The Mindful Migraine

One of the earliest blog posts I wrote was about the value of using aromatherapy to ease migraine pain (here). In it, I mentioned how much I love using essential oils for holistic healing.  Fragrance, however, is complicated. What works for one person might not help the next person. What works for me one day, is irrationally irritating the next.

There’s the happy-memory-triggering effect of many scents that make me smile.  As I’ve mentioned before in my “bitter isn’t better” post, I grew up with a lemon tree outside the bathroom window, which acted as a natural air-freshener.  To this day when I have to choose between ‘sea breeze’ or ‘lemon squeeze’ in a cleaning product, I always lean in for the squeeze.  The smell of pine needles, meanwhile, reminds me of my grandfather and how we used to cut down our Christmas tree each year when we visited his property.  Rosemary reminds me of my mother and her roast dinners.  Cut grass always makes me think of my father.  Baked cookies reminds me of my Nan.  And I’ve always found gardens that include gardenia and night jasmine to be swoon-worthy.

Fragrances, however, are often fraught with danger for people with allergies, hay fever or migraines.  I remember my mother sneezing manically one year when I gave her a giant bunch of Mother’s Day flowers that included a single tiger lily.  I have bad memories of being ’trapped’ on a long-haul plane flight between a smoker and a lady wearing strong perfume – both of which made me feel sick.  Readers have spoken of how artificial fragrances of any sort can trigger migraines.  And for many, Springtime sadly means itchy eyes and runny noses. 

I’ve discovered that when it comes to fragrance, ‘cheap is rarely cheerful’ and ‘too much of a good thing is often bad for you’.  They’re not rules set in stone, but they do seem to generally apply.

Turns out there’s even a name for hypersensitivity to smells: osmophobia.

Medical News Today refers to the migraines we get from strong smells as “olfactory migraine attacks”. And it’s not all in your mind: “Many studies show that fragrance compounds can cross the blood-brain barrier, which is a protective layer of blood vessels and tissues that surrounds the brain, and interact directly with receptors in the central nervous system. Larger molecules in the bloodstream, including many medications, cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. Fragrance compounds may also produce immediate changes in body functions, including blood pressure, brain activity, and pulse rate.”

Whilst scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what is going on, they are pretty sure it has something to do with the trigeminal nociceptive pathway, which is the “sensory pathway along the nose and mouth and into the brain via the trigeminal nerve, which is one of the cranial nerves.”

Floral perfume odor was found to be the most common olfactory trigger, followed by cleaning products, cigarette smoke, and motor vehicle exhaust. [I definitely can’t clean the shower when I’m feeling migrainey as the chemicals in the confined space super-charge both my brain-pain and my nausea.]

One of the strangest notes in the article was about “olfactory hallucinations” in which up to 4% of migraine patients ‘smell’ things that aren’t actually in their environment before-during-or-after a migraine attack. [I don’t think this is me, but to be honest, my other senses are so heightened I’m not sure if I would even notice if I was smelling imaginary motor cars… but then again, I think I would notice the smell of smoke no matter how sick I was.]

MigraineAgain.com notes that determining if smells are really a trigger for a migraine can be tricky. Sometimes we’re already feeling under the weather (the prodrome phase just before a migraine) and so we’re more hyper-aware of everything, including smell. As such, noticing the apparently eye-watering amount of perfume your work colleague is wearing might not be the real cause. She might not, indeed be wearing any more than normal, your radar is just picking it up more than normal as the migraine is creeping ever closer.

Ironically, they also add “air fresheners” to the list of smelly no-nos. [Those colored cardboard thingies that hang off people’s rearview mirror in their cars are definitely a crinkly-nose-no-no for me… ugh… “jelly beans” my @$$.]

The Migraine Again page includes several ways of dealing with the issue including wearing a mask or skin colored nose plugs [who knew!], using an air purifier (not freshener) or using essential oils such as peppermint or lavender to allow one smell to block out the other.

[If smells are really particles pushing through the brain-barrier, I’m not sure if smell-swapping is going to work, but I certainly feel happier and more relaxed when I’m wearing my essential oils… even if my kids do say I smell like a mint biscuit or an old lady’s undie drawer (depending on which scent I’m wearing)… thanks kids.]

Anyway.

LIFE WITH MIGRAINE STINKS.

…but…

Don’t despair – experiment.

Find out the products that work for you, the scents that make you smile, the essential oils that bring you relief.  It’s hit and miss, and sometimes queasy, but ultimately, the nose knows best, and the relief and joy of a good fragrance is worth the time it takes to find it.

Take care and smell well, Linda x

PS – just to mess with your mind a little, I’m now going to switch to another sense – SOUND – and remind you that I have a Spotify playlist called “Healing Music for Migraines” (here) which includes music from my new friend Michael Coltham. We met after he started reading my blog (he and his wife both get migraines) and then he mentioned he wrote music which turned out to be incredibly soothing and just what I like!

Michael has just released a new song called “Rain” – he wrote to me to describe the inspiration for the song this way: “it conveys the emotions of being able to embrace those times in our life when it just seems to rain, but we choose to dance anyway.”

You can support Michael and enjoy his music by visiting his channel here: Michael Coltham | Spotify