Migraine Headache Symptoms

Symptoms among migraine sufferers vary extremely. You cannot find two sufferers experience exactly the same pain. Many sufferers experience warning signals such as auras before migraines attack. Classic migraines involve the appearance of an aura while common migraines are not generally preceded by an aura.

About one in five experiences aura generally ten to thirty minutes before a classic migraine attack. Visual aura, the most common kind of aura, often consists of bright flashing spots, wavy or jagged lines and a graying out of vision. Consequently, your vision becomes blurred and distorted. These symptoms always last less than one hour.

After the aura ends, the moderate to severe headache typically erupts. The headache begins as a dull ache and develops into throbbing pain. Most sufferers describe the pain as sharp as a knife or pressure like. Along with head pain, you feel nauseous, dizzy, weak or numb on one side of the body, difficult to speak, and tingling sensation on your face or hands. You may even be sensitive to smells or any body movement. During the attack, you can't stand light and sound at all. Once the symptoms subside, you feel washed out and exhausted. That is why migraine can be debilitating.

Oftentimes, you experience the throbbing pain on both sides of the head. If you exercise or perform physical chores, the pain become worse and severe.

How does the throbbing pain come about? During migraine attacks, the blood vessels become inflamed and dilated. Every time your heart beats, the blood vessels stretch which make the pain worse and throbbing or pulsating. In other words, the throbbing pain coordinates with your pulse.

You do not encounter any aura before the common migraines strike. Unlike classic migraines, you often feel the pain on one side of the head especially behind or around one eye. Accompanying symptoms may include mental fuzziness, mood changes, fatigue, unusual retention of fluids, diarrhea, increased urination, nausea, and vomiting. These symptoms may last for three or four days.

Most migraine headaches last for four to seventy-two hours. The frequency of migraines varies widely among individuals. Migraine sufferers normally get two to four headaches per month. Some only get a migraine once or twice a year.