Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Has anyone tried magnesium for migraines?

Dee*Jay

Dee*Jay

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
15,272
After two stellar migraines in a row I resorted to the internet (although I try to resist Dr. Google at all costs) and I'm coming across article after article about magnesium at a preventative treatment. The citrate seems to be a better option than the oxide. My natural tendency is to shy away from abnormal doses of pretty much anything (booze not withstanding!), but it seems that there don't seem to be long term negative effects of magnesium in the 600-800 mg/day range, and the reduction in frequency and severity of the headaches is compelling.

My headaches are hormonal BTW and not food triggered, so there's really nothing I can avoid that would be beneficial. And I've been willing to donate my uterus to science since I was 13, but no one seems to be taking me up on that offer, so I guess the hormone thing will just have to ride itself out for another few (several... ) years.

Does anyone have experience with migraines and magnesium?
 
I have not tried Magnesium but I'm looking forward to reading the replies. I also suffer from Migraines and would try most anything to get rid of them.
I am on (generic) Seasonale to reduce hormone fluctuations and it helps to a certain extent...
 
Also want to know. I have had a lot of migraines this winter (barometric pressure) and I am sick of it.
 
Huh. That's ... really interesting, actually. I've been on chelated magnesium for around three years now (dunno the difference between the types you mention and the type I take, but mine was recommended for insomnia), and I developed migraines last spring (no idea why, though it seems to have been related to having taken too much vitamin D when my docs told me I had a deficiency ... Never Again will I do something like that without stopping to think, oh, "Wait, I hate the sun and it gives me headaches when I stay on the beach too long, so ..."). I had actually run out around that time, and grabbed some melatonin off the shelf instead when I saw they were out, and had an absolutely miserable couple of months. Interesting.

My headaches got better once I cut the vitamin D, and almost completely disappeared just recently, which I attributed to a different (thyroid) medication, but it'd be intriguing if there was a connection ... I also removed melatonin from my repetoire and went back to the magnesium around that time. Off to Google as we speak ....
 
I take 500mg of Magnesium Taurate a day recommended by my neurologist. I haven't had a migraine in 7 months ever since I started taking it. He also recommended 100mg of Riboflavin (B-2) daily.
Good luck!
 
Alexah, I’m assuming your migraines are hormonal then, but do you also get them at other times?

AprilBaby, barometric pressure migraines were specifically mentioned as ones that the magnesium would help.

Circe, I was thinking about your episode last year as I was researching. I’ll be interested to see what you think after looking at information based on your experience. The magnesium you mentioned is actually one of the “good” versions. The thing you specifically want to avoid is the oxide, but chelated is good, as is citrate and… hmmm… one that starts with a “G” that I can’t think of right now.

Bonfire, thank you for chiming in! Had you tried other things before the magnesium? How long did it take before you noticed an improvement?

A couple of things in general:

Magnesium aides in the absorption of calcium but for this purpose you are specifically NOT supposed to take the calcium and magnesium together.

I wonder if you can take the magnesium JUST when you’re getting a migraine or if you really do have to take it all the time… ? Everything I’ve read says to do a continuous dosage, but I wonder if trying to zap it with a high level of magnesium at the onset would work. Several of the articles mentioned using magnesium intravenously to relieve migraines in progress… ?

(Sorry; at this point I am just thinking out loud!)
 
One more thing: it seems to take about three months of continuous dosage to be able to say there is real improvement on a consistent basis.
 
Dee Jay, I don't know much about migraines but just want to add that I have been taking Solgar magnesium citrate 600 mg-800 mg for a long time to help me sleep (around 10 years I think) and I have not experienced any adverse effects. I take 400 mg in the early afternoon with food and 200-400 mg in the evening before bed. Good luck and I hope you find relief soon.
 
Texaskj, thank you for that link. I had not read about reacted versus buffered before. I am still learning about the absorption factors. If you have time to post more when you're not at work I would love to hear from you.

Missy, thank you for weighing in on the adverse effects (or lack, as the case is). I always worry a bit when I take more than a "normal" dose of anything (although what's "normal" LOL?).

ETA: Circe, I forgot to ask if you know whether your migrains are hormonally, barometrically, or food triggered? (Or something else entirely.)
 
Not sure if this helps at all, but Desani bottled water has a small amount of magnesium in every bottle. It's listed in the ingredients.

