The article will discuss the symptoms and treatment of migraine. What is this pathology?
Migraine is a disease that causes prolonged, intense, and sometimes even unbearable pain in the head. Pathology can completely deprive a person of sleep, destroying his career and personal life. How to defeat such an ailment? What methods of migraine treatment does modern, folk and ancient medicine offer ? We will talk about all this in our article.
Signs of Migraine
There is an opinion that migraine is a disease of aristocrats, a kind of whim of people who have an excess of free time. And working people have no time to suffer from headaches. But so think only those whom this misfortune has not yet touched. Many people call it absolutely any headache, but this is a mistake.
Symptoms and treatment of migraine at home are of interest to many.
Migraine differs from usual ailments due to overwork or on the background of hypertension in the following series of factors:
- The location of pain. This feature is reflected directly in the name of the disease, since the word "migraine" in translation means "half the head." Therefore, one of the distinctive features of the disease is pain, covering only one hemisphere or some specific part of it.
- It is important to pay attention to the nature of the pain. For example, migraine is characterized by intense, and yet throbbing pain. Patients say that the nature of the pain resembles bouts of acute dental malaise, but, of course, with a slightly different location.
- The power of pain. Migraine attacks literally knock down and deprive people of the opportunity to engage in any activity. The condition is accompanied by light phobia, so various sounds with bright light only lead to increased pain.
Migraine treatment should be comprehensive.
The mechanism of the appearance of pathology
Despite the fact that the disease has been known since ancient times, the principle of the occurrence of pain is still not entirely clear. With a high degree of certainty, it can be stated that a migraine is not connected in any way with intracranial, but also with blood pressure, moreover, it is not caused by injuries and tumors and does not result from mental stress. A correlation of migraine with a stroke is observed, but whether this ailment is a consequence of its occurrence is completely unknown.
To date, there are a number of hypotheses that explain the mechanism of the formation of pain, and all of them relate to a certain extent the blood vessels of the brain. It is precisely with this that the pulsating nature of unpleasant sensations is apparently connected.
Among the most possible causes of the syndrome is called narrowing of the vascular lumens, which leads to insufficient blood supply to certain areas of the brain, so pain against a migraine has a clear localization. According to another version, for various reasons, the vessels expand unevenly, which provokes a reaction in the form of pain. The internal mechanics of the disease are mainly of interest to specialists, and patients, in turn, are more interested in learning about the factors that trigger an attack.
Migraine treatment is presented below.
Provocative factors
The accumulated experience of monitoring patients with migraine reveals that it often precedes a wave of pain. The main triggers are the following reasons:
- Neurological background. Thus, it was found that stress attacks with fatigue and strong feelings lead to migraine attacks.
- Food background. In this matter, alcohol is very dangerous. And the leader in this competition is not vodka at all, but various wines along with champagne and cider. All these “pleasures” contain gas that speeds up the absorption of alcohol. Their use can lead to an attack. It has also been found that eating migraines leads to eating nuts, chocolate and cheese.
- The use of hormonal drugs. Often migraine attacks are caused by the use of hormonal contraceptives.
- Bad dream. It does not matter, there is a violation due to lack of sleep or its excess.
- The influence of external factors. Weather changes can provoke attacks along with fluctuations in atmospheric pressure and a trip to an unusual climate zone.
In the event that a person is prone to seizures, he must necessarily take into account the last factor when planning long trips. After all, otherwise it will be a shame to fall through your entire vacation, suffering from a headache. Migraine treatment should be performed by a qualified doctor.
Types of Migraine
According to the international classifier of diseases, the following types of this ailment exist:
- Ordinary migraine is expressed as a throbbing headache. It is considered the most common species. At the same time, many patients do not go to the doctor, since they take such a migraine for simple pain.
- The classic form of migraine suggests a whole complex of specific sensations that precede the attack and accompany it. The specific manifestations are individual in this case, they can be visual (when zigzags with multi-colored spots and flashes of light appear), sound (against which a ringing in the ears appears), tactile (which is expressed in a feeling of tingling or numbness), olfactory, and gustatory. Unbalance with distortion of the perspective of visible objects and distances to them may be less common. Sometimes the disease can manifest itself in the form of increasing anxiety. The treatment of migraine in women is a very topical issue today.
- The development of migraine status in the form of prolonged seizures that do not pass after rest. Sometimes they can continue for days, bringing patients to exhaustion.
- A complicated form of migraine is often accompanied by loss of consciousness, nausea, vomiting, and epileptic seizures are also possible. Such an attack may even result in a stroke.
- Other forms of migraine are also distinguished, which include its specific varieties in the form of a retinal type (the appearance of a blind spot in the eyes), ophthalmoplegic (pain in the optic nerves), and so on.
Symptoms and treatment of migraine are interconnected.
