Countless people worldwide suffer from chronic, abdominal, menstrual, and vestibular migraines. Migraine is a neurological condition that attacks people irregularly and causes tremendous stress to those who suffer from it. Some say cannabis for vestibular migraines can help to manage the condition. Research has demonstrated that medicinal cannabis helps cure migraines by reducing pain and inflammation in the brain through the endocannabinoid system.
In medicinal marijuana, CBD, THC, other endocannabinoids, including terpenes, can relieve pain, making it a great alternative to opioids.
The Different Types Of Migraines
Migraines are classified medically into two categories:
Migraines Without Aura
These are the most frequent kinds. It is usually present with sudden discomfort that intensifies in 30 mins to an hour. Physical exertion, excessive noise, bright lights, and short sleep can trigger them. Moreover, headaches are frequently associated with nausea and eye tears. An attack might last from 8 hours to 3 days.
Migraines With Aura
It is the second type. These headaches include a prodromal stage, where the person exhibits signs that indicate a headache is coming. There are several neurological indications associated with this phase. These include eye vertigo or dizziness, prickly skin, flashes, stuttering, and different speech problems.
Pre-headache auras might last 30 to 60 minutes. In this class, the underlying pathology is considered to be a shortage of blood flow to your brain, maybe produced by blood vessel spasms in a portion of your brain that regulates senses. When the headache starts, it’s hard to tell it from an individual who does not have the aura phase.
Migraines Linked To Hormones
Menstrual migraines happen two days before or after menstruation is around 7% of all migraine sufferers. Earlier, estrogen levels fall while progesterone levels climb. It could induce aura or non-aura headaches.
Adolescents and adults with acute migraines are at risk. In between, it is symptomatic. Physicians consider it chronic if an individual has migraine episodes for greater than 15 days monthly for three months.
Abdominal migraine affects most kids. It is a dull discomfort around the navel, not a headache. Vomiting, nausea, and lack of appetite are common complaints among kids. Doctors believe tension or mental pressure causes this form of migraine.
Vestibular migraines impact the balance system. It causes dizziness and vestibular problems. However, headaches are generally only mildly detectable.
Four Stages Of Migraine Symptoms
The pre, aura, headache phase, and regression are the four stages of a migraine strike. Each has its own set of symptoms. Furthermore, not everyone impacted goes to experience all of the stages. The following symptoms may appear at any time during the stages:
- In pre-phase, numerous people get migraine symptoms for hours and days before people experience migraine pain. Difficulties in reading or typing and excessive yawning are signs of this.
- In the aura phase, patients see zigzag lines and flashing lights in their field of vision. Optical hallucinations or the positive scotoma are likely to cause visual field abnormalities such as black or grey spots. Paralyzed arms and legs are another possible sign.
- In the headache phase, it may persist for hours or days. The intensity and length of the discomfort may vary. Patients express significant unilateral head pain. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and noise.
- Recovery phase: During this stage, the symptoms will progressively fade away. After a migraine episode, people frequently feel tired, restless, and irritated. There is often a lack of appetite and difficulty concentrating.
Causes Of Migraine Attacks
Experts said that a variety of reasons causes a migraine occurrence. A circulatory problem coupled with a dysfunction of the brain’s neurotransmitters might be the reason, in addition to hereditary factors. The messenger chemical serotonin (often known as the “happy hormone”) appears to serve a vital role in this. It is because it transmits messages from a single nerve cell to the following or various organs. Furthermore, the role of serotonin in migraine occurrence has yet to be determined. Nonetheless, the messenger molecule is thought to perform a function inside and outside your brain (the central and peripheral serotonin). A migraine incident might be triggered if the equilibrium in these two locations changes.
During an aura, circulation issues, or narrowing of the arteries in the afflicted location, can be noticed in specific parts of the brain. The possible cause of this is elevated serotonin levels.
What Triggers A Migraine?
Although the causes of migraines are unknown, trigger variables have been identified that can precipitate an attack. Which prompts these in each situation differs from one person to the next. The following are examples of potential triggers:
- Emotional and mental distress
- Overwhelmed senses
- Alteration in weather
- Variations in the sleep-wake cycle
- Citrus fruits and food that contains tyramine like chocolates, bananas, or red wine.
- Stimulants of various kinds like nicotine or alcohol
- Hormone imbalance fluctuations
- Hormonal contraceptives are a type of hormonal contraception like the contraceptive pill.
