Herbal preventatives for migraines

I guess it's different for everyone, but I've spent lots of money on herbs and had miserable results. I tried feverfew, tincture of feverfew, willow, butterburr, lavender, bergamot, and some very pricey thing I found on the internet that had lots of testimonials and raves and was about $60 a bottle (and they said it took 3 months to work, so that was three bottles). Not one of them made one bit of difference. I share your concern about Topamax. I took it just one month and had only one migraine that month, but I also turned into a kind of walking zombie--I couldn't remember things, couldn't think of words, felt confused and stupid. As soon as I got off it, I was myself again. One of my physicians said she had read troubling reports of damage to the optical nerves from Topamax. I think there have been conflicting reports, but my body definitely said no to it. I'm still looking for a good preventive. I'm taking Verapamil now, but it's not doing much good.

First my hubby was given Topamax for arthritis pain but didn't take it too often.  I did notice sometimes he had trouble thinking of the right word and thought maybe he was drinking too much or a memory problem starting and didn't relate it to the Topomax.  Then the media said you could take it to prevent migraines so I started taking it, but after awhile realized I was getting a small headache daily and stopped it, and those small daily headaches were gone. 

Then a couple busy years later we moved to another state and I was doing some reading about Topamax and losing weight and preventing headaches and starting taking it again (I had forgotten that I had tried it), but had the same daily headaches and had to stop it again. 

In the meantime, my husband didn't use Topamax any more and I had read about the mental confusion and remembered his problem which is now gone and said good riddance! 

Also I noticed the 2nd time I took it that it made colas taste funny and read that it does change the taste of foods and that is probably why some people lose some weight on it.

After suffering from migraines for years, it was finally determined my migraines were not completely related to hormones.  My neurologist prescribed Propanalol.  I take 20 mg in the morning and 40 mg before bed.  I couldn't be happier with the results.  I haven't seen any side effects and even better... no migraines, in fact... no headaches at all.  It's worth a mention to your MD!