Weird Things We've Tried to Help With Chronic Migraine

Migraine pain can be so bad that you may be willing to try anything to make it go away, particularly if the medications you take don't do an adequate job or you want to avoid medication and its potential side effects. Look at social media and you'll find a vast number of migraine "hacks." Some sound downright weird, even counterintuitive. Most of them are untested by experts. "You hear of new hacks every day," says headache specialist Katherine S. Carroll, MD, chief of the Division of Comprehensive Neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Do any work?

Fat, sugar, salt, and caffeine can trigger migraines. But devouring junk food that combines them, like burgers, fries, and soda, may help ease some migraines. Carroll hears this often, particularly from patients who typically don't eat junk food. She says that salty foods like fast-food fries may help prevent hydration, while pleasurable foods could boost the brain chemical dopamine, which plays a role in migraine that isn't fully understood. And sometimes, caffeine can relieve headaches. But be careful: for some people, any amount of caffeine can worsen a migraine. And, for your overall health, junk food should be an infrequent fix.

Pulling your hair back into a tight ponytail or similar hairstyle may worsen your migraine pain, so some experts advise against doing so during a migraine attack. But one hack suggests doing the opposite: gently pulling your hair. Carroll says that for some people, creating scalp pain this way could dull a migraine. But that’s speculation, and she worries it would heighten your pain. More often, she hears from patients whose pain worsens from tight hairstyles or wearing a hat. This results from a common migraine symptom called allodynia, or a high sensitivity to touch that can cause severe pain.

"This is a new one to me!" says Carroll. And she doesn't recommend it. What's the theory behind how it brings relief? Carroll says it's possible that extreme scalp sensitivity caused by allodynia could be reduced if you removed the hair from the trouble spots on your scalp. But she's never heard of anyone doing this, let alone getting relief from it. If you use pain relievers such as cold compress or ice packs on your scalp, your hair could be a barrier to maximum effectiveness, but shaving your head? "That would be extreme," Carroll says.

This one's worth trying. "I think it makes sense," Carroll says. She points out that yoga helps to reduce stress, a common migraine trigger, through relaxation and focusing on your breathing. "And stretching your neck muscles reduces muscle contractions and tension that often come with migraine," Carroll says. But, she says, yoga poses can be challenging, and more so if you try to learn them during an attack. Practice them when you feel good. Then you'll be ready for your next migraine. This will require experimentation. Trial and error will tell you which, if any, yoga poses will provide you relief.

The largest nerve in your cranium – the part of your skull that houses your brain – is called the trigeminal nerve. "The trigeminal nerve is one of the main migraine pain pathways," Carroll says. That nerve has branches that can be found near your eyebrows. How might pinching or applying pressure in that area help? "It could lead to a disruption of the pain pathway," Carroll says. You can do this with your fingers, though some migraine hackers use hair clips to hold the pressure. Whatever you do, be gentle – and be warned: "Pinching the irritated area could potentially make your migraine worse," says Carroll.

The rounded top of a walking cane, tennis balls, handheld massagers – you may find relief by using unusual items like these to apply pressure to migraine trigger points like the hollows on either side of your spine at the base of your skull. You may have heard this called acupressure. Carroll says such an approach "could help ease muscle contractions and tension, which very commonly occur as part of a migraine, whether it's in the temples, the back of the head, neck and shoulders." Apply gentle pressure for one to two minutes to see if it offers relief. Avoid irritated skin.

Carroll says most people use ice or other sources of cold to help with their headaches, but she says that heat can ease tension in the head, neck, and shoulders. Try hot packs, heating pads, and steamy showers. Or aim a hair dryer directly at the throbbing site. Another heat hack: soaking your feet in a hot water bath. You may see people recommend using an electric slow cooker for a foot bath. Don't. "Keep that in the kitchen," says Carroll. Skip foot treatments if you have any cuts, sores, or any problems sensing hot (or cold).

For some people, lying on a cold surface, like bathroom floor tiles or an empty tub, provides relief. How? Headaches cause excess blood flow to the brain; cold treatments, like cold stone therapy, can help to normalize that blood flow, potentially relieving your headache. Carroll says migraine cooling head wraps or caps sometimes can be effective. A cold water plunge, she says, is reasonable to try. Some research suggests that it triggers pain-reducing hormone changes. Just don’t submerge yourself too long or you risk hypothermia, which can be deadly.

Don't try this. Some people claim to get migraine relief from putting lidocaine gel on a cotton swab and gently applying it inside each nostril, but Carroll strongly advises against this. There is a procedure that uses lidocaine to block certain nerves – called the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) – behind your nose to relieve migraine headaches. "But I've never heard anybody do this on their own without medical guidance. It's something to be done in a doctor's office under their care," she says.

Eating or drinking something cold, such as ice cream, occasionally triggers a brief, painful headache popularly called brain freeze. Experts don't fully understand the phenomenon, but it may involve sudden changes in blood flow around the back of your mouth. Nearby nerves may then send pain signals to the brain via the trigeminal nerve, also involved in migraine. Could brain freeze help ease a migraine? It's unlikely – and risky, says Carroll. "Putting yourself in a state of heightened head pain with the hope that it would relieve your underlying, already severe head pain is not something I would suggest," she says.

If you want to try alternative migraine remedies that have some science behind them, Carroll says supplements like magnesium and vitamin B2 (riboflavin) may help to prevent migraines rather than relieve ongoing migraine headaches. The same is true of acupuncture. "There's not a lot of data supporting acupuncture, but it's reasonable to try," she says. Raw ginger and ginger extract may help ease both migraine pain and nausea, according to some research. But, Carroll recommends, if you try these remedies or migraine hacks, do so along with your prescribed medications. If that medication doesn't work well, discuss other options with your doctor.

If a hack seems harmless, like eating ice cream to get brain freeze, it should be safe to try, Carroll says. But keep in mind that migraine affects everyone differently. A hack that works for someone else may not work for you. If it doesn't ease your pain, move on. "Don't waste too much time with an unhelpful hack," she says. "That can let your migraine perpetuate and amplify and become more difficult to treat with medications that we know can be effective."