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Millions of people find themselves regularly suffering from migraine headaches, which often have easily recognizable symptoms. Most regular sufferers can identify a migraine quickly after the onset of symptoms, which last anywhere from several hours to several days. Available treatment options should be attempted as soon as symptoms appear, in order to shorten the length of the headache. This will help prevent the headache from interfering with your work and home life. It could also deter any atypical migraine symptoms from occurring. As science and medicine progress, more and more treatment options are becoming available for regular sufferers of migraine headaches.

In most people who experience migraine headaches, they are a problem that reoccurs. For whatever reason, certain people are much more prone to attacks of migraines and will have the symptoms on multiple occasions. While there are common migraine symptoms, some sufferers also experience atypical migraine symptoms. People who have regular migraines can frequently identify symptoms that precede the headache itself. Some classic examples are pain around the eye area, nausea, or sensitivity to sound. There might be a throbbing pain in the forehead or near one temple.

Treatment Options for Atypical Migraine Symptoms

In the past, people who were suffering from regular migraine headaches had few options but to sleep or take over the counter pain medications. These severe headaches could last for 24 hours or more. They would interfere with a person’s responsibilities at work and home, leaving them unable to concentrate. However, medical research has begun to provide more solutions for these powerful headaches. There are also simple techniques that can be done without medication. For example, applying ice to the locations where pain is occurring will help reduce the inflammation. Steady breathing exercises and other relaxation techniques can be used effectively to reduce the intensity or even the number of attacks. Traditional Eastern practices such as acupuncture have solutions for migraines as well.

Many brands of pain medication now offer over the counter options that are specific to migraine headaches and the symptoms that accompany the pain. These pills can provide a fast solution to the infrequent migraine sufferer. However, for people who experience migraines on a regular basis or have atypical migraine symptoms, it is important to speak to a doctor about alternative solutions. There are prescription painkillers and anti-inflammatory medications available, as well as drugs that can help reduce the frequency of migraines. Your general care physician should have knowledge of these treatments or be able to refer you to a specialist.

Migraine sufferers should take their medications when they first notice symptoms of a migraine headache. By taking the medication early, it will have time to help your body avoid the most intense pain and nausea and allow you to return to your day quickly. These treatment options are great solutions for people who are frustrated by frequent migraine headaches. Take control of your life by calling your doctor today. He or she will help you find a solution to migraine headaches.

By: jonkelly

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Jon Kelly is a published author who writes articles, that includes information on health. To get more advice on headaches. Please visit Nightmare Headaches.com

There are 3 common kinds of headaches.

1. Sick Headache. This type of headache occurs if undigested food stays in the stomach, during times of increased stress, if there is a disordered liver, or when there is mental or physical overwork. In women, disorders of menstruation may cause a sick headache.

Treatment

Drink a cupful of hot water, adding the juice of a lemon, but no sweetening.

2. Bilious Headache. Caused from indigestion, disordered liver, overheating, wrong food combinations, and insufficient exercise. People who overeat of rich heavy foods and take little or no exercise at all are the frequent suffers of this type of headache. Unless the diet is changed and a regular exercise program established, this may develop into a chronic type of headache.

Symptoms

Dull pain in the forehead, throbbing temples.

Treatment

Avoid all harmful articles of diet. Herbal laxatives initially, to cleanse the colon, may be helpful in bilious headaches. Often the stomach is overloaded when the headache comes on. If this is the case use an emetic.

3. Nervous (Tension) Headache. Nervous people and those whose work is sedentary usually suffer from this form of headache, mental strain and worry will cause a nervous headache. Bright lights or noises of any kind usually make the headache worse

Treatment

Holy thistle is such a good blood cleanser that drinking tea made from it 2 times a day will cure chronic headaches. Don’t make the tea too strong though as it may cause vomiting.

The Herbs for Headaches

Red Sage:

One of the best remedies for a headache.

"Side Effects"

It soothes nerves and produces sleep.

Skullcap:

It’s one of the best nerve tonics there is. It’s very quitting and soothing to the nerves.

"Side Effects"

It relieves aches and pains

Spearmint:

Quieting and soothing to the nerves. Good for acid reflux and for inflammation of kidneys and bladder.

"Side Effects"

Good for acid reflux and for inflammation of kidneys and bladder.

