This monograph by Sandra Spewock Feder approaches the relief and prevention of migraines both specifically and holistically. The author brings together numerous relief techniques of her own experience (one of which she herself discovered) and a sizable chunk of current thinking, sometimes rather edgy thinking, in the field of holistic and preventative health. Avoid a Migraine, Stop a Migraine can be useful for migraine sufferers but also as a starting point for a wider personal investigation into health and wellbeing.

Feder begins with a caveat: "This book does not in any way give medical or any other kind of advice. At the request of fellow migraine sufferers, I am sharing my own observations and experiences. Before you do anything and if you have any questions, consult your health care provider." One might wonder where the line is between suggestions and advice, of course. Writers know, even if they can't admit, that their caveats are going to be regularly ignored; people — especially suffering people — are going to try suggested techniques without consulting a doctor first.

Then again, there are also doctors who succumb to the lure of a quick buck, endorsing products of unproven and questionable value. We see these charlatans on TV all the time. One feels more comfortable with an honest approach like that of Feder, who simply presents her findings based on personal experience and research, reporting on what has worked for her and what she believes caused the efficacy.

Feder gives a lively description of migraines, those headaches from hell: "Three days of pain, and another day or two recovering from being wiped out...It was like trying to stay afloat when something was relentlessly pushing me under. Each time I would give up and let the pain close over me." But the key, the topic sentence, is this: "Migraine is a symptom. Pain comes for a reason."