Zeroing in on the Migraine Headaches Causes That Affect You

Migraine attacks, come about in different people for completely different reasons. When it comes to migraine headaches, causes can be as varied as different kinds of foods, flickering lights, changes in weather, strong smells, or anything else. If it was the same kind of cause that set off a migraine attack in everyone, people might at least have a chance avoiding those things. As it happens though, there is no telling what exactly might cause an attack in a person. A given migraine trigger doesn't even reliably set off a headache every time in the same person. Thankfully though, there are some general classes of causes that are known to bring headaches in most people. A list should help you find out what your triggers are, so that you may cut down on your migraine occurrences.

When it comes to migraine headaches, causes, even a partial list of them, can turn out to be pretty broad and expansive. It can be nuts of every kind, sour cream, oranges, coffee or chocolate, cheeses, bacon or hot dogs - even sour dough and beans. In some people, and beer and red wine can be triggers too. As unhappy as life can be with all of these foods cut out, at least, you do have a choice to cut them out.

What about a woman and her monthly cycle? If her migraine decides that it wants to act up every time she is ovulating, how on earth can she handle it? There's nothing she can do but to suffer for a whole week every month. Doctors believe that migraine can be sensitive to the way a woman's blood estrogen levels drop around the time she has her period. So what do women do when their estrogen levels drop permanently around menopause? These can be really painful times for women who suffer from migraines.

Women love their perfume; come to think of it, men don't exactly stay away from it themselves. The problem is, it isn't just cosmetic perfume that can trigger a migraine attack. If you are sensitive that way, you can't go to an office where they use air fresheners; you can't go to a restaurant where they use strongly perfumed cleaning sprays. And when it comes to migraine headaches, causes like the perfume section in a major department store or the flashing lights on screen in a movie theater can be totally unacceptable.

What do you do when your migraine is triggered by stress? There are3 so many stressful events in life. People who have migraines that are triggered by stress get them both when a stressful situation appears and when one ends. Every one of these migraine headaches causes is merely a suspected one. They don't all affect everyone. You need to keep a journal of what exactly appears to trigger your attacks. And of course, you have to remember that no one trigger causes an attack every time you are exposed to it. If you drink a cup of coffee once and have an attack come on right away, it could be that it wasn't the coffee alone. It could easily be that the coffee was acting with another trigger alongside - perhaps you ate sourdough bread before. It could be that you can include both things in your diet as long as they are not together. It does take a lot of detailed journal-keeping.

Migraine Auras - What Are They?

Next to a headache, an aura is the occurrence most associated with a migraine. It is believed that auras happen to one-fifth or twenty percent of migraineurs and usually affects people with classic migraine. Auras do not happen every time an attack happens and it can occur without an accompanying headache. Currently, the experts do not really have a general consensus on what causes migraine auras.

There are four known stages of a migraine attack: prodrome, aura, attack and post-drome. Migraineurs do not go through all of the four stages during an attack but most experience the first stage. During this time, the first warning signs are felt. Some proceed to the second phase and this is when migraine auras occur.

Migraine auras are generally defined as disturbances that precede an attack, commonly lasting for ten to thirty minutes. Although usually visual, the disturbances could also be motor and verbal in nature. Experts liken a migraine aura to a chemical wave that progresses across the part of the brain that processes visual signals. As the wave spreads, the person starts to see shapes. It might start as a small circle of light or a geometric shape in the field of vision and this may expand to an object shaped like the letter C. Zigzag lines could also be seen on the periphery. Migraine auras differ among migraineurs. Aside from those already described, flashing lights and bright spots could also be felt. Others experience blind spots along with the other shapes. This partial loss of vision is called scotoma.

There are other types of migraine auras that a sufferer might perceive, which could happen together with the visual aura or by themselves. The sensory aura is characterized by a tingling or numb feeling in one limb that travels up the arm and sometimes spreads to the face and neck. A dysphasic aura affects the speech and might cause difficulties in speaking.

Several medications are prescribed by doctors to treat migraine auras. These include beta-blockers that help decrease the severity and frequency of migraine attacks, triptans that relieve symptoms by acting on the nerves and blood vessels, and anti-nausea drugs that reduce the feeling of sickness. To complement this treatment, others employ stress management techniques such as yoga, proper diet and exercise and other ways to relax and reduce stress.

Some people have seen the positive side of migraine auras and used it to their advantage. Primarily, they utilize it as a very visible warning sign to an impending migraine attack and consider an aura as an alarm signal that lets them know that it is time to take that migraine medication. Changes in the visual aura patterns could also be used for detection of some other underlying health problems. Others have even gone a step further and made art out of them. Now we can see works of art depicting the patterns of migraine auras that sufferers see during an attack.

Migraine Relief You Can Live With

Migraine headaches can cause excruciating pain and can become disabling. The symptoms can become so severe that it makes you want to crawl up into a ball in a dark place. Sometimes the headaches come with flashes of light, blind spots, or tingling in the limbs. Some people experience nausea, vomiting, extreme sensitivity to light and sound. In the last decade, many break throughs have been made with regard to available pain medications.

Medicine combined with self help treatments and changes in lifestyle help enormously. You may have been dealing with these headaches on your own, but it may be time to seek professional help if your symptoms worsen or if it prevents you from performing daily tasks. Women are more likely than men to get migraines. Researchers say that these headaches are caused by functional changes in the trigeminal nerve system which acts as the primary pain pathway in the network of nerve cells.

During a headache, serotonin levels drop releasing neuropeptides which cause blood vessels to be dilated and inflamed which results in headache pain. Hormonal changes, foods, skipping meals, fasting, alcohol - especially beer and wine, caffeine, aspartame, stress at work all work followed by periods of relaxation on the weekends, bright lights, physical activity, changes in weather, and altitude can all cause migraines.

Avoid certain foods and aromas that have triggered headaches in the past. If necessary, keep a tab on the foods you eat the day you get the headache. Do exercise regularly, because aerobics, especially walking, biking, and swimming have been proven to relieve tension throughout the entire body. You must warm up slowly because abrupt exercise can trigger headaches. If you are a female, reduce your medications containing estrogen such as birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy. Speak with your doctor about possible treatment alternatives.

Hormonal Migraines and Copper Toxicity

I first learned about copper toxicity when I decided to get a hair analysis mineral test to see if it would help in giving me any clues to why I was getting chronic migraines, especially hormonal migraines. Hair analysis is a test that can help diagnose copper toxicity as blood tests do not show what is happening in the body at cellular level.

Estrogen and Copper.

A quote from Dr. Malter's book: "The Strands of Health".

"One of the most significant bio chemical and metabolic developments since the end of world war two involves the widespread use of female contraceptives. This is because there is such a close relationship between estrogen and copper and biochemical systems. With the widespread use of the estrogen in the pill and the estrogen replacement therapy excess copper builds up in the cells and the tissues of very large numbers of females. This has become a major contributing factor to both psychological and physical health problems that they experience."

How Copper Toxicity is related to hormonal Migraines

Approximately a week to ten days before a period the copper and estrogen levels are relatively high. When the hormones changed, so did the migraines. It was totally automatic, just like clockwork. They happened more or less to the exact day of my cycle. As the copper was being reduced in my body thankfully the migraines were being reduced as well.

Copper Imbalance Symptoms

• Racing thoughts, Anxiety

• Attention deficit disorder, Candida Overgrowth

• Migraine Headaches, Dysmenorrhea

• Autism, Anorexia

• Insomnia, PMS

• Liver dysfunction, Plus more

Copper may affect any organ of the body and usually affects four major systems of the body. Copper builds up in the liver, the brain (where it affects neurotransmitter levels), the nervous system and the female and male reproductive system.

