Intravenous magnesium prevents migraines in children
Regular intravenous infusions of magnesium prevented migraines in five children, according to a report presented at the annual meeting of the American Headache Society by A.J. Freed and S. Sahai-Srivastava. The children were between the ages of 11 and 16. Four of them had the diagnosis of chronic migraines and one, episodic. Two of them continued to have daily headaches but they were mild with the infusions. The other three also had a significant drop in the number of headache days.
Over the past 30 years, we’ve given monthly infusions to thousands of patients, including children as young as 6. Genetic factors play a role in some patients with magnesium deficiency. We’ve had three generations of a family coming for monthly infusions. Besides genetics, other reasons for magnesium deficiency include stress, alcohol, gastrointestinal disorders, poor diet, and others.
About half of migraine sufferers are deficient. They are likely to respond to oral magnesium supplementation. Many, however, do not absorb magnesium taken by mouth. If we know that a patient is deficient because they have other symptoms of magnesium deficiency (cold extremities, muscle cramping, PMS, palpitations, brain fog, and others) or because their blood level (RBC magnesium) is low or is at the bottom of the normal range, we give magnesium intravenously.
If you cannot find a doctor who gives infusions of magnesium, you may want to search for an infusion center or an urgent care facility that would do it. In many large cities, magnesium and vitamin infusions are done at some spas. There are also companies that offer home visits by a nurse.
My 17 year old daughter has about 11 migraines a month. Zolmitriptan works wonders for her, but giving her a 200 mg magnesium glycate pill each day has reduced her migraine pain by half. Most of the time half a zolmitriptan (2.5mg) is sufficient to abort her migraine, which is now most often a 3 to 4 on a scale from 1 to 10. Her neurologist from the childrens national hospital specialty care doesn’t believe in magnesium, she says there are no studies that show that magnesium supplements make a difference, but in my daughter’s case it helps!