Migraine headaches are different then a standard stress or tension headache. You can describe headaches in groups or primary and secondary group types

Headaches are described as being either primary or secondary.

Primary headaches include migraine, cluster headache, chronic daily headache, tension-type headache, and medication overuse headache

Secondary headaches are can be a symptom of something else like a sinus infection or a side effect of an illness or stress.

Migraine being a primary headache would not surprise most people, especially anyone who has ever suffered from one.

A migraine is not just regular headache or is the symptoms always the same as a headache. Moderate to very severe head pain is the most common migraine symptom; there are usually other symptoms that help diagnose frequent hurtful headaches as a migraine. It is important for you to understand and recognize these symptoms in order to help your doctor diagnose your headache and provide you with proper treatment.

The effectiveness of migraine treatment depends on a variety of factor. Treating migraines with prescriptive medication can be very effective, but don’t count on it.

Many do find relief through the newer medications on the market, but there are plenty who suffer through the trial period without any gain in the end. You may have to try out several medications before you come across the one that finally ends your misery.

Treating migraine through homeopathy is becoming a very popular alternative to medicine-based treatments. Homeopathy is basically a method or theory of healing that attempts to stimulate the body into healing itself by using natural remedies. Part of a homeopathic treatment is preventing the headache from starting in the first place.

In homeopathic treatments it’s very important to determine what your migraine trigger is. How successful you are in avoiding your, how proactive your are in administering your treatment, the patient is in using treatments such as relaxation or drugs and how well the patient responds to treatment. All contemporary knowledge about migraines points to chemical reactions in the brain causing blood vessels to constrict and then expand creating a sudden blood flow as the process, which creates the headaches, associated with migraines. Therefore the key to avoiding migraines is limiting exposure to triggers.

An enormous list of triggers has been accumulated through research into migraines. Among the most common triggers to be aware of: Stress, aroma, menstruation, sleep pattern disturbances, climate change, and diet. A huge amount of scientific research has been processed about the various triggers of migraine headaches and in short, the researchers have come to believe that two primary culprits stand out in the crowd of triggers. Many researchers have decided that food and food additives are part of the main reasons behind triggering migraines. On the other hand, many researchers are adamant that the primary trigger for migraines is stress.

It’s very important know triggers your migraine so you can determine whether to avoid it or not. Finding trigger by journaling (writing down what you eat and what stresses happen around the time a migraine happens can help in preventing the triggers in the first place.

Modern medical techniques for migraine relief are leaning more toward preventive applications and preventive medications also.

Migraine prevention medicine is different from migraine pain relief medicine. For most people who suffer headaches, migraine prevention medicine is a whole new way to treat their migraines. Preventive (prophylactic) medications are prescribed for severe headaches that occur more than twice a month, and that significantly interfere with daily activities. Preventive medications are intended to reduce both the frequency and the severity of the headache and are usually taken daily.

Often doctor prescribed migraine treatments are separated into these categories; migraine prevention medicine and acute migraine pain relief medicine. Here’s how the two types of medicine differ. Severe migraine pain relief medicine is taken at the start of migraine headache pain. Migraine prevention medicine is taken daily to help reduce the frequency of migraines, so you can have fewer of them. It does not provide relief from the pain of a migraine in progress.

So whether or not a person suffering from an acute migraine wants homeopathic techniques or medical research and a doctor’s advice finding triggers and preventive measures are both suggested.

Let’s face facts, sometimes medicine doesn’t work. Sometimes the top alternative treatments don’t work. Sometimes crazy things that you never in a million years thought would work—work!

Mention the word migraine or the word headache in a room with more than two people and you are almost guaranteed of receiving free advice. There’s an almost limitless amount of possible treatments that you may or may not want to try. Most are harmless enough that it really wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and give it a shot. So next time you’ve got a real brain popping migraine and nothing works maybe you should see if one of these will do the trick. It may just turn out to be the magic pill you’ve been looking for all your life.

