How to Get Rid of a Migraine

A migraine is a specific health disorder which differs from a conventional headache. It can be rather disturbing causing unbearable pain, sound & light sensitivity, nausea and even vomiting. The thumping headache experienced by patients can significantly affect their daily life preventing them from performing their routine activities.

Sitting tight expecting for the migraine symptoms to subside is not the best option. If you want to return to your habitual life style, you should learn how to handle a migraine.

Migraine – Definition & Symptoms

Migraine is a condition featuring periodical headaches of different intensity: from moderate to severe. As a rule, the headache of throbbing character lasts 2–72 hours and is felt in either left or right part of the head. People having this health disorder are substantially limited in performing their daily routine.

In some cases patients experience visual disturbances before the migraine symptoms appear.

Being in this condition, called aura, they can see the following:

1. stars;
2. shimmering lights;
3. blind spots;
4. flashing lights;
5. zigzag lines.

Aura can also cause tingling in the arm or on the face as well as speech deterioration. Patients should be aware of the fact that these symptoms are similar to those manifested in case of a stroke therefore a healthcare professional’s consultation is required. Please, contact us by link: contacts.

Causes of Migraine

If some of your family members suffered from migraine you are considered prone to this health disorder. Migraine develops in women 3 times more frequently than in men. The vulnerable group includes people who have experiences stress caused by trauma, as well as those who are exposed to migraine triggering unfavorable factors, such as hormone misbalance, chemicals, sleep disorder, diet violation, and dehydration. You must know about dehydration https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153363.php.

How to Cope with Migraine

There are some recommendations following which you can significantly reduce annoying migraine symptoms.

Change your Lifestyle

Triggers of recurrent headaches are rather difficult to identify. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when migraine symptoms start to subside as a result of effective treatment, their causes become more evident. Regimen correction in terms of regularity of meals and sleep as well as taking under control emotional state and eliminating stressful situations prove efficient in getting rid of severe headaches. On the other hand, neglecting these factors is likely to lead to the occurrence of migraine. It is vitally important to recognize the necessity of keeping to healthy lifestyle in spite of the busy life we lead.

Use Preventive Treatment

Relieving migraine symptoms requires paying special attention to timing which implies taking medicines at the earliest stage of expected migraine headache. In this respect, the American Headache Society emphasizes the importance of noticing the prodromal stage of the pain attack. In this phase the first signs of the upcoming migraine appear allowing a patient to take measures preventing a full-blown stage of the disease.

Prodromal signs are of individual nature, however there can be singled out the most common ones:

• inner turmoil, irritability, euphoria or other conditions typical for mood change;
• deteriorated concentration;
• sound or light sensitivity;
• yawning or the feeling of fatigue;
• craving for food especially that rich in carbohydrates.

Try 5 Drug-Free Options

Cold or hot therapy. It can be an effective and safe complement to your medication-based treatment. Some people find applying cold therapy helpful. They use a cold compress (a towel with ice cubes or a bag with frozen peas) which they keep on their forehead for about a quarter of an hour, or take a cold shower. Other prefer applying a heating pad or taking a hot bath or shower.

Loosen your hair. Be careful with your headwear and hairstyle as they may cause a compression headache worsening your health condition. Refuse a tight ponytail as well as uncomfortable hats, headbands, and swimming goggles.

Turn the bright light off. If you are susceptible to bright light or flickering make sure you are less exposed to these migraine triggers. You are recommended to draw dark curtains in the day time, wear sunglasses when staying at home or being out of doors, use anti-glare computer screen and fluorescent bulbs.

Try caffeine. For some persons suffering from recurrent painful attacks, a cup of coffee is rather helpful to stop approaching headache. This effect is taken into account by pharmaceutical companies which add caffeine to pain killers to strengthen the action of the main agent. Don’t take more than 1 cup as coffe abuse can cause more headache. In addition, coffein addiction can develop. Therefore, be sensible in applying this medication-free method.

Just relax. Try to find a resort in a calm dark place where you can protect yourself from noise and bright light affecting irritatingly your sensitive nature. This way you will be able to decrease or eliminate stress and eliminate triggers causing a migraine. To relax fully, lie on your back and start doing breathing exercises. Breath in slowly and deeply feeling your stomach move upward with inhale & downward with exhale.

Medication-Based Treatment

Treating migraine with the help of medications is not confined to taking pain killers. Given the complexity of this health disorder several medicines are needed to provide quick and effective elimination of its symptoms. If an OTC pain reliever appears to be ineffective in your fight sgainst headache, a general practitioner can prescribe triptans. These meds are aimed at decreasing inflammation and changing the brain blood flow.

Different forms of triotans are currently available on the pharmaceutical market: pills, injections & nasal sprays.

The most commonly used drugs of this group are as follows:

• almotriptan (Axert trade name);
• rizatriptan (Maxalt* trade name);
• sumatriptan (Imitrex** trade name).

The full information about Maxalt and Imitrex you can look on these pages:

• *Maxalt link:  awcanadianpharmacy.com/item/maxalt.html
• **Imitrex link: awcanadianpharmacy.com/item/imitrex.html

The prospects in the field of handling cronic migraine are optimistic due to currently conducting research. Thus, according to Mark W. Weatherall’s study (2015) new drugs for treating migraine will appear on the pharmaceutical market in the near future (over the next 3 to 6 years). Some of them are already available on the market. Among the modern medications are calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) antagonists &m antibodies as well as medicines affecting other subtypes of serotonin receptors. At present, patients jointly with their doctors can use a wide range of existing drugs to alleviate migraine pain.

When Do You Need to See a Physician?

A lot of people suffering from severe migraine pain tend to cope with this problem on their own without consulting a doctor. If you experience annoying migraine symptoms periodically, keep notes of them and applied treatment. Show these records to your physician when discussing your health condition.

Even if you have some history of headaches, do not hesitate to make an appointment with general practitioner if you notice something different in your headaches.

There are certain symptoms and signs requiring an immediate doctor’s consultation as they can indicate more severe health conditions:

• An acute thunderclap headache.
• Headache accompanied by such conditions as seizure, trouble speaking, mental confusion, increased body temperature, mono- or binocular double vision, weakness, stiff neck, numbness.
• Headache in a post-trauma period.
• A headache of chronic nature worthening after exersion, coughing, sudden moves or straining.
• New headache in people above 50.