Migraine headaches affect approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, according to the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention Study (AMPP).
And they indirectly affect far more people, who suddenly find friends, family members, co-workers and more debilitated by them.
Despite this staggering statistic, many people might not know exactly how migraines differ from the common tension headache. Dr. Sheri Hart, a neurologist at Mount Carmel Health System who specializes in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy, is happy to clear things up, though.
“A classic migraine usually starts on one side of the head,” says Hart. “It has a pounding quality and is frequently associated with a significant amount of nausea, sometimes vomiting, and wanting to avoid light and noise.”
Of course, the most important difference between tension headaches and migraines is their severity.
“If you want to paint a picture of someone in the middle of a migraine,” says Hart, “they have crawled under the covers and all the pillows, and are hiding under there, just praying for it to stop.”
Though a person can often get through the day with a mild headache, migraines may present a much bigger obstacle. According to AMPP study, 25 percent of people with migraines missed work because of their headaches at least once in the preceding three months.
"It’s very difficult to treat someone who’s had daily headaches for years. It’s very easy to treat someone who has occasional headaches.” - Hart
While migraines may be very different from tension headaches when it comes to severity and certain symptoms, such as visual disturbances before the onset, experts in the field do not always agree that they are different.
“There are some people who think that migraines and mild headaches are kind of on the same continuum,” says Dr. Kevin Weber, neurologist and migraine specialist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “Other people think they’re two different types of headaches with different mechanisms. It’s a little bit controversial, but they are usually treated a little bit differently.”
When it comes to the causes of migraines and headaches, the research is getting closer, though the theories are still complex and diverse.
“Some people thought it was related to changes in the blood vessels in the brain,” says Weber. “Other people thought it had to do with different chemicals in the brain. We think it’s a lot more complicated than that. It’s kind of a combination of both.”
And while neurological research has gone a long way toward creating medicines for migraine patients, there are some changes people can make on their own to prevent them, focused on common habits they may not have considered. These changes are made to promote what some like to call “headache hygiene.”
Hart emphasizes the importance of staying hydrated with eight glasses of water a day and recommends against both caffeine and pain medication, though that last one may sound counterintuitive.
“It’s any pain medicine,” says Hart, “It’s Excedrin, it’s Tylenol, it’s ibuprofen. Anything that you take more than twice a week can actually cause headaches to become more frequent and more severe.”
Of course, having good headache hygiene, while it can be very helpful for some people with migraines, will not always do the trick. Migraines are thought to be hereditary and can also be triggered by hormone fluctuations related to pregnancy and menstrual cycles. In fact, according to the AMPP study, women are three times more likely to have migraines than men at some point in their lives.
Consequently, bad habits such as excessive caffeine and over-the-counter pain medication are not always to blame.
“People are prone to have migraines,” says Hart. “There are some people who are really well-behaved … on their headache hygiene who still have really bad migraines. So that’s when we start working on putting them on a medicine that they take as a preventative.”
The most important thing to note is that a person suffering from migraines should talk with a medical professional as early as possible. It can make all the difference, Weber says.
“They become much harder to treat when the headaches become daily, versus when you catch them relatively early on in the course,” says Weber. “When they start picking up in frequency and severity, that’s when it’s time to go see a doctor and start getting on prevention. It’s very difficult to treat someone who’s had daily headaches for years. It’s very easy to treat someone who has occasional headaches.”
Valerie Mauger is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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