One common methods that seems to be circulating involves drinking a lot of water. Not just a few glasses, mind you, but a truly titanic amount of water. For some people, it seems the more water you try the better. Maybe this is just a case of transference. You know, your bladder starts hurting so much from expanding under the weight of that liquid that you forget all about your head hurting. Other suggestions are that the migraines are triggered by dehydration and the water fixes the problem in a jiffy.

Others swear by an alternative liquid treatment. Not water, but Benadryl. This probably works by making you so sleepy that you forget all about the headache. Obviously, this is not recommended if you are pregnant. Not to mention that some people suffer from a reverse reaction to Benadryl and get all hyper and probably will suffer a reverse reaction in regard to headache by making it worse. This one, as with all involving medicine, requires caution.

Massage, of course, is a frequently tried alternative method, but it takes time and money and usually isn’t exactly convenient as far as helping out right when the headache attacks. But self-massage is easily done and many, many migraine sufferers turn to it without even realizing. The preferred method seems to be using the fingertips and gently rubbing the temples, the tips of the ears or the back of the head. Of course, many professional massage therapists.

Draw. Just because you aren’t exactly Van Gogh doesn’t matter. Art therapy works wonders and nobody can even come close to explaining why. Maybe it’s just the physical activity, maybe it’s the creative drive coming to the surface and driving away all that nasty pressure taking place inside the cranial vessels. It’s really an amazing thing to watch. People barely able to keep their eyes open have been known to pick up a pen or piece of charcoal and begin applying it to paper and within a half hour their migraine headache symptoms begin to subside. Oddly enough, this therapy has proven more effective in those who claim to have no artistic talent than those who do; actual artists actually seem to be affected the least.

Play a video game. This is probably not the best idea for those whose migraines tend to be triggered by light or noise. If your trigger doesn’t seem related to sensitivity to light or noise, then give this a try. It seems to work best if you play a game that doesn’t require a significant amount of strategy; either shoot to kill or sports-related games tend to have the best results. It is assumed that sports games work through their ability to a migraine sufferer focused on the outcome of actually winning a game that can be won in the time it takes have a migraine. By focusing on the game and having a goal that can be met, the stress that is related to migraines seems to be eased.

And finally, for the minority of migraines sufferers who are male, there is one last suggestion. Of course, there are disadvantages to this approach in that you need the assistance of a willing participant, but those who try it swear by it. (And when you find out what it is, you’ll understand why). Apparently, being on the receiving end of a certain type of sexual practice associated with France has been known to relieve more than just a few migraines. And even if it doesn’t, well, this one is definitely worth giving the old college try.

Migraines occur far more frequently in women than in men. In fact, in adult women the rate of frequency is roughly fifteen to seventeen percent, whereas in men it is only about five percent.

Studies have concluded that estrogen withdrawal is a key factor in migraines related to menstrual cycles.

Twenty-five to thirty percent of all women in their 30s experience at least an occasional migraine.

Menstrual migraines generally last longer than non-menstrual migraines and often are much more difficult to treat effectively.

Sixty to seventy percent of women who suffer from migraines have menstrual-related migraine.

Ten to fourteen percent of women with migraines have them only during menstruation. These types of headaches are known as ‘true menstrual migraine’.

Premenstrual migraine may in fact be part premenstrual syndrome (PMS), the menstrual related mood disorder. Symptoms of PMS include fatigue, irritability or depression, bloating and, yes, headache.

Two-thirds of women who suffered from pre-menopausal migraines find their condition improve with physiologic menopause. On the other hand, it has been found that surgical menopause worsens migraine conditions in two-thirds of cases.

Migraine attacks usually disappear during pregnancy. At the same time, however, some women report an initial onset of migraines during the first trimester of pregnancy, with the disappearance of their headaches after the third month of pregnancy.

Treatment options for menstrual migraine

When choosing to treat menstrual migraines with medication, the drugs used most often are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs). The NSAIDS of choice in treating menstrual migraines are:

ketoprofen (Orudis)

ibuprofen (Advil and Motrin)

fenoprofen calcium (Nalfon)

naproxen (Naprosyn)

nabumetone (Relafen)

For best results when using NSAIDs to treat migraines, usage should be started two to three days before menstrual flow actually begins and the therapy should be continued throughout the period. Gastrointestinal side effects are generally not serious enough to be considered because the therapy takes place over such a short period, no pun intended.