Here's a NIH list of magnesium rich foods http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/

Maybe try to add to your diet from natural sources and see if that helps any?
 
Dee*Jay|1393297367|3622410 said:
Alexah, I’m assuming your migraines are hormonal then, but do you also get them at other times?
Click to expand...

Hi Dee*Jay! The worst ones are hormonal but they're also triggered by major storm fronts, allergies/sinus issues and, occasionally, stress.

I thought they were just headaches but a neurologist diagnosed them as migraines (though I went to see her for back pain, not headaches).

Thanks for that link, iLander! Looking at the linked chart, I think I get enough Magnesium from the foods I eat.

For what it's worth, the Neurologist said she was going to help me with my migraines once we took care of my back but her suggestions to help my herniated discs actually made it a lot worse so I stopped seeing her.
 
iLander - thank you for posting that. I also wondered if I could get enough magnesium by changing my diet but I'm not sure I can take in 600-800 mg a day through food. Or, more honestly, do it consistently. I might be willing to go the mega-spinach route for a while, but I have to confess I would fall off the wagon pretty quickly! As much as I don't love the idea of supplements, I think *for me* that may be the better route to ensure I'm getting enough.

alexah, unless you have a condition that would be impacted by the higher magnesium intake it may be worth it to try for three months (which they say is the minimum baseline time frame to see if it's really working). For what it's worth, all of the migraines you mentioned are types that I've read a benefited by this.
 
No real advice, just wanted to say I'm so sorry you're dealing with migraines. They're horrible! I used to get them, and let's just say that my contractions during labor (I got dilated up to 7 cm before having a c-section) were a walk in the park compared to my migraine pain. Hope the magnesium brings you some relief. I have a friend who is currently trying Botox for her migraines, she's so desperate.
 
iLander -- I should have said in my last post that I will make a conscious effort to get more magnesium through food, even with the supplements. V8 (which I really only like with plenty of vodka and a celery stalk!) is going on my list becuase it has 26 mg per 8 oz serving and we've always got that in my fridge at work. I will also be better about choosing almonds as a snack, which I sometimes do, but no I'll do it more. I figure anything I can do to help is going to get added in!

Parrot Tulips -- yikes about the contractions! Do you do/take anything for migraines now? And I hope botox helps your friend. I've read about that several times and it would be awesome if she was one of the people it works for!
 
Interesting thread! :read:

I too, suffer from shocking migraines and have always done so. Cannot seem to find any specific individual trigger but I know some things tend to make them worse or more likely such as stress, hormones, loud music, red wine etc. So I tried to avoid all of these (ha ha !) I have tried accupuncture, beta blockers, drinking litres of water each day, yoga etc but nothing seems to prevent/fix them. Seems genetric in my family as father, uncles & sisters get them too. :blackeye:

In fact I get a pre-headache headache - like a storm cloud gathering in my mind as a warning. Anyone else get this? Usually time for me to exit work as quickly as possible. Go home and lie down in dark room with strong painkiller/sedatives. This is obviously extremely impractical a lot of the time so I'm definitely willing to try almost anything new to get rid of these! I will pick up some magnesium tablets today. :wavey:
 
I never figured out my triggers, as there has never been a clear pattern. I too have a family history, I guess that's my trigger :((
HotPozzun, do you get the "aura" ? I do, with every single one. Very debilitating. Try Magnesium it's helped me so far, where other meds haven't.
 
Have you tried Natural Calm? It is pretty sour but is in powder form so you can take as little or as much as you would like. I must be magnesium deficient because I feel a definite sense of well being half an hour after drinking it. There is a version that is straight magnesium and one that is a calcium/magnesium combo.
 
Hotpozzum, make sure you get the magnesium citrate or glycinate and not the oxide version. Also be careful that if you get to the laxative effect back off a little on the dosage until that stops. Otherwise (a) you'll be very unhappy (!) and (b) you won't really be absorbing it because it will be exiting your body along with everything else.

bonfire, thank you for chiming in. It is great to hear that magnesium has helped you and I'm hoping to be on that bus with you real soon! I actually don't get aura--thank god. I can't imagine adding yet one more factor to the migraine adventure... ack. A friend of mine gets cluster headaches, which are actually worse than migraines (if you can imagine that) and he has aura with his. Wow.

