The Causes of Migraine Headaches
Headaches in any type are always painful to the sufferer. However, some headaches, such as migraines, for instance, can cause even more problems than just a headache. These problems could be sickness, sensitivity to light and a banging pain in the head. Sometimes the headache acts on one side of the head, and other times you can feel the pain on both sides of the head at the same time.
The actual causes of migraine headaches has not yet been discovered, although there are some theories why people have migraine headaches. The most common theory is that an alteration in the blood flow within the brain is one of the triggers that causes migraine headaches. Another theory about migraine headache is that it could possibly be caused by pain sensing chemicals called neuropeptides.
Many medical professionals think that neuropeptides relax the smooth muscle that surrounds the cranial blood vessels. This relaxation causes the blood vessels to dilate. This blood vessel relaxation increases 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 the migraine headaches. Some people think that the aura that is sometimes seen during a migraine headache is caused by the constriction of the blood vessels that became dilated during the starting phase of the migraine headache.
Another theory as to the causes of migraine headaches has been associated with the genetics of inheritance. These theories state that a child of migraine sufferers will have a 50% chance of getting migraine headaches as well.
The chances of inheriting migraine headaches becomes even greater if both parents are sufferers of this painful type of headache. If both parents are known to have frequent migraine headaches the chances of the child inheriting migraine headache symptoms is about 70%.
However, even though some professionals think that inheritance 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 nausea.
As the symptoms of your migraine progress, the pain of the headaches become much worse. Unfortunately, since the causes of migraine headaches have not been found and we dont know what triggers these attacks, there are no medications to cure these headaches yet.