For patients who suffer from more severe menstrual migraines or who desire to continue taking oral contraceptives, doctors also recommend taking a NSAID. This therapy should begin l9th day of your cycle and continue through the second day of the next cycle.

Some women have found antinausea medicine and pain relievers like aspirin, ibuprofen or acetaminophen sufficient enough to dull the pain. Others trust in analgesics or serotonin agonists such as Imitrex, Zomig, Amerge or Maxalt. When using medications, it is extremely important to be aware of the dangers of avoiding a repetitive pattern of medication or overuse of medication as this can cause rebound headaches.

You might also consider using an estrogen skin patch. This treatment is utilized in the days leading up to your period and may either delay or actually prevent the onset of a menstrual migraine.

Some studies have found that daily doses of magnesium may help menstrual migraines in certain women. In addition, vitamin and herbal treatments have been found to be effective. The herb feverfew or vitamin B2 when taken on a daily basis may reduce

Either the severity or the frequency of headaches, though research does not point to

menstrual migraines in particular.

Even though two-thirds of women do report improvement in their migraine condition with the onset of natural menopause, two-thirds of women report a worsening with surgical, therefore neither a hysterectomy nor an ovarian removal are recommended.

As always, you should consult your physician for a proper diagnosis before discontinuing or launching on kind of new treatment, including over-the-counter medication treatments.

Every person has a unique health profile that includes aspects specific to their physiology and family history and that may preclude them from taking certain medications.

Some final tips

There enough different migraine triggers to fill a book and keeping track of them can be a full time job. It is highly recommended that you keep a trigger diary that includes a record of foods you eat, weather conditions, medications you have taken, stressful events, menstrual activity, etc.

Also of benefit is developing a plan around your period. Reduce stress as much as possible by planning work and leisure commitments around your cycle so as to cut back on menstrual-related triggers as much as possible.

You’ve read the good advice, or at least the advice that has been know to work. But how many times have you gotten advice on how to treat a migraine that, well, gave you a migraine? Some advice making the rounds almost sounds like jokes, or at least some kind of fiction. But the following are actual migraine treatments that people like you and me have received from friends, family, co-workers and strangers.

A man who had been suffering headaches for decades went to see a headache specialist in the 60s and was advised to start dating younger women. Not just younger women, mind you, but younger women of the kind that you don’t meet in bars. Nice younger women. Okay, well maybe that shouldn’t quite qualify as one of the worst pieces of migraine advice of all time. It’s certainly not as bad as:

Buy a razor and dig out that nerve bundle over your eye that's causing all your freaking pain! Yeah, that would definitely qualify as bad advice. In the first place it would hurt like you know what. In the second place, it would probably make your head hurt worse, not make it feel better.

This next one is entertaining because of the exactitude of its requirements, but it could possibly pan out in the future to have some merit. Take a five ounce magnet in your left hand and a three ounce magnet in your right hand and alternatively rotate them exactly three inches away from your skull for five minutes. To be honest, magnets have been used in scientific studies to treat various illnesses and there are subcultures out there that turn to magnetic power as a general cure-all for just about anything. To say that magnets could have no effect at all migraines might be going too far, but it’s still got to rank as bad advice to assume that the magnets have to be of different weights, held in different hands and only work when held at a specific distance for a specific amount of time. Then again, who knows?

There are several modes of thought that might find this next one actually makes sense. Those who are completely convinced that all migraine pain is in your head and that medicine can’t work because it’s not accomplishing anything anyway might just see past the idiocy of this next one. Quit your medication cold turkey, stiff it out for a few weeks and desensitize your head. Sure. And maybe if angina sufferers just desensitize their hearts they won’t die from a heart attack.

Sit in a bathtub filled with ice for five minutes then take a hot shower until all the ice has melted away. Where to begin on this one? In the first place, sitting in a tub billed with ice may take your attention away from the headache, but only because you are transferring your attention to the pain caused by frostbite. It’s almost certainly not a good idea to sit that long in ice. Next comes the question why does the shower have to last until the ice melts? Is there some magic in the time it takes for hot water to melt away all that ice. This one goes beyond merely bad advice straight to insane. It’s almost impossible to imagine how this cure could work.

