Migraine is a disease of the nervous system. Most headaches occur due to a simple change in the electrical balance of the brain. Migraine is just like an electric storm in the brain that causes temporary changes in the brain that lead to head pain and other symptoms, such as being extra sensitive to the light and noise. Even though migraines can be agonizing, most of the headaches are not dangerous despite the severe pain.
What happens in the brain is much more complex. The underlying problem with migraine sufferers is that their nervous system is very sensitive. Its reaction to the normal stimulation is with an aggravated response. Those triggers may be the result of something we consume, due to excess stress, lack of sleep, and the change in the weather.
How hypersensitive the nervous system is and what triggers the nervous systems varies from person to person. Migraine disease is not a single disease but a spectrum with symptoms ranging from mild to occasional to debilitating and daily.
How Can Doctor Say My Headache Is Safe?
There are many types of a headache but migraine is the most common type of headache that makes one seek the help of a doctor. This is because the migraine is painful, frequent, and difficult to control without the help of medication. About 10% to 15% of people do not know they have a migraine. The doctors usually can diagnose by asking some questions and performing a physical examination. To make the accurate diagnosis of headaches, here are some criteria that they developed and are still reliable to this day.
The criteria include features of headache such as:
- How severe is it (lasting hours)?
- Location of the pain
- How it feels like (Character of the pain)?
- What are the symptoms of a headache?
The pain is usually pulsating, throbbing, and bursting and may not or maybe along with sensitivity to the light and sounds or nausea and vomiting. Sometimes, the pain may be one-sided and even may involve the whole head, which may last for hours or even days.
Sometimes blood tests and MRI may be recommended to help to know other medical conditions causing the headache. Usually, these tests will be normal. While normal tests may be reassuring, still it may make one wonder how headaches can hurt so much yet now show up in the tests.
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What Triggers Migraine?
About 70% of patients who are affected due to migraines have a strong family history of it. The tendency to develop migraines at any time in life is due to three triggering factors for migraines.
- Physiological triggers
- Environmental triggers
- Food triggers
Examples of physiological triggers are hormones, allergy, dehydration, hunger, lack of sleep, stress, anxiety, skipped meals, physical exertion, and odors. The exercise is a common physiological trigger.
Other sorts of environmental triggers in patients with migraines can be due to a sensitive brain. It is sensitive to any sort if there is an excess sensory stimulation So if you follow your senses, any excessive pain, touch, visual stimulation sound, motion, and smells can provoke a migraine attack.
Food triggers are also an important part of migraine management because many patients solve their problems without taking medications. Food triggers are the aggravating factors that can precipitate migraine attacks. Typically, the patients who have dizziness-related migraines do not have symptoms that will respond to medications. Certain foods and beverages that trigger migraines include alcoholic drinks like beer and wine, chocolates, food preservatives, artificial sweeteners, packed food, cheese, lemons, and caffeine. Scientifically, it is difficult to identify and prove because most food triggers are not very strong. Sometimes, there are partial triggers, and it is only when there is an accumulation of partial triggers, it can precipitate migraine attacks. The food which is a partial trigger may be something that we eat relatively frequently but causes only an occasional reaction. It is the factor that may migraine symptoms accumulation over the threshold and cause symptoms.
Therefore, migraine sufferers have to prevent their symptoms by taking medications that elevate the threshold for triggering the migraine or stabilize the head against the possibility of abnormal migraine activity.
What Is Happening To My Brain To Make It Hurt?
Migraine headache occurs when there is an electrical impulse in the brain that becomes uncontrolled and no longer function properly. There are many phases of a migraine, just like there are many phases to a storm. Different symptoms may occur in each phase. It is important to understand the phases of a migraine to understand how to feel better, just like the storm. There is a build-up stage in migraines during which people can recognize the actual pain coming their way. If they are going to experience the migraine attack, the stage is called a prodrome phase.
During the prodrome phase, people may experience food cravings, mood changes, fatigue, and difficulty in thinking or even yawning. These subtle symptoms result due to temporary changes in the electrical impulses deep within the brain. During this stage, it may be possible to prevent the headache with rest, relaxation, drinking water, and distraction. It is somehow identical to a storm that gradually builds up and rain begins to fall. The migraine process continues to build your cells and becomes more unstable. At some point, people may develop an Aura that happens in about one out of every six individuals with migraines. These auras are usually visual and can be scary and hard to describe. Rarely, the auras can also include other changes, such as numbness, weakness, or speech problems. These temporary auras do not cause damage to the brain.
The next stage of migraine is the headache phase. This is probably the phase where most people are familiar. During this phase of migraine, all the nerve cells disruption that has taken place sets a chain of events that leads to the activation of pain receptors lying outside of the brain. The pain receptors are set off by incorrect electrical impulses and thus not damaged. It is important to stop the headache as soon as this pain begins, otherwise, the migraine will continue to spread and may cause several symptoms if not curbed early.
Sometimes resting, eating, sleeping, and drinking water can stop a migraine. Taking medication advised by your doctor can help if these options do not work. Most people after taking medicines also continue to get a migraine headache, which feels to have not stopped enough. Some may develop intense nausea and vomiting and others may want to avoid lights and noises and, even, smells. The pain can be throbbing and worse with normal movements. Sometimes it can hurt just by touching your hair while combing and even when lying down your head on a pillow. Other discomforting symptoms like dizziness, sinus pressure, and blurred vision can occur. In this phase of migraine, it is in full action and it can feel as if it never ends. The migraine pain can last for hours to a few days. Along with the medication, the best way to stop a migraine is to learn relaxation techniques that work directly to calm the disturbed electrical impulses.
Migraines have a postdrome phase. This is sometimes referred to as migraine hangover. People may feel fatigued, nausea, and difficulty in thinking during this phase. Once the postdrome phase is over, the brain returns to its normal resting state unchanged and undamaged.
How Homeopathy Treatment Can Help In Managing Migraine?
Often, the patients of migraines take painkillers or some other allopathic medicines for many years to get rid of migraines. Taking painkillers for many years can cause a lot of side-effects. They may feel that migraine has become a part of their life. They learn to live with a migraine. They have no clues that one day they will be able to lead a normal life completely free from headache with the help of homeopathic treatment. Homeopathic medicines work effectively in treating migraine by restoring the deviated function of the body along with improving the immunity of the patient.
Homeopathy helps in controlling the symptoms of migraines without any side-effects. Homeopathy has a holistic approach to treatment, which is determined according to the personality of the patient. With the continued treatment, the patient experiences a reduction in the frequency, severity, and intensity of pain in migraine. Hence, it offers long-term relief and permanent relief in the pain and discomfort gradually. So, Think of Homeopathy if you happen to suffer from a migraine anytime.
