What Causes A Migraine Attack?
Migraine headaches are characterized by a throbbing pain in one side of a person's head. Migraine sufferers often experience nausea as well as sensitivity to light and sound when they get a migraine attack. This debilitating experience affects nearly 13% of the US population.
What Triggers a Migraine?
Approximately three times as many women suffer from migraines as do men. A lot of things can trigger a migraine and the triggers are different from one person to the next. What causes one person to get a migraine may actually relieve another person's migraine.
Triggers can be cumulative. They could involve activity, diet, emotions, environment, hormones, and medications. The more triggers a migraine sufferer is exposed to the more likely it will occur.
Healthcare professionals have been trying to discern exactly what causes a migraine attack for many years. Although there aren't any definitive answers, they are gaining a clearer understanding of what occurs during a migraine attack.
Currently many medical professionals believe that the brain itself triggers this kind of headache. Once a migraine attack has begun the associated symptoms and the pain are believed to be the result of an inflammatory process that results when the blood vessels that cover the brain interact with the trigeminal nerve. Serotonin, which occurs naturally in the brain, is believed to be instrumental in the inflammatory process.
The blood vessels along the trigeminal nerve send pain signals into the brainstem. The pain processing centers in that part of the brain can become overloaded and sensitized by these signals and start to fire spontaneously.
When this happens patients often have to take off their jewelry and glasses. Some say that the resultant sensitivity that they experience on their scalp and head makes them feel as though their hair hurts.
Most migraine attacks are episodic. However, 10 million of the 29.5 million Americans who get migraines have chronic headaches which last for fifteen or more days a month. A high percentage of these people had episodic migraines that, over time, became chronic migraines.
With a healthcare provider's help migraine headaches can be managed effectively. Migraine sufferers can often learn how to identify the symptoms and then alleviate them with the appropriate treatment(s).
Once migraine symptoms have occurred medication usually won't be as effective as it would have been prior to the full blown attack.
Medications which are preventative are usually taken on a daily basis while abortive medications are taken once an attack has begun. Abortive medications tend to be much more effective if they are taken immediately after the beginning of the attack.
Some people attempt to alleviate the pain with medications such as acetaminophen. If drugs such as this are taken on a regular basis there is the possibility of unintentionally overdosing. If that happens liver damage and death could result.
If you or someone you love has unwittingly taken an overdose of acetaminophen you can find experienced Tylenol liver damage law firms at http://www.tylenolliverdamagelawsuit.com
