Thursday, September 24, 2009

Why Do I Get Migraine Headaches?

By Marion Jones

Headaches in any form are always very painful for the sufferer. However, some headaches, such as migraines, for example, can cause even more problems than just a headache. These problems could be nausea, light sensitivity and a banging pain in the head. Sometimes the headache is felt on one side of the head, although at other times you can feel the pain on both sides of your head at the same time.

The actual causes of migraine headaches has yet to be found, although there are some theories why we have migraine headaches. The most commonly held belief is that a change in the blood flow within the brain is one of the triggers that causes migraine headaches. Another theory about migraine headache is that maybe it could be caused by pain sensing chemicals called neuropeptides.

Many medical professionals think that neuropeptides ease the muscle that surrounds the cranial blood vessels. This relaxation makes the blood vessels dilate. Then those relaxed blood vessels increase the flow of blood and other cranial fluid to the brain. This increase in fluids is thought to be the cause of migraine headaches.

These cranial fluids cause swelling, pain, sensitivity, tissue and blood vessel swelling during the time of migraine headaches. Some people think that the aura that is sometimes seen during a migraine headache is caused by the constriction of blood vessels that became dilated during the beginning phase of the migraine headache.

Another theory about the reason for migraine headaches has been linked to the genetics of inheritance. These theories state that a child of migraine sufferers will have a 50% chance of having migraine headaches too.

The chances of having migraine headaches is even greater if both parents are sufferers of this painful type of headache. If both parents have frequent migraine headaches the chances of the child inheriting migraine headache symptoms rises to about 70%.

However, even though some professionals think that genetics plays a part in migraine headaches, the genes that are considered to be the causes of migraine headaches have not been identified or even isolated. When we begin to experience migraine headaches the only warning signs that we may expect to receive are a throbbing pain in the temple area and light sickness.

As the symptoms of your migraine progress, the pain of the headaches become more severe. Unfortunately, since the causes of migraine headaches have not been found and we don't know what triggers these attacks, there are no medications to cure these headaches yet.

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