Individuals should establish a migraine diary to discover their particular trigger factors. There are frequent patterns in the data (day, period of day, length, and severity of headache).
Non-drug Therapy For Migraine
Individuals can do something to avoid migraines on their own. Controlling trigger circumstances is one of these methods. Reduced stress, learning mindfulness meditation like autogenic training, and cognitive-behavioral therapies are also beneficial. Patients manage to escape beyond stress and negative mental patterns with the aid of a physician.
Therapy With Medication
The following medicines or active components can be used to treat migraines medicinally:
- For mild to severe headaches, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen, acetylsalicylic acid, naproxen, and paracetamol are effective.
- During intense migraines, triptans like zolmitriptan and sumatriptan are prescribed. These medications are serotonin receptor agonists, which attach to similar receptors in your brain as the neurotransmitter serotonin. As an outcome, the messenger component is no longer able to connect to these receptors, causing pain and nausea to reduce. Triptans additionally constrict the blood arteries in your brain, which could help to relieve headaches. Before using triptans, see your doctor because they are not recommended for a variety of illnesses, including high blood pressure and coronary heart disease.
- Individuals are typically only given ergotamine if their migraine episode lasts over a prolonged term or if other treatments have failed. Individuals with cardiovascular problems should avoid using ergotamines since they might produce serious side effects.
Measures In Acute Cases And Prophylaxis
It can be beneficial to escape into a darker place and turn off all causes of sound, including television and phones, as the first indication of problems. It is often feasible to prevent seizures by consuming painkillers earlier. However, individuals must not overuse painkillers. It is due to the possibility that the medicines themselves might act as a trigger.
The following medications are accessible for migraine prevention:
First-choice migraine prophylactics:
- Anticonvulsants like valproic acid or topiramate
- Beta-blockers like propranolol and metoprolol
- Tricyclic antidepressants, including amitriptyline
- Flunarizine and other calcium antagonists
Second-choice migraine prophylactics include:
- venlafaxine and other antidepressants
- gabapentin and other anti-epileptic medications
- Omega-3 fatty acids, coenzyme Q10, and berry extracts combined with vitamin B2 and magnesium
Studies On Migraine And Treatment With Medical Cannabis
Italian researchers analyzed if cannabis for vestibular migraines can be really effective to the patients. The research included 48 migraine sufferers who were provided two different cannabis formulations to begin with. The first concoction included 19% tetrahydrocannabinol, whereas the other comprised 9% cannabidiol, a non-intoxicating CBD. Dosage of fewer than 100 mg, on the other hand, showed no impact. Only after 200 mg did the medicines start to work as an analgesic.
They gave patients both the try-cyclic antidepressant amitriptyline for 25 mg per day or a mixture of THC and CBD 200 mg per day as prophylaxis for three months within the 2nd stage of the experiment. The subjects were given an additional 200 mg of THC-CBD for severe headaches.
According to the findings, the rate of migraine occurrences fell by 40.4% when cannabis was used and by 40.1% when amitriptyline was used. It’s worth noting that THC and CBD decreased pain severity by 43.5%.
In their conclusion, the researchers stated cannabis for vestibular migraines might work.
In a 2019 research, experts aimed to see if inhaling cannabis may lessen migraine and headache and if gender, type of cannabis (concentrate vs. flower), delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol, or does play a role in these alterations.
Strainprint, a medicinal cannabis app, provided the researchers with the data. It enables sufferers to monitor their symptoms earlier and after experimenting with various cannabis strains and dosages. The researchers looked at information from 12,293 sessions in which cannabis was used to treat headaches and 7,441 sessions in which it was used to treat migraines.
The data reveal that upon using cannabis, the severity of headaches and migraines decreased considerably. The number of headaches reported by males was lower than the number of headaches recorded by women. Furthermore, the usage of concentrates was linked to a reduced incidence of headaches than using cannabis flowers.
Inhaled cannabis had shown to lessen the intensity of headaches and migraines by around half. Furthermore, because the impact seemed to fade with time, individuals were forced to raise their dose. This implies that with continuous usage, tolerance to the impact may emerge.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, few scientific trials show that cannabis for vestibular migraines can effectively cure migraine occurrences. Many migraine sufferers, on the other hand, report a good impact or pain reduction. The usage of THC and CBD appears to lessen the occurrence of migraine attacks as well. According to studies, taking publicly accessible CBD oil has a favorable effect on the condition.
Since there are few trials recorded in this study, using cannabis for the condition needs high supervision, and consulting from your doctor is advised.
