Have you wondered to yourself what migraines are but you don’t know who to ask? Well, you have come to the place where all your questioconcerning migraines will be addressed. Read through this guide for all the answers you seek.
What Is Migraine?
In simple terms, a migraine is a headache that can cause severe excruciating pain or a pulsing feeling, usually on one side of the head. Migraine attacks may cause severe, debilitating pain for hours to days, necessitating the need to retreat to a dark, quiet place.
A migraine headache is often accompanied by additional symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound. About one-third of affected people can predict the start of a migraine because they experience sensory warning symptoms (also called “aura”). These early-warning symptoms may include flashes of light, blind spots, zig-zag lines, temporary loss of vision, or tingling in the arm or leg.
What Causes Migraines?
Researchers still have not figured out what the causes of migraines are. However, migraines could include disorders in nerve pathways and brain chemicals that affect blood vessels near the brain’s surface. The blood vessels swell, sending pain to the brain stem (an area that processes pain information). Meanwhile, it is necessary to know that a genetic predisposition to migraine may exist, as it often ruin families.
Recurring migraine attacks are caused by a number of different triggers. Recognizing and recording individual triggers in a headache diary or calendar may be useful in helping to prevent future attacks.
What are the types of migraines?
There are several types of migraines, and the same type may go by different names:
- Migraine with aura (complicated migraine): Around 15% to 20% of people with migraine headaches experience an aura.
- Migraine without aura (common migraine): This type of migraine headache strikes without the warning an aura may give you. The symptoms are the same, but that phase doesn’t happen.
- Migraine without head pain: “Silent migraine” or “acephalgic migraine,” as this type is also known, includes the aura symptom but not the headache that typically follows.
- Hemiplegic migraine: You’ll have temporary paralysis (hemiplegia) or neurological or sensory changes on one side of your body. The onset of the headache may be associated with temporary numbness, extreme weakness on one side of your body, a tingling sensation, a loss of sensation, and dizziness or vision changes. Sometimes it includes head pain and sometimes it doesn’t.
- Retinal migraine (ocular migraine): You may notice a temporary, partial, or complete loss of vision in one of your eyes, along with a dull ache behind the eye that may spread to the rest of your head. That vision loss may last a minute, or as long as months. You should always report a retinal migraine to a healthcare provider because it could be a sign of a more serious issue.
- Chronic migraine: A chronic migraine is when migraine occurs at least 15 days per month. The symptoms may change frequently, and so may the severity of the pain. Those who get chronic migraines might be using headache pain medicatiomore than 10 to 15 days a month and that, unfortunately, can lead to headaches that happen even more frequently.
- Migraine with brainstem aura. With this migraine, you’ll have vertigo, slurred speech, double vision, or loss of balance, which occur before the headache. The headache pain may affect the back of your head. These symptoms usually occur suddenly and can be associated with the inability to speak properly, ringing in the ears, and vomiting.
- Status migrainosus. This is a rare and severe type of migraine that can last longer than 72 hours. The headache pain and nausea can be extremely bad. Certain medications, or medication withdrawal, can cause you to have this type of migraine.
Symptoms of migraine tend to occur in stages
Before the headache: following research, stated that about 30% of people with migraine experience symptoms that start hours or days before the headache.
Prodrome
At this stage, a person might experience a “prodrome,” which may involve emotional changes, specifically depression and irritability. A prodrome can also include
- Yawning
- Dizziness
- Thirst
- Constipation
- Mood changes from depression to euphoria
- Food cravings
- Neck stiffness
- Increased urination
- Fluid retention
- frequent urination
- sensitivity to light and sound.
Sometimes an aura can occur.
This involves physical or sensory symptoms, such as flashing lights in the field of vision.
During the headache: Alongside a mild to severe, throbbing, or pulsing headache, symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, neck pain, dizziness, and nasal congestion.
Resolution
After the headache, tiredness and irritability may last another 2 days. This is sometimes called the “migraine hangover.” in this stage, you might feel drained, confused, and washed out for up to a day. Some people report feeling ecstatic. The abrupt head movement might bring on the pain again briefly.
