What causes a migraine headache is not completely known but the prevailing theory is that a chemical imbalance in the blood system occurs, which causes the blood vessels running along side the skull to expand or contract uncontrollably.
Why the imbalance occurs, where it begins, and how to stop it are all questions that are yet to be answered.
Medical science is still catching up to the migraine headache and its causes and cures. However there has been enough information gathered to this point to help offer some migraine relief to the people that suffer from migraine headaches.
To get migraine relief, first understand what causes migraine headaches. While migraine relief treatment still does not target the cause — we can at least treat the symptoms better if we can understand where they come from.
Therefore, today’s migraine relief treatment are essentially a series of ways to mask the pain until it goes away. So doctors will usually prescribe some sort of pain medication and anti-inflammatory medication to try and offset the swelling.
Severe migraines can cause the patient to be unable to do anything at all. They can cause blurred vision and nausea. Controlling the symptoms is all we can do right now and we are still looking to find a real cure.
What Triggers It And What Can We Do?
Migraine relief is a complete study by your doctor of your lifestyle and how it may be affecting your body. Part of migraine relief may be a change in your diet as maybe things like sugar or caffeine is causing a negative reaction in your body and triggering the chemical imbalance. If this is the cause the migraine relief suggested would be to remove those things from your diet.
Migraines do not normally get triggered by stress although they can certainly cause stress when they occur.
It is a general feeling among doctors that migraines are an occurrence of the body as a reaction to either the chemical imbalance itself or one of the triggers. If a trigger is found then this is good news for the sufferer as migraine relief may soon be on the way.
For chronic migraine sufferers there is a preventive medication program your doctor can put you on that would hopefully reduce the effects of your migraines. Most of these programs have pain killers and anti-inflammatory medications as part of them and these medications are known to cause severe nausea in some people and that makes treatment that much more difficult.
For a doctor it is a matter of trying to find that combination of medications that can bring relief and for the patient it is just a matter of riding out the pain until something can take it away.
Types of Migraine Treatments
Migraine headaches are the most debilitating types of headaches known to medical science and because they are so crippling there have been many different types of migraine treatments developed over the years.
Migraine treatment is a very complicated subject and while it can be broken down into a couple of basic components the concept behind migraine treatment is extremely complicated.
Whenever you deal with the brain and the elements around the brain you are always opening up a whole world of possibilities and everything needs to be taken into account for correct migraine treatment.
Always discuss migraine treatment with your doctor and your doctor will be sure to run a series of tests to see exactly what the cause may be. While it is still not possible to correctly diagnose the exact cause of a migraine headache, your doctor will look to see if there may be another medical reason that could potentially be causing your headaches.
Sometimes the proper migraine treatment has little to do with the headache itself and more to do with other medical conditions surrounding it.
Taking the Pain Away
Depending on the frequency of your migraine headaches, and the severity with which they attack, you may need a regular treatment schedule.
But if your migraine headaches are not that frequent then your doctor may just prescribe some pain relieving medication to be taken when you feel the headache coming on.
Migraine headaches have their own line of pain relieving medication and if you do experience migraine headaches then do not attempt to prescribe your own migraine treatment with over the counter medications. Get to your doctor and discuss your options to find out what the best way would be to combat the crippling pain of a migraine headache.
Continuous Migraine Treatment
Some migraine sufferers experience multiple headaches in a month, or even a week, and to help these sufferers doctors will usually put patients on a continuous migraine treatment schedule that involves some very strong pain relievers and other kinds of medicine.
Preventive care for migraine headaches can help reduce the amount of headaches but with the still unknown nature of what causes the migraine there is no guarantee that continuous treatment will eliminate the migraine headaches.
Some people get migraine headaches that are so bad that they cannot function at all when one comes on. If the frequency of these headaches is more than a couple times a month then continuous treatment of some sort is needed to try and help the patient live a normal life.
