A migraine gives you unbearable pain, pulsing sensation usually at one side of the head. It is caused by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Due to migraine, your daily life may be affected and can last for hours to days.
The symptom occurs in the form of a warning known as aura before or with the headache. An aura can include visual disturbances, such as flashes of light or blind spots, or other disturbances, such as tingling on one side of the face or in an arm or leg and difficulty speaking.
If somebody wants to heal from migraine then meditation can be helpful for them. It reduces the pain of migraine and makes it less painful. Along with this, right medicines, change in lifestyle and combined it with some effective home remedies might be helpful in migraine.
Table of Contents
What Are Migraine Headache Symptoms?
The symptoms of migraine can occur at the starting stage if somebody can detect it. It can start in childhood adolescence or early adulthood, can progress through four stages: prodrome, aura, attack and post-drome. Not everyone who has migraines goes through all stages.
Here, we are describing symptoms of migraine in brief. Those who want to get details about migraine symptoms are advised to go through the content mentioned below.
Prodrome
At the starting of migraine or before 1 or 2 days, you may notice some symptoms stated below. If you experience this kind of symptoms then might be you are going to suffer from migraine.
- Constipation
- Mood changes, from depression to euphoria
- Food cravings
- Neck stiffness
- Increased thirst and urination
- Frequent yawning
Aura
Aura might occur before or during migraine for some people. It is reversible symptoms of migraine. Commonly, they are visual but it may also include some other symptoms and disturbance too. Each symptom usually begins gradually, builds up over several minutes and lasts for 20 to 60 minutes.
Examples of migraine aura include:
- Visual phenomena, such as seeing various shapes, bright spots or flashes of light
- Vision loss
- Pins and needles sensations in an arm or leg
- Weakness or numbness in the face or one side of the body
- Difficulty speaking
- Hearing noises or music
- Uncontrollable jerking or other movements
Attack
Usually, migraine lasts for 72 hours if untreated. Otherwise, it varies from person to person. It may affect you many times in a month or strike you several times in a month. Once, it strikes then lasts for a long time. During a migraine, you may suffer from these following symptoms:-
- The pain usually on one side of your head, but often on both sides
- Pain that throbs or pulses
- Sensitivity to light, sound, and sometimes smell and touch
- Nausea and vomiting
Post-drome
After the migraine attack, you may feel some headache drained, confused and washed out for up to a day. Even, some peoples feel pain while moving their neck from left to right or up to down. Some people report feeling elated. The sudden head movement might bring on the pain again briefly.
When To See A Doctor
Well, there is no treatment for migraine to destroy it completely if anyone is suffering from it. But still, if you are suffering from migraine attacks then keep a record it. Along with this, note how you treat it forget over it. After that, make an appointment with a doctor and visit them. Tell to doctor about your headaches and migraine, they will definitely give you the correct treatment.
Additionally, it will be better if you have a history of your headache and family. Visit your doctor immediately and discuss all over it. It may be a serious problem for you and give you unbearable pain.
- An abrupt, severe headache like a thunderclap
- Headache with fever, stiff neck, mental confusion, seizures, double vision, weakness, numbness or trouble speaking
- Headache after a head injury, especially if the headache worsens
- A chronic headache that is worse after coughing, exertion, straining or a sudden movement
- New headache pain after age 50
Causes
Well, migraine doesn’t have proper reasons but family genetics, environment, atmosphere surrounds you plays an important role in it.
Changes in the brainstem and its interactions with the trigeminal nerve, a major pain pathway, might be involved. So might imbalances in brain chemicals — including serotonin, which helps regulate pain in your nervous system.
Researchers are studying the role of serotonin in migraines. Other neurotransmitters play a role in the pain of migraine, including calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP).
Migraine Triggers
There are various kinds of migraine triggers. Some of them have been explained below.
Hormonal changes in women- Sometimes, at the time of menstrual periods, pregnancy, and menopause; there are hormonal changes in huge number. Due to this, some woman can suffer from migraine triggers. It can also happen at the time of fluctuations in estrogen.
Hormonal medications, such as oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, also can worsen migraines. Some women, however, find their migraines occurring less often when taking these medications.
Drinks- Those persons who take alcohol, especially wine, and too much caffeine, such as coffee may face migraine triggers.
Stress- Stress at work or home can cause migraines.
Sensory stimuli- Bright lights and sun glare can induce migraines, as can loud sounds. Strong smells — including perfume, paint thinner, secondhand smoke and others — trigger migraines in some people.
Sleep changes- Missing sleep, getting too much sleep or jet lag can trigger migraines in some people.
Physical factors- Intense physical exertion, including sexual activity, might provoke migraines.
Weather changes- A change of weather or barometric pressure can prompt a migraine.
Medications- Oral contraceptives and vasodilators, such as nitroglycerin, can aggravate migraines.
Foods- Aged cheeses and salty and processed foods might trigger migraines. So might skipping meals or fasting.
Food additives- These include the sweetener aspartame and the preservative monosodium glutamate (MSG), found in many foods.
