Coping with Migraine Headaches

If you suffer form very painful headaches and have done so since you were young, the chances are you may suffer from migraines which are often experienced by other members of a family group. Anyone who suffers with migraine will tell you they are nothing like a traditional headacheand often require the person to go to bed, subsiding within three to four hours but much longer, days in fact, if no treatment is given.

It is a debilitating condition that leaves its victims feeling weakened and exhausted even when the pain has subsided. There doesn’t seem to be any regularity to the migraine attackseither as one individual might have a number each month whilst another sufferer will only have an attack once a year.

Often other symptoms similar to those of flu may afflict the migraine patient like light sensitivity and chills, along with a feeling of lightheadedness as well. Migraineattacks only seem to affect people within a certain age range; that of just before puberty, around 10 and stop by the time the person has reached about 40 and almost no cases are recorded after the age of 50.

Although members of the same family are often cursed with migraine and there is believed to be a hereditary link, if there is a genetic reason for the attacks, the link has not yet been found. It is pressure from inflamed blood vessels that places pressure on the nerves near the brain that actually causes the awful pain.

Science cannot as yet explain why migraines are more likely to affect women than men with women having three times more chance of having the condition than men who are only likely top have an eight percent chance of ever suffering with the problem. One of the signs - migraine with aura, is characterized by an unusual sensation (aura) that is in occurrence 10 to 30 minutes prior to the head pain.

A number of different warning signs have been exhibited but seem to focus on our main senses but can also include nausea. The most common type of migraine is known as migraine without aura and many of the early indications felt by those who have a warning are symptoms felt by those who have no warning but their condition can be made worse if they are in constant motion.

At the moment the theory that blood vessels leading to the brain become narrower and affect the nerves is the closest science has come to discovering the cause of migraines. This narrowing of vessels then leads to an expansion and this pressure change may be the reason for the migraine, however; all suffers say that the attack knocks them out where they are unable to carry out even the most simple of daily tasks.

There are many factors that can trigger a migraine attack ranging from certain foods, weather, altitude, drinks, bright lights, lack of sleep or food and of course stress.