What is a Migraine? Migraine is more than a term for severe headaches. Migraine is a neurological condition in which neurons in the brain react in an excitable, then inflammatory manner to stimuli. The brain’s inflammatory response causes a series of symptoms, including headache. There are four stages to a migraine attack: prodome, aura headache, postdrome, and postdrome.
Prodome Phase
The prodrome phase – This is the premigraine stage. Pre-migraine can last from a few hours to a few weeks. Early warning signs include fatigue, difficulty concentrating and stiff neck. The Headache Phase – This stage is most familiar to most people – the headache. The pain can last from hours to days. The pain is usually one-sided, throbbing in feeling, and moderate to severe. It is important to remember that not everyone experiences the headache phase.
The post-migraine phase is called the “Postdrome Phase”. Some people feel “hungover” or “severely drained”. These feelings can last anywhere from a few hours up to several days. There are many types of migraines. However, most people think of migraines as having two main types: those with aura and those that aren’t. Many people believe that migraines must have aura symptoms. This is false.
Aura Migraine Signs
A migraine without aura is a headache that occurs frequently and lasts from 4 hours to 72 hours. These migraines are often experienced by people who have throbbing (pulsating) pain that is located on one side of their head. It is not uncommon to experience nausea and sound or light sensitivity. Routine physical activity does not make this type of headache worse. This is an important distinction. The most common migraines are those without auras. These migraines are more frequent and more severe. There may be a link between migraines that don’t have auras and menstruation.
Excessive use of pain medication is a major problem in migraines that don’t have auras. This can cause rebound headaches. Migraine auras can be described as a person who sees halos around objects and people before they experience a migraine. This definition is too restrictive. An aura is a symptom that develops over five to twenty minutes. Each symptom must last no more than sixty seconds. This means that “aura”, which is not a synonym for pre-migraine symptoms, does not refer to a single symptom. It refers to a stage of a migraine attack.
Common Aura Symptoms
Aura symptoms can include vision, sensory, and speech problems. Visual symptoms include flickering lights and loss of vision. Others report seeing “chickenwire,” “bugs,” and “clouds”. Perception and descriptions will vary from one person to the next. Auditory symptoms can include difficulty hearing, hearing things that aren’t there, and other sound distortions. Sensory symptoms include numbness, prickly sensations and feeling unsteady on your feet. Speech disturbance can take many forms, but most commonly it involves difficulty speaking or recalling certain words. These symptoms can develop and then disappear completely.
Migraine Headaches
Migraine headaches seems common, but precisely what is it? Migraines are much various from a normal headache or a headache due to tension. They’re usually felt privately of the top and the discomfort can range between mild to severe. But not popular, the migraine headache is section of a larger condition referred to as migraine. A migraine strike usually gets the symptom of a headaches, but range from numerous others. An attack can final from a few hours to some days.
Many people have problems with migraines. Actually, approximately 28 million Americans have problems with migraine attacks; that’s 12 % of the complete population. Migraines usually do not discriminate by age group; however, they appear most regularly among 20 to 40 season olds. Men and women endure from migraines, however in america women are three instances more likely to have problems with migraines than men do.
Research Info
Numerous researchers think that some people will be suffering from migraines, if it runs within their family. Although some folks are predisposed to episodes, there are several known triggers that may bring them on. Everyone’s encounters with migraines differ, nonetheless they share most of the same symptoms. Typical outward indications of a migraine strike are severe, throbbing pain generally using one side of the top, nausea sometimes associated with vomiting and sensitivity to lighting, sound and odor.
Some individuals can experience a visible disturbance also referred to as an aura. An aura make a difference all the senses, but generally shows up visually as flashes of lighting, what looks like temperature waves passing across your industry of vision, or zigzag styles that shift across your eyesight. Other outward indications of a migraine strike include loss of appetite, exhaustion, dizziness, sensations to be hot or cold and occasionally although rarely a fever may appear.
Migraine Attacks Facts
Migraine attacks occur usually to the sufferer, usually monthly. Researchers think that migraine sufferers are usually ultra delicate to migraine triggers. Triggers range from different foods, hormonal elements, or the environment. Triggers change from sufferer to sufferer, nevertheless, there are several triggers that are more prevalent than others are. Some typically common triggers are usually chocolate, MSG, skipped meals, insomnia, menstruation, stress, depression, weather adjustments, motion, strong odors, histamines, as well as anti-asthma medications.
It is very important be familiar with your triggers so that you can avoid them. Although staying away from triggers can reduce the frequency of migraines, seldom does it eradicate them entirely. Treatment for migraines will change, although it ought to be tailored for you as everyone’s knowledge with migraines differ. You can find different medications a health care provider can prescribe.
About Prevention
Some medicines are preventative, which is taken regularly to lower the amount of attacks that start. Additional medications could be prescribed for whenever a migraine has currently begun, in order to decrease the pain, although these seldom work completely. Nevertheless, the nearer to the start of the strike that you take the medicine the more effective it’ll be killing the pain. Make sure to discuss your choices with your doctor thoroughly to discover what is greatest for you.
