Migraine – symptoms, characteristics, treatment methods

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Migraine is undoubtedly one of the most troublesome ailments when it comes to headaches. Migraine symptoms vary widely, and treating migraine is not always effective, due to the difficulty in identifying the exact causes of its occurrence. While migraine is one of the most common neurological diseases, it is quite wrong to be treated quite lightly, like a simple headache. What should I know about migraines?

1. Migraine is a chronic and incurable disease
2. Migraine is paroxysmal in nature: it often presents with a series of bothersome neurological symptoms. To this day, we do not know for sure what its causes are
3. The most common symptoms accompanying migraine headaches: nausea and nausea, vomiting, photophobia, watery eyes, fainting
4. If you experience migraine-like headaches, do not delay seeing your doctor
5. In the case of a migraine attack, accompanied by disturbances of consciousness or consciousness or progressive paresis of the limbs, it is urgent to call an ambulance
6. More information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Migraine – what is it?

In everyday language, migraine is often used to describe all headaches, which can lead to a lot of confusion. Migraine – or migraine headaches – is a specific type of primary, and therefore spontaneous, headaches that are not related to any other disease. Migraine is paroxysmal: often presents with a set of bothersome neurological symptoms. Interestingly, to this day we do not know for sure what the causes of migraine are – there are many theories about it, but none of them is conclusive.

Migraine is usually not visible to the environment. If you just take your word for it, the pain is so strong that it sometimes requires you to take time off work and close yourself in silence and darkness for several hours. Migraine sufferers are often misunderstood. The phrase “I have migraine” is usually surprising summed up by the statement that “you don’t have a headache”.

Meanwhile, it is worth being aware of the fact that migraine is a chronic disease and incurable. There is no universal cure for it, there are only pharmacological preventive and painkillers, which, unfortunately, are not reimbursed by the National Health Fund. At the moment, migraine cannot be cured once and for all – so it is chronic.

Do you suffer from migraines? Talk to your doctor about your symptoms. You can do this during an online visit and receive an e-Referral and e-Prescription without leaving your home.

Migraine – types

Migraine is not a homogeneous disease – it may have different origins and manifestations in different patients in different ways. Usually it stands out the two main types of migraine:

1. Migraine with aura. Its characteristic feature is short-term visual disturbances preceding the pain attack. Patients describe them as bright zigzags, bright spots obscuring the view, blurring the outlines of objects, a luminous halo surrounding people or shapes resembling the finials of fortifications appearing in the field of view. Migraine aura it can also occur in the form of sensory disturbances, numbness or paresis of the limbs or speech disorders. Migraine with aura affects about 25 percent. all patients’ cases.
2. Migraine without an aura. This type of migraine, much more common, occurring in 75% of of all patients, it is usually limited to attacks of strong, specific headache, sometimes accompanied by other unpleasant symptoms, e.g. from the digestive system.

Some specialists also mention, for example, such types of migraine as:

1. Menstrual migraine or menstrual. This pre-period migraine or during it, without an aura. It manifests itself as a sharp, throbbing headache, sometimes accompanied by nausea and vomiting, as well as photophobia. To confirm whether the period headache is actually a menstrual migraine, it must appear in the next 2-3 cycles.
2. Ocular migraine. This is a rare type of migraine that develops brief (usually no more than 15 minutes), transient, one-sided visual disturbances (unlike migraine with aura, where both eyes are affected by vision problems).
3. Chronic migraine. This term is used for patients who have migraine attacks for at least 15 days a month for 3 consecutive months.
4. Migraine state. This is a condition where one migraine attack lasts longer than 72 hours.

A phenomenon such as abdominal migrainewhere the symptoms are located in the abdomen instead of within the skull. However, most specialists believe that such a condition does not exist and cannot be treated as a migraine.

1. Find out more about ocular migraine.

Migraine – causes and pathomechanism

Although mankind has been struggling with migraine at least since ancient times, it has not been clearly established what exactly causes it to date. It is recognized that the occurrence of migraines it can be multi-factorial: it can be influenced by both genetics and environmental factors.

