Get medical help if arrange medical review if migraine attacks are happening more than once a week or are becoming difficult to control.
Self-care guide
Migraine
A recurrent neurological headache disorder that often causes moderate-to-severe throbbing pain, nausea, and sensitivity to light or sound, sometimes with aura.
Step 1 · First-line care
What to do first
For a familiar migraine attack, use the person's established acute treatment early, rest in a dark quiet room if helpful, maintain fluids, and avoid skipping meals. Established acute medicines and clinician-directed migraine plans have stronger evidence than herbal products. For prevention, regular sleep and wake times, regular meals, exercise, trigger awareness, and an appropriate preventive plan matter more than any single supplement. Magnesium, riboflavin, and coenzyme Q10 are non-herbal preventive options with limited evidence and should be considered in a medication- and condition-specific context rather than as universal remedies.
Step 2 · Safety
When to get medical help
Seek urgent medical advice if a migraine lasts longer than 72 hours, aura lasts longer than 1 hour, or you have migraine during pregnancy or soon after giving birth.
Get emergency medical help for a sudden extremely painful headache or headache with major neurologic or visual symptoms, seizure, meningitis symptoms, one-sided weakness, or a recent head injury.
Extra caution: Pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, older adults with new headache, kidney disease, significant heart or vascular disease, and people using anticoagulants or multiple medicines need individualized review. High-dose magnesium can cause toxicity and drug interactions; feverfew should be avoided in pregnancy; butterbur should not be recommended for migraine prevention because of liver-toxicity concerns.
Step 3 · Optional ingredient support
For relief now
These options have been reviewed for evidence and key safety concerns.
No reviewed options in this category yet.
For ongoing support
These options are better suited to regular or longer-term use than to quick symptom relief.
Magnesium
Clinician-supervised oral magnesium supplementation as an optional preventive adjunct for recurrent migraine; not an acute rescue treatment and not an efficacy claim for magnesium-rich food, bath salts, topical sprays, or arbitrary supplement doses.
How it is used: Do not infer migraine efficacy from magnesium-rich foods, baths, topical magnesium, or a generic recipe. If oral magnesium is considered, choose a labeled supplement only after reviewing kidney function, medicine interactions, formulation, and dose with a clinician or pharmacist.
What does this evidence mean?
A small body of controlled research suggests oral magnesium may reduce migraine frequency for some people, but evidence is limited and studied doses can cause adverse effects or interact with medicines. It belongs in prevention, not acute rescue.
Evidence may apply to one specific form of an ingredient — a capsule, extract, cream, or tea — and to a particular amount. Recipes and everyday foods may not match the form or amount that was studied.