Diseases

A person can experience different types of headaches at different times due to a variety of causes. Distinguishing between a migraine and other types of headaches becomes very difficult. A migraine can be diagnosed after a detailed case taking by the treating doctor. Even a person having migraine can experience other types of headaches in between the migraine attacks.

Migraine is a type of headache affecting one side of the head.

• Pain is typically throbbing, bursting, hammering, or shattering.  
• Headache can be periodic, may be weekly, daily, fortnightly, monthly or irregular.
• Associated symptoms dizziness, nausea, vomiting or visual impairment and generalized weakness.
• Migraine is a vascular disorder (related to blood vessels) caused due to spasm of the blood vessel.

Treating acute migraine attacks is necessary but it is important to continue medicines in between the attacks to prevent further attacks.

Homeopathic medicines for migraine are aimed at treating the acute episode of a migraine, reducing the frequency of attacks and increasing the pain bearing capacity.

Signs and Symptoms of Migraine

A migraine is described as a disease affecting blood vessels namely carotid artery which supplies blood to head, neck and brain causing throbbing or a congestive headache. Homeopathy treatment for migraine covers all symptoms. 

• Most patients describe it as a throbbing, bursting, hammering, pulsating or shattering pain. Pain radiates from nape of neck to vertex or forehead and settles over the eyes. Usually, it is one sided headache but it may affect both the sides simultaneously. 
• A migraine is more commonly seen in females than males mostly due to hormonal factors.
• Pain may be associated with nausea and vomiting. Vomiting often relieves the pain. 
• Pain is so intense in many cases that person becomes sensitive to light, noise, smell, motion, etc and is relieved by sleeping in dark or undisturbed room. 
• Although the main symptom experienced is a severe headache many people experience other symptoms like disturbed vision, increase in a headache due to light, sound or smell feeling sick and vomiting.
• Migraine pains are so severe and can last for 4 to 72 hours, therefore, it is often described as a migraine attack.  Having migraine can be frustrating and hamper growth. If you or your loved ones are experiencing frequent headaches don’t ignore it as it may be a migraine.
• A migraine attack can have a huge impact on your social, family and work life. A person can get more than one attack in a day usually being symptom-free between the episodes. More than 75 % of migraine patients experience one attack in a month making them unable to work. Treating it with just pain killers is not enough.
• A migraine is most commonly seen in people having the family history of a migraine showing genetic link. Other factors which affect a migraine are stress, lack of food, alcohol consumption, hormonal changes mainly in women, lack of sleep, etc.

Types of Migraine Headaches

A migraine is classified into a variety of types based on the symptoms and its origin. The information given below can be used just as a reference as patients may not have the typical symptoms of any of the types.
 

1) A migraine without aura:

• Most common type of migraines affecting 70 to 90% of migraine patients.  
• Attacks last for 4 to 72 hours without treatment.
• One sided headache aggravating after exercise.
• Headaches usually associated with vomiting or diarrhea.
• Typical sensitivity to light, noise or smell.
• The frequency of attacks differ from person to person from once or twice a year to several times a week.

2) A migraine with aura:

• This is a type of a migraine where common symptoms of a migraine are accompanied by other neurological symptoms.
• 10 to 30% of patients experience these type of headaches.
• Neurological symptoms are also termed as aura and usually experienced before a headache.
• Once the patient gets symptoms of aura he/she understands that they are going to get a migraine attack.
• Neurological symptoms consist of mainly visual disturbances like zig zag vision, blind spots before eyes, colored spots, flashes of light before eyes, etc.
• Other aura symptoms may include vertigo or spinning of the head, tingling, and numbness in hands, weakness on one side of the body, etc.

3) A chronic migraine:

• Patients having a headache on more than 15 days in a month are termed to have a chronic migraine or chronic daily headache.
• Relatively rare as around 1 to 2% of the population is affected.
• A chronic migraine affects the social life of the patients as it means more absenteeism from work.
• Overuse of pain killer medicines complicates the disease.
• This type of headaches requires a long-term treatment along with lifestyle changes.

4) Menstrual migraine

• As the name suggests this type of headaches are associated with menstrual cycle
• Females are having headache two days before menstrual cycle begins and stays for first three days of the cycle.
• This headache is associated with low levels of estrogen hormone during menses.
• Less than 10% of females are suffering from this type of a headache.

5) Abdominal migraine

• This type of symptom complex is usually seen in children.
• A headache is associated with abdominal symptoms like dyspepsia, functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome.

6) Cyclical vomiting syndrome

• This type of a headache is commonly seen in children where vomiting is the presenting feature and the child is not able to explain a headache.
• In young children especially less than 6 years of age it can present as frequent vomiting lasting for hours to days together.
• Between the attacks the patient becomes normal. The attacks occur at regular intervals may be every 2 to 8 weeks.
• Diagnosis and management of this type of a migraine are more difficult than other types.

7) There are many other headache types which a physician needs to rule out before making the diagnosis of a migraine.

To name few are as below:

• Tension-type headache
• Cluster headache
• Chronic daily headache
• Medicine an overuse headache
• High altitude headache, etc.

Homeopathic Treatment for Migraine

In day to day life, everybody has experienced headache but a migraine is more than just a headache. Living with a migraine is not easy.  Homeopathy works in all types of headaches especially in chronic and recurring ones with excellent results in more than 80 to 90 % of cases.

Homeopathy is strongly recommended in all cases of a migraine. Homeopathy helps in reducing frequency and intensity of pain. Homeopathy treats all round causes of a migraine hence treating it at the root level.