For me, it's like this: I catch a whiff of perfume, or the weather shifts, or I get overtired -- and boom. My fingers and toes start to burn and my vision blurs, while my hearing and sense of smell become painfully sharp. Dizzy and nauseated, I feel myself telescoping inward as the entirety of my consciousness shrinks to a hot dot of agony that takes up residence behind my right eyeball for 72 hours, never more, never less. Migraine.

For many years I kept these episodes to a minimum with a daily dose of magnesium, vitamin B2, and feverfew, the "triple therapy" recommended by many holistic practitioners. I avoided trigger foods and practiced yoga to keep stress in check. On rare occasions, I'd pop an Imitrex, but overall, I was a poster child for natural migraine management.

Then, at age 40, I quit my job, moved across the country, and had a baby -- welcome events, but ones that left me wired and tired 24/7. My migraines grew more frequent and incapacitating, not an acceptable state when you're caring for a baby. I saw several holistic healers but didn't find their suggestions practical. Desperate, I turned to a neurologist, who got out his prescription pad and started writing. When I asked what could be causing my headaches, he said, "Nobody knows. But why do you care? Don't you just want to feel better?"

I did, but nothing worked. The more drugs that failed, the more prescriptions he wrote: new medications, new combinations, higher doses. And I kept taking them, sliding down the slippery slope of allopathic medicine.

Within a year, the drugs had taken a toll. My hair fell out, I gained 15 pounds, and I felt drained of energy. And I was still having headaches. It was madness (and, for me, futile) to treat a chronic condition without exploring its source. As varied as the treatments I'd tried had been -- from narcotics to vitamins -- they had all come at the problem from the outside in. So I resolved to dive back into the natural realm, but to aim deeper this time, with three subtle therapies that offer not merely symptom relief, but an absolute paradigm shift.