Migraines

Migraines are severe, throbbing headaches that may or may not be accompanied by nausea, visual disturbances, and other symptoms. Traditional research has described migraines as vascular headaches involving excessive dilation or contraction of the brain's blood vessels. Migraines may occur anywhere from once a week to once or twice a year, and they often run in families. One factor behind the higher incidence of migraine in women may be fluctuations in the level of the hormone estrogen; women typically get migraines around the time of menstruation, when estrogen levels are low. Migraines occur most often in people between the ages of twenty and thirty-five, and tend to decline with age. However, children too can suffer from migraines. In children, migraine pain tends to be more diffuse, rather than localized. Migraine can first show up in childhood not as headaches, but as colic, periodic abdominal pains, vomiting, dizziness, and severe motion sickness. Any number of things can trigger a migraine in a susceptible individual, including allergies, constipation, stress, liver malfunction, too much or too little sleep, emotional changes, sun glare, flashing lights, lack of exercise, and changes in barometric pressure.