Migraines And Headaches

A migraine is a complaint that is quite often suffered by other family members, all of which have probably been experiencing them from a young age. For many who suffer severe attacks, bed rest is the only option but normally with medication, the pain starts to subside within four hours or so. It is a debilitating condition that leaves its victims feeling weakened and exhausted even when the pain has subsided.

One thing that is still unknown is why some people have much more frequent attacks than others. Some symptoms seem to be consistent with most victims; those of a feeling like those associated with cold or influenza and a problem with bright lights. Migraine can affect people from as young as ten and up to the age of forty; in almost every instance however, attacks usually diminish or end in later adult life usually once the person is over 50 years old.

Members of the same family are often cursed with migraine and there is believed to be a hereditary link; however, science has not yet proved that there is a genetic factor at work. One area that does seem to have a connection is the medical condition where the blood vessels in the head can become swollen. With this condition, women do not fare as well as men with a ratio of 3 to 1 suffering from the condition regularly; only one in twelve men will experience an attack in their lives.

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. There are many warning indicators of the attack:

* Queasiness
* Vision is affected
* Strange sounds or smell
* Problems with speech

this is only a short list as other symptoms are also experienced. Some of these indications are symptoms felt by those who have the most common variant of the condition, migraines without aura; this also includes nausea which can be aggravated by movement, noise and light which is the reason most sufferers lie quietly on a bed in a darkened room.

Science is still trying to discover the reason for migraines and why some people are more susceptible to the condition than others although one theory has suggested that contracted blood vessels in the brain may be the cause. It might be that it is the expansion of the blood vessels afterwards that causes the headache; it can actually incapacitate the victim so they cannot perform even routine tasks. The range of possible triggers that create an attack is huge; the most common are listed below:

* Bad weather
* Certain types of food
* High altitude
* Certain beverages i.e. coffee
* Strong bright lights
* Poor sleep patterns
* Stress

Only by carefully documenting everything that was going on prior to the attack can the victim hope to find out what starts the attacks off.