Migraine : Signs and Causes
You are said to suffer from a migraine if you experience a severe throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation, usually on just one side of the head. This condition often co-exist with nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.
Migraine attacks can cause significant pain that can lasts for hours or days and can be so severe that the pain is disabling.
Warning symptoms like as aura may occur before or with the headache. The warning symptoms also include flashes of light, blind spots, or tingling on one side of the face or in your arm or leg.
Medicines can help prevent some migraines and make them less painful. Consult your physician about different treatment options of migraine .The correct medicines, combined with self-help remedies and lifestyle changes, may help treat migraine.
Migraine attacks often begin in childhood, adolescence or early adulthood. Migraines might progress through four stages: prodrome, aura, headache and post-drome, though you may not experience all stages.
One or two days prior to a migraine attack, the person may experience subtle changes that warn of an upcoming migraine, including:
• Constipation
• Mood changes, from depression to euphoria
• Food cravings
• Stiffness in the neck region
• Increased thirst and urination
• Frequent yawning
The person may experience Aura may before or during migraines. Most people have migraine attacks without aura. Auras are symptoms of the nervous system. These include visual disturbances, such as flashes of light or wavy, zigzag vision. Sometimes auras can also include touching sensations (sensory), movement (motor) or speech (verbal) disturbances. The muscles may get weak, or you may feel as if someone is touching you. Each of these symptoms usually start gradually, develop over several minutes and lasts for 20 to 60 minutes.
A migraine typically lasts from four to 72 hours if untreated. The frequency with which the person experience headaches differs from person to person. During a migraine, you may experience:
• Pain on one side or both sides of your head
• Pain that feels throbbing or pulsing
• Sensitivity to light, sounds, and sometimes smells and touch
• Nausea and vomiting
• Blurred vision
• Light headedness, sometimes followed by fainting
The final stage, known as post-drome, occurs after a migraine attack. Some people may feel exhausted and washed out, while some people feel elated. For a period of 24 hours, you may also experience
• Confusion
• Moodiness
• Dizziness
• Weakness
• Sensitivity to light and sound
Migraines are often left undiagnosed and untreated. If you frequently experience signs and symptoms of migraine attacks, keep a record of your attacks and how you treated them. Then fix an appointment with your doctor to discuss your headaches.
Visit your doctor immediately or go to the emergency room if you have any of the following signs and symptoms, which may indicate a more serious medical problem:
• An abrupt, severe headache like a thunderclap
• Headache accompanied with fever, stiffness in neck, mental confusion, seizures, double vision, weakness, numbness or difficulty in speaking
• Headache after a head injury, especially if the headache gets worse
• A chronic headache that gets worse after coughing, exertion, straining or a sudden movement
• New headache pain if you are above 50 years of age.
Migraine causes are not clearly understood but genetics and environmental factors often play an important role.
• Hormonal changes in women.
• Pregnancy or menopause.