Thursday, February 25, 2010

Symptoms That Migraine Is About To Rear Its Ugly Head

This is quite important because you often confuse symptoms of a sinus headache and a tension-type headache with migraine. Awareness of the signs and symptoms accompanying migraine will help you in treating migraine the way it should be treated.

Symptoms are different for different people but usually the most common symptom is pain, usually on one side of the head. But about 30-40% of the sufferers may have it on both sides of the head. The pain is pulsating or throbbing in nature. Though this pain may range from being moderate to severe, it does interfere with the daily activities of the migraneur.

Additionally, sensitivity to light or sound is also very common (photophobic or photophonic). This phase can last between 4-72 hours. This can be accompanied by nausea or vomiting. There may be changes in moods or sensations. Some people might also experience fatigue and muscle tension.

Migraneurs also experience visual disturbances or auras, which can be quite agitating. In fact, this is one of the most common features of migraine, so common that migraines have actually been classified as with and without auras.

The other visual disturbances may include blind spots, seeing geometric patterns, and vision only on one side. Auditory hallucinations, though uncommon, are also heard of. Tingling of arms and face or difficulty while speaking may also occur. Sometimes, the pain goes away if the patient sleeps. The migraine attack also has a postdrome phase when the migraneur may feel tired or fatigued even after the attack is over. In fact, the person is so fatigued that even eating becomes a major chore.
A number of factors have been identified as causing migraine. These can range from change in climate or weather to change in altitude or barometric pressure. Even high winds, traveling or a change in routine may trigger a migraine attack. Then other factors giving rise to a migraine may be bright, flickering lights, extreme heat and/or sound, strong smells or vapors, dry and dusty atmosphere, smoking and overexertion. In fact, a toothache may also result in a migraine.

Hence, it is very essential that full knowledge be obtained about the symptoms of migraine so that proper treatment can be administered for it in the right away.


source: http://www.headacheupdates.com

2 comments:

  1. I hate migraines.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thank you for this list of things to look out for.

    ReplyDelete