Our bodies need copper; it is an essential trace mineral that is vitally important for both physical and mental health. However we need copper in the correct levels.

Sources of Copper

Some of the sources of copper are: the water pipes in your home and hot water cylinder (if copper), copper cookware, copper from dental materials (exposure), vitamin pills, drinking water, fungicide and pesticide residues on food, sleeping pills, tranquilizers, copper intra-uterine devices and birth control pills.

Copper may also build up in the body due to bio unavailable copper. This is usually contributed to weak adrenal glands. The adrenal gland stimulates the liver to produce ceruloplasmin, the major copper binding protein. If the ceruloplasmin levels are inadequate copper cannot be used by the body and copper builds up in the tissues.

If Zinc becomes deficient, then copper tends to accumulate. The earth's soil is low in zinc.

Vegetarians tend to eat proteins that are high in copper and they usually do not eat enough foods high in zinc.

High copper diets are ones that usually include sesame seeds or nuts.

My Hair Tests

My first hair test SHOWED Copper level 186.44ppm / Normal Level is 25ppm

This is an extremely high reading. In fact this is over 7 times the normal level and it was off the chart.

Second hair test one year later 164.28ppm

At this stage I was not detoxing the copper as I was detoxing off the pharmaceutical medications and therefore unable to do both.

Six months after taking a supplemental diet for copper excess detox I had another hair test.

Third Hair Test: Copper level 19.32ppm

There was a large improvement in my health. However, my hair test was still showing that I had a hidden copper toxicity. This is extremely important, your copper levels may not show high on the test, but you still have a copper overload. This is where you need a professional hair analysis person to interpret the test. It is quite complex to be able to read and understand the hair test.

For migraine sufferers I cannot stress how important it is to find the underlying cause of your migraines. The hair analysis test shows so much about what is happening in the body at cellular level. It also shows other toxic heavy metals that may be causing a dysfunction in the body. Also it gives a clear indication of what is happening with the mineral balances in our body. The mineral balance in our body has a huge impact in our overall health.

Detoxing your body of copper is quite complex and I have information about this in "Learn to Free Yourself from Migraines".

Can Dehydration Cause Migraines?

Migraine headaches could be up there with dental surgery and childbirth as one of life's more painful experiences. Some would even say they surpass both. But unlike root canals or labor, the pain of which can be treated with medicine, there's no quick fix for migraine relief and the causes of migraines are even more elusive. A migraine is more than a headache. The throbbing pain typically occurs on one side of the head and is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and severe sensitivity to light and sound. Symptoms can include blurred vision, abnormal sensations of heat or cold, nasal congestion, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, anxiety, depression, irritability and trouble with concentration. But what eludes even the most renowned doctors and researchers is... What are migraines caused by? For many migraine sufferers, intense heat and jumps in temperature have been shown to trigger attacks.

A study in the journal Neurology revealed that the risk of migraines increases about 8 percent for every nine-degree rise in temperature. But what is it about temperature spikes that poses the risk for the various types of migraines? The difficulty of staying hydrated is likely the culprit. Dehydration has been shown to cause blood volume to drop, resulting in less blood and oxygen flow to the brain and dilated blood vessels. The major cause of dehydration, the loss of electrolytes, compels nerves in the brain to produce pain signals. If you've ever enjoyed a bit too much of your favorite alcoholic beverage and woken up with a dehydration headache, you know the feeling. But migraine victims tend to be more sensitive to the debilitating effects of dehydration. Could it be that simply drinking enough water could significantly ward off dehydration migraines? It would seem so.

In another study, also published inNeurology, researchers split migraine sufferers into two groups, gave the first group a placebo medication to take regularly and told the other group to drink six cups water in addition to their usual daily intake. At the end of two weeks, the scientists found that those drinking water experienced 21 fewer hours of pain during the study than those taking placebos. What's more... they experienced a decrease in the intensity of their headaches. While there's no quick fix for how to treat migraines, there's no denying the importance of hydration, so increasing your water intake could be a great first step. Here are a few tips on how to avoid dehydration and how to treat dehydration:

• The Institute of Medicine recommends a daily water intake of 2.7 liters for healthy women and 3.7 liters for healthy men. In addition to water, this can include juices, sports drinks and food, which contain water.


• Drink before, during and after physical activity.


• Check your urine. If it's clear, pale or straw-colored, it's okay. If it's darker than that, increase liquid intake.


• Dress for the weather to make sure that you're not sweating too much.


• Go to a cool area and drink plenty of water if you experience thirst, cracked lips, dizziness or lightheadedness, dry mouth, extreme headache or nausea.


• If you find it difficult to drink plain water, squeeze fresh lemon, lime or orange slices into your water.

Ocular Migraines Symptoms - These Need to Be Respected and Understood

Not that long ago the ocular migraines symptoms were not understood by most people and the ocular migraine often went untreated. As with all headaches the ocular migraines symptoms are slightly different for all sufferers. The one thing which defines the ocular migraine is its affect on the eyes.

The are two basic types of these migraines; those which do later develop a headache and those which remain in the eyes and never have a headache attached.

There are difficulties with coping with both of these. Firstly, if you know that your ocular migraine will develop into a headache as well then your stress levels are likely to rise and this will in turn affect your blood pressure and can actually make everything worse. The anticipation of the headache can be enough to become a self fulfilling prophecy and will actually cause the migraine.

Equally if you never get a headache and your migraine has purely ocular symptoms then you will find it much harder to diagnose and may also find that this leads to a panic that there is something much worse wrong with you.

Although there is no cure for migraines of any sort, there are effective ways, both with and without medication to cope with them. However, many ocular migraine sufferers don't understand what is happening to them and as a result they do not know how to cope.

The important to accept with migraines is that there are usually triggers which over time you will need to learn to recognise and try to avoid or minimise. There will always be times when you are unable to prevent your migraine, so this is when you need to have a good range of techniques to draw on the help you cope.

The first thing to understand when dealing with headaches of any form is that relaxation is key. If you are stressed then you body is working harder and faster and this will increase your symptoms. The flip side of this is that if you can learn to relax you will be able to reduce your symptoms.

The second thing to bear in mind is your hydration levels. A dehydrated body will react faster and more dramatically to a stressful situation, where as a well hydrated body will cope better and will continue normal functioning for longer.

Even before you have learn your person ocular migraines symptoms there are relaxation exercises you can apply to help you cope.

Painless Migraine Symptoms

Painless migraine is a migraine form that classified as the causal aura of migraine wherein the sufferer is having many visual disturbances' symptoms such as the following:

• Blurred vision


• Eye numbness


• Hallucinations


• Partial blindness


• Difficulty in distinguishing colors

The painless migraine visual disturbances are called migraine aura. It occurs for few minutes before the migraine symptoms start to occur. It may happen without a headache pain. Painless headache causes are similar to the normal migraine causes. It may be caused by the rapid narrowing and swelling of the blood vessels. The blood might be clogged due to the excessive secretions of chemical that produced by the nerve fibers in the brain stem. The activities of the brain are because of the individual involvement on several harmful things.

Reasons of the painless migraine:

• Lack of exercise


• Irregular sleep


• Engaging in stressful activities


• Frequent smoking and drinking


• Bright lights


• Loud sounds


• Unbalanced diet


• Mental, physical and emotional stress


• Pressure and tensions


• Hormonal changes


• Eating foods with many preservatives such as mono sodium glutamate and tyramine.

