Frequent Headaches

If you’re looking for a migraine headache treatment, the first thing to do is visit a doctor to get a diagnosis. After it has been established that you are suffering from migraines, there are two routes that you can choose to follow in terms of treatment. The first one is traditional medicine that you would receive from a medical doctor. The second is alternative treatments that you would receive from a specialist that deals with natural medicine. The choice will be yours to choose and yours alone. You will have to determine what makes the most sense to you and follow that trail towards relief.

Traditional Medicine or Prescription

Once a medical doctor has determined that you are indeed suffering from migraines you will often be given a prescription medication. These prescriptions can fall into two different categories.

1. Pain Relievers

These medications are taken as soon as the migraine begins. They have been designed to alleviate the symptoms once they have started. Common pain relievers such as Tylenol and Excedrin can be purchased as an over-the-counter drug. In most cases, however, a person who is visiting a medical doctor to discuss a migraine headache treatment is not finding the relief they need with these drugs. Some of these over-the-counter pain relievers may not be strong enough to work on severe migraines.

Prescription medications include triptans or narcotic pain relievers such as codeine, a combination of caffeine and ergotamine and indomethacin.  The narcotic pain relievers are not recommended unless everything else fails because they can become addictive, which only adds another problem to the migraine issue. As with any type of pain relief, it is always a good idea to start with the weakest form of pain reliever and work up from there, if necessary. A lot of these drugs have side effects associated with them and if you’re in the middle of a migraine, you certainly do not want to deal with side effects on top of it.

2. Preventive Medicines

A doctor may advise you to start preventive therapy if your attacks are debilitating and occur more than twice a month. He may also suggest following this migraine headache treatment route if your headaches are severe and you aren’t able to get enough relief from other medications that have been prescribed. Some of the drugs used for preventing migraines include anti-seizure medications, cardiovascular medications, Botox and Cyproheptadine.

It is important to note that these drugs usually don’t eliminate the migraine headaches totally. While they can reduce the severity and length of the attacks, many of these medications can also cause side effects that are quite severe. It will be up to you to decide whether you want to take this preventative path, use pain relievers or look for alternative migraine treatments.

Natural Migraine Headache Treatment

While the medical establishment is trying to figure out the best migraine headache treatment, there are many other natural solutions available for these terrible headaches. More and more people are turning towards natural medicine when they can’t get enough relief or a cure from mainstream medicine.

There are a lot of different alternative treatments for migraine headaches. Most of these therapies are based on Eastern philosophies and are becoming more recognized in the West. A lot of people are using natural treatments and many are getting great results from them.

The difference between the Western form of medical treatment and the Eastern form lies a great deal with the symptoms. Traditional medicine practiced by medical doctors here in the West isolates the symptoms and then looks for a cure. Alternative therapies from the East usually look at the person as a whole and work on getting it back into balance.

There are several different therapies that can work on balancing the energy flows within the body including acupuncture, acupressure, homeopathy, chiropractic, massage therapies, herbalism and many more. With these forms of medicine, the migraine headache treatment does not specifically address the headache itself. The headache is viewed as a symptom of a larger energy flow problem within the body that needs to be corrected. Once this is handled, the headaches will go away naturally.

If you are tired of taking medications for your migraines, you may want to try out some of these alternative headache treatments. With so many people getting relief from them, there just may be something in the treatments that would help you as well.

Although there has been a lot of research done in the field of migraine headache treatment, there are still a lot of questions that haven’t yet been answered. You have some options when it comes to treating your migraines and in the end you’ll have to make your own choices. Others will try to offer some advice, but it will still be up to you to figure out for yourself the route that you want to choose for treatment.

Those who suffer from migraine headache symptoms know that the pain can be absolutely debilitating. While some migraine sufferers are lucky and do not experience the intense pain like the others, most people have an excruciating headache that won’t quit until it wants to.

That’s the funny thing about migraine headaches. For most people the migraine headache symptoms can be masked with a pain reliever, but there is an overall feeling within the body that lasts until the headache is completely gone. It is an indescribable sort of feeling that just kind of takes over the body. While the headache medication can often reduce pain, nausea and dizziness, it usually cannot get rid of this “migraine feeling”.

It is important to know the different migraine headache symptoms and not to confuse them with tension headaches. The symptoms of a migraine are typically as follows.
 
Pounding Headache

The main symptom of a migraine is the horrible pounding headache. It seems as if every blood vessel on one side of the head is going to explode with every beat of the heart. Some people actually hold their head in their hands for fear that it will explode or to get some relief with pressure. This pounding headache is one of the classic migraine headache symptoms that is common to all migraine sufferers.

Nausea and/or Vomiting

About 80% of the people that get migraines complain of some sort of nausea with it. Some unfortunate migraine sufferers get nausea that leads to vomiting with every major headache. This is like adding fuel to the fire that is already out of control. Some people can control this nausea by remaining still, since this feeling can be linked in many cases to motion sickness.

Migraine Aura

There is a migraine aura that occurs with approximately 20% of migraine sufferers. Aura related headache symptoms will usually present themselves right before the headache begins and may include blind spots, seeing zigzag patterns across the eyes, lights flashing or blind spots. This aura also may include hallucinations, weakness or prickly skin. The aura is not especially painful and many people that have migraines actually appreciate the fact that they can have some kind of warning before the headache turns on. It gives students and workers a chance to leave their school or work in time to get home and get to bed.

Aversion to Light

This is another one of the migraine headache symptoms that may be experienced by one sufferer and not another. Some people have to remain in the dark until the migraine has completely passed. It is not unheard of for a person to cover their bedroom windows with cardboard during one of these migraine sessions to completely block out the light.

Low Blood Pressure

In some cases, the blood pressure can become lower during a migraine and this can make the person experiencing these migraine headache symptoms even weaker. The pain itself can weaken the body to the point where it can no longer function without being horizontal and this low blood pressure just adds to it.

Irritability

With all of this torture happening within the body, this migraine headache symptom would be quite expected. Usually people that have a migraine do not want to talk because it makes the pounding worse and can stir up the nausea. It is best to not expect too many answers from a person with a migraine. If you need to ask them a question in order to give them some help, it is better to ask them to raise their hand if the answer is yes and leave it down if the answer is no. This way you won’t be upsetting them too much by making them talk, but you’ll still be in a position to offer assistance when needed.

Fortunately, there are continuous studies being conducted on this mysterious phenomenon called the migraine. Researchers have been able to get closer to an answer by realizing that there may not be one single cause for these headaches. It is recommended that anyone experiencing migraines keep a running diary of their exercise routine, their daily routine and food intake. Every attack as well as the migraine headache symptoms should be noted as well. After a few migraines, the person may be able to see some type of pattern and be able to see what is triggering the headache. For example, one person may notice that he gets a migraine every time he eats chocolate while another might notice that these constant headaches only appear during a full moon. Yes – that can happen!

Migraines come in numerous forms and many people experience a variety of other migraine headache symptoms on top of the classic ones listed above. Some people, for instance, can’t be near heat while others can’t stand the feeling of being cold. It all depends on the person, since there are really no set rules when it comes to the individual symptoms a person may have.

Migraine headaches are probably the most painful in nature of all types of headaches. Every year, more than 28 million Americans suffer from migraines and 3 times more women than men suffer. The pain of a migraine can be disabling, depending on its severity. Historically, they were diagnosed as a vascular headache, but more recently a connection has been drawn between migraines and TMJ dysfunction. Over 90% of patients with migraine symptoms also suffer with the latter disorder.

Migraines have two main types, classic migraines and common migraines. The classic type is usually accompanied by some form of an aura, like sparkling flashes of light, zigzag lines, slowly spreading blind spots (all within your line of eyesight), tingling sensations in the arms and legs, and sometimes, weakness or language and speech problems. Someone suffering from a common migraine will not experience any aura but they may have one or more prodromes (sensations of premonition) several hours or a day before the headache actually occurs. These may include feelings of elation or intense energy, cravings for sweets, thirst, drowsiness, and irritability or depression.

The main cause of migraine headaches is a functional change in the trigeminal nerve system and imbalances in brain chemicals and drops in levels of magnesium. Several other factors can help to trigger the start. Hormonal changes, mainly in women, from fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone and medicines like birth control and hormone replacement therapy may worsen the intensity of a headache. Different foods, like alcohol, chocolate or foods high in MSG, or skipping meals or fasting can also trigger a migraine. Other causes can be stress, sensory stimuli (bright lights, unusual smells), intense physical exertion, changes in environment (season changes, altitude level, time zone), and medications.

Migraines typically begin in either childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood and then become less frequent and intense as you grow older. No matter what stage in life you encounter them, the symptoms are the same. There is moderate to severe pain either on one or both sides of the head and the pain is usually pulsating or throbbing. The pain tends to worsen with physical activity and can sometimes even hinder normal, daily activities. Nausea with or without vomiting often occurs, as well as sensitivity to light and sound. A child suffering from a migraine may experience all the related signs and symptoms, but not the actual headache. These are known as abdominal migraines. If left untreated the pain can last from 4 to 72 hours.

Although anyone with a family history of migraines is susceptible to getting one, young females are at higher risk. Young women are 3 times more like to suffer than males and their risk increases after puberty. Women also complain of the intensity of their headaches worsening before, during, or after menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause.

Available treatment for migraine headaches on help to relieve or prevent the pain. No treatment actually stops a migraine from recurring for good. Pain-relieving medicines are mainly the first line of defense used. NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, are most commonly used, often in the form of your basic over-the-counter pain medicines. Other pain relievers for the headache pain are triptan and ergots. Medicine for nausea relief can also be used. Preventive medicines are more likely to be prescribed by your physician. They can include cardiovascular drugs like beta-blockers, used to treat hypertension and coronary artery disease, antidepressants, anti-seizure drugs, or other types of NSAIDs. For children, Cyproheptadine, an antihistamine, is ofter administered. Some women have claimed that they saw a dramatic lessening in the amount of migraines suffered and their intensity and having Botox injection, although the effects are still scientifically unclear.

Other actions, besides preventive medicine can help prevent migraines, such as avoiding the triggers, exercising regularly, reducing the effects of estrogen and not smoking.