Migraines- Causes, Stages and Prevention

 What is Migraine?

Migraines are much worse than usual headaches, it’s a neurological condition that causes agonizing, throbbing and unendurable pains most often on one side of the head. Migraine pain can keep you in bed for long hours or sometimes even days. When suffering from migraine pain, the person is extremely sensitive to light, sound or any physical activity.

The pain is usually accompanied with nausea, retching, visual disturbances, and difficulty in communicating, numbness, tingling sensations, fatigue or temporary loss of vision. Migraines are very common conditions and are the sixth most crippling disease in the world and about 12% of the Americans suffer from the same. TMS pain recovery program is very effective in easing the migraine pain.

Types of Migraines

There are many types of migraines that can effectively disrupt a person’s daily life and bring it to a complete stall by incapacitating and confining him/her to the bed. The major difference between any two migraines is whether it had an aura or not. Let's get to know more about the types of migraines.

1.  Migraine with Aura

This is a common kind of migraine as roughly 25% of the people suffer from the same. Migraines that are accompanied with an aura, a sensory disturbance, are also known as complicated migraine, classic migraine or hemiplegic migraine.

In order to rule that you have this complicated migraine, the person must have at least 2 episodes of headache with the symptoms of aura that include seeing bright light just like of a camera flash, confusing thoughts, blind spots, experiencing pain or needle like sensations in arms or legs, difficulty in speaking, numbness, dizziness, ringing in the ears and uncontrolled bodily movements.

A complicated migraine is the one that is primary headache disorder meaning it’s not caused by some other condition but it’s itself a medical condition. From all the above mentioned conditions of an aura, a person will suffer from at least 2-3 of them and it will occur before the actual pain hits.

2.  Migraine without Aura

Most people who suffer from migraines do not experience any aura, in fact 70-90% of the migraines occur without an aura or sensory disturbances.

In order to call it a migraine, person must have 5 or more episodes of the headache and must accompany 2-3 of these conditions- a headache that last from anywhere between 4 hours to 72 hours, the pain is only at one side of the head, its excruciating, moderate to severe in intensity and it only gets worse with movement.

The headache also makes you sensitive to light, sound and brings in nausea and diarrhea. TMS coaching works great for migraines without aura health and wellness coach

3. Chronic Migraine

Chronic migraines are a combination of migraine headache and tension headache and were earlier called mixed headache or severe migraine. This type of migraine lasts for over 15 days each month out of which 8 times the headache is with or without aura symptoms, for at least 3 months straight.

Chronic migraines are usually a result of pain medication overuse, which inadvertently caused them to suffer from the pain even more recurrently.

There are many other types of migraines like acute, menstrual, vestibular, optical, complex, silent, and hormonal or stress migraines, but we will discuss it some other day.

Causes and Triggers of Migraines

What really causes migraines in people isn’t something the modern medical science have been able to decipher but it has something to do with the changes in the brain that might be hereditary, environmental or due to prolonged stressful situations.

The brain’s way of communicating with the nerves changes, the balance of feel-good chemicals is disrupted and the blood vessels start sending pain signals to the brain.

There are many triggers of migraines like, continuous stress, hormonal changes, excessive drinking, sleep deprivation, skipping meals, emotional stress, and too much dependence on caffeine, dehydration, loud sounds, bright lights, extreme weather conditions and intense physical activities. 

Stages of Migraine

The symptoms of migraine can be divided into four stages, prodrome, aura, headache and postdrome. Not everyone suffering from migraine goes through all four stages but they certainly go through one of them.

The first stage is called the prodrome or the premonitory phase which starts before the actual pain kicks in. This stage can start a couple of hours or even a couple of days before the migraine starts.

In fact 20-60% of the people go through this stage. The common symptoms of this stage are fatigue, mood swings, food cravings, sensitivity to light and noises, constipation and bloating and extreme thirst.

The second stage is the aura, most people don’t go through this stage at all, but those who do, this stage can last from anywhere between 5 mins to 60 mins.

 When this stage kicks in the person might have difficulty in speaking, tingling or pricking sensations in the face, arms, legs and toes, bright, vivid lights or blind spots or even a temporary loss of vision.

Then comes the third stage, the migraine itself. This stage is the most painful and severe and it can easily transition from the aura stage to the attack stage without any rest or interval.

The symptoms of this stage are nausea, dizziness, pain in the right, left, front or back of the head or in the temples and sometimes vomiting as well.

Last stage of migraine is postdrome, which can last up to 24hours. The symptoms of this stage are fatigue, euphoria, weakness and increase or decrease in appetite.

Prevention and Treatment

Unfortunately there is no treatment or cure for migraines but the symptoms, frequency and intensity of the migraines can be reduced significantly. Prevention is better than cure, so the best way to beat migraine is to identify your triggers and steer clear of them.

Making sure to get enough sleep, staying hydrated, avoiding excessive drinking, smoking and caffeine intake and most importantly staying relaxed and calm. However, if the pain does start you can take pain relief medications, enroll in a TMS pain recovery program, do TMS coaching or do other self-care remedies.

Last Words from Us

Migraines is a serious medical condition that can affect how you perform on a daily basis. It can sometimes mimic the symptoms of a stroke so make sure if the pain continues, see your doctor. Make sure to keep track of the four stages, so that you can identify the pain and prevent it.