Migraine: symptoms, causes and treatment

In the article, we consider the symptoms of migraine in women, men and adolescents. What is this pathology?

Migraine is called a neurological disease. Translated from Greek, this word means "half the head." Basically, people feel pain in just one particular half of the head. The basis of this disease is the dependence of blood vessels on nerve disorders. There are a lot of reasons leading to migraine attacks. But, basically, women suffer from it, moreover, quite often it is inherited.

How can a migraine be distinguished from an ordinary headache?

Regular seizures, characterized by severe cramping, usually serve as symptoms of the disease. But even if, by all the signs, a person has made this diagnosis, it is also necessary to exclude secondary pathologies of the head, which are the result of more serious diseases, for example, oncology or stroke. Migraines are classified as primary headaches. So, how can we determine that a person suffers from a migraine, and not an ordinary headache caused by stress?

• This pathology is characterized by the presence of pain pulsation. In turn, headaches that occur due to tension have a constant, almost unchanged strength.
• Migraine is always localized exclusively in one particular place. This phenomenon never covers both parts of the head at once. The pain of tension usually girdles the whole head.
• Against the background of migraine, any turns and inclinations are given by new tides of pain.
• Patients can sometimes feel nauseous, vomiting is not excluded.
• Factors in the form of harsh light and various sounds during migraines usually increase pain.

Sometimes migraine symptoms are still confused with sinus headache. And in some cases, the symptoms of these diseases are very similar. The patient may make a mistake as part of an independent diagnosis. Only a competent doctor will make the correct diagnosis and prescribe the correct treatment. Sinus pains are usually located in the nose, in addition, around the eyes. They occur due to the process of inflammation of the air cavities. The reason for this is infectious diseases along with allergies or cancer.

Symptoms of migraine in women are discussed below.

Varieties

This disease is not only difficult to distinguish from other pathologies similar in symptoms, but it also has many varieties. Directly by classification, this disease can be with or without an aura. By aura is meant an optical phenomenon. In the event that a migraine is accompanied by an aura, then the person will feel the onset of an attack in half an hour. He will have a flickering light, lose his sensitivity and his vision will disappear for a while. This type of disease is called classic.

Thirty percent of people who are prone to this disease usually suffer from the classic form. The remaining seventy percent do not feel any symptoms of this condition. Next, consider the main varieties:

• Occurrence of episodic and chronic migraines. An episodic type may occur from time to time. But chronic is observed every second day, or even daily. Very often episodic migraines at a young age can become chronic. Pain usually begins during adolescence. Such sensations may be muffled by analgesics. The situation is often exacerbated due to the fact that people do not take measures to combat the disease. I must say that the frequent use of painkillers along with obesity and excessive love of coffee only aggravates the condition. Migraines can also cause depression. Chronic manifestations of this disease lead to disruption of the digestive system. As a result, a headache is often accompanied by nausea or vomiting.
• Menstrual migraine, which affects women. A sharp change in the hormonal background is accompanied by severe pain. Usually they occur immediately before the start of menstruation or in the first days of the cycle. Against the background of such pain, doctors recommend the use of the drug "Triptan." These pills will remove the main causes of pain, and if used in advance, they will help to forget about painful symptoms at all.
• The classic type is a kind of pathology with an aura. Immediately half an hour before an attack of severe pain, a person already knows what threatens him. Symptoms and causes of migraine with aura are interconnected. In this case, vision may be lost, tinnitus will occur and the head will become very dizzy. In some patients, periods before a migraine are generally fraught with complete loss of consciousness.
• The abdominal form of migraine affects mainly children who inherited this disease. They have abdominal pain along with nausea and even vomiting.
• An ophthalmoplegic type of migraine is sick, usually at twenty years old. The pain is concentrated directly around the eye. Pulsation along with increased intracranial pressure can torment a person from an hour or more. The pressure against this background is so strong that it can lead to spasms of the eye muscles. These are very common migraine symptoms in adults.
• Retinal migraine is short-lived and lasts about one hour. But this type can lead to complete loss of vision. This kind of ailment is sometimes painless, but mostly pains are still present, though not as severe as with other types of pathology. What are the symptoms of vestibular migraine?
• The vestibular variety is accompanied by dizziness. They can be independent or paired with a headache.
• The hemiplegic type of migraine is a genetic disease that is rare and inherited. Immediately before the onset of the syndrome, people may experience paralysis on one side of the body. The condition may also be accompanied by dizziness and temporary loss of vision.
• Migrainosus status is the most dangerous type of migraine. It is completely impossible to treat it yourself, therefore urgent hospitalization is required. In this case, a person experiences very strong pains. And there is no way to cope without special help. To improve well-being, a whole range of medications is required.

