More than 10 million Americans have migraines creating a burden of mostly unnecessary suffering.(i) These severe, nearly disabling headaches can occur from once a year to three to four times a week. They can last from hours to days. They are often associated with an aura, light sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, and severe throbbing pain on one or both sides of the head. Migraines are even associated with stroke-like symptoms or paralysis in some cases ...

The cost to society is also enormous. Migraine headaches add $13 billion to $17 billion to our healthcare costs each year. These costs include medications, emergency room visits, hospitalization, physician services (primary care and specialty), laboratory and diagnostic services, and managing the side effects of treatment.

Migraines have indirect costs too. A headache is the most frequent pain-related complaint among workers. Focusing specifically on migraines, one study found that the annual cost to employers exceeded $14.5 billion, of which $7.9 billion was due to absenteeism and $5.4 billion to diminished productivity.(ii)

So this is a HUGE problem -- both to those who suffer and to society as a whole.

Worse, migraines are hard to treat and very difficult to prevent with conventional approaches. There are a host of preventive drugs -- calcium channel blockers, beta-blockers, anti-seizure medications, antidepressants, and more --which work poorly, if at all, and are accompanied by frequent side effects. Some doctors are now even using Botox to paralyze neck muscles in the hopes of easing migraines.

There is also a new class of medication called triptans (like Imitrex, Maxalt, and Zomig) that can stop a migraine once it starts. Though these have made migraine sufferers handle the attacks better, they also have serious potential side effects, including strokes, and are expensive. Still other treatments can lead to addiction or dependence. Not a pretty picture. And for many, none of these treatments work very well or at all.

The problem with migraines is the same one we see so often in medicine: We treat the symptoms, not the cause. We only deal with the effects of something and not the underlying 7 keys to UltraWellness. But using Functional Medicine I have been able to get nearly 100 percent of my patients migraine free within days to weeks!

In today's blog I am going to explain how I do that. I will tell you the story of one of my patients (a doctor herself) who, after years of suffering from migraines, finally came to me looking for relief. You will learn what I did to help her (as well as many others) and how you can apply the same measures to overcome your migraines. And I will give you 14 tips that will help you identify and treat the real causes of your headaches.