Migraineurs

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Paul Anthony, modified 13 Years ago at 9/13/10 3:36 PM
Created 13 Years ago at 9/13/10 3:36 PM

Migraineurs

Posts: 71 Join Date: 6/22/10 Recent Posts
A lovely word for a nasty condition. I note that Goenka was driven to vipassana by excruciating migraines, and some people even think that the Buddha suffered from them (I think it comes up in Batchelor's recent book and Daniel alludes to the idea in one of his podcasts).. For me, I think that the practice has often been a way to try to control, mitigate or just accept persistant head-pain.

So many interesting aspects to this - it's possible migraine is serotonin related so maybe meditation can prevent it by affecting that. Or even make it worse - as in the 'meditation hangover'. Does anybody think that the dukkha nanas have migraine-like factors, even in non-migraineurs?

Also, what about migraine medications such as triptans - does anybody think they interfere with practice?

Thanks as ever for being such a supportive community...

Paul
zhi lin, modified 13 Years ago at 9/20/10 12:03 AM
Created 13 Years ago at 9/20/10 12:03 AM

RE: Migraineurs

Posts: 8 Join Date: 8/12/10 Recent Posts
perhaps you would find this thread interesting:
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/991637

about medication, i believe that all medication, including aspirin and low strenght pain medicine, are to be avoided if possible in Goenka vipassana retreats.

one of the reason being that pain medicine do not only deal with the migraine sensation, it numbs all of the sensations in all of the body, so body scan will not be quite the same.
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J Groove, modified 13 Years ago at 9/20/10 7:03 AM
Created 13 Years ago at 9/20/10 7:03 AM

RE: Migraineurs

Posts: 59 Join Date: 9/9/09 Recent Posts
Bhikkhu Bodhi also suffers from painful, nearly debilitating headaches. A friend of mind who is a physician was able to get off of migraine medication in just a few months after adopting a diet in which he dropped nearly all carbs and sugar and started eating a lot more protein and fat. The basic notion is that grains--even the vaunted whole grains--are being consumed in proportions that our bodies have not evolved to handle, and that all of these carbs we're consuming all the time are increasing our insulin resistance, obesity and creating other problems. So this is a diet that is supposed to be more in line with what our hunter-gatherer forebears would have consumed. The book it's based on is called "Good Calories, Bad Calories." I'm going to give it a try, albeit with more of a vegetarian spin. I found it interesting that my friend was able to elminate his longstanding problem with migraines through these dietary changes.