in cell metabolism in the area. As cell metabolism increases, the immune system responds to heal any injured tissue. Inflammation is reduced and pressure on blood vessels relieved.

Cold laser therapy for migraine headaches increases serotonin levels, allowing the body to heal itself. Cold laser therapy is non-thermal, so no tissue damage occurs during normal use.

Using Cold Laser for Migraine Headaches

When you use cold laser for migraine headaches, you should find that, with other effects mentioned above, your pain threshold increases. That means you should not feel headaches and other pain as quickly as you once did. It also means you should not feel as much pain if a migraine headache occurs.

CAUTION: The author is not a licensed health care provider, and presents this information for educational purposes only. Please see your doctor if you have frequent or severe migraine headaches.

Out of every 100 people, approximately 15 have experienced a migraine episode at least once. With women, however, the numbers are different. Almost three times as many women as men have felt the excruciating pain of migraine.

Menstrual migraine accounts for 60 percent of migraines among women.

Define Menstrual Migraine

Menstrual migraine is a migraine that affects a woman between the 2nd day before the menstrual period begins and the end of the period. It is regular, and arrives as surely as does the period. Another name for menstrual migraine is menstrually associated migraine (MAM).

Normal hormone fluctuations every 28 to 30 days may cause these migraines. Female sex hormone levels, specifically progesterone and estrogen, decline sharply just before the period begins. Studies suggest that this estrogen withdrawal may trigger migraine. It happens only in women who are already predisposed to migraine through family history or other factors.

Some so-called menstrual migraines are associated with the menstrual period, but are not true menstrual migraines. They do not occur regularly, or within the precise time frame of a true menstrual migraine.

How Menstrual Migraine Differs from Other Migraine

Menstrual migraine is different from other migraine, even in the same women. It is timed regularly, appearing with each menstrual period. Menstrual migraine is also more severe than migraine at other times. Menstrual migraine is more than twice as likely to occur during the first 3 days of menstruation as it is at any other time of the month. Menstrual migraine is more than three times as likely to be severe as other migraine.

Menstrual Migraine Prevention

Menstrual migraine can be prevented - and that is good news. Use of preventative medication such as a triptan reduces migraine episodes by at least 50 percent. The prescription medication should be taken for 6 days. Your doctor will have you begin 2 days before you expect a regular menstrual migraine.

In addition to prescription medication, exercise can be helpful in menstrual migraine prevention. Try to get at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity daily. Eat properly, and maintain regular sleep hours. Avoid any foods you may think are migraine triggers for you.

Menstrual Migraine Treatment

Menstrual migraine can be treated - which is also good news. Over-the-counter (OTC) medications such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen can often take the edge off of these headaches. “Excedrin Migraine” is often recommended.

Lavender has also been found effective in treating menstrual migraine. The soothing scent as well as the powerful effects of the oil itself can bring relief wherever you are. On this website, we review Lavender Love, a wonderful product for Migraine Relief. To read our review, click here - or click the blue Lavender Love button at the top of this page.

Solar flare. A sudden, short burst of energy. The sun’s surface releases a gust of hydrogen gas - radiation and energetic particles - magnetic energy equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs exploding at one time. The release lasts a few minutes or a few hours, hurling plasma into space at many hundreds of kilometers per second. Electrons and protons accelerate. The particles crash into the solar atmosphere, their kinetic energy changing into X-rays and gamma-rays. And this affects you how?

Solar flares = migraine headaches. At least, some people believe they do. But are “some people” right in this case? Is there a link between solar flares and migraine headaches?

Magnetic Stirrings

Scientists know that magnetism affects humans and other animals. Magnetism is thought to be the reason a bird can find its way back and forth along a migratory route. Magnetism may explain a dog or cat finding its way “home” after being moved to a location many miles from its birthplace. Magnetism is thought to have healing powers, and is used for back pain and other complaints. Magnetism can affect migraine headache, too, it is said.

The sun affects the amount of magnetism here on Earth. When the sun flares, magnetism increases.

So solar flares and migraine headaches may have a connection.

Hospital Records

Solar flares and migraine headaches have been linked by some hospital records. That is, the geomagnetic activity of solar flares has been linked to migraine headaches.

Hospital records reveal that, on days when geomagnetic activity is high, more patients with severe migraine headaches arrive. Since that is true, doctors and nurses prepare for migraine headache patients when solar flares occur.

Studies indicate that the relationship of solar flares and migraine headaches is strong. (”Geomagnetic Activity and the Severity of the Migraine Attack”, A. Kuritzky et al, “Headache” February 1987, pp 87-89)

Many who suffer migraine headaches say their personal journals prove that migraine headaches are triggered by solar flares.

More Research Needed

Are solar flares and migraine headaches linked? There is proof that solar flares cause disturbances in the human body, but researchers don’t know yet whether they are one of the causes of migraine headaches. More research is needed.