The painless migraine symptoms include:

• Visual symptoms


• Auditory symptoms


• Natural symptoms


• Sensory symptoms.

The visual episodes occur in eyes and affect the vision ability. The sensory and auditory episodes affect the hearing and sensing capabilities. The natural episodes include fears, anxieties and tensions. The most common symptom of the visual migraine is the aura.

The physical symptoms of the painless migraine are:

• Smelling strange scents


• Numbness feeling


• Weakness


• Unsteadiness


• Inability to understand


• Inability to speak clearly


• Excessive saliva forming in the mouth


• Gustatory hallucinations


• Hearing unusual voices and sounds


• Visual hallucinations


• Blurredness


• Seeing zigzag lines and flashing lights.

Do You Or Someone You Love Suffer From Migraine Headaches?

Recent studies are proving that combining your prescription migraine medication with NSAIDS such as naproxen is much more beneficial than using either product alone. When someone takes both medications, there is also less chance of recurrence.

The medications known as triptans include Imitrex(sumatriptan). They stop migraines by stopping the release of inflammatory substances from nerve endings and also alter the pain signal transmission. NSAIDS, nonseriodal anti-inflammatory drugs, stop inflammation. While the prescription migraine medication is considered standard therapy, as many as 1/3 of patients do not get relief from them.

A study of nearly 1000 migraine sufferers concluded that 46% got relief from the combination of sumatriptan and naproxen, 29% from sumatriptan only, and 25% from naproxen only. They also found that after 2 hours, 65% of the combination group remained migraine free, 49% of the sumatriptan group was pain free, and 46% of the naproxen group was pain free.

The researchers concluded that the best combination is 50mg of Imitrex (sumatriptan) combined with 500mg of naproxen.

Triptans are expensive. They include the following medications: Imitrex, Zomig, Axert, Frova, and Amege. They are only available in brand name and are about $20.00 per pill.

Naproxen 500mg is inexpensive and prescription only. You can buy over-the-counter naproxen 220mg and take two of them; 440mg should work just as well.

**UPDATE**

GlaxoSmithKline, aka GSK, is manufacturing and profiting from the migraine medication Imitrex to the tune of about $900 million a year. Not a huge number in the drug world and I have no problem with a company profiting from its products.

Several years ago, I wrote an article and spoke about the advantage of taking the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen along with your Imitrex to boost the effect. The pain relief results from taking the combination are much greater than just taking the single Imitrex. There was no generic substitute for the costly Imitrex but the naproxen is just pennies a dose.

In January 2009, the patent will expire on Imitrex allowing generic manufacturers to produce the same drug for a greatly reduced price. GSK stands to lose virtually 100% of the revenue from Imitrex. GSK is not stupid. GSK is a large, multimillion dollar company. GSK, like any company, does not like to lose $900 million a year. INTRODUCING TREXIMET!

Treximet, from GSK, is the combination of Imitrex and naproxen. It has been patented by GSK, approved by the FDA, and will be on pharmacy shelves soon. So what.

So what? Do you know what happens when you go to your doctor and he prescribes Treximet? First off, he gets rewarded, and you get the shaft. You will be paying a heavy price tag for this new drug when the exact same ingredients are available for pennies on the dollar. Treximet contains 85mg of Imitrex(sumatriptan) and 500mg of naproxen.

Here's my suggestion; if you have migraines and get a prescription for Treximet, ask the doctor to change to Imitrex 100mg and naproxen 500mg to be taken together. Your cost is going to be significantly lower and the results are going to be virtually the same.

Types of Migraines - Basilar Migraines

There are several different types of migraines that vary in intensity of pain. It is even possible to suffer from a migraine without experiencing any pain. And whilst most types of migraines can be debilitating in their effects they are not life threatening. However there is one that is dangerous. The basilar migraine, a variation of the classic migraine with aura and also known as the basilar artery migraine, although rare is potentially life threatening.

The symptoms of a basilar migraine are caused by the constricting of the basilar artery which supplies blood to the stem of the brain. These types of migraines were originally believed to affect only young and adolescent females. Research has shown however that while they are indeed a problem for this particular grouping they can also affect people of all ages and genders.

Basilar migraine symptoms, during the aura period in the build up to the headache, can include double vision or a partial loss of vision, loss of balance, one or both sides of the body may experience numbness, weakness, dizziness, confusion and vomiting. Typically these symptoms may last for up to an hour and disappear at the onset of the headache. They can however last for several day after the pain has gone. Some who suffer basilar migraines may even pass out during the aura and in very rare instances may slip into a coma which can last for anything from a few hours to several days.

The potential danger of the basilar migraine is that it can result in a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke. A transient ischemic attack is basically a mini stroke as a result of a temporary interruption in the flow of blood to the brain. TIAs, unlike strokes, have not been proved to result in permanent brain damage and most neurological problems that arise from them such as slurred speech or weakness on one side disappear within a day of the attack.

The basilar artery is positioned at the back of the head and the headaches connected with the basilar migraine are usually a severe throbbing ache on both sides of the back of the head unlike the unilateral temple throbbing more commonly associated with other types of migraines.

Natural Home Cures For Migraines

There are many good home cures for migraines to relieve the pain and discomfort associated with migraine headaches. A number of people have found relief using these techniques and have been successful in stopping migraine pain naturally. Home cures for migraines are often times over looked. When most people experience migraine headache pain, they first resort to over-the-counter or prescription medications. However, in addition to conventional treatment, it is possible to stop migraine pain naturally, using natural treatments or alternative therapies.

But before you can investigate some of the home cures for migraines, you need to first figure out what triggers your migraine. The fact is there are almost as many different triggers as there are migraine sufferers. It has been found, however, that many migraines are caused by one or more of the following factors.

The first migraine trigger may come from your parents. If one or both of your parents suffered from migraines, there is a good chance that you will get them too.

The food you eat can bring on migraines. Alcohol, processed cheese, caffeine, chocolate, artificial sweeteners and seasonings (MSG) are known to cause migraines in some individuals. In addition, stress, too much or too little sleep, changes in the weather, time zone, or altitude can bring on a migraine attack. And lastly, external factors, such as bright lights, certain smells (perfumes), or second-hand smoke may cause migraines. Following are several natural home cures for migraines.

Peppermint oils are one of the great home cures for migraines that stops migraine pain naturally. The best way to use it is to lie down and apply a small amount of peppermint oil to the forehead or on the back of the neck. Then, relax and have a steaming hot cup of lemon tea with natural honey. After relaxing with your cup of tea, turn down the lights, lie down, and rest for half an hour with your eyes closed. Many people get relief using this method.

A cold compress is another one of the home cures for migraines that reduces migraine or headache pain. If you want to try this approach, start with cool washcloths or towels around the neck, temples, and armpits. A ziplock bag filled with ice or a cold washcloth can also be used. Although most people report that a cold compress works best to get relief from a headache or a migraine, some individuals claim that heat works best for them. If you would like to try this approach, start with warm washcloths or towels around the neck and armpits.

What Triggers an Ocular Migraine?

An ocular migraine can be characterized as one that affects your vision and includes sensations such as numbness. They are rather common and may or may not be followed by a headache. When they occur, vision is only affected in one eye, resulting in images being distorted in the center and possibly expanding to a side of the eye. Sight may be lost temporarily.

Warning Signs

An ocular migraine can be interpreted by physicians in a number of ways. Some warning signs for patients include blind spots, flashes of light, shimmering stars, or zig-zag lines. The chances of getting them increase with age, and can be a very frightening experience since sight is being affected. Symptoms will vary depending on the individual. Pain is usually not much of an issue, and the headache will only last for a short period of time. Treatment is not normally necessary.