erinl, I just looked up Natural Calm. Interesting about the magnesium/calcium combo because the things I've read say NOT to take them together because although the magnesium helps your body absorb the calcium the calcium doesn't seem to help your body in terms of processing magnesium for this purpose. I will have to look into this more. And obviously everyone's system is different so what works for one person may not work for another.
 
double post
 
OK, I've got a little more time now. My migraines started in my mid-20s. I was able to muddle through until about five or six years ago when I was spending a day a month in bed with one. My doctor said she couldn't do anything about the weather, which is also a trigger for me, but she could do something about my hormones. She put me on very low-dose birth control pills that I take nine weeks straight and then one week off. This keeps them from going up and down like a fever chart. The brand name is Loestrin. I take a generic the Aetna pharmacy sends called Gildess.
I take one of the Doctor's Best because I also get 80 mgs in my calcium pills. I also take extra B2. A lot of magnesium can send you to the bathroom more, but I don't have that problem. And you can't OD on B2; the excess your body doesn't need will just turn your urine orange or more yellow.
A few months ago SO was asking me about being female and all the fun it entails. I told him about all the crap I've put up with since I was 12 and how it really pisses me off sometimes. I've known since I was 14 I did NOT want kids. But modern science really isn't interested in helping us out.
 
Dee Jay-- There is a straight magnesium version of Natural Calm, which I take, and a magnesium/calcium combo. Even the magnesium only version says it helps balance calcium absorption....
 
So I just bought some pills in my lunch hour "Blackmores Bio Magnesium" this it was recommended by the pharmacist.

I've now double checked the ingredients:
Magnesium oxide - heavy 440 mg
Magnesium phosphate(equiv to total magnesium 300 mg) 175 mg
Calcium ascorbate dihydrate 50 mg
Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine hydrochloride) 50 mg
Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol 2.5 mcg) 100 IU
Manganese amino acid chelate (Manganese 4 mg) 40 mg

Says 1x pill per day and he said he felt this was better for migraines than a lower dose. Hope this works, preferably without the laxative effect!!! :lol:

No, thankfully I never get the aura. Basically I get bad pre-headache & overwhelming nausea but never spew, then basically my brain slowly shuts down - I'm like a bad drunk. Can't talk properly, vision goes blurry, light-sensitive. Want to curl into little ball and die. ;(
Only effective solution so far has been "Mersyndol Forte" and a cold compress on my head whilst lying in bed in the dark sooooooo fingers crossed this is my new saviour.
 
Bought some today too so let's see what happens!
 
Texasjk, I have come across B2 in my reading on this. I wonder if I should take that too…? Soon I’m going to need a second closet in my bathroom for pills, ha!

Erinl, oh, I get it! I was confused before. Sorry!

Hotpozzum, I really hope this works for you! I’ll be curious to hear how it goes for you after three months. I don’t know what the other ingredients will do, but if the pharmacist recommended it, absolutely give it a go. If, at that time, you don’t see enough (or any) improvement maybe try just straight magnesium citrate too. That’s the thing with all this—there are so many potential variations, not to mention people themselves aren’t all the same of course, so I’m just hoping we all find the thing that works for each of us!

AprilBaby, I hope you get relief!


Should I put a follow-up thread over in Family & Home so we can post over the next few months as we try this together? Hangout was probably not the right place to put this anyway, but we get so much more traffic over here I thought it was a good place to start.
 
For those who are hormonally challenged, I've been taking Vitex and DIM supplements for the past few months and it has changed my life! I highly recommend - has totally balanced out my mood, regulated my cycle and no more terrible cramps and other symptoms. My skin is much better and no headaches.

These are the ones I take:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DI96P6/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E101L2/ref=oh_details_o04_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This stuff seriously worked for me - hope it's helpful for someone else!
 
erica, I'm glad these have helped you! They seem to deal more with hormones than magnesium though and I think from a control prospective I should only try to alter one thing at a time to see what works best. But if the magnesium thing doesn't pan out I will definitely consider other options!

vintagelover, thank you for posting that. I am reading that moringa contains calcium as well as magnesium, and the prior articles I've read say that the migraine benefit from magnesium specifically says NOT to take it with calcium. Hm... Interesting!
 
I don't usually go over to the other forum so I would have to try to remember
 
OK, then I will bump this up once a month or so on here if no one has posted anything else that would bump it.

I'm hoping we all get tremendous relief!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top