Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 2: How to check if a headache is a migraine
• Method 2 of 2: How to recognize a migraine before it starts
• Tips
• Warnings

People experience headaches for a variety of reasons. Migraines are characterized by excruciating headaches that can last from a couple of hours to several days. Migraine affects about 12 percent of all people, and it is three times more common in women than in men. Rest and proper care can help manage migraines, but the first step is to find out if you have the disease.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: How to check if a headache is a migraine

1. 1 Localize the pain. A migraine is characterized by a severe throbbing headache that usually occurs on one side of the head. The pain may be felt in the temples or behind the eyes. It lasts quite a long time, from 4 to 72 hours.
   • Migraine pain develops gradually. Typically, a mild headache is felt a few minutes before the attack, which gets worse over time.
2. 2 Look for other migraine symptoms. In addition to headaches, migraines are accompanied by other symptoms. Each patient has a different course of migraine, and you may have some or all of the symptoms associated with a headache. A migraine is accompanied by the following symptoms:
   • Hypersensitivity to light, sounds and smells
   • Nausea and vomiting
   • Blurry vision
   • Dizziness and loss of consciousness
   • Symptoms change over time. With age, new symptoms may appear, although the headache will remain the same, without changing the duration and frequency.If the type of headache changes, consult your doctor as it may indicate other health problems.
3. 3 Try to identify the factors causing migraines. Doctors have not fully figured out what exactly causes migraine headaches, but they believe that these pains are provoked by external factors, or triggers. There are triggers for each person, which include various changes in lifestyle and environment. A headache may indicate a migraine if the following changes have recently occurred in your life:
   • A sharp change in the duration of sleep (as in bOmore or less)
   • Skipping meals
   • Excessive congestion of the senses with bright light, loud noise, or harsh odors
   • Stress and anxiety
   • Consuming with food substances such as nitrates (found in sausages and sausages), monosodium glutamate (fast food and seasonings), tyramine (aged cheeses, soy products, hard sausages and smoked fish), aspartame (an artificial sugar substitute, sold under the brands Nutrasvit and Ikval)
   • Menstruation (in women, migraines are often associated with hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle).
4. 4 Try some simple physical activity. Migraine headaches have a detrimental effect on the general condition, making even the simplest actions difficult. Try doing something simple, like going up the stairs. If this causes an increase in the headache, then it is likely that you have a migraine.
   • If you, despite mild discomfort, are able to perform the simplest physical activities, you are probably not having a migraine, but a common tension-type headache.
5. 5 Pay attention to the medications you take. Although migraines are incurable, their symptoms can be reduced with various medications. If they do not provide relief, consult your doctor.
   • Over-the-counter ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB) and acetaminophen (Tylenol), as well as resting in a darkened room, improve the condition when used at the onset of a headache. If you regularly experience migraine attacks, your doctor may additionally recommend cardiovascular or antidepressant medications to reduce the frequency of your attacks.
   • Taking too many headache medications can worsen non-migraine headaches. If you take over-the-counter or prescription headache medications for more than 10 days a month for three months or exceed the recommended dosage, it may result in overuse headaches. If taking a drug too often causes your headache to worsen, stop taking it. Drug abuse can make your condition worse.
6. 6 Pay attention to sinus congestion. A stuffy nose (for example, with a cold) often leads to headaches. This pain can be quite severe, but it doesn’t mean that you have a migraine. If you have a stuffy nose, runny nose, and feel nauseous, then the headache is most likely caused by a cold, not a migraine.
7. 7 Take a closer look at the frequency of headaches. If they are short (15 to 180 minutes) and often (up to eight times a day) repeated, then these are cluster headaches. This type of pain is very rare and is most common in men between the ages of 20 and 40. Migraine attacks last for several hours, with at least several weeks elapsing between them.
   • Typically, cluster headaches are accompanied by other symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sweating on the forehead and face, and drooping or swelling of the eyelids.

Method 2 of 2: How to recognize a migraine before it starts

1. 1 Check out your family's story. Up to 90 percent of migraine sufferers come from families with previous migraines. If one or both of your parents have migraines, it is likely that you will also get it.
2. 2 Look closely at the previous symptoms. Migraines portend certain signs by which you can guess about an impending attack. A day or two before the onset of an attack, you may notice changes in health and mood, indicating an impending headache. About 60 percent of migraine sufferers experience pre-existing symptoms before headache onset. The following symptoms indicate an impending migraine attack:
   • Constipation
   • Depression
   • Increased appetite
   • Increased activity
   • Irritability
   • Neck stiffness
   • Uncontrollable yawning
3. 3 Pay attention to the aura. About 10-30 minutes before the onset of the attack, visual hallucinations are possible. The visual aura (“fog” before the eyes) testifies to the approaching migraine. Aura symptoms are observed in about one in five migraine sufferers, and they are much more common in men than in women. If the symptoms of the aura persist for more than an hour, it could mean a stroke, that is, a cerebral hemorrhage. In this case, you should immediately consult a doctor. Migraine headaches with aura are accompanied by the following symptoms:
   • Visual hallucinations in the form of flickering light, bright spots, or blind spots
   • Numbness or tingling of the skin of the face and palms
   • Aphasia, that is, speech disorder and difficulty understanding someone else's speech
4. 4 Keep a headache diary. By recording information about the headaches you experience, you can establish certain patterns. This information will help you and your doctor identify contributing factors to your migraine and take steps to neutralize them.
   • The diary should include information about when the attack began, how long it lasted, what type of pain you experienced, and other symptoms and treatment. This information will help you and your doctor identify triggers and determine the most effective treatments.
   • It will also help you to recognize in advance impending seizures, which will increase the effectiveness of the treatment, since it is more effective at the stage of previous symptoms and the onset of the aura.
   • Continue to keep a journal after your visit to your doctor and starting treatment. Some therapies may not work, and the diary will help you determine which methods are best for you.
5. 5 Get a medical examination. If you are still not sure if the headaches you are experiencing are migraines, your doctor can help you determine the cause. There is no test or test that can definitely identify migraines. Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms. The following will help him:
   • Information about your headaches, including when and how often they happen, how long they last, and where you are experiencing them.
   • Data on other symptoms, such as nausea and blind spots in the eyes.
   • Learn more about your family history of the medication you are taking, and the possible side effects you are experiencing.
   • If you are experiencing extremely severe headaches, your doctor will recommend additional tests to rule out the possibility of other illnesses. He may order a blood test, CT scan, MRI, or lumbar puncture. While these tests will not detect migraines, they will rule out other causes of your headaches.

Tips

• To prevent migraine attacks, get enough sleep, keep your body hydrated, and learn to identify triggers.
• If headaches are affecting your daily life and you often miss school or work because of them, your doctor will prescribe medication for you.
• If you experience a migraine headache, lie down and try to take a nap.If you cannot sleep, retreat into a dark, noisy room and try to relax.
• Talk to your doctor about magnesium, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), and vitamin B2 (riboflavin) supplements. These dietary supplements often help with migraines. In particular, magnesium is useful for those women who have migraines associated with the menstrual cycle.

Warnings

• If your headache is accompanied by a high fever, neck stiffness, confusion, seizures, double vision, weakness, numbness, or difficulty speaking, see your doctor right away. These symptoms may indicate other, more serious medical conditions.
• If you see an aura for a week after the headaches end, it could be a sign of a stroke. While a prolonged aura does not necessarily mean a stroke, you should see your doctor.