By: Ben Branklin

To see the herbal formulas that are used for this, or for a database of Natural Medicine, or to request your own report on the treatment of your health issue check out NaturalHealthDocs.com by clicking here: Headache Remedies - Migraine Remedies. It’s All Free.

Migraine is a type of vascular headache caused by the blood vessels dilating and constricting in the head. When the blood vessels dilate, they cause severe pain and during pregnancy, the blood volume increases and hence the migraine headache attacks. The general symptoms of migraine during pregnancy are the same as for other migraines like, nausea, blurred vision or visual disturbances, severe throbbing pain on side of the head and so on.

Migraines almost disappear for some women during pregnancy and for some others, they may get worse or even happen for the first time. It is usual for the migraine to occur during the first trimester, and disappear during the second and third trimesters. But the consoling factor is that, despite the throbbing and severe pain for the mother, migraines do not pose a big direct threat to the fetus. So, an expectant mother has to take the help of a physician to confirm that the pain is from migraine and not because of any other cause.

The treatment for migraine during pregnancy is to maximize the relief as well as minimize the potential for fetal harm. But, the most ideal approach can be to prevent migraines and if it persists, try for natural methods, followed by medications. If the triggers of migraine are identified, it would be easier to prevent migraines.

Common dietary triggers for migraine are chocolate, cheese and coffee. Food preservatives, often found in processed meat can prompt migraines. Also, stress, loud noises, skipping meals, sleeping disturbances and bright lights can also trigger migraines.

It is sane to first try natural methods to alleviate migraine headaches during pregnancy. Relaxation techniques such as gentle yoga, meditation, and deep breathing may be helpful. Other methods are taking rest in a darkened room, cold packs and sleep. It is also suggested that regular exercises involving light walking can also be helpful to relieve migraines during pregnancy. Massage, performed by a prenatal massage therapist is another natural technique of reducing migraine headache and a safe natural treatment is acupuncture.

Generally, over-the-counter medications are not safe for pregnant women. Studies show that caffeine consumption in pregnant women must be limited to less than 300 mg per day. It is advisable for pregnant women to maintain a diary, which includes details as to when the headache happened, how long it lasted, what triggered it and so on. Such minute details may help in preventing further attacks of migraine headaches. Since triggers are different from one person to another it is important to maintain a diary. Preferably pregnant women should not take anything with aspirin unless prescribed by a health care provider.

Pregnancy is the time when a woman experiences physical and emotional changes and gives an overwhelming and exciting time for the expectant mother. At such a situation, migraine headaches may become severe or more frequent, but there are always treatment options. Therefore, if extra care is taken to identify the migraine triggers and find the treatment that is effective, pregnancy can be an enjoyable experience.

By: Lesley Lyon

www.shunmigraine.com deals extensively with all types of migraines, the causes, prevention and treatments.

Drugs For Migraine Treatment

Anti-Serotonin Drugs

Cyproheptadine (Periactin, Perhetine)

This drug blocks the receptors for the neurochemical serotonin in the brain and prevents dilatation of the blood vessels which cause a headache - most important factors in preventing migraine. It also has antihistamine and anti-acetylcholine effects. Its efficacy is low. This drug is often misused in children for increasing their weight. Treatment with cyproheptadine is begun with 2 to 4 mg tablet 2 to 3 times daily.

Adverse Effects and Precautions: The main adverse effects are drowsiness, dry mouth and appetite stimulation. Restrict the food intake to minimize weight gain.

Methysergide

It has been found effective in preventing attacks of migraine but it is not used or recommended nowadays because of the high incidence of serious adverse effects due to prolonged use. It is ineffective in relieving an acute attack. There are safer substitutes available now.

Adverse Effects: This causes adverse effects in 10 to 15 per cent of cases. The most serious of these is growth of fibrous tissues in the uterus, lungs, heart, blood vessels, and other organs. It causes dizziness, vertigo, mental confusion, restlessness, insomnia, and mild psychic and visual disturbances.

Amitriptyline

This is a mood-elevating drug used in the treatment of mental depression. It inhibits the uptake of serotonin in the brain and is moderately effective in preventing attacks of migraine. For prevention of attacks of migraine its dose is less than that used in mental depression. It has a sedative effect and is given in a dose of 50 to 100 mg at bedtime.

Adverse Effects: Adverse effects are mild if small doses used in migraine. It has an antiacetylcholine effect, causing dryness of the mouth and blurring in vision. The sedation caused by it is not troublesome if it is taken at bedtime.

