Non-medication care and coping.

[KSchmo]

How do you all on here deal with the pain in a non-medicinal way? Ice packs✅ Sleep✅Staying in/going home early✅  
I mean more of a vitimin route? Or massage or acupuncture? Or even yoga and breathing teachniques. Obviously this is something I am going to have for life. So I would love to learn what you, the experts, have done for treating it. Thanks!! Kelly

[KSchmo]

My neurologist actually laughed at me when I asked about smoking pot to help with the headaches. He said he seemed to think that with chiari the oxygen is already being restricted to my brian and we probably shouldn't restrict it any more.

Burtbee? I'll have to look that up.
I have noticed the topamax makes me lose my train of though usually about an hour after I take it.
I also notice it makes my breath smell badly. Ew

[kwalker0004]

To be frank there are some herbal remedies to help with headaches Burtbee which you can find at many health stores are one of the main ones. Though I put my doctors on a 5 medication limitation I have only tried 3 different ones. Imitrex is the only one that has helped me. though many frown upon marijuana it does help out with the migraines as well as eating issues. I do my best to stay away from drugs (I don't do marijuana) but others have recommended this to take the pain away. The heating pads as well as the icy hot doesn't seem to help me. Though its not recommended I do tend to tilt my head back when I have headaches to take the pressure off of the nerves. It is just hard to sleep like that. But it does help me. The only other thing that seems to help me when I get into my routine of headaches is to try to eat small meals. Not large ones as it seems to upset my stomach and makes me tend to throw up. Cutting out salt and sodium really helps too. So most of my meals are salads with no dressing. It isn't fun to watch everyone else eat chicken pork chops and other foods but it is worth not having to deal with headaches. Best of luck to you

[selmaS]

  Hi...I found out over the yrs most meds did not help my Chiari pain....so I did not take anything....that is until I had surgery....I was on pain meds post op....but after that I was on TOPAMAX for a yr or so....I am now off it....but it did help with my headaches, it changes them....but it is a hard med to adjust to....it makes you a zombie for the first 2 weeks.

Avoiding certain activities that you know will cause symptoms to flare is one way to help with symptoms.....

I had a Dr tell me to look into Feildenkrais.....it is a type of positional exercise....posture etc.....

Ice helps some....me ice makes me hurt more so I used heat when I had tight muscles.....

There is a list of activities to avoid with Chiari and Syringomyelia....

[Nikki_Knox]

Hi, Kelly. Where you just recently diagnosed?
I tried to go that route for years and it wasmiserable. At the time, I did not realize that I had Chiari, but I was not taking meds at all and I wasn't able to do hardly anything. Now I only take meds when I absolutely have to but no more than twice in one day (I hate drugs) That being said, ice does help, massage, acupressure & acupuncture, caffeine, icy hot on the neck and shoulders, & also using an inversion table. All those at least took the edge off for me! Wish you the best!

~Nikki_Knox