Migraines

A migraine is a severe, painful headache that is often preceded or accompanied by sensory warning signs such as flashes of light, blind spots, tingling in the arms and legs, nausea, vomiting, and increased sensitivity to light and sound. The excruciating pain that migraines bring can last for hours or even days.

Symptoms of Migraines

Anyone who has suffered from migraines understands the excruciating pain it causes, as well as other physical symptoms. However, this is what you think is your first migraine, you may have one if you are experiencing one or multiple of these symptoms:

• The main symptom of a migraine is moderate or severe pain throbbing sensations on one side of the head that get worse when you move
• You are unable to carry on with normal daily activities
• The pain can sometimes be on both sides of the head and may spread down to areas of the face and neck
• Migraines can cause other symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, and sensitivity to sound and light
• Other symptoms that are occasionally experienced: abdominal pain, diarrhea, inability to concentrate, sweating, or feeling either very hot or very cold

Aura is known as warning symptoms to a migraine that roughly one in three people experience. Symptoms of aura include:

• Feeling off balance or dizzy
• Pins and needles or a numbness feeling in one hand that eventually move up to the arm, face, lips, and tongue
• Visual problems: seeing flashing lights, blind spots, or zigzag patterns

Symptoms of migraines can also happen in usually four stages:

1. ‘Prodromal’ (pre-headache): This usually involves changes in energy levels, appetite, behavior, and mood. This stage can happen several days or several hours before the migraine.
2. Aura: Visual problems like previously explained (blind spots or flashes of lights). Aura can last an hour or only five minutes.
3. Headache stage: Pulsating or throbbing pain generally focused on one side of the head. The headache stage is often accompanied by vomiting, nausea, and extreme sensitivity to loud sounds and bright lights. This stage can last for 4-72 hours.
4. Resolution: Headache symptoms and the migraine itself are gradually starting to fade away, and feeling tired for a few days after is normal.

Causes of Migraines

There are many common triggers of migraines that can be physical, emotional, dietary, hormonal, or environmental. Although the exact cause of migraines is unknown, they are thought to be a result of abnormal brain activity that temporarily affects nerve signals in the brain.

Physical triggers:

• Anxiety
• Stress
• Depression
• Shock
• Tension

Emotional triggers:

• Poor posture
• Jet lag
• Low blood sugar
• Poor sleep quality

Dietary triggers:

• Smoking
• Changes in climate
• Television or computer screens
• Bright lights
• Loud noises
• Stuffy rooms

Some medication like the combined birth control pill, hormone replacement therapy, or sleeping tablets can cause migraines.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Migraines

Most likely, during your first visit to the doctor, he/she will perform a physical exam that may include checking your coordination, reflexes, sensations, and vision to rule out other underlying causes of your symptoms.

Your doctor will also ask you questions pertaining to the pain such as if it’s located on one side of your head, prevents you from continuing daily activities, cause nausea or vomiting, makes you sensitive to light and noise, is worse while moving, and is a pulsating pain.

If these symptoms are all accurate, you may be diagnosed with migraines or referred to a specialist if the diagnosis is unclear, treatment isn’t helping, or if you experience chronic migraines (15 days or more each month.)

While there is no cure for migraines, certain treatments can be used both before and during an attack such as:

• Laying in a dark and quiet room
• Eating mild food if nausea begins
• OTC painkillers such as ibuprofen (most effective if taken during the warning signs of a migraine)
• Triptan: a painkiller specifically designed for migraines that are prescribed by your doctor to take with regular OTC painkillers
• Acupuncture