Written by: And without pain | Editor-in-charge: Suzuran | Image: Huang Zai
Coincidentally, a few days ago I accompanied my mother to the hospital to see a headache, the doctor left and right a diagnosis, the opening is "migraine"; today I went to the hospital to see the headache, the doctor looked up and down, two strokes or "migraine".
What exactly is "migraine"? Up to the fifty-year-old mother, down to the thirty-year-old girl, it is difficult to escape its clutches. Today we will give you a good science popularization, this kind of headache that is especially preferred for women, how to prevent and treat it.
What is migraine?
As early as 2500 years ago, Hippocrates defined migraine. He found that many headache patients usually present as one side of the headache during the headache attack, and the nature and process of the headache at each episode are very similar, mainly a pulsatile headache at the anterior extra side of the temple, sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting, sometimes cold sweat on the head, and some patients have a transient visual aura symptom before the attack, and he defines this type of headache as migraine.
With the development of the times, human research methods are becoming more and more abundant, and the knowledge and understanding of migraines are also deepening. It has been found that this headache is not limited to one side, but can also occur on both sides at the same time. The scope of the headache is not only limited to the temples on the outside of the forehead, but can also be extended to the top of the head, the back of the head, or the whole head.
▲ Image source: Getty Images
Aura symptoms prior to headache onset are also not only visual symptoms such as dark spots, hazy, or flashing, but can also manifest as sleepiness, irritability, and sensory or motor disturbances in the heeled limbs. Therefore, migraine is currently defined as a recurrent headache characterized by one or both pulsatile, moderate to severe headaches, with or without aura symptoms.
Headache attacks generally last 4 to 72 hours and can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms, and strong light, noisy sounds, or activity can aggravate the headache.
Although still called migraine, only about 60% of patients have a unilateral headache at the time of a headache attack and the rest present with a bilateral headache.
Why does it "love" women more?
Migraines are a disease that prefers women. The prevalence of migraine in women is 2 to 3 times higher than that in men, and the occurrence of migraine in women is significantly related to sex hormone levels.
The prevalence of migraines was similar in men and women before puberty, at about 2.5%. The prevalence of both men and women after puberty began to climb, but the prevalence of women increased more rapidly, with the highest incidence in the reproductive age, peaking at the age of 25 and 50 years, respectively, and the prevalence showed a bimodal distribution.
In addition to the high prevalence of women, the duration of migraine attacks is also longer, the frequency of attacks is higher, the degree is more intense, and they are more likely to have accompanying symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, fear of light, and sound, and are more likely to convert to chronic headaches. According to the World Health Organization, migraines have become the most burdened disease among women aged 15 to 49.
▲Image source: soogif
Moreover, migraine attacks are also closely linked to fluctuations in estrogen levels. Menstrual-related migraines occur in 70% of women with migraines, which occur a few days before or during menstruation. Women with migraines may also have exacerbations of migraine attacks during perimenopause, commonly known as menopause, but the symptoms of migraines begin to ease after menopause. In addition, during pregnancy, most migraine patients will have symptoms that are relieved or even terminated, but a very small number will worsen.
Having said all these symptoms and the "favor" of migraines for women, what should we do?
How can it be prevented and treated?
prophylaxis
There are many precipitating factors for migraines, and the common factors are as follows:
1. Endocrine factors: menstrual cramps, oral contraceptives;
2. Dietary factors: alcohol, monosodium glutamate, chocolate, cheese, meat containing nitrites, hunger;
3. Psychological factors: tension, anxiety, stress release, annoyance, depression;
4. Environmental factors: strong light, flicker stimulation, odor, weather, high altitude;
5. Sleep-related factors: too little or too much sleep;
6. Drug factors: nitroglycerin, reserpine, cilostazole, hydrazine pyridazine, ranitidine, etc.;
7. Other factors: fatigue, head trauma.
▲Image source: giphy
First of all, we must try to avoid precipitating factors, of course, menstrual cramps are unavoidable, but the time of menstruation is predictable, for this situation we can apply migraine acute treatment drugs in advance to reduce the degree of attack, which will be described in detail below.
Other triggers that can be controlled should be avoided as much as possible. For example, avoid overwork, avoid excessive nervousness, anxiety, depression or anger; quit smoking and alcohol; avoid cheese-rich foods, strive to eat light, fresh and nutritious, avoid spicy, more soy products; pay attention to ventilation, dehumidification, and avoid strong light stimulation in wet weather. Female migraine patients try to avoid oral contraceptives and so on when choosing contraceptives.
Of course, everyone's triggers are different, and it doesn't mean that all of the above conditions should be avoided completely as long as you have migraines. This requires patients to pay more attention in their own lives, find their own precipitating factors, and try to avoid them afterwards.
treat
In the treatment of migraines, the first thing to do is to try to calm down the emotions, try to eliminate mental fear, anxiety and tension, and rest quietly in a darker room. Patients with severe headaches, longer duration, and higher frequency of episodes should be treated with medication.
▲Image source: Google
The drug treatment of migraines mainly includes two aspects, one is the treatment of the acute stage and the other is preventive treatment. The goal of acute phase treatment is to provide rapid relief of headache and sustained analgesia, allowing patients to return to normal life quickly. Therapeutic drugs in the acute phase mainly include: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, ergotamine drugs and triptans.
NSAIDs include our common aspirin, paracetamol, ibuprofen, and serpentine. This class of drugs can inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandins and produce analgesic effects.
Ergotamine drugs are mainly through the direct contraction of smooth muscle, reduce the overdistention and pulsation of cerebral artery blood vessels, so that headache reduction, combined with caffeine is better than the use of ergotamine alone, the side effects are also less. The most commonly used combination is ergotamine caffeine tablets.
Prototype Qutan ▲ Image source: giphy
Triptans are new drugs for the treatment of migraines in recent years, which have greatly improved the prognosis of patients. Triptans can selectively excite serotonergic receptors, strongly constrict cerebral blood vessels and meningeal blood vessels that dilate during headache, inhibit the neurogenic inflammatory response of the dura mater, reduce the symptoms of headache, and are more suitable for patients with severe headaches. Common drugs such as sumatriptan, zotatriptan, and rizatriptan.
When using these drugs, do not have the mentality of not being afraid to use drugs for fear of side effects, but also prevent unreasonable overdose. Medications for the acute phase should be selected based on the severity of the headache, accompanying symptoms, previous medications, and the patient's individual circumstances. Therefore, patients must not make up their own minds when taking drugs, and should use drugs under the guidance of doctors.
▲ Image source: googif
However, the treatment of drugs in the acute phase can not be used frequently for a long time, otherwise it is easy to cause overdose headaches. So what if the headache is more frequent, long-lasting, and seriously affects daily life?
At this time, it is time to start the preventive treatment of migraines. At present, clinically proven prophylactic drugs mainly include propranolol, metoprolol, amitriptyline, topiramate, sodium valproate, flunarizine and so on. These medications can significantly reduce the frequency and extent of headache attacks, but should also be used under the guidance of a doctor.
Although migraines are common, they are not terrible, and scientific and reasonable prevention and control can greatly reduce the impact of migraines on life. I believe that in the near future, migraine patients will have more and better treatment options.
All in all, migraines are common diseases. Although the seizures are fatal, as long as you prevent it and take medicine in time, you can still avoid having a greater impact on your life
Needless to say, the article is a headache for me. At this time, stay away from the "source of pain", eat and drink, and take a good rest! Friends walk by, don't forget to click on a follow and share it with friends in need!
I love the world.
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