Migraine is a medical condition which features mainly a severe headache and has a number of varying symptoms like nausea, visual dysfunctions and sensitivity problems.
Hormonal changes in the body may be a huge cursor towards migraine in women while men at large, suffer migraine because of external factors. It is seen in women that migraine attacks become more frequent during their menstruation periods. Such a thesis though, is not verified because of variations from patients to patient. It is quite common to see migraines in the later phase of your life. However, migraine at childhood and teenage are more common. Nine out of ten people have had their first migraine attack before the age of forty.
Two types of migraine exist, common and classical.
Common Migraine: It is the non-aura migraine.
Classical Migraine: It includes other aural symptoms accompanying the headache.
Frequency of migraines: The worst cases include people suffering attacks numerous times a week while some have gaps of years between attacks.
Symptom based stages of migraine.
Medically, there are five stages of migraine, although these may vary a lot from patient to patient. Prodromal Stage: This is the pre-headache stage. People may experience psychological changes such as changes in mood, energy level variations, change in behaviors and food habits and aching in different body parts. The symptoms can start showing hours and even days before the attack begins.
Aura: In every one of six cases, the patient experiences aura before the migraine. This includes seeing blinding light, dark spots are distorted images.
Headache: The headache characterizes of a pulsating sensation on one side of the forehead. Patients describe it as a throbbing pain on the side. The headache may last from four hours to anywhere around 72 hours.
Resolution: After lasting for a while, the headache fades away. Sleep helps patients relieve the pain.
Posdromal phase: This is the recovering phase after a migraine attack. Psychological effects of the pain are difficult to recover from.
The aura is the warning sign of an impending migraine attack. It is the common word used my patients and therefore, has been adopted in practicing terms. 25% of people experiencing migraines have reported to suffer from the aura. The problems include but are not limited to:
Visual Dysfunctions: The patient may experience visual problems like seeing geometrical patterns, flashing lights, blind spots and other distorted images.
Coordination problems: A psychological effect accompanying migraine, the patient may feel off-balance and experience disorientation.
Verbal problems: Problems in speaking are also common during the attack. The patient may feel that he may not be able to properly orient his words.
Unconsciousness: The patient may become unconscious, but this is very rare.
The symptoms of aural type may precede the migraine headache from 15 minutes to about one hour. Some cases have also reported experiencing the aura with only a mild headache.
Other common symptoms associated with migraine are:
Poor levels of concentration
High sweating
Temperature variances in the body
High frequency of urination
Abdominal pain
