Migraine is a type of headache that causes a severe, throbbing pain, often on only one side of the head. Some migraine patients have an experience called an aura before they feel pain. The most common auras involve visual disturbances, such as shimmering lights or blind spots. People with migraine often have nausea, vomiting, or extreme sensitivity to light or noises. From 50 to 80 percent of migraine sufferers have family members who also get migraines.
Doctors have found that many foods and activities can trigger migraines in people who tend to get these headaches. For example, alcoholic beverages and foods seasoned with a salt called monosodium glutamate may cause migraines for some people. Seeing bright lights or neglecting to eat may trigger headaches for others. Some patients can reduce the frequency of their migraines by identifying their particular triggers and avoiding those foods and experiences.
For many years, theories about the causes of migraine headaches focused on the brain’s blood flow and changes in the size of its arteries. Most doctors now believe that the disorder involves serotonin, an important messenger chemical in the brain. Among other roles, serotonin affects movement of water and salts in and out of the walls of blood vessels in the brain.
Understanding serotonin’s involvement in migraine led to development of sumatriptan, a drug chemically similar to serotonin. For many migraine patients, sumatriptan can quickly stop head pain and such symptoms as nausea and vomiting. Side effects, though rare, include potentially serious heart conditions.
Migraines that are just beginning may also be stopped by drugs made from the fungus ergot << UR guht >> that narrow blood vessels. Strong pain medication or drugs that fight nausea may be used for a headache that has firmly taken hold. Patients who often suffer migraines may regularly take medications that can reduce the frequency and severity of these headaches. Such drugs include beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers.
