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Migraine sufferers know how hard it is to pinpoint the root cause of the condition. Often, just getting a migraine diagnosis is a complicated undertaking, involving many tests and specialist consultations. And that’s only the first step, since the underlying cause can still be unclear.
As our hormones can play a part in triggering a migraine, it’s no coincidence that more women than men suffer from migraine headaches, or that they’re more common in women during their reproductive years.
People are often surprised to hear that anti-depressant medications are offered in the treatment of migraine headaches. New migraine sufferers can feel a little shocked if their doctor recommends anti-depressants, especially when they have no depression symptoms or feelings.
Over decades of intensive research into migraine pain and its causes, knowledge of this debilitating condition has improved greatly. There’s still lots to do to fully understand what happens in the brain to cause so many diverse symptoms, but thankfully it’s now widely accepted that migraine is not simply another term for ‘headache’.
One of the most common migraine triggers is the weather. In a recent study, 75% of sufferers reported headaches brought on by changes in atmospheric pressure. It’s a simple matter to avoid something like red wine if you know this is one of your personal triggers, but what can you do about headaches brought on by fluctuations in barometric pressure?
The first step is to understand what the term means, and how it can potentially affect you.
In many migraine patients, the exact cause of the headaches is unknown. Individually, sufferers can discover their (often unique) pain triggers and learn to avoid them as far as possible, but this doesn’t explain why flashing lights, for instance, will cause a migraine in one person and leave another completely well.
We sit too long, use computers for hours, work in unhealthy buildings, and get too little fresh air. If everything else in health and life is equal, we cope even though those things are bad for everyone.
For migraine sufferers, conditions at work can escalate an already hard-to-manage condition. The good news is there are some things you can do at work that will help and, if those fail it’s possible co-workers or bosses can step in and make necessary changes.
Many migraine sufferers find that their headaches are often associated with feelings of anxiety or depression, and wonder if the two conditions are related. Plenty of research has been done to investigate the likelihood of either anxiety or depression leading to migraine, with results indicating that there is actually a connection.
Cluster headaches are one of the most debilitating conditions you can experience, particularly if you get them often. They’re also one of the most frustrating to identify and diagnose, and medical science is unclear as to the real cause. It’s believed that overstimulation of the hypothalamus is the primary cause, however. This is the section of the brain that regulates our sleep patterns, and its disturbance results in the development of headaches.
On the popular television sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, a recent episode dealt with a physiological issue that affects millions of people around the world, but not most of them are barely aware of it. One very interesting aspect of The Big Bang Theory is the way it cleverly makes fun of scientific topics, particularly those dealing with physics, but a recent episode actually dealt with an anatomic condition that is known to be a trigger of migraine attacks.