Effects
A prolonged attack of a complicated form of migraine can result in a migraine stroke. The affected vessel loses its ability to expand after cramping, which leads to blockage and the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. It should be noted that the presence of pulsating localized headaches may indicate aneurysm of the brain.
But usually migraine does not lead to such deplorable results. Its consequences are rather social. The presence of exhausting prolonged headaches disrupts the healthy alternation of sleep with rest, undermining the vitality of a person and significantly reducing the quality of his life.
People suffering from such pains incur significant financial costs, consisting of the costs of migraine treatment, as well as from lost profits due to forced time off, which in most cases is not paid. It must be said that not only people, but also doctors, are not serious enough about this ailment. Every Russian person realizes how difficult it is to get sick leave due to migraine. And the only parameter of the disease worthy of medical attention in the district clinic is an elevated temperature.
Migraine treatment at home is real.
Pathology can have a negative effect on social activity, breaking social ties, harming family life, which affects the general condition, causing depression of patients. According to statistics, patients who suffer from migraines are diagnosed with depression four times more often than healthy people. This is enough to take this ailment seriously and not neglect the required treatment.
Symptoms and treatment of migraine are not known to everyone.
Risk group or prevalence of pathology
Headaches, as well as migraines, are the most common ailments. According to recent expert estimates, up to seventy-five percent of the world's working-age population experience headaches every year. A third of these complain of migraines. But the harm of pathology is underestimated, and the direct attitude towards it is mostly disregard.
Who is at risk? This disease affects people during puberty and can reach a peak by the age of forty. It is worth noting that women are more susceptible to the disease. Thus, the number of visits to doctors about this disease from women is fixed several times more often. It has been established that migraine has a genetic nature, therefore heredity plays a significant role in the onset of an ailment.
As already noted, the symptoms and treatment of migraine are related.
How is migraine detected?
Like other types of headaches, the diagnosis of migraine is based mainly on patient complaints, which does not require additional examinations. The basis of the diagnosis appears to be a thorough interview of the patient along with a reconciliation of complaints that are indicated in the International Classifier.
Doctors sometimes reveal objective symptoms of migraine in women. Treatment should also rely on this. Pathology can be expressed in redness of the fingers and moistening of the palms. It is interesting to note that only forty percent of patients receive the correct diagnosis regarding their presence of the disease.
Treating migraine symptoms with pills is very popular.
Medical treatment
Medicines in the presence of migraine are used to eliminate the symptoms of the disease, that is, first of all, you need to eliminate the feeling of pain. All drugs that are used for migraine are divided into the following main groups:
- For the treatment of cervical migraine, doctors prescribe analgesics with anti-inflammatory drugs. At the same time, universal pain medications are prescribed, which can be purchased without a prescription in a pharmacy. These include non-steroidal drugs in the form of "Ibuprofen" or "Diclofenac."
- Ergot remedies. Ergot alkaloids can tone brain vessels, inhibiting the production of serotonin, which causes pain. Drugs based on ergot extract serve as narrowly targeted agents, they are almost useless with ordinary headache. They should be used directly during migraine attacks for its relief or for preventive purposes. This is done in courses up to a maximum of two weeks. This category of drugs has a number of side effects, and in addition, contraindications (for example, they are not prescribed for patients suffering from coronary heart disease). They should be used only as directed by the doctor, depending on the symptoms. Migraine treatment at home is presented below.
- The use of triptans. Such drugs stop vascular spasms and affect the vascular walls, blocking pain signals at the level of trigeminal nerve receptors. Triptans are distinguished by the fact that they can relieve the symptoms of complicated migraine in the form of light and noise fear, and can also combat nausea and vomiting. Triptans are considered highly targeted anti-migraine drugs.
But people are always interested in whether it is possible to do without chemical drugs? In this case, you can turn to the methods of traditional medicine.
Treating migraines at home can be very effective.
Non-drug treatment
Migraine has been known to people since time immemorial. All this time, the struggle of mankind continues with this ailment. Over the years, methods of physiotherapeutic influences have been developed that allow to reduce the suffering of patients to a minimum. In particular, the traditional medicine of distant China succeeded in this. A lot of treatises have been written about the medicine of the ancient people of this country, we will touch on the basic principles of physiotherapeutic treatment of migraine.
The main principle of Chinese medicine is a gentle effect and a gradual increase in its strength. The course usually begins with a minimum dosage and duration of treatment. The intensity is increased gradually, taking into account the results obtained from previous therapy sessions.
Physiotherapy sessions are carried out taking into account the established causes of the disease, which is done according to various schemes. The purpose of the physiotherapeutic action is to eliminate or minimize the number of provoking factors in the form of stress along with increased muscle tension of the cervical-collar region. Since ancient times, the following treatment methods have been particularly effective:
- Carrying out acupressure. The technique consists in influencing active points, each of which can cause a response in the body.