Avoiding the potential triggers for ocular migraines is the best way to go about managing them. If the headaches are frequent and severe, then medication maybe necessary. Also, undergoing prophylactic or pharmacologic treatment may be a possibility. Resting in a dark, quite place is a good way to reduce the severity of the symptoms when the attack is sudden and short.

The blood vessels in the head relaxing and constricting resulting from stress may also lead to migraines. Eye related headaches may be a result of spending a long time in front of a computer, television, reading, or any activity that requires a great deal of concentration.

Painless Headaches - If Your Head Doesn't Ache, is it a Headache?

Imagine discovering that you were suffering from a headache, though you were not experiencing any headache pain? Sometimes, people who are experience odd unexplained symptoms are found to be afflicted with what is often called a silent migraine.

Silent migraines are known by other names such as migraine auras without headache, ocular migraines or painless migraines.

The signs of this usual headache are similar to those a person may experience at the start of a typical migraine, but they are never joined by headache pain.

A silent migraine may be accompanied by visual migraine symptoms, such as seeing flashing lights off to one side, feeling dizzy or experiencing tingling or numbness in their fingers. Sometimes people even have trouble talking, or suffer pain in odd places on their faces.

These unusual symptoms are more often found in older women rather then young, and they are even rarer in men.

The main problem with silent migraines is that these symptoms can be incorrectly attributed to other ailments. Without the symptom of headache pain, it is difficult for many health care providers to identify headache as the source of the difficulty.

As an example, many symptoms experienced with painless migraines are similar to typical stroke indicators. Patients have been misdiagnosed because doctors thought the patient suffered a minor stroke. These symptoms can also be attributed to seizures or serious vision problems. It is no surprise, given the symptoms, that doctors look first to these more serious conditions.

You should allow your doctor to do whatever tests they feel are necessary to eliminate more serious health issues. They may order a CT scan, an MRI, blood tests and possibly an eye examination. Once these tests are completed, if everything comes back negative it is time to point your health care provider in a different direction.

The first step in working with your health care provider to identify silent migraines as the cause of your symptoms is to explain your family history. Migraine sufferers typically have immediate family members who also suffer with migraine headaches.

Carefully describe your symptoms to your doctor, and show the similarity to those associated with migraines. If you have had multiple episodes , that should also go a long way to convincing them that you are indeed suffering from a painless migraine.

Treatment of silent migraines is generally the same as for regular migraines. The same medications are used, including medications used to try to prevent a migraine from coming once the aura has begun. Injections and nasal sprays are better forms of medication because they provide relief more quickly.

Can Your Migraine Headache Disorder Be Cured?

If we are going to determine if migraine headaches can be permanently cured we must first do a little detective work. The best place to start is by defining our main terms, "migraine" and "cure," and see where it takes us. Once we have defined our terms we can then decide if migraines are curable according to accepted medical definitions.

According to any standard dictionary, medical or otherwise, "migraine" is typically defined as a condition that is marked by recurrent severe headache, usually unilateral, and often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. The cause of migraine is not known, but appears to be precipitated by dilation (enlargement) of intracranial blood vessels.

The word "cure" is defined as a means of healing or restoring to health. It is a method or course of medical treatment used to restore health. It is also the remission of signs and symptoms of a disease, especially during a prolonged period of observation.

Now that we have defined our terms we need to look at these definitions more closely. It is very obvious what a migraine headache is as described above. A migraine headache is a headache that is usually one-sided and often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. It also appears to be caused when blood vessels surrounding the brain become enlarged. I'm sure we can all agree that this definition of migraine is accurate. Our next step is to take a closer look at the word "cure" to see if it's actually possible, according to accepted medical definitions, to cure migraine.

"Cure" is a means of healing or restoring health. In other words, if someone's health is causing them to experience migraine headaches, restoring their health to a point where they no longer experience migraine headaches will cure them of the disorder.

The word "cure" also means a remission of signs or symptoms of a disease especially during a prolonged period of observation. As an example, if a person suffers with migraine headaches and does something which improves their health and results in a prolonged period where they have no migraine symptoms, they have been cured of migraine.

As a real world example, let's take a look at a specific example to see if we can come up with a definite answer to the question "can migraines be cured?"

A migraine trigger is any factor that leads to an acute migraine attack in people who are prone to develop migraine headaches. Common triggers are caffeine, nitrates, alcohol, and many others.

If a migraine sufferer gets a headache each time they consume caffeine, what would happen if they no longer consumed caffeine? If caffeine consumption is the cause of that person's headaches, and they stopped consuming caffeine, the headaches would disappear. And according to the definitions of the terms migraine and cure, as long as this person stopped consuming caffeine and experienced a remission of their symptoms for a prolonged period of time, they would be cured of migraine.

This was a simple example using triggers as the cause of migraine attacks. However, it doesn't matter what causes a migraine attack. If a person's health can be restored to a point where migraine attacks no longer occur, they have cured their migraine disorder according to the accepted definitions of the terms.

Types of Migraines - The Hemiplegic Migraine

There are several different types of migraines people suffer from, including both the classic and common migraine. Of these different types of migraines there is an especially rare type known as the hemiplegic migraine.

This type of migraine has very specific symptoms which include:

• A sudden attack which occurs on one side of the body which may or may not include paralysis. It typically happens during the aura period of the migraine attack.


• The weakness experienced often involves the face, arm and leg of the person suffering the migraine.


• If the right side of the body is affected the speech of the person suffering the migraine may become slurred or impaired.


• It can often be triggered by a mild head trauma.


• The paralysis is followed by the migraine headache.


• It may also include symptoms like dizziness, vertigo, double vision, partial vision as well as difficulty with balance.

Hemiplegic migraines are mainly genetic and there will normally be at least one direct family member who also suffers from them. Given that many of these migraines are a result of minor trauma to the head people likely to suffer from this type of migraine should be advised against engaging in contact sports. In families where this condition is common onset often happens in childhood. The no contact sports rule is therefore especially important for children in these families.

Research has discovered several specific genetic markers for the hemiplegic migraine. Screening is not a prerequisite for identifying the problem but is available on request. Of all the types of migraines this one is particularly frightening as its symptoms very closely mirror a stroke. The other problem is these migraines do not respond well to most normal migraine medications. They often have to be treated as if the sufferer has epilepsy which necessitates more dangerous medications than normal.

New Migraine Treatments - Can They Eliminate Your Migraines Forever?

Life comes to a standstill during a migraine. Everything hurts and every activity takes extra effort. You want your head to stop pounding and for your life to get back to normal. A migraine is a throbbing, debilitating pain that affects hundreds of millions of people around the world each day. Most people instantly take over-the-counter medication, but if the migraine is severe enough, these won't take care of the pain. This is why some people are trying new migraine treatments to help alleviate the pain and eliminate symptoms.

It wasn't until the 1980s that researchers were able to put together strong enough drugs to stop migraine pain once it began. However with some of these drugs came serious side effects. Some people simply couldn't take them because the migraine drugs didn't mix well with medications for heart disease or other conditions. Another downside was if the drug wasn't taken during the first hour of a migraine, it wasn't a lot of help.

This is why anyone suffering from migraines is interested in any new treatments being developed. Doctors are also focusing more on prevention and working to disable a migraine headache before it ever starts. One suggestion is to take preventative drugs regularly to help stop the headaches from ever starting. These drugs work with chemicals in the brain and/or on blood vessel inflammation that can lead to a migraine.

