Several treatments can help a migraine, ranging from prescription medications that eliminate pain within two hours to supplements, devices, and simple home strategies that reduce severity or prevent attacks altogether. What works best depends on whether you’re trying to stop a migraine that’s already started or prevent future ones.
Medications for Stopping an Active Migraine
For acute migraine relief, triptans remain the most effective class of medication. A large network meta-analysis published in The BMJ compared every major drug option and found that eletriptan was the top performer for complete pain freedom at two hours, followed by rizatriptan, sumatriptan, and zolmitriptan. All triptans significantly outperformed placebo, though the weakest of the group (naratriptan) was still nearly twice as effective as a sugar pill.
Triptans work by narrowing blood vessels and blocking pain signals in the brain. They can cause dizziness, fatigue, or tingling sensations, and eletriptan specifically is linked to occasional chest discomfort. These side effects are generally mild, but triptans aren’t suitable for people with certain cardiovascular conditions.
Newer medications called gepants take a different approach, targeting a protein involved in migraine pain signaling. They tend to have fewer side effects than triptans, making them a good option if you’ve had trouble tolerating other treatments. Over-the-counter options like acetaminophen also work for some people and are actually less likely to cause nausea than most prescription options.
What You Can Do Right Now at Home
If you’re in the middle of a migraine and don’t have medication on hand, several strategies can take the edge off. Applying a cold compress to your forehead or the back of your neck constricts blood vessels and can dull pain. Lying down in a dark, quiet room removes the sensory input that makes migraines worse.
Ginger is one home remedy with real clinical data behind it. In a randomized trial of 100 migraine patients, 250 mg of ginger powder reduced headache severity by nearly the same amount as sumatriptan at the two-hour mark: 64% of ginger users experienced significant relief compared to 70% in the sumatriptan group. The difference wasn’t statistically significant, but ginger caused side effects in only 4% of patients versus 20% for sumatriptan. You can take ginger as a capsule, brew it into a strong tea, or even chew on a small piece of fresh root.
Green light exposure is a less obvious option. Researchers at Harvard Medical School found that while bright light of most colors intensified migraine pain in nearly 80% of patients, a narrow band of green light actually reduced pain by about 20%. If you’re sensitive to light during an attack, switching to a dim green light source may be more comfortable than total darkness.
Supplements That Reduce Migraine Frequency
If you get migraines regularly, certain supplements taken daily can make attacks less frequent. The American Headache Society recognizes several with meaningful evidence behind them:
- Magnesium oxide at 400 to 500 mg per day is one of the most widely recommended. Many migraine sufferers have low magnesium levels, and supplementation helps stabilize nerve signaling.
- Riboflavin (vitamin B2) at 400 mg per day supports energy production in brain cells. It can take two to three months of daily use before you notice a difference.
- Coenzyme Q10 at 300 mg per day has been shown to reduce migraine frequency in adults.
- Melatonin at 3 mg before bed may help, particularly if your migraines are tied to poor sleep patterns.
These supplements are generally well tolerated and inexpensive. Butterbur, once a popular recommendation, is no longer advised due to safety concerns about liver toxicity in some preparations.
Food Triggers Worth Investigating
Certain foods reliably trigger migraines in susceptible people, and identifying yours can be one of the most effective long-term strategies. The most common culprits, ranked by how frequently they cause problems:
- Caffeine: both consuming too much and withdrawing from it
- Chocolate: milk and dark varieties (white chocolate is typically fine)
- MSG: common in processed soups, seasoned salts, bouillon, and some restaurant food
- Processed meats: anything cured, smoked, or preserved with nitrates, including deli meats, bacon, and jerky
- Aged dairy: older cheeses, buttermilk, sour cream, and yogurt (cottage cheese and cream cheese are usually safe)
An elimination diet, where you remove all potential triggers for a few weeks then reintroduce them one at a time, is the most reliable way to find your personal triggers. A small trial of 30 migraine patients found that tailoring diet based on individual food sensitivity testing reduced headache frequency meaningfully.
Prescription Options for Chronic Migraine
If you experience 15 or more headache days per month, you may qualify for treatments designed specifically for chronic migraine. One of the most established is a series of injections using a purified protein that temporarily relaxes muscles. The FDA-approved protocol involves 31 small injections across seven areas of the head and neck, repeated every 12 weeks. Many people notice improvement after the second or third round of treatment.
A newer class of preventive treatment targets a protein called CGRP, which plays a central role in migraine pain. These are given as monthly or quarterly injections you can do at home. In an Australian study tracking patients over a year, 52% achieved at least a 50% reduction in monthly migraine days within the first three months. By 12 months, 80% of those who stayed on treatment hit that threshold, with a median reduction of 18 fewer migraine days per month compared to baseline.
Wearable Devices for Drug-Free Relief
Several FDA-cleared devices offer migraine relief through gentle electrical or magnetic stimulation, which can appeal if you prefer non-drug options or need something to complement your medications.
The Cefaly device sticks to your forehead and stimulates the trigeminal nerve, one of the main nerves involved in migraine. A 20-minute daily session is used for prevention, while a longer one-to-two-hour session can treat an active attack. Nerivio takes a different approach: it wraps around your upper arm and uses a 45-minute stimulation session controlled through a smartphone app. The idea is that stimulating nerves far from the head activates the brain’s own pain-modulating pathways.
Other options include a handheld vagus nerve stimulator placed on the neck (gammaCore) and a magnetic pulse device held at the back of the head (SAVI Dual). All of these require a prescription but have minimal side effects compared to medications.
When a Headache Isn’t Just a Migraine
Most migraines, while miserable, aren’t dangerous. But certain features signal something more serious. A sudden, explosive headache that reaches maximum intensity within seconds is one of the most concerning signs and warrants emergency evaluation, as it can indicate bleeding in the brain.
Other red flags include a headache accompanied by fever or night sweats, new neurological symptoms like weakness on one side of the body or unusual visual changes, headaches that are clearly getting worse over weeks or months, and headaches that change dramatically when you shift position or strain. New headaches during or after pregnancy also need prompt evaluation, as they can point to vascular problems. If any of these apply, the priority shifts from treating a migraine to ruling out a secondary cause.