- Performing acupuncture. Exposure to biological active points is made using the finest sterile needles. Due to the fact that the needles are thin and very sharp, the procedure is almost painless.
- Carrying out a massage tuyna. This traditional massage is the hallmark of ancient medicine. The movements worked out over centuries in combination with knowledge regarding the energy zones of the body make it possible to achieve excellent results. For migraines, massage of the cervical-collar region and shoulder girdle is considered particularly effective.
- Performing hydrotherapy. Therapeutic baths have long been considered the most effective treatment technique, which allows you to combine the strength of the four elements.
Despite the fact that this alternative medicine is considered an ancient invention, it successfully uses modern achievements of progress. So, electro-acupuncture is a huge success - a method in which the effect of the acupuncture technique is further enhanced by the flow of small force. Electrophoresis based on herbal compounds, which are specially selected by Chinese doctors, is considered equally popular.
How can I relieve a migraine attack?
Methods of stopping pain directly depend on its duration, and in addition, the intensity:
- Against mild seizures lasting up to one day, analgesics are used along with anti-inflammatory drugs. But preparations in the form of rectal suppositories differ by a much faster effect. This will be true even when the attack is accompanied by nausea. Codeine-containing medicines are also considered highly effective, but their use is addictive. They may contain: metamizole sodium along with drotaverine hydrochloride, phenobarbital and caffeine.
- Against the backdrop of more serious multi-day attacks, enhanced measures are required. In this case, drugs from the triptan category in the form of Zolmitriptan, Eletriptan and Sumatriptan are suitable. Such medicines narrow the blood vessels of the brain, reducing the sensitivity of receptors to serotonin. In the presence of chronic migraines, which are characterized by long seizures, you should consult a doctor in advance. Properly prescribed triptan drugs, taken in the first two hours after the onset of an attack, can completely stop the development of the disease.
Migraine Prevention
The basis for the prevention of such attacks is the maximum elimination of provoking factors. An important role in this matter is played by the normal regime of the day, along with the correct alternation of work cycles with rest, avoidance of nervous strain and stressful situations. The diet, which should exclude or reduce the consumption of products that provoke the production of serotonin, will also be useful, we are talking about smoked meats, cheeses, chocolate and alcohol. In addition, as part of prevention, anticonvulsants with antidepressants can be prescribed.
Treatment of migraine in women at home is widespread.
Traditional treatment techniques or lifestyle changes
In order to get rid of regular migraines, first of all, you need to reconsider your lifestyle by making the following adjustments:
- Going to bed and getting out of bed should always be at the same time, while trying not to lie down for a long time. It is also necessary to avoid daytime sleep, which significantly violates the daily routine.
- Nutrition must be balanced, the diet should contain vegetables with fruits, legumes along with nuts and seafood, and in addition, a variety of cereals. How is migraine treated with folk methods, not everyone knows.
- Daily walks will help a person stay in a constant tone, receiving the necessary amount of oxygen.
- It is extremely important to eliminate bad habits in the form of smoking and alcohol.
- Unrest with overwork, lack of regular physical exertion negatively affect the health status of each person.
- Regular use of aspirin helps prevent migraine attacks. But keep in mind that it does not help everyone.
- After observing the attacks, you can determine what exactly provokes them. By eliminating such factors, a new attack can be avoided. For some, this factor is cold with emotional outbursts, and for another, foods that contain serotonin. As noted earlier, there are quite a few such factors, and they are all inherently individual. How is migraine treated quickly at home?
- In the event that a seizure nevertheless occurs and the person is at home at that time, the following method will help ease his condition: leaving your business you need to close in your room, turn off the light, go to bed and try to relax as much as possible. It is also recommended to sleep. Thanks to such measures, a person in an hour, waking up, will not feel pain.
Folk remedies for the treatment of migraine have been used for centuries.
The use of folk recipes
There are many different ways to cure migraines that have been tested for centuries, and are now available to everyone and do not require large expenses. Effectively produce migraine therapy at home as follows:
- It is necessary to attach lilac leaves to the place of pain along with cabbage and burdock, after an hour the migraine will stop.
- A raw onion compress should be applied to the forehead. It can also be inserted into the ear from the side where the head hurts. This will alleviate the condition during an attack.
- A swab that is previously wetted in beetroot juice helps a lot. It also needs to be inserted into the ear from the sore side.
- When migraines drink potato juice half a cup.
- They also pour boiling water over viburnum and let it brew, then filter and drink like tea. It is also recommended to add a little honey.
- It is equally useful to take a bath by adding the following herbs to the water: yarrow with thyme and mint. A bath with a valerian broth also helps.
Migraine has long been a common and common ailment. But today, for its treatment, there are many different ways that should first be discussed with your doctor.
We examined the symptoms and treatment of migraine.