What is Migraine?

Migraine is a neurological disease characterised by cognitive problems (hearing, visual, concentration, etc), aura (visual disturbances), severe headache, nausea, and vomiting. Some other symptoms may include pulsating head pain, jaw pain, chest pain, upset stomach, photophobia (high sensitivity to light), phonophobia (high sensitivity to sound and noise), and smell hallucination. It may either come as unilateral (one-sided) or bilateral.

It is affecting more than 36 million Americans, and it is more common in women than in men. Migraines may come as frequent as everyday or once a year. Migraines last anywhere between a few hours to a few days.

Doctors classify migraines to different types to help in treating and dealing with patient migraines, but do not rely solely on the types of migraine as migraine may change over time from one type to another.

No Migraine cure, so What can we do?

Migraine has no cure, however, migraineurs may be able to control their migraine by lowering its intensity, frequency, and duration. Some patients were successful at finding the cause of their migraine, and thus they were able to get rid of their problem. The key to control migraines is by being patient and persistent until you find the right treatment combination that works for you. You should start by eliminating your triggers and changing your lifestyle in order to cope with migraine. You may then use preventive medication (prophylactics), abortive medicine, analgesics (pain medication), and alternative treatments like herbs and acupuncture.

What Causes Migraine?

Migraine cause is still unknown, but there is a good indication from statistics that it is a hereditary disease. Most migraineurs have at least one of their family members having migraine.