Ease the pain of migraine

By Rosie Shelley Saturday September 3rd, 2011

All of us get headaches from time to time, which are inconvenient but don’t have much of an impact on our everyday existence. Migraines are another matter; they can be really debilitating, painful and distressing, and force people to take time off work and be constantly alert for any of their own personal triggers.

If you suffer from migraines, you’ll no doubt be aware of it, but basically this form differs from, say, tension headaches – often caused by muscular tightness in the upper body and being felt as a band around the head – or sinus headaches, which are caused by allergies or viruses and tend to settle around the eyes. Migraines are usually one-sided, more severe, and may persist for days. Some people find that their visual perception is affected, they don’t like the light, and other symptoms include nausea and even vomiting. The desire is often to simply lie down alone in a darkened room, which is obviously very disruptive to normal employment and family life.

The theory is that it’s not one single trigger that brings on an attack, even though it feels that way, but a build up of stressors

The blurred vision, confusion, anxiety and strange sensations on one side of the body that some sufferers experience are known as ‘auras’, short-lived warning signals that the migraine is about to attack.

So what are the causes of migraines and what can you do to ease the pain? The intense pain is brought on by the blood vessels in the brain dilating, meaning that these types of headache are vascular (related to the blood vessels). Experts believe that sufferers have unstable blood vessels, and that when they’re exposed to certain triggers it alters the normal dilation and contraction of those blood vessels. The theory is that it’s not one single trigger that brings on an attack, even though it feels that way, but a build up of stressors that affect the action of various brain chemicals.

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