Sandhya Raghavan
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Written By: Sandhya Raghavan | Published : October 17, 2017 11:12 AM IST
If you have ever been victim to a migraine attack, you'd know how helpless you feel. The skull-cracking pain is sometimes accompanied by violent nausea and an aversion to loud sounds and bright lights. Migraine has its ways or incapacitating you. Unless you pop NSAIDs or paracetamol, there is absolutely no respite from the pain. But constant pill popping can have its drawbacks, especially since there drugs come with a set of undesirable side effects.
I had been living under the constant fear of migraine attacks ever since my teenage. Having spicy food, too much sugar, approaching menses, changes in food or sleep habits, pretty-much anything can trigger a painful episode. For the longest time, I was dependent on paracetamol medication to save me from these painful episodes. But over time, I wanted to break free from this unhealthy dependency and find safer ways to deal with migraine. In my own experience, these are the only things that worked for me. So you have had enough, here are x tried-and-tested methods to control a bout of acidity-related migraines at home.
(Read: Things you can sniff on to reduce migraine)
1. Cold milk
Probably the best medicine for an acid migraine is a tall glass of cold milk. This works like a charm. Within minutes of downing a whole glass, you will notice a subtle decrease in the throbbing and the pain. Keep drinking till you feel better. But insist on having cold milk instead of room temperature or warm milk and skimmed milk instead of whole. If the taste doesn't excite you, try adding a few drops of vanilla essence or syrup.
2. Ice cream
Migraine is the perfect excuse for you to dig into a tub of your favourite ice cream. Since it is cold, it serves the dual purpose of dousing the fire in the stomach as well as temporarily numbing the pain in your head. Milk products like ice cream and cold milk is full of calcium which is said to neutralise stomach acids.
3.Plain soda
A glass full of bubbly plain soda can be very soothing for acidity. Add jaljira or squeeze a wedge of lemon for taste. Have it once you feel a migraine approaching. Sip on the drink slowly and avoid drinking in haste.
4.Vomiting
This one's a little extreme, but throwing up has helped me clear the acid buildup in the stomach and eased many episodes of migraine. Nausea is a common side effect of migraine. So you don't have to try too hard to force your stomach contents out. Wash your hands and stick a finger in your throat to initiate a gag reflex. Rest is easy. But make it a point to drink enough water to dilute the acids in your stomach. Otherwise, you'd have a hard time retching with nothing to throw up.
(Read: Safe ways to induce vomiting)
