You may recall a recent study about headache drugs that can give you one. Small surprise, then, that treating migraines by stopping analgesics you may have overused may be a simpler and more effective approach.

Headaches are so common that Americans dish out more than $1 billion every year to get relief from migraines. The pain associated with migraines can be so severe that some patients will actually consider suicide as a reasonable alternative.

Transformed migraines begin with episodic attacks that transition over time into near daily headaches, although less severe ones. It comes as no shock to me that starting an exercise plan and taking preventative medications did the trick for treating this problem 70 percent of the time.

When I started my practice, I found intravenous magnesium sulfate very effective to abort migraines. It does not seem to work orally, but when given as an IV most migraines disappear in a few minutes. The magnesium causes the blood vessels to dilate and makes the person very warm, depending on how fast the IV is pushed. I usually use a 1500 mg IV for the average adult.

But that was my old "natural medical" model. Now I have evolved into far better solutions.

What is even more impressive is EFT, a noninvasive acupressure technique that can get rid of headaches just as quickly -- without the hassle, inconvenience and pain of an IV.

Additionally, I've found most people experience dramatic improvement after adopting the nutrition plan I promote. Most migraines seem to have a food-based reaction relating to wheat, dairy, sugar, or artificial preservatives or chemicals. Eliminating these foods, and incorporating the other eating plan measures, frequently improves migraines.

Generally there is a 70-80 percent reduction in the frequency and intensity of the pain after people begin following the eating plan that you can study in more detail in my book, Total Health Program.