“Lavender…has been studied recently for several purposes including treatment of mood and anxiety disorders,” as well as a number of other things. Its “analgesic effect,” however—its painkiller effect—is one of its most “widely studied properties.”
Surprising, then, that there hasn’t been a single “documented clinical trial to study lavender for the treatment of migraine” headaches, that affect tens of millions of Americans every year—until now: “Lavender Essential Oil in the Treatment of Migraine Headache: A Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial.”
Migraine sufferers “were asked to, at the early signs of a headache—rub 2-3 drops of the lavender essential oil onto their upper lip and inhale its vapor for a 15-min period” of time, and score the severity of their headache for the next two hours. In the control group, they did the same thing, except they used drops of basically unscented liquid wax. And neither group was allowed to use any painkillers. In the lavender group, 74% of patients had an improvement in their symptoms—significantly better than placebo.
Though in the study lavender wasn’t directly compared to more conventional treatments, lavender appears to stack up pretty well, compared to typical drugs. Lavender helped about three-quarters of the time; high-dose Tylenol only works about half the time; and ibuprofen, 57% of the time. The #1 prescribed drug, generic imitrex—effective 59% of the time. And then, the hardcore treatment they use in emergency rooms, where they inject you under the skin: 70%.
And all these work better than the original migraine therapy, known as trepanning, where doctors drill a hole in your head to let the evil spirits escape.
“Conclusion: The present study suggests that inhalation of lavender essential oil may be an effective and safe treatment modality in acute management of migraine headaches.”
Sources cited
- P. Sasannejad, M. Saeedi, A. Shoeibi, A. Gorji, M. Abbasi, M. Foroughipour. Lavender essential oil in the treatment of migraine headache: A placebo-controlled clinical trial. Eur. Neurol. 2012 67(5):288 - 291
- H. M. A. Cavanagh, J. M. Wilkinson. Biological activities of lavender essential oil. Phytother Res 2002 16(4):301 - 308
- M. J. Prior, J. R. Codispoti, M. Fu. A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of acetaminophen for treatment of migraine headache. Headache 2010 50(5):819 - 833
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- R. Rabbie, S. Derry, R. A. Moore, H. J. McQuay. Ibuprofen with or without an antiemetic for acute migraine headaches in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic 2010 10:1-68
- M. D. Ferrari, P. J. Goadsby, K. I. Roon, R. B. Lipton. Triptans (serotonin, 5-HT1B/1D agonists) in migraine: Detailed results and methods of a meta-analysis of 53 trials. Cephalalgia 2002 22(8):633 - 658
- M. Sugiura, R. Hayakawa, Y. Kato, K. Sugiura, R. Hashimoto. Results of patch testing with lavender oil in Japan. Contact Derm. 2000 43(3):157 - 160
- C. M. Villalón, D. Centurión, L. F. Valdivia, P. De Vries, P. R. Saxena. An introduction to migraine: from ancient treatment to functional pharmacology and antimigraine therapy. Proc West Pharmacol Soc. 2002 45:199-210.
- A. A. Alkhatib, F. A. Elkhatib. Triptan therapy in migraine. N Engl J Med. 2010 363(14):1377.
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