Youth & Teen Problems

Those people that suffer with the very powerful headaches often referred to as ‘a migraine’ may well have started having them when they were in their childhood or around puberty. Often these attacks can last for days where the victim must seek bed rest; however, if it is treated, they can end in a matter of hours. An attack is debilitating and sufferers are usually left feeling crippled and exhausted after the head pain has passed.

There doesn’t seem to be any regularity to the attacks either as one individual might have a number each month whilst another sufferer will only have an attack once a year. A number of the symptoms associated with this condition resemble those seen in people with other common complaints. Most migraine attacks occur between the ages of 10 to 40 years old although why this is no-one really knows; strangely, very few individuals suffer with this condition after they reach fifty years old.

It is not uncommon for a number of family members to share a migraine headache problem and hereditary links are believed to exist; even though there may be a link, so far it has eluded medical science. Sufferers may acquire sensitivity to a medical condition that brings about inflammation in the blood vessels and nerves near the brain, resulting to pain. Another area that still isn’t fully understood is why these headaches are more prevalent in women with approximately three times as many women suffering than men; one in every 4 women will be a victim of it, whilst only 1 in 12 men will suffer with it at some point in their life.

A number of people have a warning when they are about to have an attack which is called migraine with aura which can be anywhere between ten minutes to half an hour before the actual attack. The signs for this attack seem to affect the senses and can include:

* Queasiness
* Vision is affected
* Loss in the sensation of taste
* Lack of sensation in sufferers extremities

these are the most commonly experienced symptoms. The most common type of this condition is known as migraine without aura; many early indications felt by those who have a warning are symptoms felt by those who have no warning but their condition can be made worse if they are in constant motion.

Whilst the exact reason why some people suffer with migraine still eludes medical science, the theory that the narrowing of blood vessels to the brain is the closest they have come to discovering a migraines cause. The blood vessels may then expand afterwards, which might account for the headache; whatever the cause, sufferers all agree that an attack stops them from doing anything in their daily lives until it has receded. The range of possible triggers that create an attack is huge; the most common are listed below:

* Bad weather
* Certain food groups
* Altitude
* Drinks
* Very bright internal lighting
* Not enough sleep
* Work related stress

Only by carefully documenting everything that was going on prior to the attack can the victim hope to find out what starts the attacks off.