I have also had migraines all my life, although I didn't know that is what they were until recently. When I was younger, they were so bad they would cause me to vomit. And once I had one, standing up was almost impossible, much less playing a basketball game. The biggest trick I have found that works very well for me is Advil Migraine. The minute I have anything resembling the start of a migraine, I take these and it stops it completely. But, there is only about a 15-30 minute window. If the migraine has already started in full force, these are no good. In fact, I have not found anything that will help at that point other than calling it a day and sleeping for minimum of 4 hours. I know, it's a headache. What is the big deal? Just play through it, right? If he truly has migraines anything like what I am many others have experienced, there is no way you could set foot on a basketball court with one of them and hope to be effective at all.
Rockbox, Caffeine and Cigarettes constrict the blood vessels in the body which decrease blood flow and cause problems. Also, there is no better blood thinner in the world than water. What do you do when you have a bucket of paint that needs to be thinned out? Add water or drop a few Asparin in it?
Hmm....so you're saying that Steve needs to drink a pint or two of paint thinner, eh? That just might work!
Fortunately, I haven't had migraines all my life like some others here, but I have had them recently and have some info to add to the discussion... There is a new drug (sorry Freak, it's a pharmaceutical) called Imitrex that is a migraine killer. I would bet that Steve has access to this. I was laid out for 2 days with my first migraine (desperately seeking darkness and quiet as mentioned) when I finally went to the doctor about it. They gave me a shot of this stuff and, in just a couple of minutes, my agony disappeared. I guess this was akin to smashing the fire alarm as the pain was essentially still there and returned a few hours later. But, when you're in the throes of one of these headaches, all you want is relief from the pain and this did the trick. Also, as I recall, Imitrex is a vaso-constrictor so it would seem that excessive blood flow to the brain is a key to the pain and constricting it is the answer. I now have both pills and self-injectibles that I can use whenever I feel a migraine coming on. As the doctors told me, if you catch it before it gets going, you can stop it dead in it's tracks. So far, that has held true in my case. If this is true for everyone, I would bet that Steve can live and play with migraines w/o too much disruption.
I am pretty sure asparin does thin the blood. That is why people with heart problems take it. It relieves stress on the heart. Migraines are the result of dialation of the blood vessels in the brain. Because of that, caffeine helps migraines because it constricts the blood vessels in the brain. If you look in the active ingredients of Exedrine Migraine, it contains a large amount of caffeine.
Yep, asprin does thin the blood. People with blood clot problems take it to help stop blood clots forming.