Precautions

Take the drug at bedtime as it produces sedation.

Avoid its use if you are taking sedatives, tranquillizers, guanethidine of thyroid preparations.

Calcium Antagonists

Flunarizine (Nomigrain, Flunaril 5 mg tab/cap)

Regular intake of calcium antagonists prevents attacks of migraine. Recent studies have confirmed this finding. Of these drugs flunarizine is the most effective. Flunarizine is commonly used for prevention of migraine and is found to be as effective as propranolol. It has selective action on brain blood vessels. It is to be given once daily in a 10 to 20 mg dose at bedtime for the first 15 days, and then the dose can be reduced to 10 mg gradually.

Adverse Effects: The use of this drug may cause sedation, constipation, dry mouth, weight gain, flushing and fall in blood pressure.

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Most people with migraine attacks learn that they have more success if they treat their attacks early rather than delaying medication until two or more hours have passed. They find there is a window of opportunity during which they can resolve their headaches completely, but if they wait too long, then in most cases the treatment is not nearly as good, and the attacks run their full course.

Particularly observant victims of migraine attacks might also discover that when their migraines get to a stage called "allodynia" when everything hurts–even a light brush to the skin or contact with a warm object–then treatment is likewise less successful.

The chances to make these kinds of observations have been available to people with migraine for as long as there have been decent treatments. Aspirin was the first good, widely available treatment for migraine attacks, and was manufactured in tablet form as long ago as 1915. But it has been in only the last few years that scientific studies have explored these phenomena in detail, and revealed some of the secrets as to why they occur.

Dr. Rami Burstein and colleagues at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston performed a study of treatment outcomes in a total of 61 migraine attacks occurring in 31 patients. In some attacks treatment was given within the first hour of symptoms, while in other cases treatment was purposely delayed until four hours after the attack’s onset. The treatment used was a "triptan" drug, rather than a painkiller. Triptans are a newer group of medications that act on some of the nervous system’s receptors for the natural chemical serotonin. In each case, the patient also received a physical examination at the time of treatment to determine whether or not allodynia was present.

What the investigators found was that in the 34 attacks in which allodynia had already developed, the triptan stopped pain within two hours in just 15% of the attacks. But in the 27 attacks in which allodynia had not yet developed, the triptan was successful in 93% of the attacks. While allodynia was more frequently present in attacks that were treated late, the doctors found that the presence or absence of allodynia was more important in determining the success of the treatment than whether or not the treatment was late.

Dr. Burstein also headed a team of scientists that found out why this is the case. Because this information could not be obtained in humans, test tubes or computers, these experiments were performed in laboratory rats. Burstein developed a procedure for simulating migraine attacks in rats and via tiny electrodes he was able to "listen in" on the electrical activity of individual nerve and brain cells as the attacks developed.

What he found was that at the beginning of an attack, nerve cells connecting various membranes within the head to the brain were the first to become overactive in their firing patterns. The excessive activity in these nerve cells, in turn, drove a second set of pain-processing cells located within the brain into their own state of overactivity. If this second group of cells remained hyperactive for too long, then they became "sensitized" and kept firing away, as if on autopilot, even if the nerve cells that got them going in the first place were shut down. In this state of spontaneously self-regenerating overactivity of the pain-processing brain cells, it could be shown that ordinarily non-painful stimuli applied to the skin of the rats were handled by the nervous system as if they were painful. Or, said another way, the development of allodynia in the rat signaled that the pain-processing brain cells had become sensitized.

Just as in the humans, triptan drugs could be administered to the rats at different stages of the migraine attacks. If the triptan was administered before the pain-processing brain cells had become sensitized, then it was able to shut down the cascade of excessively firing cells and stop the attack. But if the triptan was given after sensitization had occurred, then it was ineffective.

Collectively, these studies in humans and rats build a powerful case that what humans need to do in order to be successful in stopping their migraine attacks is to treat them before their pain-processing brain cells have become sensitized. And the best way to tell if sensitization has occurred is according to whether or not ordinarily non-painful contacts to the skin have become painful. In short, migraine patients need to race the clock to treat their attacks before the development of allodynia.

Gary Cordingley, MD, PhD, is a clinical neurologist, teacher and researcher who works in Athens, Ohio. For more health-related articles see his website at: www.cordingleyneurology.com