Quit your job and sell Amway. This one probably came from a top level Amway distributor trying to add to his pyramid.

Migraines are caused by severe resentment of someone. If you can overcome the resentment, you will get rid of your migraines. There are two problems with this treatment. One, resentment has nothing to do with migraines and two, getting rid of migraines is probably easier than overcoming resentment.

A lot of crazy advice over the years about a lot of different things has gradually turned into accepted methods of treatment. After all, who would ever have thought that bread mold could cure disease? Still, it’s probably not the best idea in the world to take a razor to your head.

That thing about dating younger women still doesn’t sound too bad, though.

How long have migraines been around? Contrary to the beliefs of many, migraines are not a new disease, only a newly-named. In fact, based on the symptoms, it appears that migraines are among the oldest diseases known to mankind.

Conditions that have been linked to migraines were described in detail in Babylonian writings dating back to 3000 BC, and papyrus scrolls dated from around 1550 BC that were found buried alongside a mummy in Thebes contain even more detailed accounts that are remarkably similar to what modern migraine sufferers describe. Even the Father of Medicine himself, Hippocrates, described what are clearly migraines in 460 BC, when he described a shining light that was typically seen in one eye and followed by severe pain that started in temples and worked its way to encompass the rest of the head and down into the neck. Hippocrates was also well ahead of his time by being the first to correlate head pain with exercise and seven sexual intercourse. Of course, Hippocrates also attributed migraines to vapors making their way up to the head from stomach and thought that the headache pain could be relieved by throwing up.

The Ebers Papyrus, named after George Ebers who obtained it, dates back to at least 1200 BC is an encyclopedic compilation of various prescriptions and medical treatments, including one for shooting pains in the head consistent with modern day migraine headaches. According to the instructions on the papyrus, Egyptians were to use a strip of linen to tie a clay crocodile holding grain in its mouth to the head of the patient. On the linen were written the names of those gods that the Egyptians believed could cure their ailments. As in so many things, the Egyptians may have been preternaturally aware of modern techniques because it is believed that this procedure could possibly have brought relief to the headache sufferer by compressing the scalp and collapsing the blood vessels that were causing the pain. At the very least it made more sense than the previous Egyptian cure for head pain, which was to simply rub a fried fish on afflicted side of the head.

Plato is considered one of the all-time great thinkers the world has ever produced, up there in the pantheon of great philosophers. And yet he seems to have been so wrong about so many things, including migraines. As far as Plato was concerned, head pain was caused by people paying too much attention to the body. In fact, Plato seems to be in that camp that thinks migraine sufferers are a bunch of whiners and that it’s all in their heads, but not in their expanding and constricting blood vessels. It may be time to start second-guessing this whole idea of Plato being really, really smart.

Hua T’o was a Chinese surgeon in the second century who is given credit for the invention of anaesthetic drugs among other things. He was also perhaps the first to take to acupuncture needles to cure migraines. In one particularly infamous and, hopefully, quite rare case, when Hua used a needle to carve a tumor out of patient suffering from pain between his eyes a canary flew out. The man not only lived, but was cured of his pain.

Hildegard of Bingen was a medieval nun and mystic who began experiencing visions at an early age. Her visions eventually led her to write several books on health and medicine and natural remedies. Both her written accounts and the illustrations she drew that reflected her visions have led the belief that those visions may have been the result of migraine auras. Her visions were detailed and vivid, as were her descriptions and she has built a significant following who consider her to be the first migraine-inspired artist. The typical treatment of migraines during Hildegard’s time during the Middle Ages basically consisted of opium and vinegar solutions applied to the skull, with the vinegar thought to have been used to open the pores of the scalp so that the opium would be more quickly absorbed.

Centuries, if not millennia, from now people may be reading a history of migraine treatment and shake their head when they reach the 21st century. Could treating with the ingredients found in medication one day be laughed at in the same way as we might laugh at the idea of treating it by rubbing a fried fish on our head?