Naturopath?

[mschlosser]

For the past 7 months I've been on Amitriptyline (75mg) and Propranolol (40mg twice daily). The first 3 months were AWFUL! Sleeping every chance I got, terrible dry mouth/throat, no motivation for life, extra irritable, awful acid reflux, no appetite or sex drive. Spoke with my neurologist and he said I needed to choose between living with the side effects or living with the chronic migraine...So I decided to give the meds another chance of taking over my body.

Well I still have all the side effects as before, PLUS I have gained 15 pounds of very unwanted weight and have headaches (non-migraine) almost daily. On the plus side, as long as I take the Amitriptyline approx.12 hrs before I need to wake up the next morning, dragging myself out of bed isn't as bad as it was prior. I am also taking magnesium and vitamin B supplements as well.

This has been a gross experience and I'm about to give up on all the drugs and start from scratch with a Naturopath. Has anyone had any luck with a naturopath? Should I ween myself off these drugs before making an appointment to see one?

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Hi mschlosser,

I tried amytriptyline and it didn't work, had to sleep 12 hours a day, and still had migraines. Also woke up groggy, weight gain. My neurologist changed my meds, and I started using topamax. No side effects. Intensity of migraines was much less, and they reduced in frequency. There are a lot of meds out there that you can try. Have you thought of changing doctors?

[Aylingireland]

AmitryptLine is well documented for weight gain! I would stick with propanol alone if you don't wanna gain weight x

[malalatete]

Those are pretty big doses - I found 10mg Amitrip left me zombified, although propranolol at 20mg didn't quite break the headache cycle. But I took them at different times and can say that the propranolol didn't appear to have any side effects, Amitrip was as you described even on 10mg! Perhaps ask about reducing Amitrip and increasing propranolol.?

[troy04]

You can try homeopathy, but they also have 5 to 10 different types of medicines for headache / migraine and they would not know for sure which one would work at first, so you have to give them about 3 to 4 months’ time so that they can adjust the correct remedy. I have noticed some people have benefited from homeopathy a lot and some have not at all - so there is no guarantee but it virtually has no side effects, so worth trying - in case it works. You may still have to take pain killers (ignoring the homeopath) but the aim is to find the preventative remedy. And yes, please make sure to find an experienced and qualified homeopathy practitioner.