{"id":7866,"date":"2023-02-09T15:06:31","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T15:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=7866"},"modified":"2023-03-16T08:34:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T08:34:33","slug":"how-i-manage-my-migraine-symptoms-and-what-helps-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/neurology\/how-i-manage-my-migraine-symptoms-and-what-helps-me\/","title":{"rendered":"How I manage my migraine symptoms and what helps me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Niamh Reid (pictured above)<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Migraine Patient<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Migraine is a complex neurological condition with symptoms that range far beyond a headache. For me, it manifests as hemiplegic migraine. I don\u2019t always get the intense headaches.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>My migraine symptoms mimic a stroke, leading to hours, days or weeks \u2014 with numbness, tingling or weakness down one side of my body. I have chronic migraine, which means I have more than 15 headache days per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Navigating my migraine symptoms and lifestyle<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I recently attended an online talk from The Migraine Association of Ireland with Dr Nick Silver, who noted that migraine treatment should always start with lifestyle. After several failed treatments, I chose to stop waiting for a silver bullet and focused on controlling the controllable, while still working with my neurologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I have chronic migraine, which means I have <br>more than 15 headache days per month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>My analogy for migraine symptoms and coping<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I view migraine management as steadying a Jenga tower. I picture each brick of my \u2018Jenga tower\u2019 as an element of my lifestyle that keeps me on an even keel. Each time one shifts out of place, the tower gets a little more unstable. With too many missing bricks, the tower crashes down, and a migraine attack begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This build-up of triggers or \u2018wobbly bricks\u2019 causing an attack is called Migraine Threshold Theory. When I feel my tower wobbling, I focus on tapping each, little brick back into place with good sleep, regular healthy meals, regular exercise, mindfulness, hydration and nature \u2014 particularly sea swims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-understanding-and-approaching-migraine-symptoms\"><strong>Understanding and approaching migraine symptoms<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I talk openly about my condition \u2014 not in a constantly complaining way. This has also helped in my relationships as my friends and family now understand that if I need to cancel plans or leave early, it\u2019s because I need to. Has this approach \u2018cured\u2019 my migraine? No. Has it made my life much more manageable? Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some days, I climb a mountain; some days, I climb under a blanket, and that\u2019s okay. If you live with migraine, know that you are not alone. Chip away at the little things you can do, control the controllable and hold onto hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Migraine is a complex neurological condition with symptoms that range far beyond a headache. For me, it manifests as hemiplegic migraine. I don\u2019t always get the intense headaches. My migraine symptoms mimic a stroke, leading to hours, days or weeks \u2014 with numbness, tingling or weakness down one side of my body. I have chronic &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/neurology\/how-i-manage-my-migraine-symptoms-and-what-helps-me\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":7872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[5802],"class_list":["post-7866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neurology","tag-living-with-neurological-conditions"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2023\/02\/07210525\/Niamh-Reid-1-1-600x392.png","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2023\/02\/07210525\/Niamh-Reid-1-1-600x392.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Carolina Galbraith Duarte","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/carolinagalbraithduarte\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7866"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7898,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7866\/revisions\/7898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}