Migraine is a common health condition. It affects around 1 in every 5 women and around 1 in every 15 men. They usually begin in early adulthood. A migraine is usually a moderate or severe headache felt as a throbbing pain on one side of the head.
Background. Headache affects 90–99% of the population. Based on the question “Do you think that you never ever in your whole life have had a headache?” 4% of the population say that they have never experienced a headache.
Genetics play a big role in migraine. This means that it is often inherited in families. It is estimated that up to 60% of the reason people get migraine is because of their genes. These genes make people more sensitive to changes in their environment such as lifestyle factors and triggers that can bring on an attack.
Light and sound can make migraine pain worse. Relax in a dark, quiet room. Sleep if you can. Try temperature therapy.
One aspect of migraine pain theory explains that migraine pain happens due to waves of activity by groups of excitable brain cells. These trigger chemicals, such as serotonin, to narrow blood vessels. Serotonin is a chemical that's needed for nerve cells to communicate.
If you have them at least 15 days a month, you have chronic migraine. If you have fewer than 15 a month but more than one a year, you have occasional migraine. For some, these attacks can go into either partial or full remission: Partial remission happens when people with chronic migraine suddenly get fewer of them.
Alcohol and caffeine can bring them on, as can foods like cheese, chocolate, artificial sweeteners, cured meats, and things with a strong smell. Don't skip meals. Being hungry to the point that you feel shaky can bring on a migraine.
Migraines, which often begin in childhood, adolescence or early adulthood, can progress through four stages: prodrome, aura, attack and post-drome. Not everyone who has migraines goes through all stages.
A migraine tends to be a very bad headache with a throbbing pain on 1 side of the head. You may get other symptoms just before a migraine, such as: feeling very tired and yawning a lot. craving certain foods or feeling thirsty.
Any child can get a migraine. About 10% of children age 5-15 and up to 28% of teens get them. Half of people who get migraines have their first attack before age of 12. Migraines have even been reported in children as young as 18 months!
Women are three times more likely than men to have migraines. Hormonal changes. For women who have migraines, headaches might begin just before or shortly after onset of menstruation. They might also change during pregnancy or menopause.
Most people experience migraine episodes 2-4 times a month while others may only have 1-2 episodes a year. Migraines can be classified into distinct categories based on the number of episodes: Acute or episodic migraine: 1-14 of fewer migraine headaches a month.
“Migraine aura without headache”—previously known as “acephalgic migraine” and sometimes called “silent migraine”—is when someone has a migraine aura without any head pain. Despite a lack of head pain, migraine aura without headache is still disabling for those who live with it.
Silent migraines, also called acephalgic migraines or migraine without headaches, are the types of migraines that do not involve the typical head pain. Instead, people with silent migraines experience other symptoms such as aura (visual disturbances), dizziness, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound.
Migraines can be debilitating, but for some people who experience auras with their headaches, they could be a marker for a more serious danger — an increased risk for stroke.
A migraine feels like a throbbing or pounding pain that tends to be worse on one side of the head. You may also have symptoms like nausea, vomiting, numbness, chills, and sensitivity to light or sound. A migraine can typically last anywhere from 6 hours to 2 days.
For those having a severe migraine episode, the shift from headache to postdrome can be difficult to identify. The pain can manifest itself into areas of the body not previously affected: stiffness in the neck and shoulders, tenderness in the scalp and dizziness are common “migraine hangover” symptoms.
Stress as a trigger for migraine attackes is present in nearly 70% of individuals 13. High levels of stress are reported in migraine patients, particularly in those suffering from chronic daily migraine 14.
Going to sleep with an untreated migraine is commonly a mistake as it may worsen during the night and become difficult to treat in the morning. If a migraineur is sleep deprived, he or she can expect more migraines, while those who oversleep may wake with attacks that are very resistant to therapy.
There is good evidence that a major cause of migraine is sensitivity to specific foods. Certain foods are well known to trigger migraine. Sometimes referred to as 'the five Cs', these are: chocolate, cheese, claret (and other red wines), coffee (and other sources of caffeine) and citrus fruits.
The headache portion of an attack can last from four hours to three days. An entire migraine attack—including prodrome, aura, headache and postdrome—may last anywhere from a bit more than one day to slightly more than a week at its very longest, though this is not typical.
Researchers believe the fatigue that often accompanies migraine is not because of the toll pain takes on us. Rather, the evidence points to fatigue being part of migraine pathophysiology, which is defined as the functional bodily changes produced by the disease.
Conditions that may cause it include: Inflammation or other problems with the blood vessels in and around the brain. Strokes, in which blood vessels in the brain a blocked, reducing blood flow to the brain. Infections, including meningitis.
While a brain scan may seem like the way to get answers, most of the time, these imaging tests are not needed to look for the cause of headache. For primary headache disorders like migraine, imaging is unable to identify the cause.