MIGRAINES IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN

MIGRAINES IN GENERAL
Migraines have been around a long time. In fact archeologists have found skulls with holes drilled or cut into them showing prehistoric surgeries were practiced. Trepanning, as it is now known, was done to relieve pain or pressure in the head caused most likely by seizures, injuries and headaches. The new growth of bone around the rim of the hole indicates the patient surviving the operation. Although primitive, it shows man’s desire to get rid of head pain.

Migraine headaches are very painful pains in the head usually at the back or on one side of the head. Sometimes an aura fore-warns of an eminent migraine and actually is quite common among sufferers. Auras appear as seeing squiggly or wavy lines and bright lights, blind spots or areas minus vision, blurred or double vision and perhaps other visionary problems. Migraines usually intensify with physical activity or with the increase sensitivity to loud noises or sounds and bright lights that appear suddenly or flicker. When people get migraines nausea or vomiting can occur and of course this depends on the severity of the migraine.

Other symptoms that tag along with these headaches are sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, irritability and mental difficulties in thinking, problem solving and memory. Most people feel disabled to some degree and with the high demands of jobs or family life; many sufferers languish with the onset of migraines.

MIGRAINES AND WOMEN
Pain is nothing new to women. Since the beginning of time women has had to put up with having pain in menstruation, pregnancy, giving birth to children, an assortment of injuries and ailments let alone conditions like migraine headaches to hinder the amount of energy needed to maintain a household, job and the probability of raising children.

Many factors contribute to the occurrence of migraines in women. For women the optimum time of getting migraines is between the ages of 12 and 55. Hormonal fluctuations play a big part in the life of a woman. With the dawn of puberty and the onset of menstruation hormones change things and often bring about migraine headaches and especially to those who have a family history showing some ancestor suffering somewhat the same. Birth control pills have also been linked in causing migraines because of the hormones associated with the pills. Studies likewise show that later in life when women are in menopause the frequency of migraine headaches come to a halt, much to the relief of the woman.

The environmental factors too play a big part in bringing on or triggering a migraine. I cannot emphasize enough about stress in a person’s life. Stress, I feel, is the number one cause of so many health problems as well as migraines. Personally, when I get stressed about something I can feel a headache trying to start up. Just imagine a person prone to migraines, no wonder they get incapacitated with the onset of one of those debilitating headaches. Women are nurturers and care so much about their families, jobs and other heart-felt subjects that they get stressed a lot more than men who try to view life subjectively. Women are emotional and sometimes that alone can initiate a migraine of some degree.

MIGRAINES IN CHILDREN
Women aren’t the only ones who suffer migraines. Children get them too. Migraines have been documented in children as young as 18 months and through the teen years. Most children who experience migraines will also have them in their adult years especially if they also have a familial history of this condition. If both the parents have migraines the chances for the child to also have migraines increases dramatically.
Beside genetics, outside environmental stimuli can trigger migraines in children as well as in adults. Children suffer stresses too. Family issues, school educational demands, social conflicts and an array of other things going on in a child’s life can trigger a migraine and sometimes a really bad one. Certain foods, loud abrupt sounds and lights flickering like a strobe light can trigger a migraine also.
Children get sick and diseases or infections can often be accompanied by a migraine. One particular type, called an abdominal migraine, has often appeared in children as pain in their abdomen and having nothing to do with their gastrointestinal tract.

The good news about kids having migraines is that once the headache is properly diagnosed a treatment program can begin. It is also recommended to keep a journal on the progress of the treatments and also for the possible triggers of the migraines.

MIGRAINE EXPECTATIONS
Migraines will always be in some form of research and so consequently a quick-fix might be in the near future. Until then, try to de-stress your life, develop better sleeping habits, chill out and enjoy life a little more. Use medications wisely and under a physician’s care and exercise because it will produce a sense of wellbeing.

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