Migraine Treatment, Causes, Types, Symptoms, Medication And Facts

If pain is like noise (and it often is) then a “silent” migraine doesn’t seem possible–at least to most migraine sufferers. Nevertheless, researchers claim that silent migraines are true migraines and they may help us understand and treat migraines of all kinds.

The medical oddities described as a silent migraine headaches occur without the migraine pain. How can this be? Unfortunately much about migraines is still a mystery to migraine researchers.
Some of the clues to this mystery may lie in other migraine symptoms such as the aura that often presages or accompanies the headache itself.

Researchers state correctly that migraines are a neurological disorder. So are headaches. What they are trying to tell us is that migraines are a neurological disorder that only is accompanied by a headache some of the time. In fact, that probably should be amended to most of the time. It may be helpful at this point to review the four classic stages that comprise a typical migraine headache:

The Prodrome
This somewhat vague phrase indicates that a migraine is on its way. Psychological symptoms can range from irritability to confusion. Physical symptoms can include excessive thirst, stomach upsets and diarrhea. Prodrome symptoms occur in about a quarter of migraine sufferers. Their elusive nature is accentuated by the fact that they can show up as much as a day before the other stages of a migraine set in.

An Aura
About a fifth of migraine sufferers contend with an aura as one of the early stage of a migraine. Most commonly this stage of a migraine includes disturbances to visual perception. One patient described her aura as “squiggly lines” in front of her face. Other visual effects are also commonly reported. Sensory, motor, and language disturbances are also quite prevalent in the aura stage.

The Pain
The worst and most characteristic migraine symptom is likely to be headache pain. This pain often shows up on only one side of the head and is typically described as throbbing or stabbing pain. Acute sensitivity to light or sound can occur at the aura stage, but are more common at this point. Nausea and vomiting are not uncommon as well. Pain can endure for as long as three full days.

The Resolution
The post-migraine (or perhaps more accurately post-migraine pain) phase is called the resolution phase. This is characterized by profound fatigue and a general feeling of ill health. It can last for another day.

That’s the classic pattern of a serious migraine. Migraine patients can vary in the phases that are experienced as part of their particular neurological event. Simply enough, when pain is hardly present or completely absent as one of the phases a patient has experienced a silent migraine.

The complicated part is figuring out why some migraines progress without intense pain. This has led researchers to theorize that migraine aura and migraine pain are caused by two distinctly different but related mechanisms. The complex relationship between the circulatory system and the nervous system is the direction that their research is taking.

Certain foods have long been suspected of causing or intensifying migraine headaches. Research into this issue has verified some of the suspicions regarding certain foods or drinks and is continuing to uncover the reasons for this phenomenon.

Although foods are obvious causes for migraine headaches and other kinds of headaches, solutions to the problems caused by food to migraine sufferers are a little more complex than that. Overall dietary habits have a definite role to play as well as habits that relates to exercise.

Fasting and the frequency of snacking and taking meals can affect how many migraines a person experiences. One management techniques that can help in determining just what these are, is keeping a diary of when one eats and when one skips meals and the kind of snacks that one indulges in. Keeping a diary of what you eat will also help to identify the particular foods that seemed to trigger migraine episodes.

Some of the more common trigger foods and the particular substances that are sometimes found within them are listed below.

The number one culprit for migraine onset would appear to be aged cheese. Within cheese itself the cause is a substance called tyramine. Tyramine occurs naturally in a number of foods. It is the result of the chemical reaction that breaks down, protein as a food ages. The longer the aging process the greater of the amount of tyramine.

Since the creation of cheese is a complex process it is difficult to predict with precise accuracy how much of this chemical will occur in a given piece of cheese. Bacteria and the fermenting process itself may also have a role to play. Patients who take MAO (monoamine oxidase) inhibitor medications for migraines should avoid foods suspected of containing tyramine all together. The list of these foods can be expanded beyond cheese to include red wine, alcoholic beverages and highly processed meats.

Alcohol itself may also have a profound effect on headaches. We are not talking about the morning after here at all. Scientists blame headaches attributed to very moderate consumption of alcohol to impurities found in the alcohol. Byproducts of the alcohol metabolizing process in your body are complex and these also can cause headaches such as migraines. The most commonly identified migraine traders include champagne beer whisky and wine.

The food additives are another very common cause of migraine headaches. The food additives such as nitrate and nitrite dilate your blood vessels which triggers headaches. Migraines in particular are associated with changes in the vascular system.

Perhaps the most surprising trigger of headaches for some people is the temperature of the food they eat. Many of us have experienced the classic headache that briefly occurs when we eat some ice cream too fast, but this goes beyond that phenomenon. At least 90% of migraine patients who responded to a recent survey reported a sensitivity to cold foods as a migraine trigger upon occasions.

The best advice is to take care with protein and additive rich foods and alcohol and try to keep a diary of the foods and drinks you consume to pinpoint the cause of your migraines.