Migraine and Headaches are two terms that are sometimes used without knowing which is what! In this article it seems to me really important to make sure that when we say “apple” we do not mean “orange”!
Both of the above situations refer to a simple fact: PAIN in our head!
Since headache means exactly that – pain at your head- migraine is a condition where there’s pain in your head among other symptoms.
To make things even clearer migraine does have headache, but also has aura-or not- nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light (photophobia) and, less often diarrhea, fluid retention and even losing your senses.
The term “aura”, that you just saw, means that there are some symptoms of your nervous system: not seeing the half of your sight field in one eye (hemianopsia), seeing black spots, even wavy lights that move in front of you. Normally the aura is what happens before the actual episode of migraine headache starts.
Migraine can occur without aura or auras sometimes evolve without pain.
Another important step in telling if migraine is what we experience or not, is the character of the pain. By that, it is observed that pain of migraine is throbbing in nature. It feels like having a small rubber pump at your head. One time it’s filling up, the next it’s pumping away. In simple headaches the pain usually it is not like that at all.
While the cause of migraines is not known there are some factors that can trigger a migraine attack. These factors can be certain foods- cheeses that contain an amino acid called tyramine-, wine, chocolate and meats with preservatives in them.There are some other situations that are known to cause migraines to certain people.Not having eaten for a long time (fasting), menses, emotional situations and certain drugs like contraceptives and nitroglycerin (yes, some people instead of blowing things up are prescribed nitroglycerin for their health!)
This is a brief description of some of the characteristics of migraine and I think that now, you could answer the question headache or migraine with success!