Causes of Migraine

This is a complex disease with many varieties. Experts are unanimous that it directly depends on the activity of the nervous system. Any disorder along with exposure to a wide variety of factors leads to the fact that a number of neurological and biochemical processes can work. Genetics plays a very important role in this. So, what causes can cause such severe pain?

• The effect of stress. Severe emotional upheaval in people who are prone to migraines is often manifested by the progression of the disease.
• Intensive exercise leading to physical stress. This can be a variety of workouts, hard physical work or excessive sexual activity.
• The presence of fluctuations in atmospheric pressure with temperature changes.
• Bright lighting or light flashes.
• The appearance of strong unpleasant odors.
• Various trips, especially to countries with other climatic conditions.
• Lifestyle change, lack of sleep.
• Malnutrition, nutritional deficiencies, or just skipping a meal.
• The presence of hormonal surges in women.

In addition to the above factors, various products can cause an attack. For example, people with a genetic predisposition to migraine need to completely eliminate caffeine, red wine, and beer.

Preservatives, nitrites and nitrates are not only dangerous to health, but threaten with bouts of headaches. It will not be superfluous to keep a food diary in order to be able to correlate the probability of the next seizures with the foods eaten the day before. In the future, you need to remove them from the diet.

Care should be taken with cheeses, chocolate, citrus fruits, nuts, liver and sausage. It is likely that excluding just one product, such as coffee, a person will forget about the disease, and he will no longer need any medicine for migraine.

Many people wonder how a headache with migraine headaches. Symptoms are discussed below.

Migraine as a female disease

As previously noted, women often suffer from migraines. Of the total number of such patients, approximately seventy-five percent are given to women. The age of female migraines is usually twenty to fifty-five years. And in almost half of the patients, migraine occurs depending on menstruation, which is associated with the action of hormones.

In addition, women suffer from headaches during pregnancy, with a sharp change in hormonal levels. Female migraine often accompanies the onset of menopause. It should be noted that women are especially sensitive to certain foods, and in addition, to smells, bright light and sounds.

So, then we will describe in detail the symptoms of migraine.

Main symptoms

Headaches against this ailment, as is already known, arise from only one side. They are able to cover, for example, immediately the upper jaw, neck and eye. The pain is usually characterized by a pulsating character and is significantly amplified against the background of the appearance of various stimuli, for example, bright light, strong smell or loud sound.

How does a headache with migraines, symptoms of the disease - all this can be checked with your doctor to accurately establish the diagnosis.

Often during attacks, people feel nauseous with a feeling of heaviness. Cramping in the stomach and vomiting may also occur. Very often, pain medication does not have any effect. Sometimes there is a violation of orientation in space. Irritability may also be noted along with a depressed state and a depressed mood. Patients may feel agitated or, conversely, drowsiness. Symptoms of migraine are very unpleasant.

Attacks can last from thirty minutes to several hours. In the event that the pain cannot be relieved within a few days, a migraine status develops. In some patients, a precursor may appear immediately before the attack, indicating the imminent onset of the disease. This phenomenon is called an aura.

The first symptom in this case is the fog before the eyes along with dizziness, visual, tactile and auditory hallucinations, impaired coordination and speech, tearfulness and the desire to eat something sweet. If you take the medicine during this period, then in some cases it is possible to prevent the onset of the attack.

We also consider in more detail the symptoms, causes and treatment of migraine with aura.

The main phases of migraine

This disease has several phases, each of which may be accompanied by its own symptoms. The prodromal phase usually begins a few days before the main attack. At this time, a person has poor appetite, or maybe, on the contrary, is too strong, along with intolerance to bright lighting and manic sensitivity to smells. Also at this time, mood may change, drowsiness comes with fatigue.

Half an hour before the onset of pain, the aura stage begins. During this period, patients have limbs numb, objects flicker, eyesight is lost, flies appear in front of the eyes that interfere with the examination of objects. In addition, at this time there is confusion. Sometimes an aura can be accompanied by a complete loss of consciousness.

Reviews of the symptoms and treatment of migraine are abundant. The appearance of a panic attack is all inclined to consider a harbinger of migraine. According to reviews, seizures can last from four hours to three days. In this case, the person experiences a throbbing pain, which increases with movement or slight physical exertion. Often this phase is accompanied by severe nausea. Vomiting may also occur. Some patients often experience hallucinations or a numb face.

In the period of the postdromal phase, when the pain is already passing, the person is not yet fully aware that everything is over. Feelings can be aggravated, and the psyche is inhibited at this moment. Misunderstanding of what is happening around is quite pronounced.

Symptoms and treatment of vestibular migraine should also be considered in more detail.

This form of pathology manifests itself as an attack with severe or moderate dizziness and headache. Symptoms may last for several minutes or several hours. In severe cases - during the day. Dizziness can be reduced by changing the position of the head. There is no hearing loss, no hum or tinnitus is observed. The combination of headache and dizziness is not in all patients. Some people lose coordination, they cannot stand and walk.

The main symptoms of vestibular migraine are:

• dizziness;
• headaches;
• vomiting and nausea;
• lack of coordination, instability when walking.

Therapeutic measures are carried out both at the time of the attack, and during the lull period for prevention. A change in the lifestyle of patients is required in order to prevent new attacks. It is also important to conduct drug therapy. This involves stopping the symptoms of the disease.

Migraine treatment

This disease must be treated immediately, and in several directions. Universal therapy for migraine today does not exist. The very first thing you need to do is to relieve pain, and then develop a scheme that will help reduce the number of seizures, minimizing their overall severity. There are whole lists of medications for migraine, which are divided into the following groups:

• Reception of painkillers analgesics. First of all, these are such drugs as Ibuprofen, Nise, Naproxen, Aspirin, Acetaminophen, Excedrine, Diclofenac and Solpadein.
• Special medicines in the form of Zolmitriptan, Noramiga, Sumatriptan, Eletriptan, Zomiga, Trimigren, Imigran and Naratriptan have been developed specifically for the treatment of this disease. They serve as quick-acting drugs. Due to their composition, they can normalize the volume of serotonin. These remedies are the most advanced for migraine therapy. Most patients in the reviews note a positive result against the background of their admission. They do not contribute to the suppression of the nervous system and do not cause drowsiness, significantly reducing pain. True, all of these medicines have some side effects.
• Treatment with Akliman, Ginofort, Sekabrevin, Neoginofort, Ergomar and Kakginergin helps to compress the muscles around the blood vessels.
• Drugs in the form of "Morphine", "Codeine", "Meperidine" and "Oxycodone" are prescribed only in especially serious cases of migraine that are not amenable to other methods of therapy.
• Nausea on the background of migraine is removed by Metoclopramide.
• Prevention of headaches is carried out with drugs such as Propranolol, Valproate and Topiramat.
• Betablockers in the form of “Metoprolol” and “Timolol” are used to reduce the number of pain outbreaks.
• It is advisable to use anticonvulsants for migraines. For example, “Divalproex”, along with “Topiramat”, refers to such.
• The use of antidepressants, for example, Amitriptyline, along with Tricyclix and Venlafaxine.
• The use of combined drugs in the form of “Stopmigraine”, “Kaffetin”, “Pentalgin”, “Tetralgin” and “Solpadein”.
  

