What You Should Know About Migraine Headaches

Are you experiencing severe headaches? Is the pain causing disturbances like discomfort and restlessness? Then, perhaps you might be suffering from migraine headaches. For those people who are experiencing from this kind of headache, it’s the searing pain that causes them to feel uneasiness, irritability, depression, etc. And this sometimes keeps them from doing the works and chores they normally do everyday.

But we could stop migraine from disrupting our daily lives; all we need is to learn all the things we should know about it, what usually triggers it and how we can avoid frequent attacks.

What really is Migraine?

In general, migraine headaches are the form of headache that is usually very intense and disabling; migraine is a typical neurologic disease. It is also considered as the most common type of vascular headache.

Usually, migraine headaches are characterized by severe pain on one or both side of the head, an upset stomach and at times, disturbed vision.

According to studies, women experience migraine headaches at least three times more often than men do; this is believed to due to hormonal influences. It is also believed that migraine headaches usually occur in childhood but generally strike in the twenties or thirties. Estimates also have it that at least approximately 29.5 million people in the United States suffer from migraine headaches; among these, four out of five reported a family history of migraine headache. There is no scientific proof about migraine headaches and genetic or family predisposition being related, however.

Kinds of Migraine Headaches

Mostly, migraine headaches may last for hours or worse for few days. Most migraine headaches sufferers also suffer two to four headaches per month. Migraine headaches may began at any time at the day of night; a sufferer may wake up with migraine headache though this can rarely awaken someone from sleep.

To help ease the pain, there are lots of medicines available; it would therefore help to know what kind of migraine headaches you have so you’ll know how to treat them.

• Migraine with Aura – this can be a manifestation of neurological symptoms; usually, a patient with this kind of migraine experience seeing wavy or jagged lines, dots or flashing lights, tunnel visions or blind spots, disruptions in smell.
• Hemiplegic Migraine – this is severe type of migraine with aura; often begins with temporary motor paralysis and/or secondary disturbances on side of the body followed by a headache that lasted for about an hour.
• Opthalmoplegic Migraine – this is also a rare and severe migraine; here, the pain usually surrounds the eyeball and lasts for few days to a few months.
• Retinal Migraine – this starts with a temporary, partial, or complete loss of vision in one eye and then followed by a dull ache that may spread to the rest of the head.
• Basilar Artery Migraine - this migraine is accompanied by dizziness, confusion or lack of balance.
• Abdominal Migraine – the pain here is felt in the abdomen; symptoms usually include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Symptoms

It has been always said that “prevention is better than cure”; and indeed it is easy to avoid any ailment than when they’ve already started disturbing you. But, if it has started and can’t be prevented, the next best thing you can do is to know the symptoms so can get cure or treatments immediately.

• Dull headaches – this is how a migraine headache usually begins which then develops into a constant throbbing and pulsating pain that you may feel at the temples as well as the front or back of one side of the head.
• Nausea and vomiting – which is usually triggered by being sensitive to light and noise.

Now that you know about the kinds and types of migraine headaches and its symptoms, it is now easy for you to find the right treatment and prevention to avoid frequent and sever attacks. It is also advisable that you find out your personal triggers and what factors triggers your migraine headaches.