Risk Factors
There are many factors which make you positive prone to having a migraine. Some of these are stated here…
Family history- If there is any person from your family is affected by a migraine then you have very high chances of developing migraine symptoms.
If you have a family member with migraines, then you have a good chance of developing them too.
Age- Migraines can begin at any age, though the first often occurs during adolescence. Migraines tend to peak during your 30s and gradually become less severe and less frequent in the following decades.
Sex- Women are three times more likely to have migraines.
Hormonal changes- For women who have migraines, headaches might begin just before or shortly after the onset of menstruation. They might also change during pregnancy or menopause. Migraines generally improve after menopause.
Complications
When someone suffering from migraine takes combination painkillers, such as Excedrin Migraine for more than 10 days, a month, for more than three months or in higher doses can trigger serious medication-overuse headaches.
This same condition is also applies on if you take aspirin or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) for more than 15 days a month or triptans, sumatriptan (Imitrex, Tosymra) or rizatriptan (Maxalt), for more than nine days a month.
Medication-overuse headaches occur when medications stop relieving pain and begin to cause headaches. You then use more pain medication, which continues the cycle.
Diagnosis
Doctors start your migraine treatment with the help of diagnosis on the basis of your medical history, symptoms, and a physical and neurological examination. These doctors are well-trained for the treatment of headaches (neurologist).
If your migraine occurs in serious condition or you are suffering from unusual, complex or suddenly becomes severe, tests to rule out other causes for your pain might include:
Your doctor may suggest you do the following tests:
MRI: An MRI is used for getting complete details of the brain and vessels. MRI is a scanning machine from which strong powerful magnetic field and radio waves are reflected and pass through the body. With the help of MRI, doctors detect diagnose tumors, strokes, bleeding in the brain, infections, and other brain and nervous system (neurological) conditions.
CT scan: A CT scan help doctors to detect diagnose tumors, infections, brain damage, bleeding in the brain and other possible medical problems that may be causing headaches. It uses a series of X-rays to create detailed cross-sectional images of the brain.
Migraine Headache Treatment
There is no proper and exact treatment for migraine. Doctors have not yet been able to find an accurate treatment to eliminate migraine. But, they have found the treatment of stopping and preventing Migraine Headache attacks. There are many medicines and other things have been developed to prevent the attacks of treatment. Yoga is good for us and regular yoga might help you to get some relief from chronic migraine pain.
This treatment has divided into two categories. Those who want to know are advised to move below the page.
Pain-relieving medications:
Pain-relieving medication is also known as an acute or abortive treatment. In this treatment, the patient has given different types of drugs which are designed to stop migraine attacks.
Preventive medications:
Patients have to take these drugs on a regular basis if they want to prevent migraine attacks.
Your treatment choice totally depends on the frequency and severity of your headaches, whether you have nausea and vomiting with your headaches, how disabling your headaches are, and other medical conditions you have.
Medications For Relief
The medicines used in the treatment of migraine firstly to get relief from the very first sign and symptoms. After that, when symptoms and signs of migraine increases, then these following medicines include for the treatment:
Pain Relievers
It includes aspirin or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others), are over-the-counter or prescription pain relievers. But after the overdose, it causes medication-overuse headaches, and possibly ulcers and bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract.
Triptans
Triptans are safe drugs and prescribed for the prevention of symptoms and attacks of migraine. Sumatriptan (Imitrex, Tosymra) and rizatriptan (Maxalt) are these kinds of drugs which stops pain pathways in the brain. These are taken as pills shots or nasal sprays, they can relieve many symptoms of migraine. They might not be safe for those at risk of a stroke or heart attack.
Dihydroergotamines (D.H.E. 45, Migranal)
If the patient is suffering from the starting of migraine that tends to last longer than 24 hours then these are beneficial and can be taken as nasal spray or injection. It includes side-effects also like vomiting and nausea.
People who have coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, or kidney or liver disease are advised to avoid dihydroergotamine.
Opioid Medications
Those migraine patients who have used all treatments and medicines but not are effective, Opioid Medications has designed only for them. Along with this, peoples who are not able to take another medication narcotic opioid medications, especially those that contain codeine, might help.
Anti-Nausea Drugs
It includes chlorpromazine, metoclopramide (Reglan) or prochlorperazine (Compro). If your migraine with aura is accompanied by nausea and vomiting then doctors suggest you take it. These are usually taken with pain medications.
Preventive Medications
If your migraine is not curing by several treatments then doctors suggest you preventive medications. When patients feel frequent, long-lasting or severe headaches that don’t respond well to treatment then only medication is the way to get cure from it.
With the help of preventive medications, blood pressure can maintain, attacks and symptoms can stop. These following options are including:
Blood Pressure-Lowering Medications
If any patient is feeling migraines with aura then doctors suggest Blood pressure-lowering Medications. It includes beta-blockers such as propranolol (Inderal, Innopran XL, others) and metoprolol tartrate (Lopressor), calcium channel blockers such as verapamil (Calan, Verelan, others).
