A migraine is a form of very painful and long lasting head pain, quite unlike a normal headache which can start in people in their formative years. 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. Once the episode has finished, the victim will still require rest as they will probably feel very tired.

Medical science still hasn’t discovered why there can be such long periods without a headache for some people and not others. Many of the symptoms experienced by sufferers are closely connected to other everyday illnesses. Migraine attacks only seem to affect people within a certain age range, just before puberty and stop by the time the person has reached about 40; almost no cases are recorded after the age of 50.

It is not uncommon for a number of family members to share a migraine headache problem and hereditary links are believed to exist; even though there may be a link, so far it has eluded medical science. An inflammation of blood vessels and nerves near the victim’s brain seems to be a common trait amongst sufferers. Science cannot as yet explain why this condition is more likely to affect women than men but women have a three times greater chance of having the condition than men; however, the chance of a man experiencing the condition on a regular basis is only one in twelve.

Another symptom that is not consistent is those people that know when they are going to have an attack anything up to 30 minutes before it happens; this sensation is called migraine with aura owing to the type of feeling they experience. A number of different warning signs have been exhibited as shown below:

*Nausea is very common
*Blinking or zigzagging lights
*Reduction in the sensations of taste
*Lack of sensation in the person’s tongue

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 condition can escalate and is made worse by any movement, loud noises and bright lights which can cause the person to vomit.

Some medical experts believe it is the contracting blood vessels that are responsible for the migraine with aura effect. It might be that it is the expansion of the blood vessels afterwards that causes the headache; those who are afflicted say the headache is often so intense that it impedes with regular routinely daily activity and may even keep them awake. There are many possible triggers for an attack some of which are shown below:

*Adverse weather
*Particular foodstuffs
*Traveling in a plane
*Certain groups of drink
*Very bright internal lighting
*Insomnia
*Anxiety

Sufferers need to monitor events that lead up to an attack if they hope to prevent them wherever possible.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Health and Wellness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.