What is a Migraine Headache?

What exactly is a migraine headache? And how is it different from other types of headaches? Migraine headaches have invading mankind since the early days of human existence.

You can tell if whether or not you've migraine by duration of the attack. A migraine don't go away in a half-hour unless you are very lucky. A migraine can last anywhere from four to seventy-two hours. It is rare for migraine to last seventy-two or more. If your headache last that long, you should be hospitalized.

A migraine isn’t just a headache. Some of the associated migraine headache symptoms are nausea, vomiting, throbbing head pain, sensitivity to lights and sounds, and auras. The aura component is what defines and differentiates a migraine. However, some migraine victims don't get auras. Therefore, it is difficult to treat migraines as no two are quite alike. In other words, a migraineur suffering from his own version of a migraine may never experience the symptoms you may have in every migraine.

Not a single factor can trigger a migraine headache. Generally, it takes a combination of factors such as diet, environment, physical body, and drugs. This proves to be an uphill task to prevent migraine if you try to avoid all the migraine headache triggers. 

Health agencies has no idea exactly how many people suffer from migraines. But as high as 100 million people in the world may have migraines, though that number is definitely on the high end of estimations. Who get migraine headaches? Adults and children. About two-thirds of migraine patients are women.

International Headache Society identified fourteen various types of migraine headaches based on specific diagnostic criteria. Precisely, what factors cause migraine headache, no one knows. There are theories that can explain what cause migraine headache. The most common migraines are the common migraine and the classic migraine. Although both of them are different in terms of aura presence, both result from the dilation, or expansion, of blood vessels that had become constricted due to the release of seratonin. This dilation causes pain in the nerves. Both of them attack occasionally, once or twice a week, but not daily.

About eight percent of migraine sufferers have common migraines or migraines without aura. Common migraines take time to develop. Feelings of anxiety, depression or tiredness often precede the headache. In addition, you may find yourself subject to irritability, sudden cravings or bouts of unexplained yawning before the onset of a common migraine. Once the headache begins, most often you feel the pain on one side of the head. Along with the throbbing and pounding head pain, you may feel nauseous and vomit.

Classic migraine affects fifteen percent of all migraine sufferers. In the early stages of classic migraine, it develops in a more complex way which consists of four stages: prodome, aura, headache, and postdrome.

Prodromal symptoms are somewhat vague. The prodome stage, like the beginning of a common migraine, may begin with feelings of fatigue, irritability, depression, and food cravings especially for carbohydrates and chocolate. The prodome stage takes about twenty four hours before it slides into the aura stage.

The aura stage takes place when the narrowing of blood vessels causes the area of blindness to expand. A faint border surrounding the blind area may increase to cover up to half of your visual field in each eye. In addition, you often encounter visual disturbances such as bright spots, flashing lights, and zigzag lines. Sometimes you also experience numbness or weakness on one side of the body. Generally, this stage lasts anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour, after which the headache phase begins.

The headache starts when the narrowed blood vessels become wider and blood rushes to the brain. At this phase, the headache begins with a severe, throbbing pain on one side of the head. The pain is sharp like a knife. Sometimes the head pain can be disabling. It is common for the sufferers to feel the pain on both sides of the head. During a migraine attack, you cannot tolerate light, sound or physical exertion and seek relief by lying down in a quiet dark room.

The fourth and final stage is the postdrome. At this point, you feel tired to the point of outright fatigue.

Probably two-thirds of people, when they have a migraine, cannot function at a normal level. You should consult your doctor if

• your migraine headaches interfere with your work or family life,

• your headaches get worse, or

• you take medication on a daily basis for migraine headache.

If you've tried all possible ways to stop your migraine but in vain, ask your doctor to formulate an effective migraine headache prevention.