Migraine Trilogy Part 3: From Crocodiles to Laudanum to CGRP: The Strange, Surprising History of Migraine Treatments

Imagine your head is splitting. The pain is blinding, relentless, unbearable. Now imagine that the best medical minds of the day lean in, consider your symptoms carefully, and hand you a clay crocodile to tie to your head.

Welcome to ancient Egypt’s approach to migraine treatment.

The history of how humanity has tried to treat migraines is by turns bizarre, heartbreaking, and, if you squint at it just right, quietly inspiring. Because woven through thousands of years of crocodile figurines, skull drilling, opium wine, and electric fish, there is a persistent thread: people have always refused to give up on finding relief.

And today, after all those centuries of trial and error, we finally have treatments that actually work. The story of how we got here is worth telling.

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