Another way of treating migraines is to fine-tune everyone's healing for themselves. The idea here is to have the person take fewer drugs, avoid as many side effects as possible and gain control over their condition. By looking at the patterns of when a migraine headache occurs, you also start to learn what triggers it. Once you know this, you can take steps or prescribed medication during the window of time you'd best benefit from it.

Finding the right time to take your migraine medication is very important, almost as important as finding the right medicine. The FDA is currently researching a migraine treatment called Trexima, which combines the migraine drug Imitrex and naproxen sodium (contained in Aleve and other over-the-counter medications). This drug stops blood vessels from dilating - which is the main source of pain in a migraine headache.

For those who can't take drugs or aren't happy with the possibility of side-effects, there are a few new supplements showing promise - magnesium, riboflavin, and coenzyme Q10.

It makes sense to combine healthy eating, exercise and cutting back on drinking alcohol and smoking (or cutting them out) to give your body the best possible chance of fending off migraine headaches.

What About Aura & Migraine Pain?

Migraine without aura is a common migraine without aura but exhibits the same symptoms as a classic migraine except that it does not exhibit any aura.

People who primarily suffer from migraine with aura may also have attacks of migraine without aura. Headache with the features of "migraine without aura" usually follows the aura symptoms. Less commonly, the aura may occur without a subsequent headache or the headache may be non-migrainous in type.

Migraine with aura is a classical migraine preceded by an aura before the attack. The aura occurs for about 10-30 minutes and then is usually followed by a headache. It is quite similar to a common migraine except in the aspect of the aura.

About 15% of migraine sufferers have a early warning that the headache is coming on. This change in brain function is called an "aura". It is usually a visual symptom, such as an arc of sparkling(scintillating) zig-zag lines or a blotting out of vision or both. The aura is due to changes that take place in the cortex, the outer layer of the brain. This slowly spreading depression of nerve cell activity is believed to account for the pattern of development of the typical aura.

Auras set in about 20-30 minutes before the migraine attack. Some patients also describe the presence of a strange odor, before the onset of a migraine. They also experience a tingling sensation in an arm or leg.

In the classic migraine aura, symptoms build up gradually and move slowly from one visual region or one part of the body to another. For example, the migraine aura sufferer may first notice a black spot in the field of vision. This black spot is often surrounded by flashing lights or bright zig-zag lines as mentioned.

What starts this sequence of events that leads to the aura and migraine? The answers to this question are not fully understood. Migraine sufferers have an inborn susceptibility to factors that normally do not trigger headaches.

In people with migraines, changes in body chemistry, such as menstruation, certain foods, and dozens of environmental influences, such as a change in weather, may trigger a migraine attack. A migraine trigger is any factor that, on exposure or withdrawal, leads to the development of an acute migraine headache. Triggers may be categorized as behavioral, environmental, infectious, dietary, chemical, or hormonal. In medical literature, these factors are known as 'precipitants.'

Neither type of migraine denotes a life-threatening disorder but, they can be chronic and recurrent, thus interfering with a person's daily lifestyle.

Both migraine types have the usual pain, nausea, vomiting and intolerance to light and sound, which is worsened by any physical activity.

Treatment? The treatment for migraines begins with simple painkillers for headache and anti-emetics for nausea, and avoidance of triggers if present. Specific anti-migraine drugs can be used to treat migraine. Homeopathic Drugs and Special all natural ingredient products such as those at the Centre for Pain Relief in Burlington, New Jersey have proven effective. If the migraine condition is severe and frequent enough, preventative drugs might be considered. The most commonly used "reversal" medicines are triptans. Triptans work by boosting the effects of the brain chemical serotonin, which reduces the severity and duration of an attack. Propranolol, a beta blocker, and Topiramate have proven effective for migraine sufferers as well.

When it comes to treatment however, "Migraine is the most misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and mistreated condition in medical practice," states Dr. Seymour Diamond, M.D., who is the executive chairman for the National Headache Foundation and director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago.

As always, talk to your doctor about whether or not you have with Aura or without Aura to find the medication that works best for you.

How To Tell If You Have a Migraine

Nearly everyone has had headaches during their lives but not everyone suffers from migraines. These headaches are different than the pain in the temples or front or back of the head that characterize regular headaches. Learning how to tell if you have a migraine can help you get migraine help in the form of remedies.

Migraines are classified as recurrent headaches that have additional symptoms, like light sensitivity, sound sensitivity, nausea, and vomiting. In almost every case, these headaches are extremely painful. In some cases, they affect the quality of life of those who suffer from them because all the individual can do is lie in a dark room and suffer.

Migraine pain is usually throbbing and it is often confined to one side of the head, though it may be felt in both sides. The person may feel dizzy or may even feel sick to his or her stomach. In some cases, this nausea will simply persist, while in others the person will actually vomit. During the time the individual is experiencing the headache, he or she may be sensitive to smells, light, or noise.

While suffering from migraines, people may experience a loss of appetite. Migraine symptoms of child sufferers include a pale appearance, blurred vision, and a fever, in addition to the adult symptoms. A small number of children experience recurrent gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting. Often these symptoms will occur once per month and these are referred to as abdominal migraines.

The information above should shed some light on how to tell if you have a migraine. Not all sufferers experience the same symptoms and not all headaches are equally severe. In some cases, the individual may luck out and have the headache for only a few hours but in others, the person might be confined to bed for several days.

Can Migraines Be Deadly?

If you are among the twenty-eight million people in the U.S. that suffer from migraines, you don't need a list of the symptoms, you are intimately familiar with them. For those who have never suffered from one, it is difficult to describe.

While it can be located in other areas, such as the neck, most of the time, the pain is on one side of the head. Many sufferers describe a warning symptom that one is coming on. It is described as a flash of light, an aura or some other, usually visual sign. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and sensitivity to light and sound are also likely. The pain can last a few hours or for several days.

A migraine can be caused by triggers, but avoiding them may not always prevent attacks. Things like smoke, alcohol, allergies and stress are a few of the more common triggers. While you can't always prevent them, knowing and avoiding your personal triggers may make for fewer bouts.

The question arises occasionally about whether or not having these painful episodes can cause or be a symptom of something more sinister. While the exact reasons for the links are not always clear, there is some evidence that migraines may actually cause or be otherwise associated with some serious problems.

1) Blood Clots: It isn't known why, but there is a significant risk of blood clots in the brain with this medical condition. It may also cause you to have hardening of the arteries, but studies indicate that this is not the cause of increased risk. More research is being done to find out the cause of this link and how to prevent clot formation.

2) Brain Lesions: Recent studies show that these episodes can be associated with lesions on the brain, though whether it is a cause or a result is not yet known. These lesions can cause brain damage, loss of memory, seizures, vision problems, changes in personality and other problems. If the condition is mild, the doctor may decide to take a "wait and see" approach. If necessary, there are new treatments which may help relieve the situation, including some of the new surgical techniques.

3) Heart Attacks: Blood clots may cause heart attacks, but they are not the only risk factor when dealing with migraines. High blood pressure and diabetes tend to be more likely, and these can also cause damage to the cardiovascular system.

This doesn't mean that you are going to die from a migraine, but it does point out the need to be especially careful. Talk to your doctor about means of early detection and/or prevention of these conditions. Appropriate lifestyle changes may be needed, and it is important to have regular medical checkups.

What Really Causes Migraines?

Do you have migraines because you're just "too sensitive"? The answer, researchers are finding, is YES. For years, doctors believed that migraines were a vascular problem. They found that the blood vessels swelled in your head, bringing on the pain of a migraine. Therefore, all the research on treating migraines and developing drugs for migraines concentrated on dealing with swelling blood vessels.

