Headache is the common compliant of people who are overly stressed of work and the day’s activities. Moreover, not all headaches are ordinarily felt by everyone, some are caused by migraine headache which is very painful and hard to relieve. Mostly, migraines affects 28 million of populations in the America, specifically, female are the common sufferer of this condition. This kind of condition can affect the work of the individual as well as they will lose their productivity. Furthermore, migraine by all mean is still undiagnosed and untreated. And less of these cases are being diagnosed by their physician. This article discusses how migraine will be relieved and what the possible treatments of this condition are.
DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS:
Migraine headache is a form of vascular headache involving abnormal sensitivity of the arteries within the brain resulting in the rapid changes in the artery size due to spasm. Indeed, our scalp and brain have arteries that usually dilate and a very painful stimulus is perceived in the head. What happen is, the blood vessels in the brain will have a vasodilatation then certain chemicals will be releases. This chemical will then cause inflammation, further enlargement of the arteries and the succeeding enlargement of these arteries will result to pain. That is why, the most common symptoms of migraine is headache or pain. This will be follow by body fatigue and weakness. Because of the pain that continuously reoccur over and over again, the patient will become exhausted and later on become weak, as well as lack of energy.
CAUSES AND RISK FACTORS:
Having migraine, your physician will evaluate the medical history and physical examination of the patient suffering from headache. First, the doctor will order magnetic resonance imaging. This procedure uses powerful magnets and radio waves to come up with a detail cross-sectional view of the brain. This will help the physician diagnosed tumors, any abnormalities of the brain and any neurological disease. Second, CT scan is commonly recommended. This procedure uses computer-directed x-rays that also provide cross-sectional view of the brain. And lastly, lumbar puncture is usually done. The test is done by inserting a thin needle between the 2 vertebrae in the lower back wherein they will extract cerebrospinal fluid for further laboratory analysis. This test will be factor for correctly diagnosing migraine. And the result will be an aide in making the treatment plan.
TREATMENTS:
The treatment of migraine headache concentrates on the pain that suffers by the patient. That is why, the following treatments centers on how to relieve the pain and symptoms of migraine attack. Also, to prevent further migraine attacks in the future. Treatments of migraine headache can be treated with pharmacologic agents and preventive measures. When we say, pharmacologic drugs, this involves medications that target the main cause of migraine which is the chemical called serotonin. These medications are called Triptans. This Triptans are used only to treat headaches. These drugs are Eletriptan, Almotriptan, Frovatriptan, Sumatriptan, Zolmitriptan, Midrin and Rizatriptan. However, there are also drugs that are used to relieved pain but are not the specific treatment for migraines. These medications are over the counter drugs like Advil, Acetaminophens, some analgesics, Narcotics and Barbiturates. But taking this kind of medications requires careful precaution because these can develop dependency and later on becomes a problem. You should follow what the physician ordered you to take and never treat migraine on your own. If still migraine headache is persist, despite the medications you’ve taken then you should consult your immediately for further assessment.
ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS:
Aside from the pharmacologic treatment emphasize above, these are alternative treatments that can also relieve pain that brought about by migraine headache. Bear in mind that this alternative approaches relieves pain but it is not the means of treating migraine. First of this is acupuncture. This method involves insertion as well as manipulations of fine needles in the pressure points of the body. These methods can indeed relieved headache pain. Second could be chiropractic method. This method have massage, adjustments of joints, soft tissues and spinal manipulations. This approach result for positive outcome for it effectively relieves the pain that migraine causes. Third is biofeedback activities, such as relaxation therapies and techniques like deep breathing exercises, meditations, and guided imagery, these will control the body responses to stress and relieves pain. Fourth, is magnet therapy and gut brain therapy. More than 90 % of studies regarding these treatments reported that those are effective for relieving pain and stress in the body. These approaches as said earlier, are very helpful from relieving the symptoms experiencing by the patients, aside from that the benefits are inexpensive to invest. Before deciding to go on the pharmacologic treatment, why not try o the non-pharmacologic first, however, before deciding you should consult it your physician, for they know what the best for your health is.
COMPLICATIONS:
Because of your efforts to manage the pain that brought by migraine, you are busy taking medications that relieves pain, and you didn’t realize that certain medications can bring harm and later on complications. First, is rebound headache, this is a typical result of frequent intake of over-the-counter medications on high dosage in a long period of time. This occurs when you are regularly taking pain medications and later on the desired effects, instead of relieving the pain, it will actually begin causing headache. Second, abdominal problems can develop. This is actually the result of taking analgesic medications, which is the major side effects of this is abdominal irritation, and later on progress to ulcerations. Third, is serotonin syndrome, this is the most dangerous complications of all because it is life-threatening. This can be happen if you take the combination of migraine medication like Triptans and antidepressant medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Zoloft, Paxil and Prozac. However, having this kind of complications is very rare, but you need to prevent this kind of condition to happen. Upon knowing the complications of migraine, as a patient, it is your responsibility to know carefully your condition and strictly follows your physician’s advices, because it lays in your hands the progress of your condition. If you didn’t want to reach this kind of complications, you need to know certain preventions to be applied to your own health.
PREVENTIONS:
Remember that prevention is better than cure, so it is very important factors to have preventive measures for you to relieve pain stop the reoccurrence of migraine and most of all, prevent further complication developments. First, eat a well balance, low fat diet with high whole grains together with fresh fruit and vegetables. A good diet can help you achieved good health. Second, having a regular exercise can help patient with migraine, alleviates symptoms by getting rid of stress in the body. Third, stop smoking and alcohol intake can be a big help in preventing further damage in the body. Fourth, if stress triggers the pain, then prevent this by getting it into your system. Because this can affects your health and bring headache that is very painful to bear. So, it should be important to divert stress by having relaxation activities like body massage, good shower every night, listening to music and other activities that brings comfort to your body. And lastly, herbal remedies also found out to be preventive measures in migraine. Taking certain herbal remedies like peppermint and butterbur extracts has a migraine fighting power. That is why, applying these preventive measures can truly alleviate the patient suffering migraine headache and later on prevent complications that are life-threatening to individuals.
CONCLUSIONS:
Having a migraine headache is not easy. The pain is unbearable to take, that is why proper medical advice and management is important. Always consult your physicians if you feel any uncomfortable measures in your body, because we do not know the possibilities abnormalities lying underneath the pain. It is better to be sure and safe than finding it in the late stage. Remember that investing money is very worth spending than investing it on treatments that have no exact cure.
It is essential to understand what is migraine and how to treat it because this is usually a common health problem that many people may acquire.
As a matter of fact, majority of the people who is experiencing this severe head ache cannot function and work well because of the pain that they are experiencing.
This is considered to be a neurologic syndrome which is described as an alteration of the perception of the body, nausea and severe headache.
Most of the time, people who are having this kind of problem think that this is just a simple headache wherein they just take a pain reliever to treat it not knowing that it is already a migraine.
Though there are no drugs invented yet to permanently treat migraine, there are so many things you can do to minimize or even prevent the recurrences of its painful attacks.
Avoiding precipitating factors like having regular sleeping habits, staying away from things and circumstances that causes stress, reducing stress through healthy and active lifestyle and avoiding food triggers are the best ways to prevent the severe headache.
There had been therapies and procedures that showed good changes in reducing the severity and frequency of severe headache, one example of which is Biofeedback technique.
Knowing what causes migraine and how to treat it will help you in solving the severe pain that you are experiencing.
Even if you are stressed out and you have a high anxiety, it is better if you will be able to cope well with the situation that you have.
This way, you can prevent severe headache episodes.
