Yoga for Migraine

What is Migraine?

A person suffering from migraine suffers from severe throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation, usually on one side of the head. It’s often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Migraine attacks can last for hours to days, and the pain can be so severe that it interferes with your daily activities.

For some people, a warning symptom known as an aura occurs before or with a headache. An aura checking can include visual disturbances, such as flashes of light or blind spots, or other disturbances, such as tingling on one side of the face or in an arm or leg and difficulty speaking.

Medications can help prevent some migraines and make them less painful. The right medicines, combined with self-help remedies and lifestyle changes, might help.

Types of migraines

There are several types of migraines, and the same type may go by different names:

• Migraine with aura (complicated migraine): Around 15% to 20% of people with migraine headaches experience an aura.
• Migraine without aura (common migraine): This type of migraine headache strikes without the warning an aura may give you. The symptoms are the same, but that phrase doesn’t happen.
• Migraine without head pain: “Silent migraine” or “acephalgic migraine,” as this type is also known as, includes the aura symptom but not the headache that typically follows.
• Hemiplegic migraine: You’ll have temporary paralysis (hemiplegia) or neurological or sensory changes on one side of your body. The onset of the headache may be associated with temporary numbness, extreme weakness on one side of your body, a tingling sensation, a loss of sensation, and dizziness or vision changes. Sometimes it includes head pain and sometimes it doesn’t.
• Retinal migraine (ocular migraine): You may notice a temporary, partial, or complete loss of vision in one of your eyes, along with a dull ache behind the eye that may spread to the rest of your head. That vision loss may last a minute, or as long as months. You should always report a retinal migraine to a healthcare provider because it could be a sign of a more serious issue.
• Chronic migraine: A chronic migraine is when a migraine occurs at least 15 days per month. The symptoms may change frequently, and so may the severity of the pain. Those who get chronic migraines might be using headache pain medications more than 10 to 15 days a month and that, unfortunately, can lead to headaches that happen even more frequently.

Migraine with brainstem aura. With this migraine, you’ll have vertigo, slurred speech, double vision, or loss of balance, which occur before the headache. The headache pain may affect the back of your head. These symptoms usually occur suddenly and can be associated with the inability to speak properly, ringing in the ears, and vomiting.

What is Yoga?

According to Bhagwad Gita Equanimity, Stability, Balance, Harmony, Equipoise is yoga i.e. Samatvam Yoga Ucchyate.

According to Sage Vashistha, yoga is the skill to calm down the mind i.e. Manah Prasanna up ayah yoga.

And according to Great Sage Maharishi Patanjali yoga is the cessation of mental modifications i.e. Yoga is to gain mastery over modifications of Mind.

According to Guruji Shubham Barwala Ji, yoga is the recognition of Mental Modifications the moment they arise in our consciousness.

According to Guruji Neeraj Medharthi, Ji Yoga is the state of perfect balance.

Evidence-based yoga therapy or yoga for Migraine

At Vedamrita our purpose is to bring the best and scientific research and evidence-based yoga therapy to our beloved readers and our students likewise and thereby increasing the general acceptability of Yoga therapy amidst the field of various treatments available. Below are a few research papers we find out related to yoga for Migraine.

Research Papers: –

Effect of yoga as add-on therapy in migraine (CONTAIN): A randomized clinical trial

Kumar A, Bhatia R, Sharma G, Dhanlika D, Vishnubhatla S, Singh RK, Dash D, Tripathi M, Srivastava MVP. Effect of yoga as add-on therapy in migraine (CONTAIN): A randomized clinical trial. Neurology. 2020 May 26;94(21):e2203-e2212. DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000009473. Epub 2020 May 6. PMID: 32376640.

Yoga for Treating Headaches: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Anheuser D, Klose P, Lauche R, Saha FJ, Cramer H. Yoga for Treating Headaches: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Gen Intern Med. 2020 Mar;35(3):846-854. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-019-05413-9. Epub 2019 Oct 30. PMID: 31667736; PMCID: PMC7080891.

Panch Kosha Based Yoga Therapy or Yoga for Migraine

 Yogic Diet – Yoga for Migraine

• Eat on time. Chew food properly.
• Sattvic home-cooked meals.
• Increase the intake of seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables. Include high-fiber foods such as vegetables, cooked peas and beans (legumes), whole-grain foods, cereals, rice, and fresh fruit in your diet. Choose foods that are low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
• Keep the body well hydrated.
• Avoid processed and refined foods. Try to avoid nerve stimulants such as tea, coffee, alcohol, dark chocolate.
• Orange, yellow, and green vegetables, such as summer squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and spinach.
• Rice, especially brown rice
• Dried or cooked fruits, particularly non-citrus kinds such as cherries and cranberries.
• Natural sweeteners or flavors, such as maple syrup and vanilla extract

Asanas – 8 Yoga Poses for Migraine

• Hastapadasana (Standing Forward Bend)
• Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose)
• Shishuasana (Child Pose)
• Marjariasana (Cat Stretch)
• Paschimottanasana (Two-legged Forward Bend)
• Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose)
• Padmasana (Lotus Pose)
• Shavasana (Corpse Pose)

Kriyas – Yoga for Migraine

• Jala neti/Sutra neti
• Vamana dhauti
• LSP
• Kapalabhati

Pranayama – Yoga for Migraine

• Do Cooling pranayamas
• Left nostril breathing – chandrabhedana
• Nadishuddhi
• Bhramari
• Sectional breathing
• Ujjayi

Manomaya Kosha – Yoga for Migraine

• Yoga Nindra
• Bhajan
• Chanting
• Emotional counseling
• Prayer
• Mind Sound Resonance Technique (M.S.R.T.)

Vijnanamaya Kosha – Yoga for Migraine

• Counseling about the disease, triggering factors, diet.

Anandamaya Kosha – Yoga for Migraine

• Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Spend time with family and loved ones.

Explore this Health Topic to learn more about Yoga for  Migraine, the role of yoga and yoga therapy for various diseases, and where to find more information regarding it.

Read more about Yoga for  Migraine