Life With Migraines

As anyone who suffers from migraines will attest to, migraines take control of a person’s day when they strike. Migraines take people out of commission for extended periods of time and wreak havoc. Wondering what life is like with frequent migraines or how to get migraine relief? Welcome to life with migraines. 

What Is a Migraine?

Migraines are commonly equated to a severe headache, but that definition does a disservice to the power of a migraine. These “severe headaches” differ from your run-of-the-mill headaches in a number of different ways including:

• Debilitating pain
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Sensitivity to light, sounds, or smells
• Aura, vision loss, visual phenomena, intense flashes of light

Migraines come in episodes called attacks where someone can experience symptoms from anywhere between 4 to 72 hours. For some people with regular migraines, these attacks happen anywhere from rarely to several times a month.

Where Do They Come From?

The cause of migraines is something that is disputed. Some experts maintain that the cause of migraines is inconclusive, others suggest that migraines are a result of a neuromuscular structural deficiency, and still others believe they are due to a lack of serotonin in the brain.

How Migraines Are Treated

In our practice treating migraines, we have seen success in treating migraines as an effect of neuromuscular structural deficiency, especially as it relates to TMJ disorder. Still, other patients react more promisingly after Sphenopalatine Ganglion block (or SPG block) treatment or Infrared Laser treatment.

Of course, these treatment plans can only be provided through care from a doctor, which requires diagnosis. This is the second piece of the migraine problem: many people go undiagnosed. Those people who go undiagnosed but suffer the unrelenting symptoms of migraines typically use over-the-counter medication and live with pain.

What Is Life Like?

For people living with migraines, life can be relatively normal between attacks. However, for proactive migraine sufferers, life is spent avoiding the conditions that typically lead up to a migraine episode. Some of these triggers include:

• A lack of sleep
• Too much sleep
• Skipping a meal
• Certain foods (for example, chocolate, cheese, red wine, and fried foods)
• Too much caffeine
• Not enough caffeine
• Stress (for example, anger, depression, shock, excitement, or changes in routine)
• A change in hormones (women are more likely to experience migraines at the beginning of their menstrual cycle when estrogen levels drop)
• Drinking alcohol 

Once a migraine strikes, migraine sufferers depend on dark, quiet spaces and bed rest until their symptoms subside.

Migraine Relief in Lynnwood, WA

Hopefully, this information answered some of your preliminary questions surrounding migraines. If you believe you’re suffering from migraines or that your spouse or a loved one is currently going without treatment, encourage them to contact our office at 425-361-7499 to schedule a consultation.