THE SYMPTOMS

The World Health Organisation ranks migraines among the most disabling ills. A migraine is more than a headache. The throbbing pain, which typically occurs on one side of the head, is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. A person feels sick all over.

Symptoms may include nasal stuffiness, blurry vision, diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, abnormal sensations of heat or cold, anxiety, depression, irritability and inability to concentrate. Without effective treatment, those most severely affected are unable to cope with even the simplest tasks and must take to their beds till the attack ends.

Afterward, people often feel tired, irritable, listless or depressed, though some feel unusually refreshed and energized. About 4 per cent of pre-pubescent children have migraines. After puberty, the incidence rises to 6 per cent among men and 18 per cent among women and gradually declines after age 40.

THE REASON

The higher rate of migraine among women is linked to fluctuations in blood levels of estrogen: the drop in estrogen just before menstruation sets off menstrual migraines, which tend to be more severe and longer lasting than other forms. Though long believed to be primary vascular headaches, the result of constriction then expansion of blood vessels in the head, migraines are now recognised to stem from neural changes in the brain and the release of neuroinflammatory peptides that in turn constrict blood vessels. The headache often begins before these vessels dilate. The inflammatory peptides sensitise nerve fibers that then respond to innocuous stimuli, like blood vessel pulses, causing the pain of migraine.

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