Migraine Headaches- an overview

A migraine is a specific and common form of headache that has been known since antiquity. Migraines affect approximately 28 million people in the United States and roughly 75 percent of them are women. Migraine headaches typically begin in adolescence or early adulthood. Migraine Headaches are debilitating condition characterized by moderate to severe headaches and nausea, about 3 times more common in women than in men. Whatever the cause may be, experts do agree that different things trigger Migraine Headaches in people who have them. For some people, eating certain foods brings on a migraine. Others find that sleeping too long or too little triggers a migraine attack.

Migraine Headaches has traditionally been classified as a vascular headache due to the belief that it is due to abnormal changes in blood vessel tone, although the mechanism now appears to be more complicated than that. Migraine Headaches can be a debilitating and downright annoying condition. A majority of headache sufferers have headaches that can be labelled as tension headaches. Through the years, many theories have surrounded the cause of these headaches. Not all scientists agree about what causes migraines. Many believe that a migraine is caused by narrowing and expanding of the blood vessels in the brain.

The Migraine headache is caused by a complex process involving, blood vessel dilation, decreased cerebral blood flow, and abnormal activity of the trigeminal nerve causing local inflammation. Many things have been labelled as triggers which attract Migraine Headaches. The most common triggers quoted are stress, hunger, and fatigue; however, these equally contribute to tension headaches. Migraine Headaches were once thought to be initiated exclusively by problems with blood vessels, but the vascular changes of migraines are now considered of no importance in triggering migraine.

There are two predominant types of migraines - common migraine and classic migraine. There are rare variants in which an aura occurs, but not a headache. The common migraine is one that does not involve an aura. The classic migraine is one that involves an aura. The aura may involve visual, sensory, or motor phenomena. The visual aura is typically a slowly expanding area of blindness surrounded by a sparkling edge that increases to involve up to one half of the field of vision of each eye.

James Allen is the author of this article. For more information about Natural Migraine Headache Medication and Migraine headache causes please follow this link Natural Migraine Relief.