Many researchers consist primarily of genetic hypothesis. Migraine circulates in families in almost 2/3 of cases. There are too certain hereditary conditionsmanifested by migraine headaches, such as the disease of small vessels of the brain – CADASIL syndrome. What’s more, studies on twin couples show that both siblings are more than 50 percent likely to develop migraines.

It is also not known exactly what it is pathomechanism of migrainethat is – to put it simply – what exactly happens within the skull and what disturbances of the central nervous system occur when a migraine attack occurs. Until recently, two theories on this subject were the most popular:

1. Vascular theory. In this scenario, migraine attacks when there is a contraction and relaxation of the intracranial arteries, causing a kind of swelling. The pain would then be associated with this swelling and with excessive blood flow in the brain.
2. The theory of inflammation of the nervous tissue. According to this theory, pain would result – in a nutshell – from irritation of fibers and receptors due to sterile inflammation in the nervous system.

However, as a result of the research, they were found to be incorrect. Today it is said that possibly the cause of migraine is neural depolarization, which activates the pain neurons of the trigeminal nerve, which triggers the peripheral and central symptoms of migraine headaches. However, this is still an unconfirmed hypothesis.

Other researchers point to low levels of serotonin (one of the most important neurotransmitters in the nervous system) as the cause of migraine. How is it really? We don’t know that – there may be a particle of the truth about migraine in each of these theories.

1. Find out what you need to know about migraines during hormone therapy.

Migraine – symptoms

What does migraine look like? The accompanying symptoms can vary greatly from patient to patient, but alone migraine pain is quite specific. While not always the case, it is usually placed in one half of the head (hence its ancient Latin name “hemicrania” – literally “half of the head”), most often behind the eye. Patients describe that the pain at first only slightly “rumbles”, a bit like a storm approaching from a distance. Over time, the throbbing “thumps” become so strong that even the blink of an eyelid causes an avalanche of rhythmic pain that bursts the eye, not to mention movement or physical exertion that initiates a new wave of pain.

If you suffer from severe headaches, try the DuoLife ProMigren dietary supplement. The preparation has natural active ingredients that positively affect the functioning of the central nervous system and increase its resistance to the influence of negative external factors, and thus minimize the risk of headache.

Among the most common symptoms associated with migraine headaches the following can be mentioned:

1. nausea and nausea;
2. vomiting (sometimes occurs for a long time and may lead to dehydration);
3. photophobia;
4. hypersensitivity to stimuli, especially smell or sound;
5. watery eyes;
6. fainting;
7. paralysis of the muscles that move the eyeball (occurs very rarely);
8. vegetative disorders (associated with the malfunctioning of the autonomic nervous system).

In patients who suffer from frequent migraines, migraine episodes is conventionally divided into several stages:

1. pre-emptive or prodromal period – appears a few days or just hours before the migraine attack, and its harbingers are usually a marked drop in mood or mood swings, appetite disturbances, irritability and slight but noticeable hypersensitivity to various sensory stimuli;
2. migraine aura – a set of symptoms specific to an individual patient that precedes a migraine headache; it usually lasts a few or several minutes, although it sometimes lasts up to XNUMX hours (applies to migraines with aura);
3. migraine attack proper (syndromal period);
4. postdromal or post-epileptic period – a set of symptoms that lasts after the headache has subsided, usually consisting of tiredness and weakness and general physical discomfort.

How long does a migraine last? The symptoms associated with a migraine attack usually last from 4 to 72 hours. If the pain has not subsided after this time, it is said to be migraine condition. There is also no rule when it comes to the frequency of migraines. Migraine can occur, for example, twice in a lifetime, it can also occur much more often, but it is irregular, or it can make our lives unpleasant with predictable cyclicality. This type of migraine includes the so-called menstrual migrainewhich is closely related to the menstrual cycle and usually falls out a few days before or about halfway through the period.

Check if you should consult a doctor? Go through the initial medical interview yourself.

Migraine – Triggers

although migraine may be spontaneousunrelated to any external stimuli, many patients see links to various factors that may trigger a migraine attack.

It is said that one of the factors associated with the occurrence of migraines may be female sex hormones. As already mentioned, migraine occurs in women about 3 times more often than in men. What’s more, menstrual migraineand also frequently observed migraine in pregnancy and during menopause appear to indicate that conditions associated with changes in the level of sex hormones in the body are conducive to the onset of migraine.