Drugs for the treatment of menstrual migraine

Many women suffer from migraines directly in the premenstrual period. For such patients, at this time, doctors recommend taking "Ergotamine", as well as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, for example, such drugs as "Ibuprofen", "Aspirin", "Diclofenac", "Sumatriptan", "Eletriptan" and "Digidergot".

Everyone should know the causes, symptoms and treatment of migraine pills.

Using Botox Against Migraine

Botox is currently used quite effectively for the treatment of chronic migraines. Every three months, this drug is administered to patients in the head and neck. Such a measure helps to avoid attacks of this ailment or, at least, minimizes pain.

Next, we will figure out how you can act on an ailment without the use of medications. How else to relieve the symptoms of headache with migraines?

Fighting migraines without drugs

Most medical devices cause significant harm to human health. People heal one, and destroy the second. Migraine medications are no exception. In this regard, the most affordable non-pharmacological agents should be adopted.

But what can help migraines without harming health? First of all, you should learn to control the activity of your muscles. They need to be able to relax, give them the necessary peace, they can not be clamped. Carrying out relaxation of the whole body is not such a difficult technique. The only thing is that you need to master it well and constantly perform such exercises. Relaxation must be alternated with the use of cold compresses. In stores, special gaskets are available for holding a cold compress for several hours.

It is equally important to learn how to deal with stress. This is a rather complicated, but at the same time necessary skill for health. After all, this helps not only with migraines, but also supports the nervous system. You should learn how to determine stress by exposing blockers in its path, thanks to which it will subsequently be able to cope with it. Each person basically has their own ways of dealing with such an ailment. But here are a few recommendations for those who often suffer from migraines:

• It is advisable to take a contrast shower. This is useful not only for the human body, but also for his head.
• You should lower your head into a basin of warm water. Next, you need to stay a few minutes in this position. Then you can again take the vertical position. A pair of such approaches will help to cope with outbreaks of pain.
• Sometimes wetting clothes with ice water helps.
• You should rest in the room regularly with dim lighting.
• Just before approaching a migraine outbreak, try to fall asleep.
• It is recommended to massage the head. It is advisable to take regular massage courses from a specialist.
• It is advisable to massage the legs. To do this, take a comfortable pose and, while massaging your feet, relax.
• Sometimes a tight bandaging of the head helps with migraines.
• Whiskey should be lubricated with menthol ointment.

So, we studied the information about the symptoms and treatment of migraine head.

Migraine Prevention

The most basic thing that needs to be done is to establish a lifestyle. At the same time, a person needs regular nutrition along with normal sleep, physical activity and the absence of bad habits. In addition, you should monitor the drugs taken. Oral contraceptives and hormonal drugs should not be abused. And it’s best to completely abandon them. Experts say that it is impossible to completely recover from a migraine. But you can minimize it by changing your habits and leading a healthy lifestyle.

Migraine in adolescents - symptoms and treatment

As a rule, in children the same symptoms are noted - severe headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting. However, conventional painkillers are not effective.

The causes of pathology in adolescents are special provoking factors:

• first menstruation in girls;
• hormonal failure;
• mental and physical overwork;
• severe stress;
• weather conditions; climate;
• lack or excess of sleep;
• too bright light and loud sounds;
• long sitting at the computer.

We examined migraine symptoms in adolescents. The treatment is described below.

What can help at the time of the attack?

After the onset of the attack, you should take a horizontal position, eliminate the provoking factors, for example, sound or light, slide the curtains on the windows, provide silence and ventilate the room. You can massage the temples or the occipital part, the collar area. In some cases, bandages compressing the head, a wet towel on the forehead, and compresses help.

You can induce vomiting, drink sweet strong tea, an analgesic. After eliminating the symptoms, you need a dream. All medications can only be prescribed by a doctor.

Reviews of the symptoms and treatment of migraine pills

This pathology collects a large number of reviews. Adult men and women and adolescents suffer from migraines. At the time of the attack, people feel severe pain, dizziness, nausea, often vomiting. Complete silence is needed, painkillers do not always help. But women consider Triptan tablets to be as effective as possible. It also relieves pain well, according to reviews, massage.

We examined the symptoms, causes, and treatment of migraine.