How do you know you have Migraine?

What are the symptoms of migraine headaches?

Migraine is a chronic condition with recurrent attacks. Most (but not all) migraine attacks are associated with headaches.

    * Migraine headaches usually are described as an intense, throbbing or pounding pain that involves one temple. (Sometimes the pain is located in the forehead, around the eye, or at the back of the head).

    * The pain usually is unilateral (on one side of the head), although about a third of the time the pain is bilateral (on both sides of the head).

    * The unilateral headaches typically change sides from one attack to the next. (In fact, unilateral headaches that always occur on the same side should alert the doctor to consider a secondary headache, for example, one caused by a brain tumor).

    * A migraine headache usually is aggravated by daily activities such as walking upstairs.

    * Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, facial pallor, cold hands, cold feet, and sensitivity to light and sound commonly accompany migraine headaches. As a result of this sensitivity to light and sound, migraine sufferers usually prefer to lie in a quiet, dark room during an attack. A typical attack lasts between 4 and 72 hours.

An estimated 40%-60% of migraine attacks are preceded by premonitory (warning) symptoms lasting hours to days. The symptoms may include:

    * sleepiness,

    * irritability,

    * fatigue,

    * depression or euphoria,

    * yawning, and

    * cravings for sweet or salty foods.

Patients and their family members usually know that when they observe these warning symptoms that a migraine attack is beginning.
Migraine aura

Triggers

Common Trigers:Bright lights,Loud sound,Certain foodstuffs,Noise and Air pollution,etc.

Triggers from Foods:Cheese,Paneer,Ice cream,Excess tea-coffee,Choclates,etc.

Postdrome

The effects of migraine may persist for some days after the main headache has ended. Many sufferers report a sore feeling in the area where the migraine was, and some report impaired thinking for a few days after the headache has passed. The patient may feel tired or "hungover" and have head pain, cognitive difficulties, gastrointestinal symptoms, mood changes, and weakness.According to one summary, "Some people feel unusually refreshed or euphoric after an attack, whereas others note depression and malaise.

Pain

The typical migraine headache is unilateral, throbbing, and moderate to severe, and can be aggravated by physical activity. Not all these features are necessary. The pain may be bilateral at the onset or start on one side and become generalized, and may occur primarily on one side or alternate sides from one attack to the next. The onset is usually gradual. The pain peaks and then subsides and usually lasts four to 72 hours in adults and one to 48 hours in children. The frequency of attacks is extremely variable, from a few in a lifetime to several a week, and the average sufferer experiences one to three headaches a month. The head pain varies greatly in intensity, and can be very severe.

The pain of migraine is invariably accompanied by other features. Nausea occurs in almost 90 percent of patients, and vomiting occurs in about one third of patients[citation needed]. Many patients experience sensory hyperexcitability manifested by photophobia, phonophobia, and osmophobia and seek a dark and quiet room. Blurred vision, delirium, nasal stuffiness, diarrhea, tinnitus, polyuria, pallor, or sweating may be noted during the headache phase. There may be localized edema of the scalp or face, scalp tenderness, prominence of a vein or artery in the temple, or stiffness and tenderness of the neck. Impairment of concentration and mood are common. The extremities tend to feel cold and moist[citation needed]. Vertigo may be experienced; a variation of the typical migraine, called vestibular migraine, has also been described. Lightheadedness, rather than true vertigo,[citation needed] and a feeling of faintness may occur.

Prodrome

Prodromal symptoms occur in 40–60% of those with migraines. This phase may consist of altered mood, irritability, depression or euphoria, fatigue, yawning, excessive sleepiness, craving for certain food (e.g. chocolate), stiff muscles (especially in the neck), dizziness, hot ears, constipation or diarrhea, increased or decreased urination, and other visceral symptoms. These symptoms usually precede the headache phase of the migraine attack by several hours or days, and experience teaches the patient or observant family how to detect a migraine attack is near.
 Aura

For the 20–30% of migraine sufferers who experience migraine with aura, this aura comprises focal neurological phenomena that precede or accompany the attack. They appear gradually over five to 20 minutes and generally last fewer than 60 minutes. The headache phase of the migraine attack usually begins within 60 minutes of the end of the aura phase, but it is sometimes delayed up to several hours, and it can be missing entirely. The pain may also begin before the aura has completely subsided. Symptoms of migraine aura can be sensory or motor in nature.

Visual aura is the most common of the neurological events, and can occur without any headache. There is a disturbance of vision consisting often of unformed flashes of white and/or black or rarely of multicolored lights (photopsia) or formations of dazzling zigzag lines (scintillating scotoma, often arranged like the battlements of a castle, hence the alternative terms "fortification spectra" or "teichopsia"). Some patients complain of blurred or shimmering or cloudy vision, as though they were looking at an area above a heated surface, looking through thick or smoked glass, or, in some cases, tunnel vision and hemianopsia.

The somatosensory aura of migraine may consist of digitolingual or cheiro-oral paresthesias, a feeling of pins-and-needles experienced in the hand and arm, as well as in the nose-mouth area on the same side. The paresthesia may migrate up the arm and then extend to involve the face, lips and tongue.

Signs and symptoms

Migraines typically present with recurrent severe headache associated with autonomic symptoms. An aura only occurs in a small percentage of people. The severity of the pain, duration of the headache, and frequency of attacks is variable. A migraine lasting 72 hours is termed status migrainosus.. The four possible phases to a migraine attackare listed below — not all the phases are necessarily experienced. Additionally, the phases experienced and the symptoms experienced during them can vary from one migraine attack to another in the same person:

    The prodrome, which occurs hours or days before the headache
    The aura, which immediately precedes the headache
    The pain phase, also known as headache phase
    The postdrome
Migraine lasts between 4 to 72 hours

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