As for the others triggers of migraines, they can be different – it is a very individual matter. However, the experiences of people who suffer from frequent migraines clearly show that the most common ‘triggers’ of migraine attacks include:

1. stress (as well as relaxation after being under stress for a long time);
2. fatigue;
3. sleep problems – excess or insufficient sleep;
4. certain foods such as red meat, cheese, highly processed foods, foods high in salt;
5. alcohol;
6. drinks containing caffeine;
7. specific scent stimuli, e.g. strong perfume;
8. unsatisfied hunger or thirst for a long time;
9. atmospheric conditions, especially sudden changes in atmospheric pressure;
10. sexual activity.

Migraine can also be linked to other health problems, such as:

1. obesity;
2. endometriosis;
3. severe depression;
4. Miener’s disease;
5. a heart defect called a patent foramen ovale (PFO).

Read also: Migraine from lack of vitamins

Migraine – diagnosis

Diagnosing migraines it is not simple – due to the lack of sufficient data on its pathomechanisms and the proper causes, the diagnosis is based primarily on a thorough medical history. Sometimes, in order to rule out other diseases with similar symptoms (including meningitis or inflammation of the temporal artery), tests such as electroencephalography (EEG) or imaging examinations of the head, e.g. computed tomography of the head, are performed.

You can also perform an MRI of the head, which allows you to visualize all the tissues of the skull.

Migraine – prophylactic treatment

When it comes to treating migraine, we can talk about two types of action:

1. prophylactic treatment;
2. emergency treatment.

Prevention is extremely important for people who experience frequent migraines. While it can be assumed that migraine is unpredictable, a meticulous patient will quickly learn to identify the factors that initiate an attack. It is worth conducting the so-called diary of migraine attacks with a description of accompanying symptoms. Thanks to it, it will be easier to identify the repeating elements in them and eliminate them in the future to prevent the appearance of further migraine attacks. It is worth using prophylactically mint, which is available in the form of freeze-dried organic tea on Medonet Market.

Prophylactic treatment of migraines it can also be pharmacological. Your doctor can prescribe measures to help reduce the risk of further migraine episodes, such as:

1. cardiological drugs: propranolol, flunarizine;
2. antiepileptic drugs: topiramate, valproic acid;
3. antidepressants: amitriptyline.

Pharmacological prophylaxis is introduced when:

1. there are at least two severe migraine attacks each month, making it difficult to function normally;
2. migraines last 3 days or more;
3. symptomatic drugs are contraindicated or ineffective;
4. migraine occurs in the hemiplegic variant (short-term paresis or hemiplegia are felt in parallel with the aura) or the aura is of a type other than visual.

It is worth remembering that prophylactic treatment of migraines it doesn’t bring results overnight – you can usually see them after a few months of taking medication. It is not an analgesic and can be combined with emergency treatment.

Some patients are also helped by various non-pharmacological treatments, such as physical therapy (e.g. light exercise, cold or hot compresses, electrical stimulation), behavioral therapy (e.g. biofeedback), and relaxation therapy. We recommend, for example, Yokompres, a natural compress for women made of cotton and cherry seeds, which you can put on the sore spots.

1. Find out how to deal with migraines while traveling and on vacation

Migraine – emergency treatment

Treatment of migraine on an ad hoc basis aims to reduce or alleviate pain. The measures employed in such reliever therapy are usually:

1. paracetamol;
2. acetylsalicylic acid;
3. non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs);
4. ergotamine derivatives;
5. preparations belonging to the group of triptans.

If the migraine is accompanied by frequent vomiting, an anti-emetic such as metoclopramide is also given. Increased vomiting may also be the basis for the introduction of intravenous drugs.

For migraine headaches, it is worth using natural methods, such as Maruna gilding herb, which you can buy at Medonet Market.

It is worth remembering that for acute pain treatment, the most important rule is to take your medication as soon as possible. This is important mainly because oral medications do not act immediately – their absorption time is 30 to 60 minutes. It should be remembered that in some cases the treatment also includes antiemetics.

In relieving migraine headaches, you can use the CranioCradle auto-therapy device, which relieves muscle tension and contributes to the improvement of well-being.