Now, researchers are finding that the swelling of blood vessels in the brain is not what starts a migraine -- in fact, it's a result of what actually brings on a migraine. Doctors are finding, with the use of new technology such as PET scans that can watch a brain while it's actually having a migraine, from start to finish, that the migraine really starts in the brainstem. Migraines are not a vascular problem, they are a neurological disorder.

Apparently, due to an inherited set of malfunctioning genes, the brains of migraineurs are simply over-sensitive to stimuli. The brainstem, when it gets a message of overstimulation from whatever your migraine triggers are, sends a message to the brain, causing it to be come hyperexcited. Like a sudden crash of an arriving thunderstorm, your brain has a storm of neuronal activity. Then, like the calm in the center of a hurricane, your brain activity drops to a very low level. Your neurotransmitters have all been used up in a very short time, and now your brain activity becomes sluggish and slowed. That is probably one reason why doctors have found that treating people who get migraines with antidepressant SSRIs (serotonin reuptake inhibitors) helps -- because your serotonin level drops drastically. People with migraines often feel fatigued, "can't think", "feel stupid". That's because your brain becomes like a drag racing car that uses up all of its fuel in a quick burst and then runs out.

This activity irritates and excites the trigeminal nerve, which THEN causes your blood vessels to expand in your brain. Brain scans have shown an increase of blood in your brain of up to 300% before your headache pain even begins. The blood level then returns to normal or even goes below average. THEN, your migraine starts. What does this mean? It means that drugs that work to keep your blood vessels from dilating and causing your headache are not really attacking the cause.

What does this mean for you? It means that identifying what your migraine triggers are and doing your best to prevent them even starting a headache is your best policy. It also means that finding a doctor who understands the latest research into the cause of headaches and doesn't just automatically write you a prescription is the best way you can live a healthful and happier life.

Hypnosis for Migraine Headaches

The idea of migraine hypnotherapy might seem like a contradiction in terms. How does your subconscious affect the physical nature of your body? How does the mind control pain? Often a common over the counter pill does the trick when it comes to headaches. Migraines, however, are much more than a mere headache.

Migraines are incapacitating, as anyone who has ever suffered from one will tell you. There are medications and other forms of treatment for migraines but in spite of these ways of dealing with migraines, some people are out of commission days due to this dreadful headache. To understand why hypnosis is one of the most successful treatments for migraines it is helpful to understand the nature of migraines.

Migraines are triggered by changes in your body that can be set off by stress, medications, certain foods, poor sleep patterns, and other factors that vary from individual to individual. The symptoms include debilitating pain. This can include nausea and vomiting which may be the body's reaction to the pain that seems to throb throughout the entire body. Light can also negatively affect migraine sufferers and they often need to lie still in the dark to alleviate the discomfort.

Since migraines can last for days and since they often seem impervious to pain medications, it is imperative that a faster and more effective treatment be utilized. Migraine hypnosis has been studied and shown to be highly effective - more than three times the people treated with hypnosis stopped having migraines than those who stopped having migraines after being given the prescription medication prochlorperazine.

Prochlorperazine is used for treating mental and emotional disorders, such as psychotic disorders including schizophrenia. It controls severe nausea and vomiting and moderate to severe pain. Basically it covers the painful side effects of a migraine. Speaking of side effects, the side effects of prochlorperazine include body and facial tics.

Hypnosis on the other hand does not have side effects. It is also a lot easier on your body than any heavy-duty medications. The relaxation techniques included in migraine hypnosis work on the stress factor and other such triggers. Hypnosis can help with techniques that circumvent your usual migraine inducing elements.

Besides being less expensive and less dangerous than medication, migraine hypnosis is more effective. It reaches into your subconscious and works on helping you develop ways of getting around the stress and habits that cause migraines. If you suffer from migraine headaches, you owe it to yourself to try migraine hypnotherapy.

Migraine Tips

Migraine is a throbbing headache, usually on one side of the head that gets worse by light and noise and is usually followed by nausea and vomiting.

Migraine usually affects people 18 and older. It tends to recur periodi­cally but what really causes migraines is not well under­stood. The attack lasts couple of hours to several days and has a tendency to relapse. Even after the pain is gone, mild sensation could lasts for weeks. In some cases, attacks can dis­appear for weeks, months, or even years.

TRIGGERING FACTORS

Some women have migraines just before, during, or just after menstrual periods.

Stress, insomnia, over sleeping, and hunger may also trigger migraines.

Cheese (pizza) is also a triggering factor in some people, while in others it only aggravates an already existing condition.

Usually Migraine is preceded by a sensation such as salty taste in the tongue, aura, nausea, flashing lights and blind spots.

MOST COMMON CAUSES OF MIGRAINE

-Heat

-Bright light

-Blinking light

-Foggy weather (High Ozone level)

-Hunger

-Tension and stress

-Cheese (mozzarella)

-Alcohol

-Too much Caffeine

-Lack of Caffeine

-Hard pillow

-Insomnia

-Lack of sleep

-Over sleeping

-Change in sleep pattern

Diagnosis

Migraines are diagnosed based on symptoms. No procedure can determine the di­agnosis.

In a migraine, throbbing pain is felt on one side of the head. The pain may be mild but could become severe. Physical activity, light, sounds, or smells may make the headache worse. The headache is often followed by nausea, and vomiting.

A migraine attack often involves more than just a headache. A number of people also experience an aura preceding an attack. They see uneven, glittering, or flashing lights. The aura occurs within the hour before the attack and ends as the mi­graine begins.

Prevention

People can avoid exacerbating aspects of Migraine by paying more attention to the triggering cause of the pain. Since the cause varies from person to person, it is imperative that the patient keeps track of all the things that happened before the attack to see if there is a trend involved. Avoiding that cause would definitely relieve the frequency of the occurrence. For instance, in some people caffeine may be a factor while in others over-sleeping is. Some may get the attack only after they have eaten pizza or any other product containing cheese. Avoiding that may help prevent the attack in future.

Treatment

The key is to take the medicine right at the onset of the attack.

Patient should close the eyes and lie down in a dark and quite room during an attack.

Most commonly used drugs are regular analgesics available over the counter like Tylenol, Aspirin or ibuprofen (Advil).

Preventive drugs include the beta-blockers like Atenolol or Calcium channel blockers.

Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) may help reduce the intensity and the frequency of migraine attack. This because people who get migraine are believed to have abnormally low levels of energy reserves in their brains, and vitamin B2 (riboflavin) enhances the energy supplies.

Herbs such as Ginkgo and Feverfew helps in lowering the intensity of the pain.

Could Eggs Be Causing Your Migraines?

Most migraine sufferers will commonly identify "Cheese, red wine and chocolate" as the most common culprits to cause their problem. But in 1979 a surprising study on migraine in the renowned Lancet journal revealed that eggs are implicated as triggers(1).

In reality, eggs are a very common allergen. They are also one of the most reliable to test for - unlike some foods, an intolerant person will return a positive test, just like an allergic person, if a standard food skin test is given. Home tests are becoming popular despite the fact that they are not always reliable.

Unfortunately, egg is contained in many products from baked produce to cake icing, the belief that cooking renders it harmless is untrue! Children with migraines are commonly allergic to eggs and at least two other trigger foods, and can gain relief simply by cutting these foods out of their diet. However, as eggs are an important source protein, they should not be excluded from the diet unless you are sure they're causing you a problem. A food intolerance test and trial exclusion for three weeks should give you enough evidence to have a meaningful discussion with your qualified health professional as to whether exclusion will be beneficial.

