Essential Oils Used in Treating Migraine Headaches

Posted by Kathleen Flanagan on

Case Study Using Essential Oils for Migraine Headaches

Ms. A. had a long his­tory of migraine. She was referred to me after hav­ing tried most of the prepa­ra­tions avail­able in herbal shops, as well as allo­pathic med­ica­tion. It has been decided to try aro­matic medicine.

I started by find­ing out as much of her med­ical his­tory as pos­si­ble in order to define the type of migraine she was expe­ri­enc­ing. It has been diag­nosed as a non-digestive, vas­cu­lar migraine.

We started with a look at her diet in order to iden­tify and elim­i­nate those foods which may have been con­tribut­ing to or aggra­vat­ing her migraines. With a new dietary regime in place, the next step was to decide on the best essen­tial oil for­mula for Ms. A.

Introducing Essential Oils

We started with a 1% dilu­tion of rose­mary [offic­i­nalis, ct. Cine­ol with 2% gin­ger and 1% sweet mar­jo­ram. This blend was applied to the neck and shoul­ders in a mas­sage cream base. The meth­ods of use and appli­ca­tion sequence were taught to Ms. A’s part­ner, and a fur­ther appoint­ment was made for one month’s time.

After a month, she appeared in the clinic and said that there had been very lit­tle improve­ment. I decided to change the for­mula slightly and also to increase the appli­ca­tions to three mas­sage appli­ca­tions per week, plus an addi­tional appli­ca­tion on or about the time of an attack. I gave Ms. A. a chart to fill in which mon­i­tored the fre­quency of her migraines and plot­ted any progress graph­i­cally. Such charts can be an invalu­able way of demon­strat­ing improve­ments; so often the patient only remem­bers the bad days     and does not reg­is­ter the good ones. Again, appoint­ment was given for a month’s time.

Ms. A. had been con­sis­tent in fill­ing in her chart. She said she had noticed a few good days but noth­ing too won­der­ful. At this meet­ing, I decided to keep to the cur­rent oil for­mula and allow another month to see if there would be any dif­fer­ence in the chart. One month on, Ms. A. appeared again and her chart was much improved. She said the chart had been a great value in enabling her to observe the slight improve­ments which she had pre­vi­ously been unable to see.

Six months later, the fre­quency of migraine attacks has been reduced to one per 14 days. This is acknowl­edged as a great improve­ment. Part of the ongo­ing treat­ment will be to mon­i­tor the essen­tial oil for­mula and adjust it when nec­es­sary to chang­ing needs of Ms. A.

We have now decided to decrease the fre­quency of mas­sage to one appli­ca­tion per week and have found that the improve­ment in Ms. A. has been main­tained. The mas­sage for­mula is at the same dilu­tion but I have replaced the gin­ger with Euca­lyp­tus smythii.

I am sure that the mas­sage itself has had as ben­e­fi­cial an effect as the essen­tial oil treatment.

The good news is that Ms. A.‘s qual­ity of life has greatly improved. She is still receiv­ing allo­pathic treat­ment and I am work­ing closely with the con­sul­tant in this field — a truly com­pli­men­tary approach.

← Older Post Newer Post →

Treatments

RSS
Psoriasis treating methods for Psoriasis

Treating Methods for Psoriasis

By Kathleen Flanagan

Aetiology Some lesions are closely associated with linoleic acid deficiency. Incomplete protein digestion or poor intestinal absorption of protein breakdown products. A number of gut-derived...

Read more
asthma treating methods for asthma

Methods for Treating Asthma

By Kathleen Flanagan

Asthma is a lung disorder marked by attacks of breathing difficulty, wheezing, coughing, and thick mucus coming from the lungs. The episodes may be started...

Read more