Health Issues and Practices: Yoga for Migraine Management

This report is a personal reflection on the use of yoga for migraine management, structured around the Rolfe model of 'what, so what, and now what.' The student describes their experience with migraine, the impact on their daily life, and the ineffectiveness of medication. They detail the eight yoga techniques they adopted (child pose, bridge pose, etc.) and the positive effects, including reduced pain and improved concentration. The report then explores the stages of migraine and the student's actions based on their understanding of the disease. It highlights the long-term benefits of yoga compared to medication and the challenges of maintaining a regular yoga practice. The student emphasizes the importance of early intervention and consistency in yoga to manage migraine effectively. The report concludes by referencing relevant literature on the topic.

Running head: HEALTH ISSUES AND PRACTICES
HEALTH ISSUES AND PRACTICES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1HEALTH ISSUES AND PRACTICES
Table of Contents
2 Reflection on Yoga:....................................................................................................2
Part 1 (Answer to Model Question 1):.......................................................................2
Part 2 (Answer to Model Question 2):.......................................................................3
Part 3 (Answer to Model Question 3):.......................................................................4
References:.....................................................................................................................5

2HEALTH ISSUES AND PRACTICES
2 Reflection on Yoga:
Among all the practices and medications, Yoga has become the fundamental practice
for me in the treatment of migraine (Anand and Verma 2014). According to the Rolfe model,
the discussion about migraine and yoga practices can be made by following the structure of
the answers of three basic questions, which are- what, so what and now what.
Part 1 (Answer to Model Question 1):
The health problem that is pretty much integrated with my daily life is headache of
migraine. Due to migraine pain my daily life, whether it is personal or professional, has been
subjected to a lot of trouble. I am facing issues regarding my vision in the workplace which
generates a lot of trouble, mainly when I work in computers. Sometimes I face confusing
thoughts and speech difficulties when I attend any meeting or conference and those affect my
performance. Severe headache due to migration is the biggest fear before sleeping (Di
Lorenzo, Grieco and Santorelli 2012). Migraine pain has become the cause of frequent
nausea and seldom vomiting for me. Pain in the morning is the most severe pain that I have to
face almost every day until I have embraced yoga practices.
In order to reduce the pain, at first I have tried some medication. I have received a few
good effects but those medications have caused their side effects. Therefore, when I am
looking for some authentic practices that can help me in this case appropriately, I have found
Yoga. My major objective was to obtain a relief from this pain and to improve my workplace
conditions along with my daily life peace. I have embraced eight different yoga techniques
which are child pose, bridge pose, standing forward bend, lotus pose, cat stretch, corpse pose,
downward facing dog pose and two legged forward bend pose. These eight techniques have
been proved to be the most effective techniques in reducing migraine pain (Mauskop 2012).

3HEALTH ISSUES AND PRACTICES
Child pose, cat stretch and straight forward bend are the three processes that provide
mental relaxation and calms down nervous system along with an increase in blood supply.
Bridge pose, two legged forward bend and lotus pose affect in releasing anxiety and relax the
brain (Winsvold et al. 2013). These also take of the stress and decrease headache. Downward
facing dog pose increases blood circulation in brain. Ultimately, a deep rest is delivered by
the corpse pose performing it for a few minutes. Application of these techniques in my daily
life has significantly reduced the effects of migraine pain without medication and without
taking a lot of time. The experience is really fascinating for me as I have started to feel the
effects readily after two months. The periodicity of morning pain has started to decrease and
during my work hours I have been able to concentrate more.
Part 2 (Answer to Model Question 2):
Migraine is a severe disease which builds up its base step by step. Migraine attack can
be classified into five stages which are premonitory stage, Aura stage, headache stage,
resolution stage and recovery stage. I had much trouble to predict the disease in its early
stage. The premonitory stage incorporates excessive tiredness and mood changes which are
very common symptoms and do not develop the suspicion about a migraine development
(Büssing at al.2012). The symptoms become more intense and frequent during the aura stage
where a patient starts to have vision and speech problems and confusion in thoughts. There is
very less time gap between the aura and the major attack of migraine. In most of the cases,
where the patient realises that he or she is going to be a victim of migraine, the two
preliminary stages pass away and it becomes late to take protective measures.
My actions are totally based on my understanding about the disease the practices
necessary to resolve it. Medications have their own side effects and not so effective in
reducing the pain for a long time. Yoga on the other hand does not provide any side effects
and performs well in reducing the pain for a very long time (Kaiser, Mooreville and Kannan

4HEALTH ISSUES AND PRACTICES
2015). Stroke, is a long term effect of migraine which is occurred due to the absence of
supply of blood into the brain. This risk of stroke increases with other problems like high
cholesterol and high blood pressure. I have found that yoga practice is the answer to all these
physical problems. Due to the late identification of the disease, my yoga practices have been
started late and for that I have to face the symptoms for a very long time without proper
treatment and proper guidance.
Part 3 (Answer to Model Question 3):
Implementing Yoga in my daily routine was the must do job for me. Additionally,
another must do job that has generated with it is to maintain this practice regularly, despite of
any resistances. Maintenance of yoga practices in a regular way is a little difficult for any
working guy. Office works are generally too hectic and too much time consuming along with
its necessity. Sometimes, I notice that I have to spend more time in my work and for that I
have to compromise times which have been associated with my personal work or leisure.
Sometimes this compromised time affects the time allocated for yoga practices. One day
without the practice results in breach of regularity and migraine attacks can heavily relapse
and that will have even worse consequences. The best time to treat migraine is in the
preliminary stage or the premonitory stage, when the headache is mild (Menon, Satyanand
and Karishma 2013). At that time the medicines can show their optimum action and the
practices results well.

5HEALTH ISSUES AND PRACTICES
References:
Anand, K.S. and Verma, R., 2014. Yoga in Neuro-Psychiatry. J Yoga Phys Ther, 5, p.e119.
Büssing, A., Ostermann, T., Lüdtke, R. and Michalsen, A., 2012. Effects of yoga
interventions on pain and pain-associated disability: a meta-analysis. The Journal of
Pain, 13(1), pp.1-9.
Di Lorenzo, C., Grieco, G.S. and Santorelli, F.M., 2012. Migraine headache: a review of the
molecular genetics of a common disorder. The journal of headache and pain, 13(7), pp.571-
580.
Kaiser, R.S., Mooreville, M. and Kannan, K., 2015. Psychological interventions for the
management of chronic pain: a review of current evidence. Current pain and headache
reports, 19(9), p.43.
Mauskop, A., 2012. Nonmedication, alternative, and complementary treatments for
migraine. CONTINUUM: Lifelong Learning in Neurology, 18(4, Headache), pp.796-806.
Menon, B., Satyanand, V. and Karishma, P.H., 2013. Effects of yoga on tension
headache. Journal of Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, 2(3), p.167.
Winsvold, B.S., Sandven, I., Hagen, K., Linde, M., Midthjell, K. and Zwart, J.A., 2013.
Migraine, headache and development of metabolic syndrome: An 11-year follow-up in the
Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT). PAIN®, 154(8), pp.1305-1311.