One surprising place where egg is common is in vaccines(2). Measures have been taken to combat exposure to egg by deriving the vaccines from embryos, but recent developments seem to show that even the slightest exposure to chicken products of any kind could be dangerous.

For those who are highly sensitive even inhalation could be a problem. Workers in a confectionery factory breathing the powdered egg white used in the decorative icing suffered asthmatic attacks, so exposure to an egg allergen is possible even if you are avoiding eggs like the plague(3)!

Egg white can even be found in vaginal suppositories or in nappy rash ointment, and if an allergic reaction as severe as asthma or anaphylactic shock is possible, why not a migraine?

The sad thing about small children and food allergies is their inability to get across the point that something is wrong. Also, misdiagnosis is common, due to the inability of parents or doctors to accurately track symptoms.

A child who has repeatedly suffered a migraine after eating ice cream, may be allergic to the eggs or milk in the product, so, a process of elimination is necessary to define which is the culprit.

Eggs are such a strong allergen that many doctors advocate not serving eggs to children under two, as once an allergen is triggered, the body can build up a memory around it and it may cause you more grief down the line.

There are several foods that if avoided or given very sparingly can prevent a red flag going up in a child's immune system. Eggs are a bit of a conundrum, what with the yolk and the white - recently, studies have shown that while the yolk of the egg is high in cholesterol, the white contains the means to combat it.

With no adverse reaction after 12 months, foods can be introduced one at a time. Should the migraines return, it will be an indication of a major trigger, which you should then try to avoid.

Eggs are good for you - except when they're not!

References:

(1) Grant ECG, "Food, Allergies and Migraine"; Lancet, May 5 1979;966-969

(2) Pediatrics in Review; 2006;27:118-119; © 2006 American Academy of Pediatrics

(3) Blanco Carmona JG, Juste Picon S, Garces Sotillos M, Rodriguez Gaston P; Occupational asthma in the confectionery industry caused by sensitivity to egg. Allergy 1992;47(2 Pt 2):190-191

Research by Grace Alexander

Migraine Headaches - My Story Might Help You

If you are like me and 28 million other people in the United States, you get migraine headaches. Some of us have the classic migraine with the flashing zigzag lights in the eyes that warn you of an impending migraine. Others, like me, get no warning. It just comes on. Bang. Suddenly everything is too loud and too bright. The nausea isn't much fun, either.

It is estimated that nearly half of the people in the United States who have migraine headaches do not get diagnosed and treated. So, potentially, there could be even more than the 28 million.

More women than men get migraine headaches. Approximately 35% of all women with migraines suffer four or more a month. About 40% experience one or less than one severe attack a month. They may last from four hours to three days. Some may last longer.

The sad thing is that I am afraid that most migraine sufferers have the same experience when seeking help that I did. I finally went to see a neurologist. After about an hour and a half of questions and testing, he told me that, yes, I had migraine headaches, which I already knew. Then he asked me what I wanted from him. I told him that I wanted him to help me figure out why I get them and how to stop having them. He told me that I get them because I get them and sent me away with some pills that basically made my life even worse. And it was pretty bad to begin with.

I do not have classic migraines; the kind that give you warning and last for a couple of days. I had them every day for a little over four years. I have not had a single migraine headache for about six years now. For a few years prior to that, I would have the occasional migraine as I continued to work it all out. It requires dedication and persistence, but it is all well worth it.

No matter what a doctor might tell you, there is a reason why you get a migraine headache. Sadly, when I was at my worst, the medical community was mainly focused on prescribing drugs. This is slowly changing to a more holistic approach. However, it is still mainly up to you to figure out why and modify your life so that you no longer get them. I had a great deal of motivation because my life had pretty much ended due to having migraines every day. So the sacrifices that I have to make in order not to have them really do not seem all that bad these many years later. Actually, only others consider them sacrifices. I am probably healthier now that at any other time of my life.

There are so many different things that will trigger a migraine for a susceptible person that it is hard to believe. Some people have one or two triggers and they do not encounter them all that often and so they have only a few migraines a year. Others, like me, have a lot of triggers. This can make it very hard to find all the triggers and eliminate them from your life. The following is a list of my triggers, some of them are common to quite a few people: milk and anything made from milk, including butter; wheat; corn including corn oil, corn starch and corn sugar; bananas; strawberries; chocolate; caffeine; nuts; peanuts; mushrooms; yeast; environmental fungi; artificial sweeteners; artificial colors; artificial flavors; preservatives; citrus fruits; alcohol, whether in beverages or in the environment (as in hairsprays); fragrances (not just perfumes, but any fragranced product); and most petrochemicals.

Among the general population the most common migraine triggers are: aged cheese; chocolate; alcoholic beverages; excessive salt intake; nitrates (a preservative); monosodium glutamate (MSG); changes in the weather; excessive fatigue; skipping meals; changes in normal sleep pattern; dehydration; bright light and emotional stress, in no particular order. Migraine headaches can also be triggered when you are finally able to relax or just after physical exertion.

For women, sensitivity to food substances can be much greater during premenstrual and menstrual days than at other times of the cycle. Entering into menopause can also increase sensitivity to migraine triggers. Many women who have never had migraines before develop them during menopause. In some cases however, menopause brings about a cessation of migraine headaches. Also, in general, birth control pills will increase the frequency and severity of migraine attacks.

Approximately one man for every four women will get migraine headaches. But, they do get them. Also, men are more prone to a form of migraine headache called cluster headaches. Some individuals consider cluster headaches to be far worse than migraine headaches, if you can imagine anything worse than that. Another name for cluster headaches is "suicide headaches". At one point, I did consider that might be my only option.

On the rare good day, I would have a couple of hours in the afternoon when I could actually do a little something. On some of those days, I would take myself to the library and check out everything I could find on headaches in general, migraines in particular, allergies, food sensitivities, stress and the like. All of my reading indicated that I should, first, focus my attention on foods.

When you suspect just about everything that you are eating of causing a migraine headache, it makes it a little hard to do food challenges. The first step in the challenge is elimination. You must stop eating the foods you suspect of causing a migraine for at least two weeks. Then one by one, add them back. Keep a migraine diary. In it, keep track of what you eat day by day, and a few notes about how you are feeling and what you did. For two weeks, I ate nothing but eggs, hamburger, apples, oatmeal and spinach. I drank nothing but water. After two weeks, I had significantly fewer migraines, but they did not go away all together. As it turned out, there was a stress factor to be dealt with, as well. Ideally, you should come to a point where you have no migraine headaches. Obviously, this method is easier to implement the more frequently you have migraine headaches, because you do not have to spend as much time in elimination before you come to a point where you are not having migraines.

Also, the fewer triggers you suspect, the longer period of time you can spend in eliminating them because your diet will not be too limited. Two weeks was about all the time I could manage on such a restricted diet. The point is to be as certain as you can that you are no longer having migraine headaches before adding back your suspected triggers.

A migraine can take up to 48 hours to develop after eating a trigger. So, ideally, you should add back one food for two days. Do this to be certain your body is aware of it. Also, some people can tolerate small amounts of a trigger, but not necessarily two days in a row. Then wait for three days before considering that food to be safe and adding a new food. If any of your suspects triggers a migraine, eliminate it from your life. I have a friend who knows that chocolate gives her a migraine headache, but she eats it anyway. Then she complains about the headache. I have never understood this. Except that she does use it as an excuse to stay home from work. Still, why would you purposely do something that you know causes you so much pain?

