MigreLief, a natural supplement for migraine
There is growing support for Migrelief in the medical community (formerly Migra Lieve, also called Migre Lief or Migre-Lief and MigraHealth or Migra Health). The "triple therapy" is being adopted by more and more doctors involved in treating migraine, and has been used in many clinics such as the New York Headache Center.
What is Migre Lief?
It's is actually just a combination of ingredients that are not so new at all. First, feverfew. Feverfew has, of course, been used for years as a headache preventative treatment. MigreLief uses feverfew that is standardized to 0.7% Parthenolide – many feverfew supplements contain unpredictable amounts of the herb, and so give varying results. Unlike many feverfew supplements, it also contains other naturally occurring phytochemicals from feverfew, which is important because we don't yet fully understand what it is in the herb that helps with migraine. (Read more about feverfew as a migraine treatment)
Riboflavin is the second ingredient, otherwise known as vitamin B-2. Vitamin B2 is important in the development of co-enzymes that keep your brain functioning well. It's still being researched as a treatment for migraine by itself, but as a part of the triple therapy it seems to be effective. B vitamins help to make energy and set it free when your body needs it. Lack of B-2 may lead to problems such as burning and itching eyes or mouth sores. A 1998 study showed riboflavin to be better than a placebo in decreasing the number of migraines in patients.
The last ingredient is magnesium. More and more research is telling us that magnesium is important for migraineurs. Many who deal with migraine also have low magnesium levels. Magnesium does a number of important things in the body, and a lack of it can keep you from sleeping, make you feel weak, sick to your stomach and short of breath. For more details, read our article on magnesium here. Many migraineurs take magnesium as a supplement to lessen their migraine pain. Magnesium is also used in larger amounts at clinics to stop migraine pain after it's started. It has also been prescribed for those with cluster headache.
These are all readily available ingredients, and many of us have tried one or more at one time or another. But the real power seems to be in using them together.
Is MigreLief actually helping
migraine patients?
By 1997 these three ingredients were being used together at the New York Headache Clinic.
The results were and continue to be very encouraging, and the news has
spread. Take for example this letter written in 1999 by Dr Jack J
Kleid, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Cardiology, UCSD
School of Medicine in La Jolla California USA:
I am excited to
tell you that your product, Migra Lieve has done a wonderful job for my
patients who have migraine headaches. I have found on several patients
who use this product, that the incidence of their migraine headaches
has diminished by 75 percent in addition to taking less in the way of
prescription drugs.
There are numerous testimonials of
patients. Take for example a 28 year old woman who had suffered for 8
years, mentioned by Dr Alexander Mauskop in his book What Your Doctor
May Not Tell You About Migraines:
I would get a
migraine about two or three times a week...tired of getting no relief, I
decided to look for a more natural approach. I came across that
combination of magnesium, feverfew and riboflavin called Migra-Lieve.
About a month later, I couldn't believe it – my migraines were coming
less often. Over the next couple of months, they disappeared almost
entirely. I've been taking the triple therapy for two years not, and
it's been really great.
As most of us know, nothing works for
everyone. But not only do these individual ingredients have a lot of
solid research behind them, the triple therapy seems to help a large
percentage of migraineurs, and has the advantage of being more and more
generally accepted as a migraine treatment by doctors themselves.
Dosage Information
MigreLief tablets can be taken twice a day, morning and evening. It's best if they're taken with meals – I take mine at breakfast and supper. These ingredients take a while to become effective – riboflavin in particular is believed to take up to 90 days to make a difference. Try the therapy for three months, and be sure to keep a "before and after" headache diary so that you can see the improvement.
How to buy MigreLief
Because each of these three ingredients are common, you can pick them up individually at many health food or drug stores. You may find it cheaper and easier to use MigreLief, which is also available at some health stores. You can purchase it now at amazon.com (amazon.com of course also owns drugstore.com, but it's far more expensive there!).
Do be careful if you're buying from other sources, especially outside the USA, to make sure you're getting the right product. A product with the same name (Migrelief) is sold in Canada, for example, but only contains feverfew.
60 tabs, of course, a one month supply. Again, if you're trying this for the first time it's recommended that you use it for three months to get the full effect.
If you want to buy at a good price from a trusted seller, I would recommend you get MigreLief from amazon.com.
Migrelief is finally available at amazon.co.uk as well.
Dr Mauskop's book gives more details of the triple therapy, and a whole lot more. Read my review of the book here. Or, get a copy for yourself from
amazon (or amazon UK).
"I have found the product to be effective in approximately 80% of patients whom I have prescribed MigreLief." - Robert Kirshbaum, M.D. Rancho Cucamonga, CA