Migraine is not just a headache, it's
a complex neurological disease that impacts
more than 1 billion people
worldwide.
To sense our world, your nerves send
electrical signals to and from your spinal cord and brain.
Sensors throughout our body collect
information about our surroundings.
This information is sent by signals
to our brain through a series of nerve cells.
Each electrical signal is carried
from one end of a nerve cell to the other, using passageways called ion
channels.
Charged particles, called ions, pass
through the channels along the nerve which helps generate the electrical
current.
At the end of the nerve, the signal
moves to the next via chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Communication with the brain occurs
via pathways and nerve centers at the base of the brain, called the brain stem.
The brain stem helps control sleep, heart
rate, and breathing.
Migraine is a disease where one or
more parts of this communication system does not function properly.
Many sections of DNA, called genes, program
ion channels, neurotransmitters, and other structures that support these nerve
pathways.
In some with migraine, inherited
changes to genes called mutations can cause the communication system to become
hypersensitive.
Most mutations do not directly cause
migraine but in combination, may explain why there are so many forms and
symptoms of migraine disease. These mutated genes affect the function of other
parts of the body.
As a result, people with migraine
may also have anxiety, depression, epilepsy, hypothyroidism, irritable bowel
syndrome, pelvic floor pain, fibromyalgia, Sjogren's disease, and others. Each
attack typically has three or four phases.
The typical phases of a migraine attack are prodrome, starting hours before a headache, aura, headache, and postdrome. Prodrome includes subtle symptoms such as yawning, fatigue, or moodiness. Experienced only by some, auras maybe short term visual changes such as flashes of light, zigzags, or blind spots. Auras can also include numbness, confusion, vertigo, or even muscle weakness.
Pounding headaches may occur on only
one side of the head, often lasting four to 72 hours. Other possible symptoms
include light and noise sensitivity or nausea.
Finally, during postdrome, a person
feels like they have a hangover which lasts another day or two. Migraine
attacks are often brought on by specific stimuli or triggers such as increased
stress, weather change, too much or too little sleep, or certain foods. Since
it may be a cumulative effect of several triggers, avoiding as many known
triggers as possible can help reduce the number of attacks.
It is important for treatment
planning to distinguish migraine on the basis of frequency and character of
attacks. Less than 15 headache days per month is episodic migraine.15 or more
headaches per month is chronic migraine. Each year, about 3% of those with
episodic migraine become chronic. This worsening of symptoms may be due to
changes in hormones, as well as cumulative effects on the nervous system from
years of migraine attacks.
While migraine is rarely deadly, it
is an invisible disease that can steal years of quality time.
Comments
Post a Comment