What are Migraines?
If you have been diagnosed as having migraines, you probably already know how much they can affect your life. A migraine attack can be so severe that it stops you getting on with life. An attack can feel like more than just a headache. You may feel odd beforehand, see dots or flashing lights, get pins and needles, or feel queasy or vomit. There’s no cure that can stop you getting migraines, but they can be treated. Lots of people cope well with migraines for many years, by taking medicine that stops the symptoms of an attack.
Long thought to be a particularly severe type of headache, migraines are now categorized as a neurological disease with a number of causes and a variety of symptoms, ranging from annoying to life-threatening. Unlike regular headaches, which are felt when blood vessels in the head constrict, migraines are felt when they expand. If a migraine sufferer takes medicine for a regular headache, it will only make the pain and other symptoms worse. Those suffering from migraines can experience a wide range of effects, from numbing pain to sensitivity to light, from having difficulty speaking to seeing spots of light, or auras. It is thought that these symptoms are caused by overly-sensitive neurons, firing in a cascade effect at the presentation of a trigger. A number of different triggers can instigate migraines in those susceptible. Some are out of the individual’s control, such as particular weather patterns or phases of the menstrual cycle. Other triggers can be identified and avoided; thes
Migraines are severe headaches, and may cause more than just pain in your head. Migraines can also bring on nausea, changes in vision and sensitivity to light and sound. Migraines can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. While it’s not fully understood what causes migraines, researchers are learning more and more about what happens inside the body when these headaches occur. Migraines don’t just affect adults. In fact, people who suffer from migraines usually develop the condition during childhood or adolescence. Those with a family of history of migraines are more likely to develop the headaches, and women are three times as likely as men to suffer. What Happens When Someone Has a Migraine It’s believed the pain is triggered after a drop in the level of a chemical in the brain called serotonin. The drop in serotonin causes the nervous system to release other chemicals, called neuropeptides, which travel to the outer covering of the brain. These chemicals react with the blood
Migraine is typically a one-sided, throbbing headache, moderate to severe in intensity and associated with light sensitivity or sound sensitivity and nausea or vomiting with headache. Some people have dizziness or visual aura that precedes the headache. What are vestibular migraines? Vestibular migraine is a variant of migraine in which instead of headache being the most predominant feature, dizziness is. Patients usually say that out of nowhere they got extremely dizzy and don’t feel like they’re on even ground. Some describe a spinning or rocking sensation. They have light or sound sensitivity and get nauseous or throw up. Episodes can last minutes to hours, and there’s a chronic form where people have a constant sense of imbalance. In many instances, people have a history of migraine headaches before vestibular migraine shows up. What causes vestibular migraines? We believe they’re an inherited disorder. Patients’ brains are normal on MRI imaging but in the same way that a migraine
Migraines are caused by abnormal brain activity, typically brought on by certain foods, stress, or another trigger. In addition to being painful, the headaches can involve nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms. Some nerve pathways and chemicals in the brain appear to contribute to the symptoms, and it’s this role in the process that the magnetic device is designed to interrupt, says Yousef Mohammad, professor of neurology at Ohio State University Medical Center, who is lead author of the new study. The idea behind the device is that patients will use it when they enter the migraine’s aura phase, a period of visual disturbance that can occur before the headache begins, says Mohammad, who is a consultant for the maker of the device, a California-based medical technology company called Neuralieve. Auras may involve seeing flashing lights, zigzag lines, or other visual hallucinations, or experiencing temporary blind spots, sensitivity to bright light, blurred vision, or eye pain. Further st
