Treating Migraine

– If someone does have a migraine I do encourage them to get
care from their provider, their physician because they might be able to get treatments that are very effective and very quick. There are some over-the-counter medicines that can be quite effective such as some of the anti-inflammatory medicines like naproxen is an example
which works really well in the right situation. Naproxen comes in a liquid gel formulation that’s faster than a regular tablet so if someone’s gonna use an
over-the-counter medicine, we typically recommend that medicine. There are some combination medicines that include caffeine and acetaminophen. We know those as Excedrin
and medicines like Excedrin and those are also really effective for rare episodes of migraine. If someone starts having
frequent headaches, meaning more than two headaches in a week, they really should be seeing
a physician about that because the same medicines
I just mentioned, either the liquid gel naproxens or using medicines that have
caffeine and acetaminophen like Excedrin, if you take them too often, they actually irritate headache pattern and make you have more frequent
and more intense headache, something we call
medication overuse headache or also known by its street term, is rebound headache and so people get into that trap because they’re uncomfortable. They have to use these medicines because they make them feel better within about an hour or so but if they have recurrent headache and they keep taking those medicines it irritates our nervous system making the next headache more severe and more likely to happen
with little stimulus. (gentle music)