Antidepressants
A tricyclic antidepressant (amitriptyline), can prevent migraines. Because of the side effects of amitriptyline, such as sleepiness and weight gain, other antidepressants might be prescribed instead.
Anti-Seizure Drugs
Valproate (Depacon) and topiramate (Topamax) are the drugs which can help you to have less frequent migraines attacks. But with the over-dose of it, it can cause you side effects such as dizziness, weight changes, nausea and more.
Botox Injections
If you have injections of onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox) about every 12 weeks then it can help you to prevent migraines in some adults.
Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies
Food and Drug Administration has approved new drugs for the treatment of migraines such as Erenumab-aooe (Aimovig), fremanezumab-vfrm (Ajovy) and galcanezumab-gnlm. Patients have to take these drugs monthly by injection. The most common side effect is a reaction at the injection site.
What Should Be Lifestyle Of Migraine Patient And Explain Home-Remedies Also?
Well, medicines are common that patients have to take at any cost for the prevention of migraine. The medicines are at one side, but little change in daily lifestyle and by following some effective home-remedies is also the best thing to prevent from migraine problem.
If you feel attacks of migraine at the starting stage and you detect it then search quite and darkroom in your home first. Now, close your eyes and take a long breath, do rest and take power-nap for a while. Put a cool cloth or ice pack on your forehead or at the back of your neck.
Some other home-remedies have been explained below. Have a look!!!
Try Relaxation Techniques
Join some relaxation sessions and biofeedback will make you able to deal with stressful situations. Moreover, it will also teach you to reduce the number of migraines you have.
Develop a Sleeping and Eating Routine
Set a daily routine of sleeping and eating. Try to follow this routine on the exact time. Don’t sleep too much or too little and don’t eat too much at one time. Take small meals at the same time daily.
Drink Plenty of Fluids
Staying hydrated, particularly with water, might help.
Keep a Headache Diary
Make notes of your headache attacks in a diary. Take this diary along with you at the meeting to your doctor. Discuss it with him/her. It will help you and to the doctor to understand properly about what triggers your migraines and what treatment is most effective.
Exercise Regularly
Aerobics are very effective to prevent migraine. If your doctor allows you to choose an aerobic activity you enjoy, such as walking, swimming and cycling. Warm-up slowly, however, because sudden, intense exercise can cause headaches. Regular exercise can also help you lose weight or maintain healthy body weight, and obesity is thought to be a factor in migraines.
Alternative Medicine
There are alternative medicines also available which can be helpful for you in migraine.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is very effective to reduce pain in migraine. Clinical doctors have approved it also. Acupuncture is the process of treatment in which a practitioner inserts many thin, disposable needles into several areas of your skin at defined points.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback appears to be effective in relieving migraine pain. This relaxation technique uses special equipment to teach you how to monitor and control certain physical responses related to stress, such as muscle tension.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is not effective for all migraine patients. But, it may benefit some people with migraines. In this psychotherapy, patients learn how to behave and thoughts affect how you perceive pain.
Herbs, Vitamins and Minerals
There are some herbs found which are very effective in the treatment of migraine attacks. The herbs named as feverfew and butterbur are very effective to reduce their severity, though study results are mixed. Butterbur isn’t recommended because of safety concerns.
Preparing For Your Appointment
First of all, at the starting stage, you might cure by yourself. But after that, you should visit a doctor for the proper treatment of it. If you are also going to visit a doctor then here, we are discussing what information will help you to make an appointment.
What You Can Do
- Make records of your migraine attacks and symptoms in a diary. Keep these diaries along with your while visiting the doctor. By writing a description of each incident of visual disturbances or unusual sensations, including when they occurred, how long they lasted and what triggered them. A headache diary can help your doctor diagnose your condition.
- Note down all your personal experience like what changes have come in your life and what major stress moments you feel.
- If you are taking any supplement or special diet, vitamins and proteins then tell it to your doctor. It is particularly important to list all the medications you’ve used to treat your headaches.
- If you have any questions then write down it also and ask it.
- Go with your family member or friend if possible. It will help you to remember all the suggestions and advice you receive from the doctor.
Maybe you have this kind of questions given below:-
- What is likely triggering my migraines?
- Are there other possible causes for my migraine symptoms?
- What tests do I need?
- Are my migraines likely temporary or chronic?
- What is the best course of action?
- What are the alternatives to the primary approach that you’re suggesting?
- What changes to my lifestyle or diet do you suggest I make?
- I have these other health conditions. How can I best manage them together?
- Are there printed materials you can give me? What websites do you recommend?
Remember one thing, if you have any questions then don’t feel hesitate to ask.
What To Expect From Your Doctor
Your doctor is likely to ask you questions, including:
- How often do your headaches occur?
- How severe are your symptoms?
- What, if anything, seems to improve your symptoms?
- What, if anything, appears to worsen your symptoms?
- Does anyone else in your family have migraines?
Final Words
We hope that you are satisfied with the information above given. But still, if you have any doubt or question regarding the content above given then you are absolutely free to ask it in the comment box below given. We would love to hear from you and it will be a pleasure for us to solve your query as soon as possible.