Other common features of migraine are:
- head pain that worseduring physical activity or straining
- an inability to perform regular activities due to the pain
- increased sensitivity to light and sound that can sometimes be relieved by lying quietly in a darkened room
Other sigmay include sweating, feeling unusually hot or cold, a stomach ache, and diarrhea.
Migraine triggers
There are a number of migraine triggers, including:
- Hormonal changes in women. Instabilities of estrogen, such as before or during menstrual periods, pregnancy, and menopause, seem to trigger headaches in many women.
- Hormonal medications, such as oral contraceptives, also can aggravate migraines. Although in some cases, few women find that their migraines occur less often when taking these medications.
- These include alcohol, especially wine, and too much caffeine, such as coffee.
- Stress at work or home can cause migraines.
- Sensory stimuli. Bright or flashing lights can induce migraines, as can loud sounds. Strong smells — such as perfume, paint thinner, secondhand smoke, and others — trigger migraines in some people.
- Sleep changes. inadequate sleep or getting too much sleep can trigger migraines in some people.
- Physical factors. Intense physical exertion, including sexual activity, might provoke migraines.
- Weather changes. A change of weather or barometric pressure can prompt a migraine.
- Oral contraceptives and vasodilators, such as nitroglycerin, can aggravate migraines.
- Aged cheeses and salty and processed foods might trigger migraines. Sometimes, skipping meals might trigger migraines.
- Food additives. These include the sweetener aspartame and the preservative monosodium glutamate (MSG), found in many foods.
Treatment
Sadly, there is no cure for migraine. However, medicatiocan treat the symptoms when they arise, and people can take steps to reduce the frequency and severity of episodes. But keep in mind that these medicatiocan have side effects.
Medications
Pain relief and other types of medication can often help. Taking medication as soon as symptoms start may keep them from becoming severe.
Some over-the-counter pain relief medicatiothat may benefit people with migraine include:
- naproxen (Aleve)
- ibuprofen (Advil)
- acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Other optioinclude:
- triptans, such as sumatriptan (Imitrex), to help reverse the brain changes that occur during an episode
- antiemetics to manage any nausea and vomiting
- gepants to block a protein involved in inflammation and pain called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)
- ditans, which interact with 5-HT1F receptors on the sensory nerves and blood vessels
It is important to avoid overusing medication because overuse can cause a rebound headache. A healthcare professional can help a person decide how much of each medication is safe and effective.
However, If you have frequent migraine attacks, if your attacks do not respond consistently to migraine-specific treatments, or if acute medicatioare ineffective or cannot be used because of other medical problems, then preventive treatment may be prescribed.
Certain drugs originally developed for epilepsy, depression, or high blood pressure has been shown to be effective in preventing migraine attacks. Botulinum toxin A, which is injected into muscles in the head and neck, has also been shown to be effective in the prevention of chronic migraine.
How are migraines diagnosed?
To diagnose a migraine, your healthcare provider will get a thorough medical history, not just your history of headaches but your family’s, too. Also, they’ll want to establish a history of your migraine-related symptoms, likely asking you to:
- Describe your headache symptoms. How severe are they?
- Remember when you get them. During your period, for example?
- Describe the type and location of your pain. Is the pain pounding? Pulsing? Throbbing?
- Remember if anything makes your headache better or worse.
- Tell me how often you get migraine headaches.
- Talk about the activities, foods, stressors, or situatiothat may have brought on the migraine.
- Discuss what medicatioyou take to relieve the pain and how often you take them.
- Tell me how you felt before, during, and after the headache.
- Remember if anyone in your family gets migraine headaches.
Your healthcare provider may also order blood tests and imaging tests (such as a CT scan or an MRI) to make sure there are no other causes for your headache.
Conclusion
Finally, a Migraine is a medical condition that involves a headache and other symptoms. It is not just a bad headache, and it can have a significant impact on daily life, making it difficult to work and do everyday activities.