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Migraine headache is a surprisingly common disorder, which affects 15 to 20 per cent of men and 25 to 30 per cent of women. Migraine headaches often occur in families, with over 50% of migraine sufferers having a family history of the illness.
Migraine headaches usually peak in severity between 25 to 30 years of age then gradually decline in incidence and frequency as people move into middle age. However, headaches often recur during menopause for some women.
Migraine symptoms commonly begin in childhood but they don’t always start as headache pain. In children, instead of the recognized severe headache, migraines often manifest as colic, periodic severe stomach pain (abdominal migraine), vomiting, dizziness or severe motion sickness.
While headache symptoms can range in severity from mere annoyance to debilitating pain migranes are usually accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensory or visual disturbances. These migrane headaches are often confined to one side of the head and are often preceded by abnormal tiredness, nausea and flashing, shimmering or distortion of objects. Once the headache appears these other symptoms usually disappear. In the case of severe migraine pain often the only thing to do is to lie down in a darkened room until the migraine symptoms wear off.
Although migrains are extremely painful they are not usually a sign of any serious underlying disorder.
Migrain is the result of tension or stretching of the membranes around the brain and of the blood vessels and muscles of the scalp. Although the immediate cause of migraine headaches is constriction then swelling of the arteries which supply the brain why the arteries suddenly behave in this way is not totally understood.
Some of the most commonly accepted migraine causes are stress, Hypoglycemia and certain food allergies. Although a particular stressor may be associated with the onset of a specific attack, it appears that a particular migraine cause is dependant on the accumulation over time of several stressors. Once a critical point of susceptibility, or threshold, is reached a trigger occurs and a three stage process will unfold. These stages are known as the initiation, the prodrome and the headache stages.
Many careful double blind placebo-controlled studies have demonstrated that the removal of allergic or intolerant foods can eliminate or greatly reduce migraine symptoms in the majority of migraine sufferers.
As food allergy/intolerances are a major trigger in migraine headaches it is wise to try eliminating certain foods from your diet then after four weeks reintroducing them one at a time to see what effects they have. Foods known to trigger migraines are in order of their attack producing potential:
- Cows milk
- Chocolate (and other forms of concentrated sugar)
- Cheese and dairy products
- Wheat and yeast extracts
- Egg
- Citrus fruit
- Food additive 210 - Benzoic acid (Preservative)
- Tomato
- Food additive 102 – Tartrazine (Preservative)
- Rye
- Shellfish
- Alcohol (especially red wine)
- Food additive 621 - Mono Sodium Glutamate (flavour enhancer)
- Greasy fried foods
- Some vegetables (especially onions, broad beans and Sauerkraut)
- Caffeine containing foods (Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, cola)
- Meat (especially pork, liver, sausages and cured meats such as bacon and salami)
- Food additives (mainly E101 - Riboflavin,Vit B2 (colour), 211 Sodium benzoate (Preservative), 212 Potassium benzoate (Preservative), 213 Calcium benzoate (Preservative), 321 Butylated hydroxy-toluene (BHT) (antioxidant)
An alternative method of trying to isolate food allergies is to consult a dietician.
Some other common triggers for migraines are smoking, perfumes and some oral contraceptives or HRT therapies.
If you sense a migraine headache coming on you can sometimes get migraine relief by splashing your face with cold water then lying down somewhere quiet for an hour or so.
One herbal migraine treatment that up to 70% of migraine sufferers swear by is feverfew, however feverfew should only be taken on a 5 day out of 7 basis as it can cause griping abdominal pain, heavier than normal periods, mouth ulcers or swelling of the tongue if taken in too large doses.
A double blind study was conducted in a controlled study at the London Migraine Clinic using patients who had reported being helped by feverfew. Those patients that received the placebo (and as a result stopped taking feverfew) had a significant increase in the frequency and severity of head ache, nausea and vomiting during the six months of the study. At the same time patients who continued taking the feverfew showed no change in the frequency or severity of their symptoms. Two patients in the placebo group who had been in complete remission during self treatment with feverfew developed recurrence of incapacitating migraines and had to withdraw from the study. Once these two patients resumed taking feverfew their migraine symptoms again disappeared.
Some vitamins that may help are B6, C, E or evening primrose oil. You can also try adding some fresh root ginger when cooking as ginger is known for its abilities to increase blood flow.
As stress can be one of the other main triggers for Migraine headaches; relaxation massage, meditation, Bach flower remedies and yoga can be very beneficial.
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