 Headaches - Migraines |
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Six Things That Can Help With Migraines
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I have been suffering from migraine headaches for almost 20 years. I
got my first really bad headache when I was 18 years old. I remember it
very clearly, it scared the sh*t out of me. I had no idea what it was
and I thought I was dying!! It was so bad I had to be hospitalized. I
couldn’t see. I literally couldn’t walk or talk. If I attempted to move
even an inch, it felt like my head would explode. I was hospitalized
for two days after just moving to a new city on my own.
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Headaches
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A headache is a condition experienced when a pain either sharp or dull, happens in the head. You can also feel the pain in the neck and in the upper back. There are many causes for headaches such as eye strain, sinusitis and even from more serious conditions such as encephalitis, meningitis, cerebral aneurysms and even brain tumors. Headaches can also be caused by head injuries as well. Most common headaches are called tension headaches; you can experience headaches when you suffer from caffeine withdrawal and dehydration. Usually, a headache can be treated with over the counter medication such as aspirin, paracetamol or more commonly known as acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
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Headache Diagnosis and Treatment
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Most of the time headaches are harmless but there is a percentage that there is more to the fact than a minor headache. Headaches can often be warning signals to something more serious. Depending on whether or not you can treat your headache with over the counter medications can be a determination if you need further diagnosis. The length of the headache and the severity of the pain are also determining factors as well. If you experience other symptoms like stiff neck, fever, convulsion and even loss of consciousness, you need to have further testing, those are serious symptoms and they need to be treated as such.
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Migraines
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A migraine is a neurological condition that is almost like a headache but the pain causes debilating pain and very intense symptoms. A migraine can happen on one or both sides of the head. The migraine differs from a headache by the severity of the pain. Aside from head injuries, stroke, tumors and reoccurring pain, the amount and intensity of the pain is the result of a vascular headache rather than a tension headache. A migraine comes along with photophobia, which is hypersensivity to the light, and phonophobia, which is hypersensitivity to sound and even nausea.
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Symptoms and Treatments for Migraine
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Migraine results from dysfunction of the brain stem pathways that
normally modulate sensory input. Abnormal metabolism of serotonin, a
neurotransmitter found in brain cells, plays a major role. The headache
is preceded by a rise in plasma serotonin, which dilates the cerebral
vessels, but migraines are more than just vascular headaches. The exact
mechanism of pain in migraine is not completely understood but is
thought to be related to the cranial blood vessels, the innervation of
the vessels, and the reflex connections in the brain stem.
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