As mentioned previously, foods are not the only causes of migraine headaches. Most professionals agree that treatment of migraine headaches consists of: removing or modifying triggers; controlling exaggerated biological responsiveness and relieving the pain once manifest if it cannot be prevented.

Personally, I think the first two options are the best. For me, having migraines every day, it would have been seriously dangerous to take vasoconstrictors every day. As the name implies, they constrict your veins and arteries and thereby raise your blood pressure; sometimes dangerously. So, I concentrated on identifying and removing my triggers. In effect, this leads to the control of exaggerated biological responsiveness.

It is generally agreed that migraines are caused by cyclic dilation and constriction of the blood vessels. Basically, as I have come to understand it, what happens is that some food or environmental factor causes your vessels to dilate. This causes a drop in blood pressure which the body sees as unfavorable and so it constricts the vessels to compensate. But, the trigger is still present and so the vessels dilate again. This cycle will continue for a while until, essentially, the body gives up and leaves the vessels dilated. This is when the migraine headache occurs. The cycle may begin just as easily with constriction as with dilation. Just exactly why dilated vessels should be experienced as pain in some individuals is not yet totally clear.

As previously mentioned, foods are not the only triggers of migraine headaches. Emotional stress and physical exertion can also cause them. These can be a little harder to deal with. But I have found, once you break the cycle of migraine headaches, it becomes a lot easier to manage them. The cycle of them can be a lot like a Catch 22, or to paraphrase the neurologist, you get them because you've had them. That's where controlling the exaggerated biological responsiveness comes into play. I have found that by eliminating my triggers from my daily life, I can tolerate very small amounts of mushroom or corn products on a very infrequent basis.

If you determine that post-exertional letdown is a trigger for you, it is recommended that you pace your daily physical activities so that they are never too extreme. If you like to work out, consider doing it in two or three parts, rather than all at once. If you have a very physical job, consider changing it. I have had to extremely rearrange how I earn an income because of all my environmental triggers. And I understand that some of these decisions can be very difficult.

If emotional stress is one of your triggers, well that beggars the obvious. However, this might be one of the most difficult factors to manage. Quite often, emotional stress will lead to tension of the muscles in the neck, back and shoulders. This can lead to a tension headache, which can actually trigger a migraine headache in susceptible individuals. Migraines aside, eliminating stress from your life will lead to all around better health.

There are probably as many ways to deal with stress as there are people in the world. I found that changing my attitudes about certain things that stressed me was the most affective. I went from "worrying" about a meeting to "anticipating" a meeting. Changing your labels for things can be helpful. Waiting in line at the grocery store is not "a waste of time and could you all please hurry up", but a time to relax and do nothing but breathe for a little while.

If you can not get a handle on the emotional aspects of your stress, consider trying biofeedback training. This can help you to realize when you are tensing your muscles and to gain control over relaxing them. Also, it is proven that if a person can learn to selectively raise the temperature of their hands, they can short circuit the migraine. Some people have found yoga or meditation to be of benefit. I took the biofeedback route in conjunction with changing my labels and have never regretted the time or the expense.

I would like to add a few final notes. I gave up my dependency on pain killers. They can cause rebound headaches which can trigger migraine headaches. Do try to get regular physical exercise. It's wonderful for your health and can help reduce your level of stress. Laugh as much and as often as you can. Correct existing health problems such as high blood pressure and blood sugar disorders. Don't smoke. Eat at least four evenly spaced meals every day. Try to go to sleep at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning. Did I mention laugh?

Remember, nothing stays the same for long. Everything changes. It might seem bad right now, but it won't always be. Work toward positive changes. I'm still here and my life is good.

Oh, on the plus side, I took up a hobby that I could do at home. One that I could pick up and put down as my migraine headaches dictated. That was making jewelry. I have also become a much better cook because of my migraines. I had to eliminate so many foods that I could no longer eat out and if I wanted really yummy food, I had to make it. My husband has been grateful for this. Around every dark cloud, there is a silver lining.

Migraine Surgery - Can You Really Get Rid Of Your Migraines Forever?

Isn't this headline just wonderful! A simple migraine surgery is all you need. All migraine sufferers have been waiting and hoping for something - anything, to take away the pain. Think about the benefits of migraine surgery. No more canceling of meetings, airplane tickets, school educations, children christening, friends wedding, birthdays, theater visits, movie visits, guitar and piano lessons and all those things that we do together with family and friends. And don't forget all those days spending in bed with that terrible pain. Imagine no more pain.

For many migraine sufferers, this is not only a dream. It's a reality. It all started at the University Hospital in Cleveland USA in the year 2000. They started to research the connection between a muscle around the eyebrow and migraines. Previous operations were to eliminate "frown lines" due to the corrugator muscle. The follow-up research from those operations have shown significant migraine relief among those patients in the study suffering from migraine.

35 percent of the patients had total relief from migraines within a year after the operation. But will it be forever? The treatment is rather new so it's impossible to say yet.

Another 57 percent experienced a more than fifty percent less frequency and pain intensity in their migraine attacks.

In the clinical study there were 314 patients, of which 39 had a migraine headache. 31 of those patients said that their migraine attacks were no more, or that they had a considerably improvement after the migraine surgery.

So how do you know if this is something for you? This is probably the worst part to read in an article like this. All migraine sufferers all over the world have only one dream. How to get rid of their migraines. So here it is. It's not for everyone. Sorry about that. It was not for me anyway. But you can test if this is something for you. This is how you do it.

Visit your doctor and try to find out if your migraine problem has something to do with your eyebrows. For this he will probably ask you to take some Botox injections. This relaxation muscle drug will put your corrugator muscle totally out-of-order. If you find that this Botox therapy is good for your migraines, then this migraine surgery can be your final solution.

The surgical doctor will then remove your corrugator muscle and that's it. It is a simple operation and you can go home directly after the operation. Any side effects? Yes, your forehead will be blank as a new hockey rink and you will not be able to show how angry you are by frowning your forehead. Can you call that side effects? In that case, it's a pleasant problem...

The Remedy For a Migraine Headache

There was a time that I could do anything to find a remedy for a migraine headache.

Migraine headaches were driving me insane, and had been dominating my life ever since I had the first headache somewhere during my childhood, and as far as I can remember, I was always having migraine headaches.

And this is how long my search has been for the perfect migraine headache remedy. The few days without a migraine headache used to be quite a celebration for me, but soon the symptoms started to appear, which told me that the headache was coming back again. It was simply torture, which seemed endless.

But as I had already suffered so much for such a long time, I was still keen on finding a migraine headache remedy. The medicines that doctors gave me sometimes migraine headache remedy helped reduce the intensity, but it still made me feel bad, giving me a dizzy fever and stomach problems.

Medicines Are Not The Right Choice

Although I had to take prescribed medicine during severe migraine headaches, but I never felt good about it, and I never really believed that those medicines were the right migraine headache remedy, as the headache kept on coming back time and again. I needed to look for something more lasting and effective.

I had long learned that medicine can be dangerous for your health and even some medicine could even cause further headaches, or rebound headaches, if your body doesn't accept them in the way it was intended. I have experienced that with a number of medicines, and have also strengthened my belief in the fact that all those medicines did was to weaken me over time, and I am not a bit better than the time when I did not use to take the medicines.

I decided to have a go at an internet search for a migraine headache remedy and finally found a natural and risk-free migraine headache remedy by learning more about migraine headaches. The search taught me a lot about migraines and headaches which I did not know before, and helped me control my headache.

Your Search For A Remedy Ends Here!