What happens in the brain during a migraine?
There are many people who suffer from migraines. For myself, I find that it is often triggered by stress or by a sudden change in weather (specifically atmospheric pressure changes).
I wonder what is happening within the brain when a migraine strikes and if there is some explanation as to why, for the most part, my migraines are worse when the atmospheric pressure comes down as opposed to going up like many of the people I know.
Public Comments
1. Migraine is a debilitating condition characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea, about 3 times more common in women than in men.The word migraine was borrowed from Old French migraigne (originally as "megrim", but respelled in 1777 on a contemporary French model). The French term derived from a vulgar pronunciation of the Late Latin word hemicrania, itself based on Greek hemikrania, from Greek roots for "half" and "skull".The typical migraine headache is unilateral pain (affecting one half of the head) and pulsating in nature, lasting from 4 to 72 hours; symptoms include nausea, vomiting, photophobia (increased sensitivity to light), phonophobia (increased sensitivity to sound), and is aggravated by routine activity.Approximately one-third of people who suffer from migraine headaches perceive an aura—unusual visual, olfactory, or other sensory experiences that are a sign that the migraine will soon occur.
Initial treatment is with analgesics for the headache, an antiemetic for the nausea, and the avoidance of triggering conditions. The cause of migraine headache is unknown; the most common theory is a disorder of the serotonergic control system.Studies of twins indicate a 60 to 65 percent genetic influence upon their propensity to develop migraine headache.Moreover, fluctuating hormone levels indicate a migraine relation: 75 percent of adult patients are women, although migraine affects approximately equal numbers of prepubescent boys and girls; propensity to migraine headache is known to disappear during pregnancy, although in some women migraines may become more frequent during pregnancy.
For more check this link out :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraine
