Question - What Is a Migraine?

By John Edward Fox

Head Pain

Migraines have plagued mankind for thousands of years. In 400 B.C., Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, described experiencing flashinglights, followed by excruciating pain throughout his head.

Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Elvis Presley, and Stephen King are only a few famous people that have suffered with this condition.

Migraine Headache

A migraine is a headache that affects different parts of the head, usually accompanied by nausea, light sensitivity,and an aversion to any type of noise.

The onset of migraine headaches usually occurs between five and fortyyears of age.Twice as many adult women suffer from migraines than adult men.

Although many of the migraine headaches in men may be related to somesort of trauma, there are still other possible causes, which include food triggers,stress, environment, and hormonal disturbances.

In many cases, migraines that affect women are hormonal in nature. A vastmajority of women will experience their first migraine headache with their first menstrual cycle. Migraines in women will often occur between two days before the menstrual cycle until two days after.

During pregnancy women tend to have much less migraine symptoms than atany other time, which leads researchers to believe that hormones are a factorin migraines in women.

Children also suffer from migraines, but the symptoms are somewhatdifferent than adult migraines. They may feel abdominal pain, nausea andvomiting, pallor, dizzyness, and confusion. There seems to be fewer instances of pre-migraine episodes, and migraine headaches usually only last one to two hours.

Migraine causes

This condition is vascular in nature, and is caused by vasodilatation ( enlargement of the blood vessels in the head ). This will cause a release of chemical compounds from the nerves that surround the major arteries of the brain. These chemical compounds will then cause inflammation, headache pain,and further enlargement of the blood vessels, which causes increasing levels of pain.

In many cases, there is a pre - migraine episode that may include blurry vision, pulsating zig zag lights, usually on the right side ( but can occur on the left side also ), and numbness or tingling in the hands or feet. In some rare cases, patients have complained of flashing lights on both sides of their vision.

The severity of migraine pain differs from one individual to another, but all other symptoms are usually very similar.

The intervals between migraine attacks vary, and there's no definite way to predict when a migraine headache will occur.There is reason to believe that certain triggers can induce instances of migraines.

Treating migraines can be very problematic, because no two cases are exactly the same. Each migraine headache can have slightly different triggers, symptoms, and treatment options.

There are various medications for migraines available, but there's no evidence that any of these treatments are effective in all cases of migraines.

John Fox lives in New York, and writes articles on health related topics.

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