Essential Oils and Migraines

 May 5, I did a Facebook Live about how I use essential oils when I have a migraine headache. I am lucky that I only get one kind of headache, but if you don't get migraines, you can use these techniques for your other types of headaches as well. 

Here is the transcript from the video:

Hi everybody, it's Mary from Blue Ice Essentials.

I thought I would just come on live and talk a little bit today about migraines.

So I have had migraines for all of my life. And at various times in my life, they've been worse or better as far as frequency and severity. But generally it's been something I've been dealing with, and I keep getting told that there will be various milestones in your life where you won't have any more migraines after this. Unfortunately, I am one of those people that does not meet the standard on anything I do, I don't think, and migraines is just one more thing.

So when everybody said, while you're pregnant, you'll never have a migraine. That didn't happen with me with me. Actually, I had one pregnancy where I had a migraine every single solitary day I was pregnant. That was not happy, but it was what it was, and I managed to get through it.

I was also told that when you hit menopause, your migraines will miraculously disappear.

Hate to tell you folks, that didn't work for me either. So I am a real expert at what you can do if you're not the standard person, and headaches don't respond for you the way they do with other people, because that's certainly been my experience.

So what do I do for headaches? I have a whole handful of things that I do depending on where I am and what the situation is and what the cause of the headache is. Because I've discovered that there's quite a few triggers in my life that can create a migraine. And some triggers are better dealt with by one thing or another. And so I have different tactics that I use, depending on the situation I'm in.

So one of the things that I get when I get a migraine, my stomach gets really upset and sometimes that's my aura, or the warning sign that I'm about to get a headache is that my stomach basically shuts down and stops processing food the way it's supposed to.

It makes me feel really ill. And lots and lots of people get ill with the headache itself. I actually get ill before the headache. So one of the things that I do for that is I use peppermint in my water, and that's really, really good.

Another thing that I do is I use DigestZen or ZenGest, it depends on whether you're in Canada or the US what it's called. I love that blend because it's got peppermint, ginger and fennel, and a whole bunch of different things. I think there's seven different ingredients in it. And I can add it to my water. I happen to like the flavour. So you know, that's really easy. But the other thing that I really like to do is I have the Touch roller, and I like to rub it on my belly, usually just over my liver.

I rub it in and that seems to really help soothe that feeling of toxicity or a feeling like I've been poisoned that I tend to get when I get a migraine. And I think that's partly maybe because my liver is working overtime trying to get stuff out of my system that may be part of what's causing the headache anyway. So supporting that is really good.

Another thing that I do when I know I'm getting a migraine, if I get that sort of the early signs of a migraine is I immediately reach for frankincense and peppermint. And I use those two things in a couple of different ways.

So recently, you've seen me online building inhalers and I have an inhaler that is frankincense, peppermint and wild orange because that is a really nice aroma that you can use to give you energy through the day but it's also really, really good for headaches.

So if I feel like that's coming on, I have that with me all the time, I could just reach in my purse, grab it and and inhale several deep breaths with that combined aroma and that does help some.

I also take a combination of the peppermint and frankincense and rub it on the back of my neck, just in the hollows underneath the base of my skull. The reason I use it there is because that is a place where your circulation is very near to the surface. And those veins or arteries go directly into your brain really quickly. And I also use it on my temples for the same reason. The circulation is near to the surface there and it gets into my system really quickly.

I also use it in this area behind my ears and sort of under my jaw. Because a lot of the time when you get a bad headache, you start carrying tension just in anticipation of the pain. And so that helps relieve the tension and pain a little bit.

And the other thing that I do is I put a bit of that on the roof of my mouth. And I also, like I said, I use that inhaler, or I inhale from the palms of my hands, because I've got the oils on my hands.

All of those techniques work really well. Another technique that I use is I use Deep Blue, and I have the Touch roller and I use it again at the base of my skull and at my temples, along my jaw line, so that I find that that is really helpful, especially if the pain has really started to go nuts.

The elements in Deep Blue are really really good for many people with migraines. And so I really recommend that you try that roller because it is super helpful for me when the migraine has gone totally nuts. It will usually shut it down for me to at least just feeling kind of green and not achey within the hour, so I find that one really useful.

Another one that I like quite a lot is I make a blend of peppermint, rosemary, ylang ylang and spikenard and I put that in my diffuser. And then I do my yoga, which has a lot of deep breathing exercises, so that I'm taking a lot of that into my system. And I find that blend works quite well, especially if I get the headache before it really gets going. I'm usually able to stop it all together with that.

So those are my essential oil tips. But I want to tell people that there are quite a few essential oils that different people find helpful for their headaches other than the ones I've listed here.

I tend to try what I need until I get one that works and then I stop trying, but I know that there are quite a few others. So if you try my suggestions and they don't work for you, please reach out to me because I have more suggestions for you, and we can work together to try and find the thing that works the best for you. Because everybody is a little bit different, but everybody has something that will work. I'm sure. We just need to find the right thing.

So anyway, you have a really good day. I hope you're enjoying your week, and that the spring weather is finally arriving where you're living. Have a great afternoon. Bye bye