Suffering From Migraines?

Nearly one in four households have someone with a history of migraines. A few symptoms of a migraine are a headache that lasts longer than 4 hours to many days, typically resolving with sleep. There can be sensitivity to light, sounds, or smells. Nausea can occur in some migraine patients. Migraines are most common between the ages of 25 to 55. Possible causes for migraines include skipping meals, excessive afferent stimuli including flashing lights and strong odors, weather changes, sleep deprivation, and hormonal factors. Migraine episodes last from a few hours to 2-3 days. Most individuals experience their first migraine as a child or a teenager.

 

Migraines: What Are They?

Environmental factors, lifestyle habits and chronic conditions can cause changes in your body as your body reacts to stimuli. Some reactions increase blood flow in certain parts of your brain. With some blood flow, you might get a headache that then stops when blood flow normalizes in the brain. With a migraine, your body might have a sudden reaction to any number of stimuli that causes chronic blood vessel swelling and irritation. This can happen quickly and can happen in only specific regions of your brain. Chronic pain or pain that lasts longer than normal is most likely a migraine.

 

Headaches and Migraines 101

If you get a headache or migraine often, you’re not alone. Let’s take a look at how common your head pain is:

• More than 38 million Americans suffer from migraines. Any given year, between 2 and 3 million people have that head pain reach chronic levels.
• Studies show that about 13% of people in the U.S. have consistent problems with both headaches and migraines.
• On a world-wide scale, about 2 billion people have a migraine frequently.
• Women tend to get migraines and even headaches more than men do, at about an 18% rate compared to men’s 6%.
• About 25% of people that get migraines will have at least one a week.
• Some migraines can be so severe that about 24% of Americans that get them visit the emergency room each year.

 

What’s the Difference?

There actually is a difference in what a migraine is and what a headache is. Headaches can stem from triggers such as an illness (cold, flu, virus). These stop when your illness is over. You might get a headache that is there for an hour and then it is gone. A headache will generally only be accompanied by head pain and mild symptoms such as yawning because you’re tired.

However, a migraine is very different and you can know the difference because a migraine will cause more chronic symptoms such as:

• Loss of vision or seeing spots in your vision
• Throbbing or chronic pain, sometimes regional to a specific area
• Feelings of lightheadedness
• Fainting or dizzy spells
• Pain that is so chronic that you can’t think or function
• Yawning that you can’t seem to stop
• Depression, irritability or other mood-related symptoms
• Difficulty speaking, writing, standing up, thinking straight and more
• Vomiting from the pain or indigestion
• Neck and head stiffness
• Numbness or tingling
• Problems with physical exertion, as pain tends to worsen
• Sensitivity to lights and sounds (and possibly smells)
• Symptoms that can last for hours or days

When you get a headache, it will go away rather quickly. A migraine can be completely debilitating to the point where patients may not be able to get out of bed. They can even lead to problems with work or safely operating machinery or vehicles. When you feel a migraine happening, take steps to try to calm the starting symptoms before they worsen.

Cluster Headaches and Treatment

Most people developing a cluster headache are in their 20’s or older. With these headaches, the symptoms are one sided pain generally located around the eye, but may radiate to other areas of the face, head, neck, and shoulders. There can be eye tearing, decreased pupil size, and a drooping eye lid. Cluster headaches affect .1 to .3 percent of the population. Cluster headaches often occur at the same time each day.

Physical Medicine Center of the Rockies, PLLC dba Spine Correction Center of the Rockies has several treatment options for sufferers of headaches and migraines. Spinal rehabilitation, chiropractic, nutritional counseling, and food intolerance testing are all excellent options for headache and migraine treatment. In addition, the providers at Spine Correction Center of the Rockies are excited to offer a new, exciting, and safe treatment for sufferers of headaches and migraines, the TX360 headache treatment.

The TX360 headache treatment is painless and can provide long term relief from many types of headaches including facial pain. This procedure allows the practitioner to use a nasal spray delivered via the TX360 nasal applicator to reach nerves located near the nasal cavity which are responsible for many types of headaches. This specific group of nerves is called the Sphenopalatine ganglion. The Sphenopalatine ganglion also called the nasal ganglion is the largest group of nerves outside of the area of the brain cavity. It’s located behind the nose and sinus area and near the throat, and covered by a thin layer of connective tissue and mucous membrane. Many patients see an immediate decrease in intensity and frequency of their headaches once starting this treatment.